Me 2007-07-13 My god, it’s full of stars!
July 13th, 2007Today’s Smell-of-the-day was bear cub. Dead bear cub as it happens, poor thing just died right there on the trail.
It sure has been a lot of uphill today. But I haven’t had an ibuprofen tablet in 36 hours and my foot still feels ok. Tomorrow has a lot of steep downhill so I’ll have to go carefully if I am to stay on the road to recovery.
All the others I’ve been hiking with for the last few days, Tiki, Troll, Oblivious and Old Corpus, took the road into Bucks Lake for food. I got to my target for the day by 4:30 and have been reading for quite a while. I took a side trail to Spanish Peak which was nice. Great views eastward and would make a nice spot to wake up and see sunrise, but I told the others I would be here. They may elect to return to the PCT further on, thus avoiding the waterless stretch and dry camp. Things we haven’t really dealt with since the desert. That seems like a lifetime ago now. To think of reaching Tuolumne Meadows at mile 702, now I’m just 3 days from half way. I’m very excited.
After finally putting my book down (Authur C. Clarke’s 2061) I lay down to sleep, when I awoke I was truly amazed. With innumerable stars above me my eyes adjusted and the milky-way come into view. I don’t know if I’ll ever see that sort of sky again but in a month’s time I’ll be looking out for the meteor shower and hoping for a clear night like tonight.
More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Donner Pass to Belden
Distance today: 22.9 miles. Total distance: 1273.4 miles