7/11/17 – Wildfire

Day 79

Miles: 1,597.25 to 1,607.87Total miles hiked: 1,024.01
Originally we thought of taking a full zero day at Etna but the motel was fully booked for the second night so we decided to go with two neros and with this mind set we went to finish our chores in the morning. We had a post office stop we had to do, finish grocery shopping at Ray’s market, and most importantly get breakfast at a local coffee shop. When we returned from our errands, the manager told us there was a cancellation and if we wanted to, we could stay the second night, we could even keep our room. It was tempting but since we were already packed anyway, we thanked him for the offer but declined it.

Shortly before noon the motel’s owner drove us back to trailhead. It was very nice of her to do that for us. There were four hikers in the car. Dave and I, and two ladies whom we met briefly last night, Robin and Ulrike. They do similar mileage as us so we might be seeing them more often during this stretch.

Trail run little bit of a ridge today. It was nice to have a view on both sides; however the views were quite hazy today from the smoke of a wildfire nearby. We later talked to the firefighters who were surveying the fire from the PCT, and also cleaning the trail off deadfall. The fire, that started by lightening at the end of June, burns slowly and is controllec now but should the conditions change, fast access to the area might be needed. One of the firefighters mentioned there was a word of fire line being set up close to the PCT which would affect the accessibility of the section later in the season. 

Our camp was only 10 miles in. Actually the 10 miles were further than we thought we would go but since we got out of town at a reasonable time and weather got us little break today (there were even some clouds in the sky today and once in a while the sun hid behind one, thing I did not believe can happen here in California this year) so when we arrived at the camp we thought of, we still had plenty of time and energy to push forward. 

I liked our camp at the edge of green meadow. The bugs eventually got to us for we spent a the evening cooking by a bubbling creek and talking to Robin and Ulrike who camped with us tonight, and that was very nice.