Day 123: Welp today is August 16…..my 4 month anniversary on the trail. It’s going so fast, I swear I just entered Oregon and it’s already almost done. Every time I have one of these anniversaries I really think about how blessed I am to be on the trail. And all that I’ve experienced so far, and how I don’t want it to ever end. In the morning I walked a couple of miles along the shore of Summit Lake. It was beautiful and legit probably 10 times I almost stopped to swim. But it was morning and I always have a hard time justifying a break before I get any miles in. And it was kind of cool so it made it less appealing. Throughout the rest of day the trail continued to pass numerous ponds. All of which were much larger than any ponds I’ve ever seen. The easily resembled small lakes. The trail was really nice today. At times I was on open peaks looking out as far as I could, and some of the time under the trees listening to birds and seeing the sun reflect of water. On one of the peaks of the day I passed Happy Feet. We passed each other often and a few times through out today. She never says much of anything to me, just keeps to herself, but apparently she was trekking through the Sierras alone and went to ford a creek. There was a log that used to be above the water but was now submerged a little, and decided to get on the downstream side of the log to create an eddy for herself. At some point she was pushed under water. Holding onto the log for her life she kept trying to pull up but couldn’t. She had to just let go, and luckily she did because she was stopped by some stuff in the water further down where she was able to pull herself out of the water. She got super banged up and had to leave the trail for a bit, but she ended up going back to the trail where she left off and has hiked since then. (Sry if I already wrote this story) but today we passed again with just quick hellos as one of us walked past the other. Just after lunch I passed the Road to Shelter Cover and seriously thought about walking to it, as I was pretty far ahead of everyone, but they didn’t have milkshakes from what I heard so I deemed it was pointless and kept on the trail. My day ended shortly after Rosary Lakes. I love all these lakes we get to experience that are surrounded by trees you can clearly see in the water reflection. Along the shore I met a large group of people who were out doing a practice backpacking trip, some of them to practice for the PCT. They were all so kind and so interested in hearing about my experience. After I left them I went on to find a spot where nobody could see me since I’d be taking my clothes off, and once I did. I stripped down and jumped right into the water. It was colder than I expected, but that didn’t stop me from staying in for quite a while. Plus it takes a long time to try and scrub off all the dirt from my feet/legs. When I get out I decided to do some laundry also, then eat dinner as my clothes dried. Part of me wanted to stay here, but I knew just 2 miles ahead there was a ski shelter I could sleep in. Then I’d be super warm and cozy all night. A good anniversary gift! I left the lake wondering if everyone else would just stay and camp here or meet at the shelter like we talked about. (They end up camping at the lake). The shelter is awesome! I am sleeping upstairs in a loft area, only worried about if there’s mice around here. There’s a SOBO hiker here, and Fire Dick comes later at night. Oh, and my big toe nail is barely hanging on right now. I should just probably tear it off, but I just can’t. And want to wait until I’m in town when I could clean it. Nobody wants an open wound on their foot out here. That would not turn out good.