Aug 3rd
Bartle Gap(1450.7)-Fitzhugh Gulch(1478.1)
Today’s Mileage: 27.4mi
Another good day! Two in a row! Yay! Liz and I were feeling good about our energy and mileage yesterday, so we decided to give it another shot today. The trail started off nice and wooded and then we hit SNOW! Oh crap! We went through it for about 30mins off and on and were glad it was short. We both had some strong PTSD for a bit there! Here is Liz sadly standing in front of a mound we had to go over.
After that minor time eater, the distractions began…The views of Shasta and the valley back towards Lassen were awesome and we kept stopping to take pictures.
We spent a good chunk of the day on a ridge with those great views and lots of wildflowers and butterflies.
After the picture taking, we kept coming across other hikers and stopping to have conversations. First, we caught up to two hats who was just ahead of us leaving Drakesbad. We are actually all camped at the same site tonight. The other hikers were going southbound. They were all section hikers or truly trying to go southbound and skip around. There was MK & JD, Has No Horse, and Laura & AB. The last two groups recognized me from the journal, which was fun. When we ran into each of them, we stopped and had nice conversations. Liz and I had not seen any other thru hikers the last two days and we enjoyed talking to them. Even with all the stopping, we still had a nice extended break for lunch too. Liz likes longer lunch breaks and they are starting to grow on me too. It used to hurt to stop and go I the middle of the day, but lately, my body really wants a good break by the time lunchtime arrives.
Despite all the distractions, we still got our mileage in and made it to camp by 7pm. The second half of the day, we dropped over 3000ft and my ankle was pretty sore, but it’s tolerable. I was totally happy to be in the winding shaded forest!
Tomorrow, we have decided to do 28mi and get into Mt Shasta for the night. The motivation will be a hotel room, showers, and dinner in town. The last time I was in a hotel room and slept in a bed was almost a month ago in Yosemite. I think that is plenty of motivation for me!
