Mile 418 to mile 444 : Mill Creek Ranger Station to KOA camp
Mileage : 26
At some point during the night the wind started. It wasn't as strong as it has been on the trail, but it was sufficiently strong that I couldn't really sleep. So being ish up when dawn broke it was pretty easy to get going and get some early miles in before the heat set in. For most of the day the trail led through the burnt area left by the Station fire. The station fire, in 2009, burned a huge area of the forest around Mill Creek and left 2 firemen dead when it subsided. The fire was so strong the metal sign posts along the dirt roads had melted. As poodledog thrives in burn areas much of the trail has been rendered impassable so a good portion of the first part of the day was spent walking on dirt roads cutting back to the trail whenever possible. Today was somewhat of a milestone. One month ago exactly I started out from the Mexican border on my way to Canada, and now I am a good 400 miles closer to my goal. On the first day I couldn't do 20 miles with 5 litres, I had to stop at Hauser creek to take on another 2 before being able to get through the rest of the day, and it took me 12 hours to do the distance. Today however, I did 26 miles in 9 hours hiking throughout the heat of the day drinking only about 4 litres from start to finish. This quite literally would not have been possible a month ago. The aim of the day was to get to a Kampground Of America site which has real amenities instead of the usual make do rough camping to which i have become accustomed. To be fair I was pretty tired and probably dehydrated when I arrived, but no more so that any other day, so was pleased to have arrived safe and sound at the end of a long day and have a real shower as a reward.
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| The memorial to the two firemen who lost their lives in the Station Fire |
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| A section of burnt forest |
Many congratulations Pad, this is a major milestone indeed. One tenth of the way! I hope that the initial aches and pains that have raised their heads one by one have settled down and were mere teething pains in protest to embarking on a life less ordinary. Loving the blog, it makes for great feeding reading. Reading a days post, Googling where you are and explaining to Eric about the geology of the landscape you're passing through generally keeps me busy for at least a couple of feeds. X
ReplyDeleteYour burnt forest pic reminds me of the scene around Mount St Helens even though we visited a few years after the last eruption.
ReplyDeleteA marathon with a 20kg pack on your back! Boom!
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