Day 86: Oompa Loompa Fingers
July 5, 2017
Mile 1195.04 Campsite to Mile 1203.48
I’m beginning to realize that towns really stress me out. The last several trail towns we’ve been in I have left apprehensive and on edge. I think part of it is that I hate spending money especially when I feel like I’m getting a bad deal. I hate feeling trapped without options when it comes to buying food (a weakness of mine, I’ll admit). When I’m in town I can’t bear the thought of eating what I have on the trail so I convince myself that I must buy a hot meal in town which is usually overpriced and too much food and so I always wind up feeling like I blew a bunch of money on something I didn’t need. Then again I do this town after town and never seem to learn from my mistakes. Wait, isn’t that the definition of insanity?
Lolz.
We did finally get out of this black hole and back on the trail. What a relief! The only downside is that it’s all uphill for like eight miles. As in like ascending 3000 feet. I would have totes my goats been cool with only hiking three miles, but for whatever reason Glowworm wanted to “try” and “push on” and “make tomorrow easier” and other related shit.
This rocks.
It really wasn’t all that bad once we started hiking for a bout 30 minutes or so. The legs quit rejecting me and my mind switched from being focused on complete misery to letting my mind wander again. It actually was some of the most enjoyable hiking I’ve done in a long while. I could just block out everything and just let my brain rest on the solitary task of putting one foot in front of the other with head down.
Once we hiked up the initial steep section of the climb we walked along this incredible ridge with vast green slopes and jagged volcanic rock jutting out from the top of the mountains. Seriously some of the most beautiful sections of trail I have been on in the last three months. I can’t even begin to describe it so I’ll do my best to post as many pictures as I can.
Several miles in Glowworm and I stopped to get some water at a stream and to get s snack. I bought too many Cheetos in town so I devoured a package while resting on a rock and developed Oompa Loompa fingers.
Not too long ago we were saying that we didn’t really know too much about Northern California other than it can be really hard mentally after being in the extremes of the desert and the Sierras. But since we skipped about 300 miles of the Sierras, it doesn’t really have that vibe. It’s been really enjoyable able beautiful.
We camped at the top of the climb after stopping around 7:30 and were able to watch the sun set over the mountains before calling it quits for the night. This is going to be a long section. We have seven days of food (which is a ton) so we might get to Quincy, or Belden, or even as dar as Chester before actually having to resupply. In about ten days my parents are going to be coming to visit me and my trail family on trail probably in Chester. The original plan was to meet up at Crater Lake, but due to unforeseen circumstances I am not even close to southern Oregon. Looking forward to it, though.
