Spartan Hike - Day 8

 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.

"We awoke to clear blue skies but weren't buying what was being sold as it had rained nearly all night. We quickly broke down and stored our waterlogged tents and discussed our breakfast options. A decision was made to dine at the Big Sur Lodge (on our own dime) as we could afford a late start due to the fact that we were only knocking out 16.7 miles today. As we were putting the last items in the vehicles, our nearest and least dearest friend started falling on us; confirming indeed we made the right choice.

In typical fashion, what started as harmless little drops quickly turned to a hard and heavy downpour and with that we were on our way to a great cup of coffee and a fine meal. As we pushed south on Hwy 1, we were thrown a couple pretty sexy knee buckling curveballs. The rain would slam us then back off until we managed to forget about it and then we were reminded again. This continued throughout the day and we made it to our campsite in the midst of a period where the only things falling from the sky were the well received warming rays of sunshine.

Not taking anything for granted, we quickly set up our tents and as the final rainfly was being snapped on we were once again reminded what it felt like to be wet. In what turned out to be a final round with the weather, she went out as if it were a title fight and punched herself out. We felt fortunate as we cooked the evening's meal over the fire, free of rain. As we ate our beef stew, we joked about not knowing what to do minus the rain and at the thought of actually seeing the sun for more than five minutes. As it was an exceptionally cold evening, we stoked the fire and pulled as much warmth from it as we could before retreating to our tents for some sleep; wondering what was in store for us the next day."

          Tommy Muir