Day 92, 25.7 miles

What a pleasant day! :) Alright, so first thing that happened this morning, was I found this giant zucchini near my tent! I had seen it last night but didn’t want to get out of my tent to investigate. I’m surprised the deer didn’t get it!

If I wasn’t Two-pack I’d be “Large-Produce-Item-Finder”... Nah, doesn’t have the same ring!

I left the giant zucchini on trail for some other hungry hikers. But then of course while I was still pondering its origins, I took a wrong turn and didn’t realize until 0.7 down a steep trail! Oh no! I had to turn around and slog back up it. The only thing worse than steep miles in the morning are steep EXTRA miles in the morning that don’t count! Hahaha. After my 1.4 mile detour, I was back on track!

Oops!!

I climbed a huuuuuuuuge hill in the morning! Very tiring and steep for sure, but not the WORST. I actually quite enjoyed getting to the top and then taking a nice shade break under a large tree!

Part of the climb, lots of flowers at least!

A crazy triple tree! (Not the tree I took a break at, but an honorable mention!)

Butterflies!

For daaaaays!!

Yes, although there wasn’t much to to see in the larger you scenery around, today was a day for all the small things! Butterflies, grasshoppers, fuzzy caterpillars, snail shells, bees, weird flies, and thimbleberries!

Yay thimbleberries!!

I ate a lot...

Like a TON...

There was no escaping it (who’d want to?), there were wild berries covering the trail for miles! I obviously had not choice but to walk through reaaaaaal slow and pick all the perfect, ripe, way out of the way ones that normal sized people just can’t reach :) 

At lunch, I re-met Sunny and Small Bites. They are a couple from Vermont who are super super cool! They have been together for 6 years and are getting married after the trail. They remind me of Claire and I alot! We talked about the feeling you get when you just know when you’ve met that special one, and what a relief it is to not have to worry about that big aspect of life (finding a partner) anymore because you’ve already got one! 

Peanut butter banana English muffins for lunch!

Giant flies (luckily this one didn’t bite...)

As I was wrapping up lunch I met a hiker named Tray and hiked out with him. We talked a lot about different stuff, I’ve been meeting such cool people recently! On the way down towards Seiad Valley there was poison oak all over! This is the most I’ve seen yet... I’m almost certain that some touched me at some point, since it was so unavoidable for about 5 miles!

The entire right side of the trail overgrown with poison oak.. Sometimes it would be hiding low underneath other plants that my shin would hit..

Well, I guess with thimbleberries and blackberries also come poison oak! The trail followed a river for awhile, and around 5pm I came across the perfect swimming hole! It was semi-late in the day but I only had 4 miles left to camp, and I was feeling VERY gross just thinking about all the poison oak oils I had probably just received on my legs, so I decided to go for a swim! The water was cold but not take-your-breath-away cold; I was actually able to stay in it and swim around on the nice sand-bottom.

It was perfect!

Not too cold!!

My fury little friend on the river bank.

I sat on the shore to let my feet dry and started writing today’s blog. That might be in part why it’s so lengthy and detailed today. I really do like writing on breaks or early in the day when all details are still semi-fresh in my mind. It doesn’t seem to happen a lot though as I’m usually busy eating while I’m on a break!

Snail shell!

Getting smokey!!

I got to camp and found Sunny, Little Bites, Tray, and Old Timer. Old Timer is 72 years old and started the trail two days after I did! He is so cool. Last year he hiked across the United States from East to West! Before sitting down for some food I went to explore some possible campsites and found a box with three root beers in it! I brought them to the picnic table where everyone was and shared them. We all had dinner around said table and talked about our favorite Disney movies, reciting the songs and acting out our favorite parts. 

Sunny and Little Bites. These two are the best! 

After dinner and saying goodnight to everyone, I was walking over to where I was planning to camp, when I saw something on the table where I had found the root beers earlier.

Whaa?!

Watermelon!!

Someone had left sodas that I had grabbed, and then, while we were eating about 100 feet away, they came back and ninja’d half a watermelon to leave as well! Who was this mystery trail angel!?! I ran back over to where the others were with my new discovery, and we all ate watermelon together and then said goodnight for real. What a good day!! Tomorrow I only have ~6 miles to Seiad Valley, where I’ll decide what to do about this fire and alternate coming up!

Thanks for reading!!