I camped in the Brown Mountain lava fields at about mile 1764 which means that I did a 20-miler again. Yesterday was 16 miles, but tough with the rain and all. That means I only have about 7 miles to the highway and another 2 to Fish Lake.

I hiked solo for the first couple hours, then Woodrat caught up with me at the outlet of Howard Prairie. We hiked together till about 6:30pm when I stopped to make dinner, just past Brown Mountain shelter. Today's hiking was really easy with pretty open woods and meadows around Hyatt and Howard Prairie lakes, and then open forest until Dead Indian Highway. After that it was all big trees and a closed dark canopy.

I decided to keep hiking until 8:30pm and finally found a jacked-up little spot next to the trail with enough room for a bivy between the rocks--just barely fit. I could not find any good bear hang branches so the food is hanging just off the ground in a sapling behind the tent. The mosquitoes are nasty here but not as bad as they were back in the big woods.