We did a long day today as we’ve been doing for the past few days, but today was a harder day than the others for me. It may seem like we are just easily cranking out big miles but we are definitely working hard for each mile. Today was no exception.
The morning went by relatively quickly. We had a long ish uphill climb which wore me out, but halfway up it we ran into Slow Buffalo and his group. We hadn’t seen him since Tehachapi. It was great catching up and seeing a familiar face. It’s funny, most of the people we pass now who have been through the Sierra don’t even mention the river crossings when we ask how it was. They may mention a sketchy snow traverse but really no mention of the rivers. 2.Toe said someone told her they crossed the rivers at the trail crossing or within a tenth of a mile or so of there. That was crazy to hear as when we were going through the beginning of the Sierra people were hiking a mile or several miles up or downstream to find safe crossings! We are hopeful this means the conditions are better than when we were last in the Sierra.
We took a pre lunch break (a rarity for us) and ate some snacks and relaxed for a bit after our climb. I’ve been feeling the hiker hunger lately and feel like I have an insatiable appetite!
After that we walked another 7.5 miles until our lunch break. My legs were feeling tired and sore and I was counting down the miles until our break. We only had about 8 miles to walk after our break but again I was dragging. Just one of those days.
We had a long ish downhill and then a slight uphill to camp. This was the beginning of a long 6 mile climb before town. Wolf Bird and I were dreading this climb since yesterday some reason and it was consuming my thoughts even though there was nothing especially notable or unique about this climb besides it being a bit longer than usual. It was funny though, we climbed 1.5 miles of it to our Tentsite and it was super easy and gradual! Not worth worrying about at all. We should have known this lesson already but it was a good reminder to not worry about what’s ahead.