Day 111

Siphon lake junction to etna - 14.5 miles

Total - 1601.2 miles

The rain was on and off throughout the night until around midnight when I woke up to go to the bathroom. The stars were absolutely amazing. I need to start going to the bathroom at night just to see them. I won’t be staying up lol. Too tired. The cows were swinging their bells all night so it sounded like wind chimes but luckily they never made it to my tent. I remember when I went to the bathroom and multiple times throughout the night, as I normally wake up, I smelled smoke. I remember thinking to myself if I saw flames while I went to the bathroom I would remember so it shouldn’t be that bad. We got started at the usual time to do a couple big climbs before descending onto a road to get into etna. As I’m climbing I see this column of smoke growing in the distance just across the valley. The trail follows on the other hillside and when I peak I see flames where the smoke is growing from. Apparently, we learned from two girls named second hand and mellow, that they were part of the group that saw the lightning flash and the start of the new fire called big cliff fire. It looked pretty small but at any moment it could become bigger. It was close to trail too as we were able to see flames. It was across the valley on the other hillside with burn zones surrounding it so I didn’t think too much of it. As we were getting to the road, a helicopter with water flew by so clearly they were on it. The hitch was easy and the second car that drove by stopped even with very little traffic. We had been warned based kn FarOut comments to not get into a car with Molly who drives a light blue Subaru as her driving is apparently very unsafe for a very windy road with no guard rails. Luckily it wasn’t her but her record to get into town was about 11 minutes. I think it took us maybe 25-30. Insane. He dropped us off and we immediately went to get food as, again, FarOut told us the Focaccia breakfast sandwich was to die for. And it was. Caleb and I got the last two I felt so bad for rocklicker lol. My stomach hasn’t been liking food all that much lately so I could only finish half which was disappointing. We then made our way to the brewery around 12. The guys ordered pitcher after pitcher as it was half off for thirsty Thursdays. Then for happy hour we got chips, queso, and pico. I think the guys got 11 pitchers? Beer hasn’t been hitting for me. I drink two and get a headache immediately so I was dealing with that, started my period, and my stomach was hurting. We played card games for about 4 hours. I am horrible at the one game which I can’t remember but it’s a mix of betting and trying to win tricks. Can never gues how many I am going to win. I was better than last time though. More and more hikers showed up and we some juicy gossip but I can’t tell it here as again hikers now read the blog. Although the link isn’t working for a lot of people so maybe I should just ball out. I am trying to be respectful though so I really shouldn’t lol. Some spats were had like usual. I definitely overreacted at one point but to give myself some grace - headache, stomach ache, hangry (but couldn’t eat bc of the stomach ache), drunk, and started my period - all while getting chirped put me in an awful mood which I think is valid. It’s hard out here though socially wise bc it feels like you can never have a bad day without ruining someone else’s. It’s a balance and I haven’t figured it out yet but I will say it’s draining. Again, the only part I’ve struggled with is the social aspect on trail. It’s starting to really weigh on me again. I just want to think about anything else but it is all consuming while I am hiking and I’m just tired of it despite my efforts to let it roll off me. I feel like I’m trying to take criticism or just advice maybe is a better word for it and implement it but of course I am not going to be perfect all the time. It takes time to create a habit. I am doing my best.

Anyways, we then headed to the park to camp and there were a million tents. I think we are in the bubble.

We also learned that after we got into town the pcta closed the 20 miles section we had just hiked that morning due to the fire.