Monday 24 July 2017

Day 56 July 20, 2017

Daily mileage 27
Total mileage 963
Hiked from 5:30 am to 6:15 pm



Those miles did not come easily.

I had one of the better sleeps that I have had in Big Agnus (my tent) on trail. So I should have had a great day of hiking right? Well I had a day of hiking but it was a couple of area codes over from great.  Right from the start, my legs just felt heavy. I had a simple 1000 footer at the start of my day and I just dragged my butt up it. I mean yesterday I was skipping my way up a 4500 footer no problem. What a difference. Today it just felt like I had a piano tied to my ass.

But by 10 am I had 10 miles in which is sort of my goal every day that starts on the trail. Then I started up the second hill of the day which was a 1600 footer. Anyway, without boring you with the details, it sucked too.

Nice scenery along the way

I did enjoy some great views of Mt Lassen at various points of the day. It is pretty cool watching a big feature in the landscape get bigger each time you glimpse it throughout the day. Gives a guy a bit of a sense of accomplishment.


Mt Lassen getting bigger

The other biggie was passing the half way mark. OK, half way in a normal year. This year there will only be a handful of young hearty types who will look at that monument and really say they are half way to Canada. The rest of us have to do our individual calculations.

Still the occasional snow patch

Half way point in a normal year

I really did not have a mileage goal other than I wanted to make the hike into Drakesbad Resort as short as possible. The topo map showed flat areas before the highway into Chester so I figured I could make something work there. Turns out it is private land, not.to mention an active logging site. So I wandered across the highway and there was a cooler full of trail magic awaiting me. Now that is just what I needed today. Soda pops, beers, bagged full of berries and a big bag of watermelon. And, there were flat areas ready for my tent.

Trail magic!

One thing that really cheered me up today was the ability to call or text all of my family. Such a wonderful pick me up.

Home for the night

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