Day 125 Marker 2/3 – The walk

Day 125 2/3 Marker
26.0 miles
From Hyatt Reservoir Horse Camp (mile 1745.8, elevation 5048)
To Camp Trail Marker 2/3 (Mile 1768, Elevation 5250)
Upload 3312
Descend 3145

«Agony! Beyond the power of speech,
When the only thing you want is the only thing that is out of your reach.
…
Agony! Much more painful than yours!
The princes of Cinderella and Rapunzel from Into the Woods

It was nice to have a picnic table last night. My campsite had a nice flat spot for my tent right next to the table, so it was easy to lay things out, organize, and cook. But the toilet was not so easy to find. I didn’t find it until this morning. I was on the road to the camp, but I took the trail to the camp and didn’t see him. It also doesn’t appear anywhere other than comments about Wildcat Camp.

The adjacent usual camping area did have drinking water. There was a pump that pumped the water. But neither the distant icons nor any of the BLM signs I saw upon entering showed that there was drinking water at that campground. It was nice to stop by this morning and refuel without having to deal with the leak. The Wildcat Campground actually looks pretty good. There were three other people camped there that I saw. It had well toilets and pumped drinking water. It’s right there on the edge of the lake. Getting out of there and back onto the trail would have required backtracking a bit to do it the entire trail. Then there is a path along the lake. The single lane road doesn’t really have much in terms of houses or campgrounds or anything along it. But it parallels the PCT for 1/2-1 mile, after which I’ll return to the PCT.

st john’s wort

Overall I felt pretty good today. My legs have had some energy. I’ve been a little slower these last 4 miles, but they’ve had 1300 feet of climbing or so. I stopped at a spring and washed my filter with some extra water I have. I refilled my bottles and started cold soaking lunch and riding the camel. Now I’m waiting for the last bottle to finish refilling.

Volcanic rock outcrops

Bunny – center right, right in front of the large log.

gummy gooseberry

Spring

The trail was mostly between trees today.

South Brown Mountain Shelter is clean. It’s just a single room. The door is just an opening covered by heavy strips of rubber or plastic, like those you sometimes see covering refrigerated products in the supermarket. It has solid benches along two walls that are suitable for sleeping, firewood underneath for the wood stove in the middle, and a couple of small benches/counters in the opposite corner. It also has candles, matches, shovel, broom and axe. Could be an interesting cold weather destination. (It also has signs indicating where to park snowmobiles). Outside it has a well pump, picnic table and fire pit. There are some tent sites nearby.

South Brown Mountain Shelter

South Brown Mountain Shelter Inside

When I do events/endurance races, I mentally divide them into thirds. I usually feel energetic and excited in the first third. That emotion has disappeared and I need to stay focused for the second third. And then the final third is close enough to the goal to provide that as motivation.

There was no “2/3” marker next to the trail, so I created one from the red and black rocks along the trail. A scout who used to be in my troop would create “land art” as an upgrade at summer camp. I would gather natural materials of different colors and replicate some drawing/design on a raked section of land. Inspired by Justin’s land art and the red and black rocks along the trail, I wrote “2/3” in black, used the red rocks as a background, and framed the whole thing with sticks that had been bleached white.

I probably spent more time on it than I should have. But I still made it to camp before dark.

Black and red lava rock along the trail.

Marker 2/3 finished

Shortly after arriving at camp, Daniel, whose path crossed mine on numerous occasions before Mount Lassen, entered camp. I thought he would have been way ahead of me, but he spent 5 days in Ashland with leg cramps, one of many injuries he suffered on the trail (plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis). It was fun to catch up. His recounting of his troubles reminded me of the “Agony” of the princes from Into the Woods, although not because I felt Daniel was trying to elicit sympathy or brag about having overcome his wounds. But with some hikers, it’s more like the song, where they are constantly competing with each other, even because of their injuries.

When I asked Daniel if he had seen the 2/3 scoreboard, he said he loved it and showed me the video he took to send to his friends and family.

Daniel also said that there have been many problems with Durston backpacks and tents. The outdoor store in Ashland has been repairing about 3 per day (and only repairing a few total of each other brand). The most common problem with tents has been zippers. Daniel also has an extra cord that I could use for the corner tie down of my tent, but I was able to get some from another tie down. After brushing and lubricating my tent zippers, I feel like they were a little flaky, but they remained flexible. I hope my preventative maintenance will help keep them functional for the rest of the ride.

Camping

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