I arranged a ride back up the to the trailhead for 6:30 in the morning. Soho was pleasantly surprised (not really). He and Twigsy showed up at 11 after spending a few hours at the beer tap.
In the morning we were milling around waiting for Blossom to show up with the keys to the car. Twigsy jumps out of his rack wants to join in. We got dumped at the trailhead around 7 and I took off ahead of the group.
Was hiking for a bit and ran into Rattler and Rockdoc. They were taking a break on a nice vista. I chatted with them for a minute and mentioned that I was thinking we needed a 30 today.
I wanted my brunch, but every time I stopped the bugs were swarming. I’m a bug magnet. I just put the pack back on and kept hiking. Eventually I hit a nice exposed vista at the top of a climb with enough wind to keep the swarms away. It was 11 or so. Soho and Twigsy showed up and joined in.
While munching away, Soho says he heard that we are doing 30 miles today. Heh. I guess Soho ran into Rattler and go the news. His reply to them “That’s news to me. Well I F’ing guess so.” Trail rumor gets around quickly.
So I came up with this idea without really looking at the effort. Soho says we have 6k work of climbing to do those miles. This is going to be a viscous day.
Packed up and took off. Ran into Optimistic Turtle along the way! She is south bounding a section because she needed new shoes at Ashland. Probably run into her again soon.
The theme for most of the day was hot, dry, and exposed on one side of a mountain, then hot, wet, and shady on the other. Didn’t expect to take many photos, but the small streams with the steep drops made for some really cool looking waterfalls.
Here’s another one.
I like the smaller ones that are taking divided paths down the fall line. Maybe one day I’ll make one like this in my backyard….if I ever get my house back 🙂
Walking and walking. Ran into some snow again. I’ve been thinking it was time for a Tang Slushy, but needed just the right spot. This one looked pretty good (around 1614).
Well this is a good stop. I saw Soho walk right through without stopping. That will not be my agenda. I cleared off the nasty snow and scooped up some raw materials then headed for the shade.
After poking at my bowel with my spork for 10 minutes, it turns into this
This turned into a 20 minute siesta. Twigsy visited the slushy stand on his way up. He declared it delicious.
At this point it was 3 and I still had 12 miles to go. Lots of pain on this stretch.
So much exposed burn. This was hot and miserable hiking.
With a few lakes. Of course everything is burned above where I’m hiking.
This was cool. I think this is the beginning of marble mountain.
It was 7 and I still had 5 miles to go with some climbing to add to the enjoyment. After I picked up another 2 liters of water the trail became this overgrown mess. No trail crews have cleared it this year and I could barely make out where the footpath was. The drop-off to the right is pretty steep.
So I’m trucking along making good headway walking at about a 3 mile/hr pace . I stuck my right trekking pole on a hidden rock slanted downhill and it slides. Turns out the right side of the footpath is washed out next to the rock, so my right foot hits thin air. Gravity took over and face-planted. Bit my lip and my glasses tore open a cut on my nose which bled all over my face. Here is a post crash view.
Finally
Finally made camp at 9am. Soho and Twigsy were setup and eating dinner. I just wolfed down some cheese block and a tortilla and crash. This was a max effort day for me. I don’t think I can do more than 6k elevation change and 30 miles. Racked up a 29.5 miler today. Sleep came quickly.