27.9 miles - Total to date - 509.8 miles
Ascent - 5704’ , Descent - 5412’ - Mosquito Lake Outlet (1563.6)To Payne Lake (1591.5)
I woke up to smoky skies - again. I was so disappointed after the teaser day yesterday. It was so beautiful. The sun wasn't up yet, but looking straight up I could see no stars. Another day of walking the grey tunnel.
I had looked at the map while laying in my tent last night and saw Payne Lake was right on the trail, 28 miles away. A long day, but the thought of swimming and washing the trail dirt off before going to bed was very inviting. I set it as my goal.
The country I am hiking through is spectacular. Too bad we have been traveling south and west these past two days, but today we turn the corner and start heading north again. It is weird that the trail goes so far west when you consider a straight line between Mt. Shasta and Crater Lake would seem truer to the crest. But, when you experience the grandeur of the mountains I am hiking through you begin to understand why the trail is over here.
I put a Dan Brown audiobook novel on, “Lost Symbol” and listened to it all day. It is an okay book, not great and follows the Dan Brown motifs to a T. They read like a Hardy Boys novel. Cliff hangers at the chapter ends and exclamatory statements to convince us the plot points are really important. Still, when you are walking 12 to 14 hours a day with the scenery obscured by smoke it is a good distraction.
This was an unusual day. I did not see anyone while hiking today. I suspect there were people behind and in front, but we must have been traveling in sync because I saw no one. Except cows. Well, I more heard them than saw them. They must allow open grazing in these high meadows because I could hear cow bells tinkling far below me. Occasionally I would see a couple through the trees, grazing on the meadow grasses. The sound and affect was that of the Swiss Alps. They call this area the Trinity Alps. I guess it fits.
Most of the day was hiking through burned forests. Pillars of scorched tree trunks and little vegetation below. As I understand it, this area burned last year. The smoke, combined with the seared forests made for a less than scenic day. Repeat after me, "There is no man-made global warming. There is no man-made global warming". Bullshit.
I did not have cell service all day, until the last two miles. At mile 26 for the day (trail mile 1589.4) I came to small pass. I checked for signal. Surprise! One bar came flying in. I had been checking all day with no luck, but now two hours before dark I had signal. I called Sally. She was at Jeff and Jackie's, returning Robby after taking him to the family reunion at Rolf's place out at Lake Rossinger. It was nice to get a chance to chat with her, Robby and J & J. With light threatening to fail and two miles to go, I hung up and continued on. Three quarters of a mile further on I came to a similar pass and noticed I had reception again. I called the Caldwells, but the signal was not strong enough to sustain the call. I rounded the next small ridge and saw a better signal. I called the Caldwells again. This time the signal was good. In fact, good enough to let me talk while I finished the last half mile to the basin that held Payne Lake. As I climbed over the small embankment that held this lake I said goodbye, fearing a loss of signal as I descended the thirty or so vertical feet into the lake basin. With my phone still in hand, I started to thread my way through the brush to get to the lake shore. My right foot encountered a bushy dead tree branch. Stepping on it caused it to swing around and entangle my left foot. With both feet trapped by the same branch I pitched forward and came crashing to the ground face first. I put my hand out to catch myself. Unfortunately, my phone was in it and a rock was waiting at ground level. At the time, I did not notice because I was preoccupied with my head hurtling toward the ground. My head embedded itself in thick, soft pine needle duff, missing rocks by inches. I laughed at how ridiculous my fall was and how completely my feet were entangled. I had to reach down and remove the complex of branches from my feet. If someone had thrown a lasso around my feet the effect would have been the same. As I stood up I came to realize how close my head had been to hitting the rocks. It would have knocked me out at a minimum, possibly killed me as I hit very hard into my soft cushion of pine needles. I looked at my phone to be sure I had hung up with the Caldwells. I couldn't tell. The rock the phone had hit completely shattered the screen. It had been broken before with cracks running through it and dark lines in the display blocking important information, but usable. Not now. A few multicolored lines graced the screen under the bullet looking impact crater. “Better my phone than my head”, I thought.
I had brought a second phone for just this reason. Later, after I had taken a cleansing swim in the lake in the gathering darkness and while my dinner cooked, I removed the SIMM card from my shattered iPhone 6 and put it into Andy’s iPhone 5. I had preloaded his phone with the necessary apps for navigation, but not with audiobooks, music, blog posting ability and my recent photos. I was only six days from finishing, so I was not worried. But, I made a vow to myself not to walk the trail and operate the one remaining iPhone at the same time. If this one broke, I was at the mercy of my fellow hikers for route and town details.
I had my favorite dinner, curry rice and chicken with cranberries, pineapple and walnuts. I had made the portions slightly bigger when packing the food a month ago. Cooked, it occupied an entire quart. I ate it all, no problem.
A light breeze blew across the lake, ruffling the tent fabric as I finished dinner and curled up under my down quilt for the night. A long and satisfying day, especially crawling into bed with a clean body! Too bad about the phone.
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