Spent the morning eating.   Then spent the afternoon eating.   Here is Soho preparing to clear a couple plates with his buddies.

Got to learn more about the Great State of Jefferson.   The revolution is coming!

 

It is soooo hot here.   105 degrees right now.   We figure we will start late evening and night hike the first 6 to 10 miles to a higher elevation.    Next stop is Ashland. 

UPDATE

Twigsy, Soho, and I sat around watching the thermometer until 7:30.  When it broke into the double digits we decided it was time to leave.   Last I checked it was a cool 98.    

There was a 1+ mile road walk out to the trail.   Along the way we passed a road that some folks were taking as an alternate to the top.    Seemed sketchy, especially at night.

I somehow got volunteered to be in the lead so we started climbing together.   After about an hour of climbing we ran into a French dude with a couple of gals setting up camp.   He told us there was spa and hotel at the top.   Ok, dude.  

I managed to keep a decent pace for the first 2 thousand feet.   Dusk was approaching so I put on my headlamp.   Left it off since I could still see the trail.   I hit a turn near and heard a loud buzzying sound.  Oh boy.   I turned on my headlamp and there he was.   A damn rattlesnake sitting on the side of the trail.  

Soho and I were looking at him, but he wasn’t moving.   Threw a couple sticks at him which backed him up a bit.   He was a little guy, I figured he couldn’t strike very far.   So I edged to opposite side of the trail and jumped across.  Soho said the thing tried to strike at me but was way off.   Guess that bummed him out, he slithered up into the brush and let the other guys pass.   After that bit of excitement, it was headlamp on for the rest of the night except at rest stops.  

The next big stop was Lookout spring at 1659.   Probably around 11pm.   By then we had climbed about 3500 feet.   This was a pitiful little thing, with a trickle coming out of some pipe stuck into the hillside.   It took a couple minutes to get a liter out of this thing.    We were standing on the hillside with our lights off and could see a big fire blazing in the distance to the South.   It was a little surreal, blobs of orange with little flare-ups here and there.

It was now time to relinquish the lead.    On long climbs I have a rhythm that most don’t like.   I’ll climb for a while until my legs start to burn, then I’ll stop for a minute and wait for my heart rate to go down.    It seems to be the best method to keep going for a long period.

Soho and Twigsy tore off ahead and I’d catch up when they paused for a bit.   Ran into tents and cowboy campers scattered along the ridge line.   They didn’t seem to bother with picking out good spots, just some place flat to flop down.

Our goal was to clear the top and get to a camp spot around Kangaroo Spring about 10 miles in.   I was trying to convince Soho and Twigsy that we should just hike all night.   Soho thought that a stupid idea.   Oh well.  

Made camp around 1:30.   There were a couple of tents already setup there together with a doe who ran over to lap up Soho’s piss.   I could here her licking away as I dozed off.

It was a hard, hot climb, but at least it is over.   We climbed almost 5k that night and camped at 1664.