Friday, July 20, 2018 - Better

19.53 mi - 2476 ft gain - 2948 descent - Dicks Lake (1107.62) to North Fork Blackwood Creek (1127.15)

Sometime during the night I awoke to the strong smell of smoke. At first I imagined one of the youth groups camping at the lake had lit a fire. But quickly I realized it was the smoke from the Yosemite fire blowing into our area. 

I was up and packed and on the road by 5:36 am. The trail descended past Fontenneli Lake and Middle Velma Lake. I was concerned that I had enough water for the day. Most of the water sources on the map were seasonal, meaning they dry up during the summer. I filled my two liter bladder and an additional 2 liter container, bringing the weight of water in my pack to 9 pounds. I felt it. As the day wore on I passed seasonal stream after seasonal stream, all with running water. Yesterday, I had drunk 5 liters while hiking, so I figured I was lessening the weight of my pack as I walked and drank so I did not dump out 2 liters. I am now out of the spectacular portion of Desolation Wilderness, so the crowds have lessened. I met Pivee (pie-vee) from Finland today and we hiked together for a couple hours. She is in the US for the summer, doing the PCT and other trails. All told I met about 5 or 6 thru hikers. They are all in better shape than I, so they pass by and keep going. Of course they have 1120 miles under their belt. I have 35. I will be glad to get these first two weeks behind me, from a fatigue point of view. 

I did much better today. I had exactly 10 miles at exactly 10:00am. That felt good. Most of the trail was in the woods, but it was beautiful.

I don’t eat any meals during the day, I just stop every hour or so and eat something-fruit snacks, nut bar, crackers with peanut butter, snickers bar, goo, crushed potato chips. A “caloric drip”. The only meal I cook is dinner, a one pot meal that needs only boiling water. Breakfast is granola.

I got phone service a couple times today and sent texts to people, getting a few returns before I lost signal. 

Although I shoot for 20 miles a day, today I settled for 19.53. Good water. Good camp spot. Plus, I don’t want to extend too early and injure myself. I listened to the audiobook of The Fellowship of the Ring most of the day. A funny thing happened. The mosquitoes were quite bad for a stretch this morning, so I got out my deet and sprayed myself. I did not take out my earbuds. A couple hours later I stopped by a stream to soak my feet and dunk my head. When I tried to remove the left earbud it would not come out. The deet had melted the plastic and glued the earbud into my ear. With a little wiggling I got it free. Not a bad way to go if you have trouble with your earbuds falling out, although it does ruin their nice smooth surface. I ended my hiking day about 4:15 pm at Blackwood Creek. It was nice to have the rest of the afternoon and evening to relax. I was not as fatigued as yesterday and the extra hours of lounging should pay dividends tomorrow.