I don't think I slept great, but at 5:30 the next morning I was awakened by a bear sniffing right next to my head. I lay in my mummy bag, debating what to do, and decided to do nothing. It walked away. A bit later I got up and discovered it investigated my little camp kitchen, putting a further slice in the Platypus bag. I walked down to the creek to get water to boil, since I couldn't filter it and saw that the bear had destroyed the trail magic bucket, eating all the food and leaving trash everywhere. Mark had texted that he could lend me a bowl, a battery charger, a water filter. He was in Salida. He sent me a location. I was depressed, everything was wet, I was about to lose a day, and I was thinking about dropping out. I was at a real low point. I took a while getting ready, it's hard when everything is wet. I finally got moving, Mark had updated me that he was now in Poncha Springs and told me to meet him at the post office. I rolled down Highway 50, a 1500 or 2000 ft descent. I definitely did not want to climb it again. I met Mark. It was hot. He looked a little bummed about everything. He was planning on hitching to Durango and had a sign with DURANGO on it. He gave me the bowl, the battery, I gave him my potentially dead battery, I gave him my water filter without the platypus bag and he gave me his water filter. He gave me some food. He offered me the rest of his bone broth and I stupidly declined, he also offered me hot cocoa and I declined. It was a weird goodbye, a second weird goodbye. I got a sandwich at a little place called The Poncha Pub, charged my phone a bit, then walked across the road in the hot sun and put my thumb out. I think I had my thumb out for an hour, so many people passed me until finally this guy in a pickup with a bike rack stopped, Johnny, nice guy, bike rider. We had a nice conversation up the hill, I was so grateful for his help. He even drove me back up Foose's Creek dirt road past the lake to where I had camped. We talked about the Vapor Trail, for which he was training. I had seen some people the day before out riding bikepacking setups, training for it. He seemed like a nice guy. He gave me some good advice; stay focused. We both knew Simon Stewart and he said he'd mention to him that he saw me and gave me a ride. We said goodbye and I began the climb of Foose's Creek, one day later, a nero day for getting the water filter. The Databook recommended good camping at mile 5, what I thought was the final bridge. I rode up to mile five, the bridge, after filtering on the climb. It was beautiful. I had a nice camp and I stopped early. Got rained on that night. The mosquitoes were insane, but luckily outside my tent. During the night I heard horse hooves go by, I wasn't sure what I was hearing at first.
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