Day 38, Part 1. Friday April 7. Mile 482.2, elev. 7148, to Mile 502.7, elev. 6853. Walked 20.5 miles, 2048 ft up, 2340 ft down. Total grade 213.6 ft/mile.
Dear Trail Friends,
I deliberately did not start hiking while it was still dark and was very glad for my choice. I lost the trail quite a few times, once in the snow. There were some large patches of snow on the trail but they were very hard and not slippery so the only real difficulty was the usual one: trying to figure out which way the trail was going. There were also some trees down to clamber over or around - much better accomplished in daylight.
The big surprise of the day was that there were so many miles of mostly level trail with smooth tread (not big loose rocks to walk on and around). Also much of the trail was clearly marked. I could relax into a stride, listen to music, enjoy the surroundings.
Photo 1 shows my noon rest stop. By then I had hiked 10.5 miles, gotten past the very brief part with patches of snow, and waded barefoot across a very cold little creek (in order to keep my shoes and socks dry). My sense of the surroundings was that there was no "wow," no dramatic beauty. Just a very peaceful presence of pine trees (and the wonderful scent of pine needles). In a way, plain old ordinary everyday beauty.
Photo 2 shows the trail winding through that same unpretentious beauty.
As so often is true when hiking through trees, I also passed through burn areas. Photo 4 struck me with the contrast between black tree remains and white rocks. Photo 5 is a survivor. You can see that much if her trunk has been destroyed by fire, but there she stands, cobtinuing to flourish and grow.
To be continued in Day 38, part 2
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