SHT Day 5 (9/23)

I slept in a bit later than expected this morning after waking up from vivid dreams all last night. Why have my dreams been so intense? The vitamins I'm taking perhaps?

One of the dreams I had was that I was in 98 degrees, the boy band from the early/mid 2000s. Another was that I was part of some old timey sword battle and another was about my ex boyfriend. That was only a few of all of the different dreams I can remember snippets from. 

After getting up and packing up camp, I started on the 6 miles I had until the next section. The SHT is split up into something like 52 sections (I made that number up, but I think it's close) each between about 2 to 12 miles. These sections always start and end at a parking area, although sometimes you have to take a spur trail to get to the beginning of a section.

If I would have taken the spur trail to the beginning of this section, I would have seen a sign saying that it is actually closed. There is a logging operation going on to remove some of the dead and dying trees (caused by draught, some sort of evil beetle, and a caterpillar of death). Not having been to the trailhead or seen the sign, I was surprised when the trail disappeared into a sort of tree-massacre scene.

This is all well and good, I just wanted to find the trail and keep moving since I got a late start and had to hit 20 miles today. The problem was that without trees there were no blue trail markers to follow. I started walking along the perimeter of the first clearing, or stumbling is more like it since the tree casualties were stacked inches off the ground creating an obstacle course of logs and branches. I finally spotted a blue strip on a tree, but still couldn't find the trail. After walking in circles for over an hour (that last picture doesn't accurately communicate how huge this clearing was) I finally found the trail by using my iPhone and Google Maps.

After making it through, I came to another, even bigger clearing.

These clearings had wiped out about 3 miles of the trail. When I finally came across two workers, surprised that I didn't see the "section closed" sign, they told me that I shouldn't be following the blue trail markers, I should be following the pink and orange tape around some of the trees. Aha!

This tip helped me move a little faster, but this 4 mile section that should have taken 1.5 hours ended up taking me 4 hours. Also, as I had to physically move some small trees out of the way and climb over and under other trees, I was filthy. Between the sun, my sweat, the trees, and the dirt kicked up by the logging equipment, I was caked in dirt and felt like I was probably crawling in bugs. I found two spiders and a GIANT beetle on me during the next hour.

At last things calmed down and I resumed this beautiful section of the trail.

I ran into another thru-hiker at lunch time who was hiking north to south and getting close to the end of his trip. I warned him about the war zone I had passed through and he cautioned me about another closed section to the north. By the time I got to camp and went to look up the section he was referring to, I had completely forgotten the name. All of these names sound too similar to me: White Dear River, Hunter's Hill, Hawk Ridge, Wolf Rock. Don't they have Native American names to use like most other places? Puyallup, Tillicum (my personal favorite), Yucaipa, these are good names. Oh well, I guess I'll just figure it out when I get there!

I finally made it to camp at 6:30pm, only 40 minutes before sunset. I'm always cutting it close, maybe I should get up earlier?

I saw this very friendly rabbit in my camp as I was cooking my dinner of ramen and bacon. Thank god for the man who invented shelf stable bacon. 

Today is the first day I've felt really lonely out here. It would be nice to have someone around to laugh with, to eat with, and especially to check me for ticks and massive beetles. At this point, yes it's still early in the trip, but I'm not sure I would ever plan to spend more than 3 or 4 days alone in the woods again. Must... Have... Human... Contact...

I spent some time after dinner repairing some rips in my tent...

Ok, that's enough for tonight. I'm dirty, tired, and I have to hike another 20 miles tomorrow.

Goodnight!

Rob