Day 52, Mile Marker 583-599, Hamp Williams Pass

Saturday, June 15, 2013 

Hiking Uphill: 3,113ft
Hiking Downhill: 2,802ft
Distance Hiked:   16 miles

Post by Melissa:
Today we had a pretty late start...I'm not sure what the problem is but sometimes it can take Nick and I hours to get ready!  Even when getting up at 6am.  This morning we would not leave our campsite until 10:20am. haha, man we suck at getting quick starts in the morning.

First things first, we needed to filter more water to cook breakfast and fill up our platypus bags.  Nick walked over to the trough and collected the water slowly trickling out of the pvc pipe.  It took us quite a while to filter enough water for our daily needs. I'm glad he chose to take the fresh water out of the pvc pipe rather than scooping it out of the trough...ick!  It was worth the wait.

Here is a picture of Nick collecting the water dribbling out of the pvc pipe into his camp cup and then pouring into his dirty bag to filter.

While we were filtering our water and getting ready another hiker named Trivia strolled in.  We had met him the day before on the trail.  He is a young guy from Malibu who graduated from UC Santa Cruz recently (go banana slugs!).  He is a lot of fun to chat with.  A few minutes later an older gentlemen also joins us to gather water and cook his breakfast.  It wasn't long before he stood up and started walking towards some trees nearby.  He then proceeded to pull down his pants and take a crap only feet from us.  Nick warned me to not look his way since he was in plain sight.  I had to giggle. I was trying to understand why he wouldn't walk further away for more privacy?  Either way, I found it amusing...most hikers don't want to be seen taking a duece! This guy clearly didn't give a crap (pun intended). LOL

We finally break camp and set off on to the trail.  We were bummed to see we were walking into another burn zone. I know fires are inevitable, but it really destroys the beauty of the landscape not to mention burn away all of the desperately needed shade to protect us.  In the burn zones we are very exposed to the sun which makes it even hotter than normal.  I cringe inside everytime I see a burn zone approaching.  I know it's going to be a tough hike through it.  Normally I would use my chrome dome umbrella to protect me from the sun but in this area it's way to windy so I can't use it :-(

We finally get out of this burn zone and into some new landscapes.  A nice change of scenery. We are climbing over 3,000ft today.  1,000ft less than yesterday but still a significant amount of climbing.

We enter into a heavily wooded area and are surprised to see many free range cows along the trail.  This is not a lush green pasture...rather steep mountain sides and lots of trees.  Nick and I wonder how they round up these cows in this type of landscape.  On a few occasions there are cows directly on the PCT and as we approach them they start to get anxious and stressed and run off into the woods.  They seem to have a healthy sense of fear of humans.  Maybe they sense we are dreaming about In and Out double doubles...Yum. LOL

As the sun starts to set, the lighting in the forest becomes really pretty.  I really enjoyed this portion of the hike.  Not only was it cooler but it was beautiful.

Nick has me take a quick seat and together we watch the sun setting. It was quite the romantic gesture.  Ahhh...he surprises me sometimes with little bits of romance on the trail. <3

After watching the sun set we continue hiking uphill into the trees. It's starting to get late so Nick and I begin looking for a camping spot. We find a small flat spot on the side of the trail amongst the switchbacks and decide to make our home for the night here.  It's nothing fancy but we are tired, my feet are hurting like ususal, and we are ready to call it a night. 

This picture was actually taken the following morning but I'll insert it here so you can see where we slept.

We quickly eat a cold dinner and went to sleep. Tomorrow would be another big hiking day and we were determined to get an earlier start.