Day 79 - Smoke, Mosquitoes and a Blister. 1172.2 (21.2)

Kevin Silvernale January 8, 2017

I would spend a lot of time this morning at Donner Pass Ski Lodge with Mr. Clean, Back-Track and Ranger. The Lodge wasn't open, but they did have outlets on the outside of the building which is always handy. With hopes of eating real eggs for breakfast, the three of us hung out to see if the place would open at a reasonable hour. Eventually someone from around the area told us that it didn't open up till 11:00 am.

I waited around for another half an hour while my phone and battery pack charged, then called my brother to wish him a happy birthday again! On Day 77, I was unsure about the cell service ahead, so I called my Brother to wish him a happy birthday, however, his birthday was really on Day 79... today. It so happened I had non-stop cell service for the previous few days. It's been great knowing it's there... but it's also a real distraction. I'd look at my phone, see that I currently have solid cell service, get excited because I could do things on my phone, realize I didn't have anything I needed or wanted to do on my phone, then turn it back off. It was an endless cycle, but that's what happens when you go 2 or more weeks without having any service. Eventually I would stop doing this and only look for service when I needed to call home.

After leaving Donner Pass, I really needed to find a place to do some business. The challenge was that the PCT paralleled a busy highway without too much cover. Also there were a couple large groups of children learning how to rock climb. With so many people around, I had to really search a ways off-trail to find an appropriate spot. Even then I was always on the look out for the stray hiker who could come around a corner I hadn't noticed. Fun times.

The rest of the day I was mostly in dense forest with little to no view, lots of mosquitoes and the smoke from nearby wildfires started to fill up the valleys. At some points the smoke was dense enough that I could taste it in my mouth as I breathed. Once on top of a high ridge above the smoke, I could see that there was a fire burning to the south. The wind was pushing the smoke toward my location, but it was far enough away that I wasn't concerned about it reaching me tonight or tomorrow and tomorrow I would be trying to hike to Sierra City, a little over 25 miles away.

As evening rolled around, I was in some serious pain from a "hot spot" on the heel of my right foot. Because of it, I moved as quickly as possible for the last 2 miles so I could get off my feet and have a look at the damage. A note: while in South Lake Tahoe, I walked many miles around town in my camp shoes... or rather pieces of lightweight durable rubber with straps on the top. This was a big mistake! In town, I earned a medium size blister that I took care of and it had been feeling okay. Today it all came back to bite me.

Tonight's camp was with an older backpacker, Paragee, and we did the mosquito dance was we setup our tents and gathered water from a nearby stream.

WARNING: The last image is of a massive blister on my foot. It may be disturbing to you. I think it's pretty impressive.

Day 77 - Tahoe Rim Trail. 1129.7 (18.9)

Kevin Silvernale January 6, 2017

The Tahoe Rim Trail is a 160 mile loop trail around Lake Tahoe. A little later in the season, this trail becomes a hot spot for local and traveling hikers alike. The PCT shares this trail around the west side of the lake before splitting off to the northwest.

A day of highlight views, good company and just a little bit of snow. Having camped by myself last night, I didn't know if the group was in front of me or behind me. The uncertainty forced me to come up with my own plan for the day.

By mid day I had seen everyone from the group and it sounded like we all had similar plans as to where we wanted to make it by the end of the day. Also, as we were sitting on a bench at a trail head parking lot, a thru-hiker (who's name I don't recall) sat resting when it came out that he was attempting to hike 40 miles this day. Jaws in our laps, everyone around couldn't fathom hiking 40 miles in one day. I had enough trouble hiking 25 without my body wanted to fall apart.

I took more breaks today than any day prior. There were so many views I wanted to stop and sit at, it was my dad's birthday and I had cell service! A great combination for not making miles.

In the evening, I did a bit of a body check and I noticed I was losing sensation in my middle two twos on both of my feet. I figured it is from hiking more miles recently. I saw not to much cause for concern.

Also, being it's my dad's birthday, I sent home a coffee mug from Kennedy Meadows back on Day 42 - Mile 702.2. It was fun hearing about him opening it up.

Day 72 - In The Rhythm. 1056.7 (18.4)

Kevin Silvernale January 2, 2017

For some reason, I had not been sleeping very well the past two weeks. I figured it was from the difficult terrain along with hiking and sleeping at higher elevations. What ever it was, I slept wonderfully this past night.

Waking up in a good mood, I packed up quickly and hit the trail. Hiking ahead of the group for most of the day, I mainly saw Skinny Thor whenever I or he took a break.

Being in a good rhythm helps pass some of the less interesting miles. Not that today was lacking in interesting miles. It is easy to forget to look up and appreciate where I am and what I'm doing. Today I made sure I didn't take any of it for granted.

Toward the end of the day, I found a really nice campsite that had a great view of the sunset and had water nearby without any mosquitoes. The rest of the group decided to hike 1.5 miles ahead because it was relatively early in the evening still. I would later find out they had major mosquito issues. It is getting to the time of year where those little buggers will be more and more of a mental challenge to deal with.

Having the campsite to myself, I watched the sunset, read a little then fell asleep early. I had a fun idea of waking up early and going for 25 miles tomorrow. That will be the longest day so far. We'll see.