We had a shortish night. We both were awake every few hours. But the sleep felt wonderful. We got up and had a bit of trouble moving. We both were stiff. No surprise though. Hot tea fixes things! We shared an oatmeal breakfast. Anita did such a good job with the food. We did our morning chores and packed up. In the middle of it all a women hiked through our camp. Remember I said we camped in the middle of the trail. She had room. LOL She was the last we'd see for a long while. If we would have known we might have talked to her more. We hit the trail at 10:30.
Some words for the day... BRUTAL, up hill, UP UP UP. Beautiful fields of flowers. Meadows, Bush whacking, Mountain goats would have been proud.
We know from my app that water was scarce. So we were careful and moved with a purpose. We had lunch on an abandoned logging road just beyond some power lines. You could see people have camped under the power lines. Weird, they make a irritating noise. So we walked beyond them a bit and sat on the road. LOL We didn't cook a hot lunch and that turned out to be good. More on that later. All day we have been visited and brushed by butterflies. They are so beautiful. All different colors and kinds.
The trail is so strange. It changes directions all the time. Seemingly without cause. It seemed like we walked West forever before heading North.
We were just beyond a rock slide, in a semi wooded area and we heard it.. We aren't sure what IT is but we heard it and it freaked us out! It sounded like a huffing in a hollow log, but really loud! We never got our eyes on it but it made the hair on my neck stand up. We moved off with a purpose clacking our poles! My dad thinks maybe a badger? NO clue.
We were on the trail just below a FSR and we heard 2 nasty boys talking. We were worried they might be shooting so we talked loud and clanked our poles together. They stopped talking when they heard us.
Anita is better at drinking while hiking then I am. So she ran out of water first. Then I was out about 2 miles from our destination. We both could have panicked but we knew we could do it. We found water at the Three Corner Spring. Elevation 3350! We filled our waters and walked back down the trail a bit and Anita said this is flat enough I'm done. We set up camp again in the middle of the trail. We were a bit off the PCT and since we hadn't seen anyone we weren't to concerned. So off came the packs and up went the tent! Anita almost lost her sleeping bag down the steep hill. Thank God for a well placed tree. Poor Anita. Her feet are a mess. She has blisters on top of blisters. We had dinner and she took care of her feet and we went to bed! Mosquito's forced us into our tent after we did our chores and hung our food. I don't think either one of us cared if we got ate by a bear or not.
Our list from the day was several different suspicious poops, Stellar Jay's. Red butt spider, green bug, banana slugs, and we heard an owl and the raccoons from the night before. We only made just over 10 miles today. We are going to reassess our plans/pickup place tomorrow night.
I am FINALLY trying the oatmeal I made for Bigfoot. ..a month later I might add! ! If those boys weren't so nasty and foul-mouth...and made me feel like they were up hiding a body I'd have climbed straight up to them. Cried and hugged and begged for a drink and a ride home! !
ReplyDeleteBut the best was yet to come! Thanks for hanging in there with me.
ReplyDeleteooooo poor Anita.. Are you sure that wasn't a bear? I'd go with bear :)
ReplyDeleteWe did find out it was more than likely a grouse.
ReplyDelete