300 Mile Hike Day 4

Sunday, July 16 2017

The sun is going down as I write this on our 4th day.  Thank God.  Bye bye sun! Not gonna miss you for awhile. I felt like I was walking ON THE SUN today. The area we walked through burned several years ago and there was barely a speck of shade anywhere.  Felt like it was all rocks. Killed my feet. 

We slept at 6200' elevation last night.  CJ and I cowboy camped again to see the stars.  They were mind blowing.  But it got cold and things got dewy and we got wet.  Not really a big deal.  I just wasn't expecting that.  We packed our wet stuff and carried it all day. 

Mt. Shasta continued to appear in the distance as we hiked.

I did a count of all the other hikers.  Not including us, we saw 13 men and 11 women hiking today. There are a lot more women than I think people would realize.  Also a high percentage of foreign hikers.  Yesterday met a guy from Israel who had served in the Isreali army as an officer. We quickly learned he feels the same as I do about news media and doesn't ever watch it. We've met a significant number of Austrians, Germans and Swiss, three Finnish hikers,  three Canadians at least,  Brazil, Czech Republic, Netherlands... CJ pointed out no French people.

I didn't have a good day but tomorrow is a rest day... only 5 miles to get to a restaurant that supposedly has outstanding blackberry milkshakes.  And then we lay around and repack for the next ten days/150 miles. So far we've done 58 miles. We've gone up 10,753' and down 11,200'. Half of the down was today. I'm gonna hurt tomorrow. Downhill is actually harder on the body than uphill. Uphill takes muscular strength. Downhill pounds the joints. 

As we lay here waiting to fall asleep, CJ's brand new $130 sleeping pad went flat.  Yes we spend that much to get a good night's sleep.  His pad cost almost as much as the down quilt he sleeps under.  I was greatly frustrated but we found the leak and fixed it easily so all is well with the world now.  At least until I wake up and find out how sore I'm going to be tomorrow.  

We had alfredo noodles with garlic and hickory smoked tuna. That may actually help with tomorrows potential soreness because the protein in the tuna will help things heal while we sleep. 

A guy from Michigan just walked into our campsite to spend the night. 

Daily stats:
Total up: 2709'
Total Down: 5132'
Total miles: 18.75

This is Bob. He hails from Canada. He built that umbrella set up to protect himself from the sun. The umbrella fastens to his pack strap so he doesn't have to hold it but it keeps him shaded while he hikes. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Looking Back on Backpacking Trips CJ and I have Done: Tahoe Rim Trail Day 1

Image
The Tahoe Rim Trail is a loop around Lake Tahoe that follows the approximate mountain rim of the Tahoe basin at about 8000' elevation, plus or minus 2000' here and there. If you hike the full circle, total distance is 165 miles. Through those miles, the character of the trail changes significantly. The west side, where pacific storms deliver abundant rain and snow, is heavily forested with dense trees and many lakes and streams. The east side reminds you you're nearly in Nevada. Its like a desert at 8000' elevat ion. There are long stretches without any water sources. Less water, fewer trees, and the resulting open trail gives a feeling the sun is pounding on you.... I had hiked the trail's north/south lines on both sides of the lake earlier in life so I knew the differences but I had never hiked the sections of trail that swing east/west around the ends of the lake. In 2013, I figured out how to pull eight days together between a family trip to Oregon and
Read more

300 Mile Hike Day 9

Image
Friday, July 21 2017 After climbing over 8300' and walking nearly 32 miles in two days, I was nearly sleep walking this morning for the first few miles. Luckily, the trail was giving easy miles. I wasn't paying attention to the trail or the sights and scenes.  I was contemplating man's search for meaning.  Or almost.  I was definitely deep in thought. Contemplating my search for meaning. I've always done long distance backpacking trips in my life and found they are like a retreat. When I come home, I have purpose and plans.  Or at least that was true when I wasn't 49 years old. In 1997, I came home with a 7 year plan and it played out perfectly. It seems the sense of purpose and subsequent planning that bounced around in my head as I walked this morning were not about what I'm going to do in life.  It was more about how I will deal with things coming up in the next phase of life. The morning mileage My feet were really hurting right there. Not
Read more

300 Mile Hike Day 8

Image
View to the east Thursday, July 20 2017 I've hiked various places on the Pacific Crest Trail since I was about 13 years old.  At the end of this hike I will have laid footprints down nearly half of California. I've hiked some of the more enjoyable sections multiple times, like the 220 miles of trail between Yosemite and Truckee. But I have never felt more clearly like I was walking on the very crest of the pacific coast mountain range than I did this morning. Within a mile or so of leaving our campsite, we were looking east toward Nevada and Southern Oregon and every mountain was lower than the one we were walking on. There was an obvious inversion layer and we could see smoke in the valleys. A few miles later,  we crossed over to the west side of the ridge we were on. Looking west we could see every mountain was lower than us again and then we realized we could see the marine layer on the coast.  I was not expecting to see that on this trip.   View to the west
Read more