I was happy to have a fairly uneventful day after the dehydrated mountain climb that ended the previous day. I remember winding through these strange ridges and valleys, constantly checking my map and compass.

I finally caught a glimpse of the fire tower at the top of the mountain.

The climb up to Mt. Henry was fairly easy, with incredible views near the top. On the way up, there was an ancient-looking scummy water cistern (W170). I carefully filled up there for the rest of the climb. Once I made it to the top, I spent a lot of time just taking in the view:

Unfortunately, the tower itself was boarded up.

The hike down in the evening was fairly uneventful, and I remember being in kind of a bad mood for some reason. Probably just tired and lonely. But then I saw another human, after being alone for about a day. Even better, it was a PNT hiker - the only eastbounder I met on the whole trip. His name was Thor, I think. He was pushing 30s regularly - when I met him, he was at mile 32 for that day. He told me that he had just run into Cookie Monster and Morningstar, and Bugs and Moose the previous day! I was glad to hear I was catching up to them.

I camped near Fish Lakes that night (C174). The water in the stream coming from the beaver-dammed lake was extremely warm…. and did, in fact, taste fishy. While I was eating dinner, I heard a low buzzing noise and noticed a tiny hummingbird and its nest right above my head! It was a joy to watch it fly back and forth to and from the nest.

That night, I woke up a few times to the unsettling feeling of rodents rummaging around underneath my legs (and underneath the tent floor).