Day 73 - Friday, July 9

Tenting under some tall pines (mile 1184.7). Walked 23.9 miles today.

It was a little stuffy in the hut last night, but it was bearable. We got up at 5 am and were on trail by 6, hiking down a descent with a ton of mosquitoes. I grabbed some water at a stream and took it a couple of tenths of a mile farther up trail to actually filter it. We had a long climb up to a ridge where we had some cell service, so we hung out here for a while.

We then went to a spring about 0.5 miles up the trail where Frank picked up some water. I knew I had 1.5 liters left for the upcoming 10-mile dry stretch, so I didn't get any more despite Frank's warnings. About a quarter mile after we left the spring, I actually checked my water and saw that I only had 1 liter left. Well I saw this as a challenge and decided I would make it to the next source on just a liter. I refused the extra water she offered. The hike went ok for the first 5 or so miles. On a ridge, we passed Lost and Found and SoHo eating lunch.

Frank, who was ahead of me, stopped to rest. I passed by, telling her I was going to the water source and I wanted to keep moving as my feet and legs were hurting and I just wanted to get there.

Just after the next climb, I finished the half liter I had in one water bottle and I grabbed the other half liter to start drinking that, only to discover that I actually DID have a whole liter in that bottle. Upon this discovery, I downed about 3/4 of it and kept moving. I entered a treed area and stopped to rest as my feet hurt too much to continue. Here, I entered a poor mental state, wondering how I would finish the trail, especially with things hurting. Frank turned up and consoled me and provided me with the confidence to keep going. It's good to have friends to pick you up like that on these long journeys. I felt better as we walked down the trail and got water at the spring. On the way down, Frank got an alert on her phone for certain areas to evacuate due to a wildfire that we could see. The fire had exploded in the past hour. See the difference in the smoke clouds. These pictures were taken 56 minutes apart.

This is (as we learned later) the Beckwourth Complex Fire, the largest fire so far this year and it doubled in size today). We looked at the map and saw that we weren't in the evacuation zone and would be ok. The rest of the day passed without incident: finding a massive pinecone, doing a short road walk, and then a brief climb to out campsite.

We set up and after a bit, Poppy showed up. We all chatted with each other from our tents as the bugs were pretty bad. Eventually, we called it a night.