Day 86, July 12: Mile 1229 to 1250
Start: Mile 1228.5
End: Middle Fork Feather River - Mile 1249.7
Miles: 21.2
Ascent: 2579 | Descent: 5874
Today was a very mentally challenging and painful day. The short of it is that my blisters got worse and spread to other parts of my feet, and the heat combined with so many miles of burnt, blackened, dead trees (and this is just the beginning) made for a very long and difficult day.
I packed up camp and left around 6:15am, starting up a modest climb. I will say the views in the morning were pretty, with hazy mountains receding into the horizon. Already the day was hot at 7am, but breezy for now.
I stopped at a few different springs and creeks for water, and they were all 0.2 or so steep downhill miles off the trail, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but feels annoying when 1) your blisters are already killing you, 2) you’ve been used to stepping directly across endless streams all through the Sierra until now, and 3) you have to make the return trip back up the mountain carrying the water. Still, I reminded myself to be grateful that I didn’t have any water carries longer than 7-8ish miles- unlike the desert, where I sometimes had to do 20+ mile water carries. I heard someone say Oregon has long carries again, which I’m not looking forward to.
I took so many breaks today, on account of my blisters pretty much immediately giving me pain in the morning and never going away. That, and the heat. I tried my best to enjoy the beauty of the wildflowers and to get absorbed into my audiobook. I encountered some fauna that made me smile, including an intrepid deer that came very close to me, a bee that drank from the capful of water that I set out for it, and lots of chipmunks and squirrels.
Halfway through my day, the burn section started. There are many miles of burnt forest ahead, having burned last year in the large and destructive Dixie Fire, and today made me dread the upcoming miles a bit. It is disheartening, icky, and can be dangerous to hike through these areas as the ash can irritate your lungs, and the trees can fall if there is a lot of wind. I will be happy to be out of it when I am.
The last 5 miles of the day were particularly grueling. I think I had underfed myself again, so not only was I struggling to keep moving from the blisters, but I was starting to get weepy on the descent towards camp. I recognized that I probably needed to eat something and I scarfed down a Luna bar. It definitely helped a bit and I felt the whiny, hungry child inside my brain calm down a bit.
Finally, I made it to camp. I was originally planning to go farther but then I decided to call it as it was getting late. I camped below a pretty bridge and next to the Middle Fork Feather River, which eventually feeds into the Sacramento River. Pretty cool!
I set up my tent in the first decent spot I found and was close to Trousers, a German hiker who I’ve been nearby for the last few days. After I pitched my tent, I ambled down to the water to wash off my legs. I ended up taking a full body bath on the bank of the river, which wasn’t too cold, and I felt like a completely new woman after. It definitely lifted my spirits considerably after the hard day. After, I made my way back to my tent, ate cold couscous inside again, and fell asleep to the sound of the rushing river.