300 Mile Hike Day 10



Saturday, July 22 2017

We started the day with 6 miles through a burned out forest. There's a big debate here in the State of Jefferson over a proposed national monument designation for some area of the forest we've been hiking through. Apparently the Obama administration was considering creating it.  I think they should name it the "Kingsford National Park" in my opinion... because so much of the forest is completely char broiled. There really isn't much left to burn. I conclude that I strongly support selective logging. It creates areas where fire can be stopped. Without logging we have created forests that are explosive. The areas we walked through where logging occurred in the 1970's appeared to be much healthier forests than the areas where we tried to preserve every pine needle. 


We passed through a lot of forest today... had lunch at a spring. Springs make make me very happy in the woods. CJ and I have a snack we prepared before the trip that is basically chocolate milk and dehydrated fruit. When we find a spring we love to have that snack there. We mix the ice cold water with the powder and dried fruit. It's super good and the calories hit fast, which is great when you're burning about 5000 calories per day. All of a sudden you feel good.


That last photo is the view as I sat right next to the spot where spring water was leaking out of the hillside Plants grow abundantly where water flows like that. Turns out animals like it too. Right after I took the photo, I felt something on my leg and looked down to see a fluffy little field mouse! Never had that happen before!













When there is water, I take the opportunity to rinse off. That particular creek was ICE COLD!


1300' of our daily total climbing came in the last three miles,  leaving me exhausted when we arrived at the worst campsite of the trip so far in my opinion. There were lots of hikers sharing a small space on a ridge.  The big group of hikers actually made the tight space better.  Good conversation. A veterinarian from Alaska, a guy from Atlanta who has already hiked all of the Appalachian Trail, a girl who works for Amazon, and us.  It was the site that made it so bad in my mind.  HOT. The sun was burning in till it set completely. No shade. No water to clean up. We went to bed filthy and yucky and unhappy.  The site had no feng shui :-) It was just gross. It had Anti-Feng-Shui. 

Even though we were  6675' elevation, it stayed uncomfortably warm all night.  

Sweat and dirt. Slept in it. Eww.... 

Total Miles: 16.6
Total Up: 3761
Total Down: -3613

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