Oh, big news...we have finished the Sierras!!!!! So far I am enjoying Northern California. It has been really nice to be able to crush out some miles and I have absolutely loved how I can walk on almost all snow-free trail! Seriously, you have no idea how exciting this is. No more post holding, no more staring at Guthook to try to find where the trail is, noore excessive amounts of time spent "off-roading," no more accidental glissades. Ahhh... We still have only had one day completely snow free, but the days since have been pretty close! Also, now that we are at a lot lower elevation, the temperatures at night have been more reasonable and I am no longer finding myself curled into the fetal position by morning to stay warm. :)
Life on trail is always one adventure after another. Seriously, you never know what the day is going to bring (or the night....) It is probably one of my favorite parts of trail because you can't plan how things will go ahead of time. Because things are never quite as expected. Rather it has taught me how to just go with the flow and take it as it comes.
Take for instance, yesterday. We had plans of hiking a 31 mile day. It was a typical day to start. I had everything packed up and started hiking around 7. We had a 8 mile uphill from the start, which was...fun....and we hit the 1300 mile marker just .4 from the top of the mountain. We stopped there for a long break before hiking another 4.5 miles to the next water source, where we planned on taking lunch. At lunch, I pulled out my tortillas, cheese sticks, and summer sausage to make myself my standard lunch wrap. The sausage looked a little funny, so I smelled it and it didn't smell rank....so I tasted it and it wasn't terrible (I mean it wasn't great...) So my thought process was that I should definitely eat all of the summer sausage now, before it gets any worse. After lunch we hiked on and around 7 miles later we came across a road where a couple guys were set up doing trail magic! Stopping to chill, they made us BLT's and served us chips & guac, cookies, donuts, and pop. After sitting there for awhile, we realized that there was no way we were going to be hiking another 12 miles....so we changed the plan to 6 miles and set off. All was well to start, but for some reason my stomach (which had been feeling slightly off) started to really gurgle and I was so gassy! I soon realized that I was going to need to find a place to use the bathroom. Unfortunately, the area we were hiking through was the WORST! We were hiking along a ridge, and the trees that were around all had their branches high up. So there was really no secluded areas. I kept hiking hoping that I would come across a nice area, but then it hit... and it was all I could do to keep it in as I frantically dropped my pack, grabbed my toilet bag, and dashed off the trail. It was close... After surviving the attack, I gathered myself together and hiked on. Only to be hit two more times within a mile....once again barely making it off trail to a half way hidden spot. Mostly I was just hoping that nobody would walk by....or if they did, that they wouldn't look around. Finally, I arrived at camp, feeling fully cleansed of any possible item in my body and still slightly nauseous. Upon arriving at camp, the water source we thought was there, turned out to be dry. So two of the guys ended up hiking 3 miles back to get water, arriving back at camp around 10pm. As night set in, there were the deer..... Seriously, the most aggressive and obnoxious deer I have ever seen! I was awaken out of a deep sleep to a deer standing over me doing something (possibly licking?!) to my legs. I flew straight up out of my bed as the deer slowly trotted off just a little ways. I turned my light on and chucked some rocks at it only to have it look at me like I was an idiot. And that's how the night went... I would wake up to deer running/walking literally right next to me and I would have to chuck rocks at them to scare them off. It got to the point where I had my trekking pole ready to go next to me and I was determined to smack the deer so hard the next time one approached me. To my amusement and sanity, I was glad I was not the only one suffering that night. At some point in the night I saw Avalanche's headlamp go on and soon after I could hear him chasing the deer off into the woods. As it turns out the deer had started chewing on his backpack and then started carrying it off into the woods!! Hahaha
When the mosquitos get bad...
Tinker Knob
I ran into Red Stripe on a section of trail that runs the same as the Tahoe Rim Trail. She was hiking the TRT and had stopped to take a break when I walked up. Upon exchanging hellos, she suddenly said "I know you! Did you hike the AT last year?" As it turns out, we met and summited Katahdin on the same day!! It was so cool running into her and getting to hang out with her for a bit!
A group of day hikers were passing out these bags to us the day before we reached the halfway marker! The cuties were the best! Seriously miss fresh fruit.
When we reached the road to hitch into Chester, there was a group doing trail magic there. They were grilling up burgers with all the fixings, then had potato salad, plums, watermelon, brownies, cookies, chips, lemonade,.....and milkshakes!! That's right...they had brought out a small milkshake machine and a generator to run it. A-MAZING!
We took a short side trip into Yosemite over July 4th. Seeing the Valley in person was incredible!! Pictures seriously don't do the place justice. Tracks & Hubert came up from San Diego to meet us there, bought us pizza, and hung out. We hiked one trail to see a waterfall and then hiked 4 mile trail to get a 360 view of the valley. So cool!!
Yosemite Falls
Half Dome
El Cap in the background
I would write a whole lot more, but it is a painstakingly slow process to post from my phone. I mean...I got miles to make;)
Until next time....
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