Day 90 : Things that go bump in the night.

18th July 2013
Mile 1170.5 to mile 1198.5 : White Rock Creek to Sierra City
Mileage : 27.5

I was up at 5am today looking to get some miles in before the day heated up. From looking at the maps i guessed the first section would be exposed and it made sense to do these when the day was cool. By 9:30 i had covered over 11 miles when i got to a water source and found several other hikers resting after doing a similar morning hike. There was Cherub, a South African girl i hadn't met before, Ingrid and Tracy, whom i hadn't seen since Ziggy and the Bear 1000 miles ago, and Puppy, who i see on fairly regular basis at the moment. After a few minutes of chitchat the topic of conversation turned to things that go bump in the night, and specifically the things that we all we had heard go bump last night. It turns out we had all camped within a couple mile of each other and had all heard things moving on the trail the night before. Last night, at zero dark 45, i was awoken by someone or something, and possibly several someones or somethings on the trail not 5 metres from where i was sleeping out in the open without even the thin fabric of my tent between me end whatever it/they were. I awoke suddenly, my body alerting me to the noise, and was.instantly aware that something was out there. My first groggy thought was that hikers were making proverbial.hay while the sun wasn't shining, a sensible approach given the weather forecast. But i know what hikers sound like and it didnt sound like hikers. Deducing the noises were animal in nature but not knowing more was a tad disconcerting. My sleeping bag forms a sort of cocoon around my head leaving only my mouth and nose open to the elements meaning i couldn't see what was out there, and tat the sound was muffled.to the point where the only thing i could determine was that it was either big, or they were numerous, to be making so much noise, and i couldn't tell.which. Neither option was particularly comforting as this only  ruled out mountain lions which are solitary animals and hunt by stealth so the chances of being eaten by a pride of noisy clumsy mountain lions were pretty slim. Being in my cocoon i also couldn't get to my hiking poles at speed which would be my only defense in the case.of a marauding bear and i reasoned that the best course of action was to remain quiet, not startle whatever was out there and hope it would pass by not noticing me and leave me unmolested. To think that any animal can't detect me in on the trail is ludicrous, as bears can smell food through sealed packaging, and deer can smell salt in urine and on clothes with ease and have been known to eat salt saturated hikers clothing, but in my foggy awake/asleep state i didnt know what else to do. My encounter must have lasted all of about 30 seconds before the forest fell silent once again, and i lay there trying intently to hear anything else, but the next.thing i remember hearing was my alarm, and i was jolted into the pale morning light wondering whether or i had dreamt the whole episode. I didn't think of it again until Puppy brought it up a which point i realised it was all real. Puppy had awoke in time to shine a light at the noise and had seen several, if not a whole herd, of deer which bolted as soon as they realised she was there, clearly just as startled as us by the whole affair.

With the mystery and story over we one by one headed on down the trail keen to get on with the hike and get into Sierra City. The rest of the day past uneventfully, and after a quick dip.in a river, i was regailing other hikers of last nights events while ensconced at the bar of the Red Moose Inn, the home and establishment of Bill and Margaret, the local trail angels. I had arrived late and before so long it was time to hit the hay on the grass in the backyard of the inn. Before settling down for the night Margaret informed us to put all food stuffs inside to encounters with prowling bears. I did the necessary and went to bed mostly too tired think about more about any bear problem, but also hoping that this night would be bump free.