The alarm went off at 5am. Those super comfy Neolite sleeping pads I mentioned yesterday were a nightmare. So loud and crunchy. Last night a whole bunch of new hikers arrived and we were surrounded by other tents. Every little move was amplified in these surroundings. If I scratched my leg it sounded like 20 people eating crisps/potato chips through a loud speaker.
We took an hour and three quarters to get on the trail. Mostly because we were carrying bear canisters for the first time and it took a lot of rearranging to accommodate the unwieldy heavy barrels that we are required to keep our food in for the next 300 miles.
The extra weight was really tough on the feet. We will sleep a little more easily without the food (and therefore bears) in our tent and we now have instant chairs.
Tracy said yesterday that it takes about an hour every morning for the pain receptors in her feet to stop signaling. So true with the pain, yet recently I have been doing well and stopped taking Aleve (anti- inflammatory). However, today was quite bad, the extra weight of 7 days food plus the bear can was causing a lot of pain in the arch area of my feet. We were both really glad to reach our destination at Kern river. However it was hard to settle for the day as a storm cloud seemed to be approaching. We decided to leave and do another 4 miles, but somehow the trail turned direction and we started walking towards the thunder and rain. Fortunately we only got a few drops of rain and managed to walk fast enough to avoid the worst.
The highlight today was seeing the views change from those of the desert, to those of the sierras. We walked through green meadows where you could imagine someone living in a log cabin and tonight we are camped in a pine forest.
2 comments:
Really missed your blog, thought the cougar had caught you! Now we just have to worry about bears!! G and M x
I too have missed the blog. Fun to see some new additions. Keep up the good walk. Love, Mom
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