Day 95 - Saturday, July 31

Tenting at a large but rocky campsite (mile 1679.2).  Walked 22.8 miles today.

The alarm went off at 4:30 and we were on the trail (which is still the road) at 5:45 with lightening flashing to the south.  After a quarter mile, the trail left the road and we began the final major climb of California: 4400 feet over 7ish miles. As we climbed, light rain started to fall.  We took it easy at first, navigating the poison oak and a couple of downed trees.  When we got to the first spring, Frank confessed to me that she was thinking of quitting the trail - exactly what I had been thinking yesterday.  This section is obviously taking a toll on our mental health.  By our next break though, Frank was ok and wasn't thinking of quitting anymore.  

As we climbed, Frank expressed a desire for an escalator or a gondola.  I told her I'd break off a large piece of tree bark for her to sit on and I'd drag her up the mountain while singing an Italian song just like a gondola driver.  She let me go on like this for about 5 minutes, even letting me make up an Italian gondola song before she told me she meant she wanted the ski lift thing - that type of gondola.  Oh well, we now have a humorous inside joke.

We kept climbing and sweating profusely, eventually reaching a section that was completely overgrown.  We pushed our way through the bushes and eventually made it to another spring where we rested.

We made the final push to the top and, sweating profusely, rested again.  We then had a short up and down section along a ridge before dropping down to a road.  Here, we ate lunch with Dirty Knuckles Bonobo, and a couple of others before pushing up a big climb through more burned area.

We got water at another spring and here, Hocus Pocus caught up with us.  She and Lenore had yellow blazed (rode in the back of a pickup truck) on the road up the climb from Seiad.  We all pushed a further three miles to camp and ate dinner.

Another hiker, Matador showed up and camped with us.  Frank had set up her new hammock and was excited to finally use it when a storm rolled in and light rain began falling.  She was under cover so wasn't getting too wet.  The lightning and thunder was going off (about 3 miles away by my count) and we were hunkered down in our tents.  All of a sudden, my tent was illuminated with a brilliant flash of light and an accompanying, almost instantaneous boom of thunder.  There had been a lightning strike about 100 feet or so from where we were all camped.  Everyone was ok but we were all rattled.  Frank decided that being tied to two trees wasn't the best idea at the moment and decided to move into my tent with me.  Now that I watched the video on how to set up my tent, there's more room inside and we both fit more comfortably inside it.  We fell asleep as the storms receded.