Today I woke up at round 6 a.m. but I managed to stay in bed until 8 a.m. I took a shower (who knows when there might be the next one available, right?) and had breakfast with my hosts Wendy and Andre as well as Jeanette. The next topic on my agenda was packing my backpack again.
It somehow felt strange to pack everything because the perks of civilization can be really tempting to not go back on trail. Overall my backpack was a bit lighter compared to when I arrived at Etna due to the bounce box I had sent away yesterday.
At 10 a.m. Andre was so kind to drive me up to Etna Summit. After a short good bye I was on my own again and back on trail. Thanks again to Wendy and Andre for being so wonderful hosts.
Overall nothing special happened today. It was a first steeper segment to start with and then there were a couple of „Pointless Up and Downs“ as well as a burn area.
At around 5 p.m. I decided that it was enough for the first day after civilization and there was a tent site with a water source, which is always nice.
There were bees at the site which really loved my wet camp shoes. I had stepped with them into the stream to collect water and while I made dinner around 5 of them where (what looked like) licking water of them. Later, when I was in my tent, it was more like 10-15 of them being busy on my shoes. And of course mosquitos because water was so close.
What was a bit strange about that tent site was, that there was a tent set up which seemed to be abandoned. There was food and sleeping gear in it and it was already there when I arrived. At 8 p.m. I went to bed and fell asleep shortly after.
Day 9
I wake and get up at shortly after 6 a.m. There is something about being out in nature which tunes your rhythm with the available day light. I had experience that already in the past but now it’s happening again. I find that really interesting to observe. Must be something true to what they say about modern light sources keeping us awake in the evening.
It’s 8 a.m. when I hit the trail again. I have really no idea where the time goes by when I make my breakfast and pack everything up. There are other hikers are up and gone within 45 minutes….
At around 10 a.m. I arrived at a small mountain lake where I met a few other hikers. I was a perfect spot for a quick „dip in the pool“ and a break. After I had eaten, I packed my thinks again and went on with the trail.
This day had again some elevation gain for me in store. Only to go down before there was a climb to over 7000ft/2130m again. The trail itself was very mixed that day. It had portions of earth and portions with stones and gravel. Especially the rocky parts my feet don’t like to much.
After one final ascend the trail descended to 5700ft/1700m. This day’s goal was a Ranger hut which isn’t stationed this time of year. Especially the last two miles were hard to do because my body told me to stop. But there wasn’t a nice tent site around and I really wanted one with water close by. I also didn’t want to carry that additional water to the tent site as well.
I was the first one to arrive at the site behind the hut, I set up my tent and cooked my dinner. There were some deer around that didn’t seem to be shy at all.
After my dinner I went to bed (you might have guessed it, yes, mosquitos). While I was in my tent I heard more hikers arrive at the site
Nice flowers along the trail 
Nice pool, right? 
More obstackes 
My tent behind the hut