Author: memoriesaheadmilesbehind

June 26th, 2018

Mile 1249-1270 Karen mile 1071

Wouldn’t you know it?!? We were the last ones to leave camp today. And that was at 7am! So alllll the overachievers rolled into Middle Fork after we did and left before we did. Case and point, these people mean business. All business, every mile. The “kids” who setup next to Nathan and me told us they’d hiked 34 miles. That was their goal though for every day, to finish before August 19, when they had to return to school. They had every campsite planned for their 3 1/2 month PCT journey. That’s a bit much for myself. Just saying, and that’s a conversation for a whole ‘nother day.

It was an uphill kinda day. In 10 miles, we would climb at least 3,000ft up. (Never mind that I’ll have to go down that much tomorrow).  And the heat would creep up on us before we knew it. It was a tough uphill slog, but we slowly made it.  The beauty of the day being we had plenty of water sources so we didn’t have to carry too much extra weight.  Early on I had asked Nathan how far he had intended to hike today.  His response was always “16 miles” so when we were close to 16, he finally said; Your company is motivating me to push on.  I think I’ll do the full 20 with you today.  I told him at the pace we were going–we were taking a lot of breaks–It would be 7 by the time we reached the campsite I planned on.  He agreed and we continued about the day to mile 1270.

I kept seeing a lot of the slugs out there so I figured they needed an appearance in the blog.

Of all the random things we sometimes see on the PCT this was a welcomed gesture.  I of course didn’t want to carry a book as I haven’t read a thing in my library (on my phone) as I’m always too tired.  But still, I appreciate the effort of the person who put this out there in the middle of nowhere.

This was the 2nd marking I’ve seen on this section.  I’ll have to look for the other one, but the historical information is pretty cool.

I should mention that we made it to Bucks Summit just around 530pm.  It was 17 miles from where we camped this morning.  And it was 3 more miles to slightly uphill to where we are camped now.  The “kids” that I spoke of earlier had signed the logbook at 1pm.  Yup, that means from 5am-1pm they’d hiked 17 miles.  Again, thats a super fast pace.  More power to them.

It was after 7 when I turned a corner and saw my shadow.  Pretty unusual for me as I found that I like to be at camp not much later that 5.  That gives me time to set up, eat, and allow the body to relax.  By the time we made it to mile 1270, there was already other people set up there.  Then I felt like we had to be quiet as to not bother them as they went to sleep early.

All in all, another good day.  A long day, I will say that.  Nathan and I cooked dinner near his tent as to not disturb the now 3 other people that are here.  He will stay behind tomorrow morning and hike to 3 Lakes –  which is just off the PCT – and then head into Belden on Thursday to meet his friends for the EDM festival there this weekend. Its 10 miles for me tomorrow. Mostly downhill.

June 26, 2018

Mile 1232-1249

Another chill day on the trail. The miles went by quite fast. Although I only did 17ish, the end spot is near the Middle Fork of the Feather River. Pretty cool campsite for once. Since we got here though, plenty of hikers have arrived. I think the bubble has finally started to make its way north.

I woke up around 530 today. I could hear Cowboy making his coffee–says he’s made it every day out here. He was packed up and gone before 6am. I won’t see him again as he’s making 25 miles days. I did catch up to Nathan this morning a little before 8am. He was still packing up. We said our “good mornings” and I asked how he slept. He said he had visitors wake him. Those damn deer!!! I laughed. Finally it wasn’t my night. (I later found out Laura had them at her camp last night too!)

After I passed Nathan, he caught up to me while I chatted with another female thru hiker. She had flipped to Ashland and was wondering about snow conditions. I told her what I knew and Nathan and I hiked the rest of the day together. I did have another cool run-in today. I saw Squish! He flipped up to Ashland as well. What I liked about Squish was that he has been completely taking his time easy on the trail. He’s made every town stop possible, never a care as to how long he’d stay or what happened when he was there. Just super carefree about things. He’s also been lugging around a bigger camera so I told him I’d look him up on Instagram: trailingadventure (s) not sure about the S. He should have some pretty stellar photos.

It was a long descent to the river and it’s going to be a longer climb up and out of here. The heat has been turned on and usually by 1pm it reminds me of days down south in the desert portion. I was able to put my feet in the water and clean off so that felt really nice.

We did see some possible smoke southwest of where we are camped, hard to see around the next hillside. The smoke lingered for quite a bit and I messaged a friend for info. So far no reports from CalFire and as I try to see the skyline through my tent, I just see the haze linger. Hopefully all is well and nothing to be alarmed about…. but these are things to always be mindful of out here. You just never know what may happen.

I will say it’s hot enough out that I don’t have the rainfly on or my quilt even touching me. I sure hope it cools down! Ha. Things are never what you think they’ll be.

June 24, 2018

Miles 1211-1232 Karen mile 1033

Well, it was 10pm when my friends Rudolph, Donner and Blixen showed up again. At least this time they didn’t camp out as long. The came, sniffed, trampled on branches and eventually left. I slept really well after that, thankfully. I needed it. I was really close to an OHV road so for most of the evening–at least until sundown–I had motorcycle and ATV noise going on.

I forced myself to get moving after 6. I made sure to collect water from the runoff of Summit Lake before leaving so I didn’t have to make a stop early in the day. Water bottles full, I was hiking by 7am. The miles seemed much easier today. It was around noon when I took break and had just enough service to update the blog. I didn’t want to stay too long as it was just starting to heat up for the day.

I’d seen 4 people all heading south today. All weekenders or section hikers. It was a little after 2pm when I stopped to chat with a guy name Nathan who was taking a break in the shade. He said he was section hiking to Belden. Finally someone going the same direction! He said he’s been thinking about doing the entire PCT and this section worked out logistically for him so he’s giving it a whirl for a week. I left him to enjoy the remainder of his break and I hiked on. I climbed to the top of whatever hill we were on (seemed like a lot of them today) and took break there. When he reached the top we chatted some more and hiked the next mile. I lost him on the next climb but eventually he caught up later in the day. He went ahead 2 more miles for the evening so I may see him tomorrow. Just nice to talk to someone again.

#didntfindanywhiskeyhere

I am actually glad that Cowboy made it to mile 1232 with me tonight. He had to wait for his resupply box yesterday in Sierra City, so he didn’t leave town until after 1pm. We had good conversation while we ate dinner from opposite sides of the trail. He’s currently sleeping under the stars, no tent, just the way he likes it.

I’m pretty sure I saw my first bear today. It was around mile 1218 so probably around 10am. I heard something wrestle in the bushes on my left side, down the embankment of the trail. When I saw the moment all I saw was the round dirty brown hind end of a scurrying animal. No long pointy legs or white on the furry end, so I’m calling it a bear. Mark that box, check!

I also saw a snake. It looked like a ginormous worm. I sent the photo to Brother. I always love his responses: That’s a rubber boa. Totally harmless. Oh Glen, harmless to you but man they make me jump!

Other than that, pretty chill day. I’ve got a ton of mosquito bites from this campsite and the last place I took water from. I’m hoping the deer don’t show up tonight. Cowboy says he hasn’t been that lucky. Ha! Let’s see who has the luck. Good night!