Day 93 : The Heat Returns

21st July 2013
Mile 1197.5 to mile 1221 : Sierra City to A-Tree Spring
Mileage : 23.5 + 1.5

I was indeed up early, but my early start to the hiking day was stymied by the fact that someone had kindly unplugged my tablet before it was even half charged, so i waited around to get half an hour worth of charge before heading out to the trail. I wasn't lucky enough to get a ride to the trailhead, so had a mile and a half road walk up to where the trail and road cross. It was definitely a good decision to get up early as the sun soon heated everything up.  The first half of the 3000ft was shaded, but the second half was not, and by the time i reached to top i was hot, tired and sweaty. Along that final stretch i met a deer who was travelling down the trail. It was unafraid of me, and was clearly trying to go down the trail but didn't want to get closer than about 10 metres to me. I continued up the trail with him advancing in spurts up the trail, looking around every time as if to say, 'you're still on the trail? I need to get past!' After effectively chasing him up the the trail for a good 100 metres or so he final got off the trail to let me through, as i past him, he got straight back on the trail and continued down the trail to wherever he was going. After recovering on the shade by a gurgling spring, i pressed on toward my destination for the night, the A-Tree spring walking along ridgetops with stunning views down left on right into evergreen valleys as far as the eye could see. Night was falling as i arrived at A-Tree spring, and i began my evening routine as quickly as possible trying to avoid using my headlamp. Just as I was settling down for the night, another deer appeared out of the forest almost treading on me surprising both of us. I don't ever camp directly, next to a spring, as a lot of animals use the same springs we do and it's not fair to either deprive them of a cool evening drink or force them to get closer to humans than they would otherwise do, and i thought i was far enough away from the spring to aboid these sort of wildlife encounters but clearly not. We eyed each other up for a moment or two, both deciding the other wasn't a threat and went back to our respective activities, me to sleep, and him to drinking. As i drifted off to sleep i wondered if i should be worried about encounters with other more threatening animals, i.e bears and mountain lions, but was asleep before i could give it much thought.

There are no deer passing points on the trail unfortuntely for this guy