Hike Naked Day

The summer solstice, June 21, is also known as Hike Naked day. My berries are red. No, I did not hike naked as that is quite a bit more sun exposure than I want. We started off the day with a big climb to the days high point of 8080 feet.

Climbing from Camp

We hit some snow for a short while near the top but other than that it was a snow free day. Once we descended below 8ooo feet, it was an altitude we will not see again. For some reason, I felt like I was dragging today and struggling more than usual on the uphills. We switched it up and put Carol in front. We met a couple of southbound hikers who had jumped from the Sierras to lower terrain to the North of us and were hiking south until they got to their jump off point than get a car and go back to where they started south and continue North. Many hikers are skipping the Sierras this year due to the high snow and rushing rivers. They will come back later in the season to do them. The hikers we met were form the Bay area and their trail names were So Far and So Good.

As we continue, we decided to skip the first water source and press on to the next one at Pass Creek.

We Can Wait

This saves time as filtering water is not a fast process, especially when doing it for two people. The temperature started to rise and I ran out of water about .9 miles from Pass Creek. Not a problem as I just sipped Carols when needed and before long we made it to the creek. We sat in the shade by the creek for two hours and cameled up. Cameling up is what we hikers call drinking as much as you can when you get to water. Carry it in you not on you. This creek was right below a bridge and a road that went to an apparently good fishing lake based on the number of vehicles heading in and out. While eating, a deer came by and kept us company for a while. Our planned camp was just a short distance away and we decided that it was early enough to press on and do some more miles. It was very hot but we took our time especially on the uphill’s. We found a spot that looked appealing in the woods. Across the trail from camp was a nice rocky ridge where we sat and made dinner, looking at the forested slopes below us and across a valley. It was quite nice.

Carol told me that she was awesome today and I really can’t dispute that. I think she is awesome everyday but we don’t want that to go to her head. She definitely pushed me today and surprisingly when I checked the stats we hiked at a pace of 2.5 MPH. She was probably going faster as she was in front and it seemed like she was always waiting for me. The rest of the stats are 12.5 Miles hiked with our high point being 8080 feet. We did those 12.5 miles in just under 5 hours of walking. The rest of the day were breaks both long and short. That pretty much sums up most of our days. We are in the tent watching the thousands of mosquito’s and flying velociraptor insects trying to find ways to bite us. I took a video of the whirring sound, it is really quite loud as we lay here. We are camped at 6455 feet and I am whupped so good night.