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 78 - A Continuation. 1151.0 (21.3)

Kevin Silvernale January 7, 2017

Today would be a continuation of yesterdays ridge walk. I did my best to not stop too many times, though I made sure I had a good view for lunch! Also, I've heard from hikers going southbound that the last snow is at mile 1,225. Though I've developed a rhythm to get through the snowy areas, it's going to be sweet relief when my feet stay dry all day.

Later in the day, I saw Irish Matt, a thru-hiker who has the same start date as myself. In fact, we rode in the same car to the trail head together. He tells me his feet really hurt and he thinks something must be wrong with them. Later we will find out, that was an understatement. We chatted for a few minutes while enjoying a particularly good view, then talked as we hiked. There were many miles ahead before the end of the day.

It wasn't too long before we went back to hiking at our own paces, both of us figuring we'd see one another in a few hours at camp. About 1.5 miles prior to my camp, I passed him and most of the group. I wanted to get to a ridge further ahead where I thought I would see a great sunset and sunrise. Little did I know by walking ahead it would be the beginning of the group splitting up. I would later find out Skinny Thor walked an additional 2-3 miles beyond me.

I encountered a swarm of mosquitoes in a rather damp area approximately .5 miles prior to camp. Forcing me to run with my tired legs, I wonder if I made the correct choice in camping locations. But at the top of the ski slope, I found my site and it had epic panoramic view of the valley below and of the sun setting behind the jagged ridges in the distance.

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 76 - Dicks Pass. 1110.8 (20.8)

Kevin Silvernale January 5, 2017

Day 75 (1090.0) was a Zero day in South Lake Tahoe, and like most Zero days, I didn't take any pictures. South Lake Tahoe is a really nice outdoors/mountain/ski town. Filled with major grocery stores, a variety of restaurants and many tourists, I spent most of the day traveling around on foot to eat food or get food to eat later.

I get a bittersweet feeling every time I leave town. Though the trail is not always fun, generally I'm pretty happy when I'm hiking. That said, when leaving town, there are things that I tend to crave... such as a hot shower, ice cream or a bacon cheese burger. Also, my pack is usually 15-25 pounds heavier when leaving town due to my food resupply. Do I notice? YES, yes I notice and it hurts to think about. But as I think about it, I smile, because it's comical to do that type of thing to yourself time and time again and I know after 2 days of hiking, I will have consumed enough food for my backpack to feel comfortable. That, my friends, is worth smiling over.

After having a fairly lazy morning, I packed up and went to a Starbucks to work on uploading what would be the last of my on trail blog posts, while the group finished packing their gear up. Instead of calling a trail angel early on a weekend, we decided to try our luck hitch-hiking. It didn't take too long before everyone had a ride back to the trail.

The first few miles lead to Echo Lake, a popular recreational lake located 30 minutes (driving) West of South Lake Tahoe. I stopped with Mr. Clean and Backtrack to have a milkshake which I drank too quickly and gave myself brain freeze.

While we enjoyed our cold beverage and soaked up the warm sun, a women was being dropped off by her husband and was getting back on trail (PCT). Her name was Ranger and she had taken some time off to let her body recover. She had also lost her hiking partner so she planned on camping with or near us this night.

The many miles before Dicks Pass are littered with awe inspiring lakes, Aloha Lake being a highlight and where I chose to stop for lunch. For the rest of the afternoon I walked by myself. It was very warm causing the massive melt off to take of the trail.

As the trail climbed to Dicks Pass, the views got better and better. At the top I had cell service where I managed to connect up with Butterfingers, who had just arrived in South Lake Tahoe. Butterfingers, Early Bird and The Worm had gone into the Yosemite Valley from Tuolumne Meadows as many hikers did. It was great knowing they had made it past the dangerous snow bridge (Day 67). I suspected they would catch up with us eventually.

Also at the top of Dicks Pass, Ranger found good use of the last known cell service till who knows when. When all was done, Ranger and I enjoyed the view then started our way down together. The downhill side of Dicks Pass was quite difficult with enough snow that you couldn't avoid it, but it was very lose with lots of gaps between it and the ground. Imagine walking on snow when you foot post-holes through to an awkward rock slightly twisting your ankle. Over and over again. This is what I mean by difficult.

Slowly, we worked our way down to below snow line and I pushed ahead to try and make camp before sundown. The lower I went, the more it became apparent... the mosquitoes had spawned!

Forcing me to run at certain points, I eventually had to stop to refill my water for the night. This was the first real encounter with a swarm of mosquitoes that didn't care about bug spray, or clothes for that matter. They'd bite right through my shirt. So getting water consisted of setting down my pack, spraying 100% Deet on every inch I could, then running back and forth to get the mosquitoes away from my backpack. At this point I've surely been bitten at least 5 times. Then I run back to my pack to get all of my water containers out and start mixing my Aquamura. During the 5 minutes that took, I paced very quickly, constantly swatting at the flying trying to land on my shoulders. It would have been entertaining thing to watch. Fed up with the process, I quickly added the mixture to the 5 liters of water, stuffed it in my backpack and pushed the last mile and half to camp.

At some point I passed the group and where they had setup camp. Unwilling to push any further for the day, I setup camp solo and hid behind the mesh of my tent as the seemingly endless swarm of mosquitoes buzzed from every direction.

Cheers to reaching Mile 1100!