Heat & Trail Magic

The first night out in the wild is a fact. I had a good nights sleep, only woke up a couple of times because my pad keeps going places where I don’t. It’s a slippery thing. It was nice and cool in the valley of Houser Creek. Today the majority of the hikers got up at 0500. The section out of H.C. was a good 900 feet climb, what better way to wake up the legs. It was the best time of the day though to start with a climb, it was actually very pleasant in the shade. After breakdown of camp we headed out.

It smells really lovely out here. Every once in a while you get a strong whiff of wild thyme or rosemary. Reminds me of my brothers potatoes straight out the oven, yum. Because we headed out early I settled for a quick Clif-bar breakfast. Rummaging through my food bag you’ll find a variety of snacks popular among hikers; every power-bar imaginable, trail-mix, sachets of vitamin C + electrolytes to dunk in water, peanut-butter, tortillas & beef jerky. For the first two days out, I took way too much food with me. Better safe than sorry, I figured.

Clif-bar + peanut-butter tortilla

After the morning ascent we hiked towards Lake Morena.

At a local shop I divulged in a monstrously large breakfast burrito with cheese, chorizo, potatoes and eggs. Proper USA sizes, I was very happy. We continued into the direction of Boulder Oaks, a hiker-friendly hang-out spot where we would have access to a water faucet. Great, that meant no carrying 6.5 liters of heavy water. Today was similar temperature as yesterday. Low thirties Celsius I imagine. The grade of the trail however, was much more gentle than yesterday.

After passing through the valley of Lake Morena we arrived at Boulder Oaks, the hang-out spot where we waited out the hottest part of the day. Chilling in the shade gathered a group of around ten hikers. Isha who I have been hiking with since yesterday has hiked the Te Araroa trail earlier in her hiking career. It is a brutal trail which spans the entire North and South Island of New Zealand. There she met Sunshine, a former PCT-thru hiker. After some time of lounging at Boulder Oaks, Sunshine showed up with a bag full of trail-magic. Trail magic are acts of kindness by people caring for and helping out hikers. This tends to create profound happiness among the exhausted trekkers. Soda, Cliff-bars, Nutella, Oreos and fresh Apples; Sunshine, was a genuine trail-angel!

During lunch I had already decided on additional gear I need to purchase. I’ve ordered two hip-belt pouches to attach to my pack. This way I’ll have several items within easy reach. How I overlooked the absence of hip-belt pockets on my Exos 58 backpack in the first place is a mystery… I will have the ordered pouches delivered at Warner Springs.

After a long chill-out session during the hot part of the day, we set out with a group of 5 (Isha-Belgium, Thad-Iowa, Lars-Denmark, Natalie-Oregon and me) to finish the final stretch of the day. It consisted of a very exposed bit with lots of climbing. Even after 1600 it was still burning hot.

But as the evening settled in, the temperatures dropped, and the final section became very pleasant to hike. Everybody agreed that even though today was tough, it was not as tough as yesterday. We dropped down into a wooded valley around 1930 to find a gorgeous campsite where we all quickly pitched our tents.