My campsite was perfectly situated to get down to the river this morning for water and get up a shadeless burned area before the heat of the day. Even so, with all that sun I was happy to get back under the trees.
I did most of my elevation gain in the morning, and the afternoon was fairly level. I went through another older burned area that is now grassland and I could feel my arms starting to burn towards the end of it. I had actually tried to find a lightweight long sleeve sun shirt for this trip but couldn’t find anything that was light enough and long enough. I thought I would have until later in the trail to figure something out, when I will be consistently above tree line, but it looks like I need to figure it out now. The hummingbirds were dive bombing me again today so having another color shirt would be welcome any way.
There is a fire station at the end of the grassland that puts out jugs of water, which is amazing of them because otherwise it would be a very long, dry stretch. Other parts of the trail aren’t this dry, there are just a few long stretches at the beginning.
There were tons of mountain bikers out again today and a dozen horseback riders as well. I also met my first other thru hiker, and he said that three Australians started yesterday too, although I have yet to meet them.
I hiked 14.9 miles and am camped at Morrison Creek, about 7700′.
Is that a plane in one of the pics??
It’s a truck. I thought it was a plane at first too, there were no roads there.