6.9 miles, 1600' gain, 1500' descent

This day is dominated by a single idea: french fries. Crispy golden fried strips of potato, with just the perfect amount of salt, perhaps dipped in ketchup. Heavenly aroma of sizzling starches.

We're fantasizing loudly about fries as we leave camp and cross Kautz Creek, which this year is a somewhat gnarly river with two main braids and no bridges. Something must have shifted upstream, because in past years I remember the adjacent Pyramid Creek having more water in it while Kautz Creek was barely a trickle. I swap my trail runners for water shoes and ford carefully, while Frank prefers to cross feet-dry via a fallen log and some rock hopping.

A short climb up to Rampart Ridge, then a longer descent into Longmire. It's our resupply day! Cache bucket pickup at the ranger station followed by lunch at the National Park Inn. The service there is pretty slow, with a mellow, relaxed mood, and the hot food is a delicious treat.

Back on the trail, it is SO hot this afternoon. We sweat, and climb, and swelter, and climb. I start to wonder whether those two beers at lunch could have been a mistake. The trail is wide here, practically a highway. It runs alongside an old conduit that used to carry water to a small hydroelectric plant, fascinatingly constructed from wooden staves surrounded by metal hoops, like a massively elongated wine barrel.

Paradise River is a small, quiet camp tucked away in the forest. The river, below camp and a few hundred feet further along the trail, is a wonderfully cool spot to filter water and hang out with other hikers.