Day 74

Wilson creek campsite to creek in stubblefield cyn campsite - 17 miles

Total - 983.5 miles

After it hailed yesterday, it was colddddddd this morning. I had my rain pants on though and that kept me so warm throughout the night that I have no complaints. The best part is I finally almost slept through the night despite a nap that day. I woke up at 3am only because I had to pee. Did that and went straight back to bed for a wake up time of 5:30 and out the campsite by 6:10. I did take a shit tho before I left and this time I had an audience. A deer would not scare away as i dug my cat hole so I said fuck and let the deer munch on some grass two feet away from me while I did my business. I then hiked the 0.4 miles to Marc, who ended up going to a campsite a little farther away from us due to less mosquitos. We hiked pretty much the first half of the day together. We crossed benson pass before heading down a very steep decline, passing people as we went. Eventually we got to the bottom after a little snack break which was cut short by mosquitos. I even tried my all natural spray which worked for maybe a lil bit but then we were overwhelmed quickly. As we went, a deer took the trail which we followed for probably 0.2 miles. It would stand in the trail, look back at us and then bolt down trail and repeat. Very cool. The bottom of the decline was heavily forested creating my personal hell. Mosquitos dive bombed us right as we got into the woody creek area. Worst part is we are trying to find the way over the creek without getting our shoes wet so they had plenty of time to suck our blood through our thin sun hoodies. I was trying not to breath through my mouth as any breath I took risked the inhalation of the nasty little fuckers. Flapjack, the guy who went nub for nub with dad caught up to us and we followed him over the creek until he did a scramble over multiple tree logs I didn’t like so I went looking for my own. Found it and crossed with Marc right behind me. We then had our second pass of the day: seavy pass. I felt strong on this one but it could’ve been the caffeine I had in the morning to get me through the day. I cruised up it after sitting down to filter water and getting attacked once again by mosquitos. I came across two grouse families with little chicks. One ruffled its feathers at me as I passed. Caleb also caught up to me at this point but it was fun to see him. I did try to race him just a little bit to the top but he ended up catching me right before we peaked after he filtered water. Bastard. The lake at the top was gorgeous as they usually are but the mosquitos were so bad. I dare say they might rival the Yukon. Everytime you stopped to take a breather or even drink water, swarms of them would come to you, trying to suck the living soul out of your body. We ended up skipping lunch at the lake and pushed on for one more mile hoping the top of the pass would have some wind to shoo the devils away. It did not. We did find Marc and Caleb convinced me to set up my tent which I did in a rush. We jammed ourselves in my 1 and a half person tent and got to work killing the 20 mosquitos we let in. Caleb was screaming, I was screaming, Marc was calm. We all slapped the shit out of the fuckers until we were safe from their bloodlust. Then we ate. People passed us giggling but they were just jealous we could eat in peace. Looking around though, our tent had easily 100+ mosquitos dying to get in. This is our life now. After eating we rushed out and I grabbed my rain jacket to protect me as I packed up my tent. Caleb once again was screaming for his life as 25 mosquitos landed on his back. Marc left, then Caleb and then I followed a couple minutes behind. It was all downhill from here before our next incline. I got to the bottom of the steep part and came across a river which I knew I had to filter. Thinking since it’s an open space, rushing water, and the sun was out there would be less mosquitos. I was so so so wrong. As I’m filtering, 20 large birds surrounded me. I was helpless. I needed to filter. So I sat through hell, trying to get my filter to work faster. After, I tried to get as many off me before putting my rain jacket away. When you are walking, it isn’t so bad. Maybe one or two mosquitos will get your shoulders but nothing you can’t feel to quickly away them away. The minute you stop is when it gets so so so so bad. I hiked alone for the last 6ish miles where I was looking for wildlife and found none like usual. The last climb kinda took me out. I tweaked my knee a lil at the beginning of the day and the 5,000+ of decline really wasn’t helping it. My hip was being a bitch like usual and at one point my ankle started to hurt. My whole right leg can just be thrown away honestly. The climbing felt good on the knee as it wasn’t being pounded into the ground when I’m going downhill. It’s a hard game of do I pass people on the incline or do I slow down. I ended up passing a woman and I had to put it into second gear so I didn’t feel like she was going to pass me again. That was probably the longest 800+ feet of elevation gain I’ve experienced in awhile. It just felt like it was going on forever. Then the downhill was even worse as it was so steep. Every step hurt as my knees got slammed into the ground. Brutal. Finally I reached the bottom and found Marc and Caleb in their rain gear with head nets telling me how bad the mosquitos are down here. We knew it was going to be bad but it’s worse experiencing it. I quickly set up my tent and got my rain gear on. I filtered all my water that I would need so I wouldn’t have to leave the safety of my tent later in the day. We sat and chatted outside with every inch of our skin covered and watched as the lil pests try to insert their stupid little straw to suck the blood up and failing miserably as they couldn’t penetrate the rain resistant material. As we sat on our bear cans, each person had easily 30+ mosquitos swarming them, landing, and then taking off again. A sight to be seen honestly. Soon we were tired of it, but now we had to figure out how to get into our tents without letting in a fleet of mosquitos in. My trick: I ran around my tent a couple of times, swatting at myself to get all the pests off me. One round, I opened my vestibule. Second round, I ran past. Third round, I dived into the vestibule shutting it before opening my tent door and slipping in, leaving the feet out to take off my shoes. It worked pretty well. I had a maybe 8 mosquitos in my tent but I think it was from when I was cleaning my tent from all the dirt we left in it during lunch. I killed them all before mucking some food in my tent. After eating, I took my socks off and almost threw up and passed out. My feet smell so fucking rank. If death had a smell it would be my feet. I made myself sick. I cleaned them off with a wet wipe which had a fresh smell to it according to wipes description and it did not work on my feet. It did help but the smell of death still lingered. I also have a crack in one of my big toe nails, two pinky toes that have turned yellow and should be off my feet by now, and a ring toe that’s hanging on by a thread. The bottom of feet look like they would send a tripophobia person into a panic. And to reiterate the smell, it would kill a small Victorian child. BUT a very wierd man online would pay big money for these babies and that is the only positive thing. After dealing with that mess, I set up and organized and then listened to my audio book. I had been chugging water as I can feel myself become more and more dehydrated during this stretch. After about two hours, I had to pee. That meant leaving my tent into the depths of hell. I sprayed my feet with the natural bug spray, said a lil prayer, and exited the safety of my tent to go piss. After, I ran around my tent, swatted the bugs away, and entered the vestibule shutting it, and entering the safe haven. No fucking bugs in the tent. I’m a god. Never been prouder. Now Caleb keeps shittting and tooting in my tent. What a fucking gentleman. I think he swallowed a mosquito though. Serves him right. He did allow me to hit the joint though and passed it to me inside my tent. He earned points back. Also I never thought I would say this but I think I’m getting sick of gummy clussys. The berry ones are so good but I’ve easily eaten 10 pounds of it throughout this trip so far. We are now waiting for klara to get to camp and the guys got bored so they made me read out today’s blog. I was dying laughing at my own words talking about my feet. God I’m hilarious. They loved it as well, saying even with all the detail I’m putting in, it’s not boring becuase I will never regret it when I read this back. If I ever want to write a book. I’m doing the work now. I don’t want to write a book though sooooooo. Klara came into camp late and we quickly got her comfy. Caleb set up her tent, I boiled water while Marc grabbed water to filter for her. She’s a beast. Coming off 11 days no hiking and then following us after we did easily the hardest section of the sierras. She had altitude sickness, lack of sleep, wet shoes, blisters, hips hurt, knees hurt, and the altitude is messing with her stomach and she’s still doing it. Easily one of the mentally toughest people I know on trail. I would’ve easily quit but she keeps persevering. I know she doesn’t agree with me but I really do think she’s one of the toughest people out here.

We also have deer walking around us. I would shine my light into the forest and be met with reflective eyes. So creepy. The deer are not shy out here and will come close to your tent and you. Then run off but always come back.

Forgot to mention but saw our first bear sign today! Also the natural landscape here is pure rock. Rock on rock on rock. Very cool!

Oh also, I thought I lost my earring at one point. Looked all over trail for it pissed off. Found it in my shirt once I got to camp and laid down. Booya! Super excited about that.