This morning I continued up the huge hill that I started last night. I was on trail by 6am and the cool morning was nice! It didn’t get as hot as quickly as it did yesterday, and I hoped that would be true for the rest of the day as well.
Trinity Alps!!
Pretty morning peak
Gonna skip that one! :p
The trail was also a nice gradient, definitely not close to some of the other really steep climbs I’ve done so far. Sooner than I knew, I was at the top and started rolling up and down nice valley traverses with occasional views into the wilderness.
This chipmunk was just sitting on the top of the rock at the top of a pass, just staying out into his kingdom. Seeing that the rock is already a mountain for him, what must it feel like to be on top of the actual mountain!?!
The trail winded down through many little Meadows and water sources, and then would once again hug the valley walls for some time. It was really a pretty day! A little reminiscent of the Sierra for sure!
The second half of the day got a liiiiittle tougher! There was a big 6 mile waterless climb up a STEEP steep mountain in the afternoon heat. It still wasn’t horrible, likely thanks to the elevation, nice shade, and occasional breeze.
Still pretty hazy out here!
At 5pm I got up to the top of the really big hot hill and some water from a tiny spring. I was really hungry and got INTO my food! I looked up the camping situation and saw that I either camp in a mile or 6 miles, as there was a long narrow traverse on the side of some steep valleys. Like I said, I don’t want to be killing my body, and pushing 6 more miles would’ve meant nearly another 30! It looked like an early day for me!
Another thing I’ve decided is that I am after all going to hitch into Etna tomorrow. I have about 2 days of food left and Seiad is still almost 3 away. Although it’s supposedly a really hard hitch on a very low traffic road and may take hours to get a ride in, at least I can go get a beer and make sure I have enough food to finish the stretch! I remember telling myself in the Sierra that I’d never not bring enough food again, and I’m sticking to it!
It’s not that I didn’t bring enough food, I actually brought too much! I was originally planning on carrying only 4 days of food and stopping in Etna anyway. But at Castella I got sooooo much food in the mail (not a bad problem to have) that I decided to push for 6 days all the way to Seiad! Now here I am going back to the original plan, but it just means that I can eat more food tonight, get some town food tomorrow, and get some blogs uploaded! :)
I lazily took my time going up that last mile to the campsites on the ridge. Cribbage was there and of course he had Cribbage! I love trail games and it felt great to actually have an “early” day and relax and play. I still got 24.5 miles in and I was chillin hard with all the breaks I wanted! Not too bad!!
Cribbage with Cribbage!
His friend 3-D printed the super light board, which glows in the dark! And Cribbage made the legs himself out of super light wood! We played 6 or 7 rounds and I got whooped! To be fair, his name IS Cribbage and he’s been playing since he was 7! (He’s 50 now). As the sun was setting I saw a Swiss hiker named Pants who I met earlier today. He went to go climb up onto some nearby rocks to catch the sweet sunset and I joined! It was so beautiful!!
My pics are blurry but he took some great ones of me and he’s going to email them to me. I can’t wait to get them and post them in a later blog post!
——-Edit to add Pants’ photos——-
So much better and in focus!!
Cool capture of me!
——-Pants’ Photos——-
There is a thunderstorm building towards our campsite so I definitely set up my rainfly. I’m hoping for a storm as I love sleeping in the rain!! Tomorrow is Etna and you guys will finally be able to read these last 7 posts!!
Thanks for reading!
We definitely need a large print of that last photo of you! Wow!!
ReplyDeleteI agree!!
DeleteI second the motion!
ReplyDeleteThird!
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