16.8 miles - Total to date - 432.7 miles
Ascent - 5565’ , Descent - 1723’ - Dunsmuir (1501.2) To Campsite on the ridge (1516.9)
I feel like I am in Washington. The sky is slate grey. It looks misty. The trees on the adjoining ridges are shrouded in a grey mist. But, I suspect mist is not the right word. Smoke. That’s the correct word. It blocks out the sun. It completely blocks all views. We are walking in a tunnel of grey.
Leaving town is always hard. You cannot get an early start. You have to hitch a ride to the trail. The owner of the motel has been taking kids to the trailhead. This prompted me to ask him If he could take Derek and I in the morning. He said sure, but not before 8:30 am. Ouch. I was hoping to get an earlier start, but on town days you take what you can get. We could walk out to the road and try hitching to get an earlier start, but I wasn't sure what Derek had in mind. I stopped at Derek’s room to ask if he wanted to leave early or late. He said 8:30 am would be his choice-a little more sleeping in.
I got up at 7:00 am this morning and took a long shower. Had some rolls and cheese for breakfast, made a cup of tea and sat in the chair outside my room waiting for 8:30 am to roll along.
At 8:00 am I texted Derek, “wanna go hikin’”. He sent back, “Might be staying the nught again . . . Feeling pretty till”. Uh oh. Derek soon came out of his room to find me drinking tea. He said he still felt terrible and was trying to decide whether to hike or not. He went back in for a shower.
At 8:30 am the owner was not to be seen. I rang his intercom. This woke him up. He said he would be out in just a few minutes. Derek had still not made up his mind although his pack was packed. The owner came out, started his car and pulled up for us to load. I checked with Derek. Yes, he was coming. We piled in with our packs on our laps and were off. The owner was still half asleep. He dropped us at the trail head, just 8 miles down I-5. Derek was working on his phone and had me go first. We had just finished a zero day. I felt great. Headed up the trail. I looked behind after a few minutes and did not see Derek. I figured he was distracted by his phone and going slow. After about half an hour I stopped by a creek to get a drink and wait for Derek. I waited half an hour. Still no Derek. He had said he wasn't feeling good and was hesitant to get back on the trail. Maybe he turned around. I was beginning to compose a text message to him when I got one from him. He said he went down the wrong trail for a mile and a half and was now on the right trail and coming my way. I hiked to the next water, maybe a total of 3-4 miles from the road. There I met Rattles, a man in his 60’s hiking the PCT. I had seen him before, but we never introduced ourselves. We talked for a bit, then Derek arrived.
He mentioned he did not feel well, but wanted to keep going. We hiked together for another mile or two, although in truth he was way ahead of me and out of site. I finally caught him at a rest break. He had his shoes off and was leaning against his pack in the shade under the trees. I stopped with him for a breather, then I was off. Derek said he was going to wait and rest a bit more.
From this point the trail really started climbing, switch backing up the mountain on a hot south facing slope. I was sweating profusely. I passed Road Runner cooling her jets on a shady, windy rock promontory.
When I got to the Gully Spring at the top I filled my bottles and sat down to wait for Derek. After fifteen minutes he had not shown. I had made up my mind I would take water down to him if he didn't arrive in five more minutes. I turned on my phone to check for signal and saw a message from Derek. He said he had to stop every 10 minutes for a five minute break. He was dizzy and vomiting. Five minutes later he walked into view. He looked ghastly. Drawn out and weak.
We filled 4 liters each with water then hiked to the nearest camp site, 0.7 miles away. We each pitched our tents and settled in for the night. I asked him if he wanted to go back down tomorrow. He said 10 miles ahead we crossed a road. That was shorter than the 15 back to Dunsmuir. I fell asleep about 8:00 pm. It was woken by two late comers. They quietly set up their tents and I was soon back asleep.
PS. I smashed my iPhone a couple days ago, breaking the display, so any photos for this day are on that broken phone and not available. Luckily, I had a spare phone from Andy. (Now at home, I have retrieved those few photos.)
No comments:
Post a Comment