Day 101, July 27: Mile 1433 to 1458
Start: Peavine Creek - Mile 1432.7
End: Gold Creek - Mile 1458.1
Miles: 25.4
Ascent: 4138 | Descent: 3581
I woke up extra early and started hiking at 4am to beat some of the heat that was predicted for today. It has been a while since I hiked in that much darkness, and the unfamiliar woods freaked me out just a bit. I sang to myself out loud so my presence wouldn’t surprise a bear or other creature nearby. Thankfully, all was peaceful and the sky started to lighten soon enough.
I stopped to get water at a spring and saw some of the people I had met yesterday packing up their camp there, including Alchemist, McMansion, Prairie Dog and Brightside. I said a hello and hiked on. The sunrise was a stunning bright red.
Pretty soon, I ascended to the top of a ridge overlooking a sweeping forested valley below and to Mt. Shasta to the northwest. Finally! This hike has some beautiful views again! It felt like they would never come after the burn section. The beauty put me in a great mood.
I pushed on steadily, wanting to cover as many miles before it got too hot. I planned to take a siesta from 1 to 4pm to avoid hiking in the hottest hours of the day, and around that time I found a decent flat spot under some trees. I set my backpack down, pulled out some snacks and chugged water. As I sat enjoying the lunch break, some movement caught my eye. One of the biggest and gnarliest looking spiders I’ve ever seen was crawling quickly near me. Eep! It stopped for a minute and I snapped some pictures and returned to sit down on a rock. Then suddenly, it started racing in my direction. I yelped and jumped off the rock and went to sit a little ways away where I could still watch it. It stayed put for a long time, and I tried to take a nap while checking on it every so often. The whole experience rattled me just enough that I think I only dozed for a few minutes. Oh well. I sent a picture of the spider to my sister Christy and she identified it as a Pacific Foldingdoor Spider (Antrodiaetus pacificus). These spiders hide out in burrows and I think it was crawling towards the rock I was sitting on because it’s burrow was under there.
After my spooky brush with nature, I gathered my composure and hiked on. The rest of the day included lots of ups and downs, and thankfully more pretty views. I leapfrogged a bit with a hiker named JD, and we commiserated that we both wanted to be done hiking for the day. It was definitely hot but thankfully slightly less miserable than I was expecting. I think tomorrow and Friday are supposed to be the worst days this week with temperatures predicted to hit 106° - oof. I hope there is good tree coverage and a breeze tomorrow.
I made it to camp around 6:30- a lovely change from the normal 8pm as of late. I set up my tent near a small stream and several bees came to swarm around me, attracted I believe to the salt from my sweaty pack and shirt. Luckily, they didn’t care to bother me more than just buzz around. Once I filtered water and set up tent, I crawled inside the safety of my bug net, ate dinner and got ready for bed.