Hiker, and co-founder of American Spartan Inc, Captain Tommy Muir, continues to keep us updated on the day-to-day of the 425+ mile Spartan Hike, via emails spent from his phone.
"Having traveled the remaining 42 miles to our campsite in the vehicles the night before, we were staring down a decent drive to the days starting point which also meant an even earlier wake up. 4:30am comes exactly after 4:29am and that's early, real early and it was necessary to roost ourselves up at that time to get on the road by 5 so we were hiking by 6.
There wasn't a happy camper in the group about the fact that we missed our morning cup of Joe the morning prior, so everyone had their eyes open this morning in an effort to not repeat the past. We spotted an illuminated OPEN sign at a donut shop as we flew past and it was quickly shouted out. In response came an immediate u-turn which allowed us to put a little premium in the tank prior to knocking down the 42 we were staring down. No one admitted it, but with legs that were a little more tired than usual we stepped off at a 4mph pace which we intended on keeping for the duration.
Cutting out an hour for an interview the day prior payed off in a major way as we made the front page of the Santa Barbara News-Press' Sunday edition. We arrived in Santa Barbara somewhere around mile 28 and it was obvious that people had read about us in the paper. Our 4mph pace quickly slowed to a casual Sunday no where to go and all day to get there stroll as we were greated by an abundance of support. We talked to many individuals, got some high fives, were given several donations and even got a couple free scoops of sorbet. The icing on the cake was seeing this black Masareti that was heading in the opposite direction whip an instantaneous and highly illegal u-turn so they could give us an envelope with a donation and a book and DVD about great warriors in history. We thanked them as they sped off and then talked about how absolutely cool that scene was and how it felt like something out of a movie.
Upon making it through Santa Barbara and Montecito, we resumed our 4mph pace and finished off the 42 miles before the sun faded away. We finished at our campsite and quickly made a fire for warmth, not dinner as that was being covered by an extremely generous lady. Sigrid had contacted Dan the previous day about bringing dinner to our campsite. She and her husband arrived around 6:30 carrying what looked like enough food to feed twenty people. They had prepared an ample feast of salad, steak, mashed potatoes, fresh strawberries, blueberries and rasberries and to top it off, a tray of oatmeal cookies.
We talked with them for a little while, finding out that Sigrid's father had been a Marine, took a few pictures then we thanked them for their generosity and their support before they departed. As we were more than a little hungry, we quickly served the food and began eating. Our hunger was evident in the fact that the only words spoken during dinner were about how delicious the meal was. Upon finishing everything off, it was noticeable that we were moving a bit more gingerly than normal as we cleaned things up. Standing around the campfire full, happy and with fatigued leg muscles we felt good about accomplishing our mission of 90 in 48."
Tommy Muir
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