7/22/17 – More Blowdowns and Mosquitoes 

Day 90
Miles: 1,789.48 to 1,806.39

Total miles hiked: 1,222.52
Morning was beautiful today with alpenglow on trees near our tent. We usually don’t see alpenglow from the window of our tent but today we decided to take an easier day and sleep all the way till 6:00 a.m.

Mosquitoes awaited us, lots of the sitting on the mesh parts of the tent, peeking in to see if we are to unzip the tent soon and invite them in, and many more circling around. There was no way to escape them and even with our bug nets on, we got quite a number of new bites. 

Blowdowns started just few steps from our site. Today I decided to count them. There were fifty within the first hour of our hike.
Most of the day the trail led us through sickly forest of many damaged trees, some bent, some downed, some stripped of bark. Many of them had fallen this winter but many were laying here much longer, decaying slowly by the forces of nature.

Occasionally we walked through a meadow. They were short but welcome respite from the dark dreary woods. Mostly lupine bloomed here and the air carried its sweet scent.
The best part of the day was walking in the neighborhood of Shale Peak, Lucifer and Devil’s Peak. The area was open to views and we could see as far as Mt. Shasta but the more prominent Peak in the neighborhood was McLaughlin with its north face still full of snow.
Snow field lay on the north side of Devil’s Peak as well, steep slope completely covered still. We had to get down somehow and since the snow was soft enough to allow for safe glissading, we sat on our butts and slid down.

Afternoon dragged. The forest was once again full of blow downs, mosquitoes were attacking us constantly, and our packs were heavy since we were on a 19 mile waterless stretch and had to carry enough water to carry us through. 
I was quite exhausted when we got to camp at 6:45 p.m. and after a quick dinner of ramen, I promptly crawled in the tent and went to sleep.