Friday, April 21, 2017

Day 39, part 1. April 8. Mile 502.7 to Mile 524.8

Day 39, part 1. Saturday April 8. Mile 502.7, elev. 6853. to Mile 524.8, elev. 7716. Walked 22.1 miles (plus 2 extra miles when I got confused on the trail and went the wrong way for 1 mile before I realized what happened.) 2077 ft up, 1235 ft down.   Total grade 150 ft/mi. 


Dear Trail Friends,


Today included quite a lot of drama - not all of it created by yours truly. I woke up at 4am and had a leisurely protein drink with coffee and started my next meal "cooking" (rehydrating, since I go stovefree). But as I packed things away I could not find the little stuff bag for my down booties. This upset me but not seriously since it had to be somewhere inside the tent. (I did in fact find it tonight at the bottom of my sleeping bag stuff sack. Which is actually where it should have been so I wonder why I couldn't find it? )


Then, as I started to pack up and was about to take down my tent, I could not find the sack for the tent and the smaller sack for the stakes that should be tucked in it. I found the tent sack in my pocket but the stakes sack was not in a pocket. After making absolutely sure it was not in the tent, I decided to check the log where I ate my dinner. Finding my way there by headlamp in the dark was a challenge, but I finally got there and found the stakes sack (and one unused stake that had fallen out of it.). Feeling quite pleased with my calm and rational (and successful) problem-solving, I returned to the tent. But where did the tent sack go? It wasn't in my pocket anymore. It must have been in my hand - oh no, I must have dropped it somewhere when searching for the stakes sack. I did my best to retrace my steps in the dark by headlamp (plus iPhone light) and to search for it. I could not find it. I did four rounds, each larger and more thorough than the last. I checked again inside the tent, inside and around the backpack. Gradually it grew light. Finally I said I could search two more times and then I had to give up. I took down the tent and used one of the guy lines to wrap around it and make it compact. I put the stakes sack in a pocket of my pack. I searched one last time, praying to whatever gods are in charge of lost and found objects. Finally, I gave up. When I went to lift up my pack, there it was: under the pack. (But, you object, you had already checked there. I know. I know. But there it was. )


That would have been enough drama for me for one day. I started my hike in full daylight a little after 6am. After awhile a faster hiker, a 30-something young man named Andrew came along from behind (we had met before - he had passed me the night before hiking into Pine, and I also saw him in Pine. Once before he had slowed down and visited with me for awhile). Andrew and I visited. At one point I commented on some hikers who told me they would probably skip part of this section because walking down roads through pine trees can be really boring. I said I didn't find it boring. "I find it peaceful," Andrew said. 


Photo 1 is a road I walked this morning through pine trees. 


 


Andrew and I parted when I stopped for rest and a meal at a stock pond. Like most stock ponds it had murky yellowish brown muddy water. But as I sat there (listening to a wonderful sound that seemed halfway between crickets rubbing their legs together and frogs singing -- I never did figure out who the musicians were nor what instrument they were playing. But I felt so happy sitting there. Photo 2 is the murky muddy musical pond where I so enjoyed my rest stop. 


 


But drama. I promised you drama. Well, one thing that gave the day an edge of drama was my decision to see if I could hike 22 miles today. If I did, I would have only 10 miles left and could hike into Mormon Lake (where the restaurant is open 9am to 3pm Sunday, then closed til the following weekend, during winter season). I have been getting very very hungry and very receptive to vivid fantasies of big hot meals prepared for me while I sit and do nothing. I had thought I would arrive Monday and make do with leftover trail food or food from the convenience store. The idea that I could hike more miles and actually get not just one but TWO hot meals (breakfast and late lunch) excited me no end. Now, I am definitely feeling stronger. And the trail is definitely easier - less ups and downs, less steepness. But still doing two 20+ days in a row was ... risky. Something I might or might not be able to do. 


So it's afternoon now and I'm counting the miles to my next water stop (which is just a mile short of where I will camp if I am successful) and I expect the distance to the water sto to be 4 or less, but it is 4.6. I check again in a little while, and it is now 5.0. Which is to say, I have been hiking the wrong way. I turn around and head back. I actually recognize the spot where I could not figure out where to go and where I must have turned backwards. At the time I thought I had found the turn I was searching for. My directional dyslexia again. The second time I ignored the gps and followed the cairns and eventually the gps came around. I had hiked 2 extra miles and lost almost an hour of a very long hiking day. 


Not too much later I looked up and the cloudy sky had gone from white to gray. I remembered seeing predictions of rain for today (though more recent ones said only cloudy) and the wind and the feel of the air suggested rain might be on its way. So I stopped, unpacked my rain gear, put on my rain jacket and skirt, put the backpack cover on the backpack, clipped the rain mittens to my waist pack and just as I was finishing hail began to fall. I much prefer hail - and snow - to rain because I don't get wet. 


But the hail quit almost as soon as it started. After awhile the sun came out. The gray clouds seemed to be arguing with the sun and the white clouds about what the weather would be. Photo 3 shows sunshine but also gray.  The gray in the center right was much gloomier and gray than the iPhone camera captured. 


 


Photo 4 shows the white clouds when they seem to be winning. (But I cautiously kept my rain gear on.)


 


To be continued in Day 39, part 2

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