Soho and I were noodling on our plan last night.   We plan to stop at Etna (1597) for a Nero and resupply before carrying on to Seiad Valley at 1653.   Thing is that doing another 30 isn’t going to shorten the journey unless we follow up with another 27 and hope for a late night hitch which is unlikely.  

Instead it will be a pair of 21 ish milers and a short walk on Saturday morning.  

I decided this morning to make it a pseudo-30 day by keeping my pace similar as yesterday.   I will just end much earlier in the day.  I want to see if my body/feet can take it.     

At 6:30, it was off to the races.   

For most of the day I could see that smoke getting bigger.   The Airplanes and Helicopters showed up mid-morning and did drops for most of the afternoon.   Found out later from some hikers behind me that they seemed to have put it out. 

There was quite a bit of climbing and drops, but at least the trail stayed above 6k.   So much cooler up here and the views are better. 

At one of the low points there was an interesting placard about the old stage coach route.  

And a posting about a lost horse ?!?!   Seriously? 

Entered the Trinity Wilderness.   Not sure how that really makes a difference.   Same trees, hills, and rocks. 

This one is looking back toward the fire.   You might be able to spot an airplane flying in there. 

I hit our target camping spot shortly after this picture at around 4:30pm.    I did the miles with several short breaks and a 30 minute lunch.   I felt I could have done another 2 hours with no trouble, so sustaining a longer day should be possible several days in a row.

I am noticing that my feet hurt a lot more that usual.   No blisters, they feel like they are one big bruise.   Going to have to watch that.   More that likely that will be my limiter. 

Soho showed up 30 minutes later.   He hikes faster than me, but didn’t see the need to kill himself.   Smart man.  

There are flies buzzing around everywhere up here and the mosquitos are eating me up.   Sucks.   There is no water nearby that I know of and we are on top of an exposed ridge.    Saw a lot of cow pies scattered around here, I’m guessing that is part of the problem.   Going to another fast 20 tomorrow.