Days 89
Start: West Branch Nelson Creek
Finish: Middle Fork Feather River
Daily Mileage: 25.7
PCT Mile: 1250.8
Cookie Monster and I said our goodbyes and parted ways this morning after more than 1000 miles hiking together, and I hit the trail because I had miles to cover.
Got the biggest climbs of the day done early when it was cooler out which is always nice, then just running a rolling ridge for a while. I caught myself again not thinking about water. With the trail on the ridge there was no on-trail water for a while, so I had to take a side trail down to a spring to fill up for the next 10 miles. At least there was that option, and I have to be thinking about it more now that the trail is running ridges more.
The main event for the day was a recent burn area. I had heard about this particular area 200 miles ago, so it was presumably notable. The early travel was straight down a fireline, and it was interesting to see how it successfully stopped the fire with burned trees on one side and green forest on the other. Also, there were millions of tree seedlings already growing which was great to see in comparison to the southern desert where it looked like fire changed the land more permanently.
The trail wove around recreational roads all day, and at one point I crossed the road where some off-roaders were taking a break. We started talking and I soon had a beer in one hand and a sandwich in the other. Perfect for a hot day of hiking.
Hiking onward, the trail began to degrade. There were more blowdowns, though not too horrible. However, the bushes that were growing back were starting to choke off the trail. There were a lot of complaints about the section of trail ahead, but I wanted to see it for myself. But it was hard to keep track of the trail and I ended up getting off trail and nearly to a road before I realized it. This road was a 4×4 track and paralleled the trial for several miles, and was an alternate that hikers were taking to get around the fallen trees and overgrowth on the trail. Since I was already there, I decided to take the road for a while to get around the reported worst of the burn area.
The road was partially cleared, but there were still many blowdowns to get over. When the road and trail next met at a gap, I decided to get back on the trail because it didn’t look too bad. It was perfectly fine at first with a few blowdowns and no real overgrowth, but changing sides of the mountain got the bushes going strong and I soon couldn’t see the trail at all; I was just pushing through waist deep bushes. I could tell where it went, so I was able to follow it, but it got more faint as I went. I saw the road below me again, and decided to just bail to it again since there was little point in following the trail. Easier said than done, but after some light scrambling I made it down to the road and was good to go for another mile.
It was getting pretty hot, especially since I was descending this whole time. There was also no tree cover because of the burn. My pack has black water bottle holders, and I found that in the direct sun, the water was being heated. Nothing like drinking hot water on a hot day. I definitely drank less than I should have because of this, and was a little dehydrated by the end of the day.
I was dreading what the trail would look like when I had to get off the road, but it was actually decent. Maybe because all hikers had to take this route now. I was headed down to the Middle Fork Feather River, and with the hot day all I could think of was jumping in the river. It could not come soon enough. I looked at my GPS several times willing it to get closer, and progress seemed slower than normal.
