Day 9 - Mile 1256.1

We had another great breakfast at the Haskins Valley Inn and slowly got ready to take our leave. Dixie and Ken are great hosts and I recommend their establishment 100%. Good beds, great breakfast and a jacuzzi tub in every room. Yahoo!

I packed up my stuff and as I had so much in my food bag, I put some stuff normally inside my pack in outside pouches. Angela drove me back to the spot I left off the trail and we said good bye again. I hate that part☹️

At 9:10am off I went, headed south. My legs felt rested and I made good time, stopping for a pee break about an hour into the day. I looked in my toilet bag and saw, much to my chagrin, no toilet paper in the bag. It had been there when I arrived in Bucks Lake so I can only assume it somehow got kicked under a bed or other hidden place. Well damn. Fortunately I also carry wet wipes with me so I'm not totally without resources but I won't be using the wet wipes for nightly clean up as planned. 

I was puzzling this dilemma when I swung my pack on and kept on walking. I stopped to eat something about 4.5 miles into the morning, it being about 11am. When I took my pack off I realized something else was missing. I had placed my poncho in the side pocket this morning and it wasn't tightly contained. It looks like I wasn't paying attention when I put my pack back on before and my poncho bag fell out. Well, there goes the rain gear. Damn, double damn. Two things missing in one morning. 

There is some good news here. I carry an umbrella for sun protection and light rain so I can manage in rain short of a downpour. Secondly I had checked the five day forecast the other day and it appeared to be no rain in the near future. And thirdly I texted my land mate from home and she will send my ZPack raincoat to Sierra City so I can pick it up when I get there.  Let's hope for no torrential rain storms in the next week. 

As you can imagine I was a bit distracted there for the first couple of hours, until I got the problem sorted out, so my picture taking was a bit limited. However I did get a shot of little Big Creek. Strange name for a trickle. 

There were signs telling me about the area. 

Some Bucks Lake trail angels put out an unusual resource for passing hikers. 

I stopped at a beautiful spring to get tonight's water. 

Took a look at Lookout Rock

Laughed at the funny things hikers do on the trail

And found myself a nice hang for the night. 

I hiked just a few tenths of a mile under 10 miles today. I got to this place plenty early, and could have gone a couple of miles further but the next spot that looked like it wasn't trail with steep sides wasn't for another 5 miles. I decided not to push it that far and parked myself here. Tomorrow I'll get an earlier start so I'm not hiking in the heat and I'll see how far I get. I cross the Middle Fork Feather River tomorrow, on a bridge. Might be an opportunity to get cooled off in the river!

Late evening text update*** Turns out my poncho popped out of my pack in Angela's car. She'll send it to me at my next stop. Yahoo!!! I love my poncho❤️

Woohoo!

I finally whittled down my gear choices. How? By swapping certain items out for a lighter weight piece or removing some things all together. I'm now down to 12 pounds solid! This includes 25.5 ounces of electronics of one sort or another, which, theoretically anyway, aren't necessary. But it does provide me with some security (my SPOT) and enjoyment (iPhone.) It is interesting to know that I could be close to 10 pounds without all the gadgetry. However I'm cool with my choices.

I did update the list on my gear page for 2016 if you want to take a gander.

I leave tomoorow night on the train to Dunsmuir!

Almost time

I really don't like this time of getting ready for a long hike. Time is short, I've got stuff all over the floor and boxes almost full of necessary stuff. Having to make final decisions about gear and trying mightily not to keep adding stuff, for "just in case." After all these years you'd think it would be easier to resist the pull, but it's not. Plus, no matter how hard I try not to do so I always seem to hurt myself just prior to taking off. This time it's my low back. I'm sure it'll be fine in the end but it puts a kink in my training. Good thing I'm only planning 12 mile days for the first week.

Training hike in Nicene Marks State Park - Janet Fine photographer (and hand)

I just posted a document and images of the clothing I'll be wearing/carrying on this trip. It's under the page Gear Planning for 2016. I'll post the rest of the images and data once I finally get it ready and written down. In the meantime I have (mostly) finished my resupply boxes and will be sending off three on Monday. I can send UPS boxes all at the same time as they are going to private businesses and the three week limit the Post Office has won't apply in those cases. I much prefer to get most boxes sent before I leave so I don't inconvenience family any more than necessary.

Not sending this many. This is from before I had to chnage my plans. Now I only have 8 boxes and one bear canister.