July 4, 2016 - Well basically the first 20 miles on the day were just in the woods. At times it would open up and see the sun but no views so made for boring hiking.
I took my lunch break at the halfway point for the day near Fowler Creek where there were other hikers eating. This was the same group at the campsite I was at last night but I got in so late I never got a chance to chat with them. I had to get water but the water source was a little off trail and downhill. The group told me just to leave my pack but I should take my poles because it was steep at times. It seems like most places in life it would be hard to leave behind everything you have with a group of strangers but you just don’t have the feeling out on trail, everyone gets along. After my trip to get water I made it back and ate lunch with the group. They talked about a river about 5 miles down trail that’s suppose to be a good swimming hole so I had that to look forward to on the hike down.
I got down to the Middle Fork Feather River in plenty of time to take advantage of its nice flowing water to cool me off. I even took the time to wash my clothes, get as much dirt off as I could. I stayed longer than planned but it was a nice area and that always seems to be the case with breaks at rivers or towns.
The last part of the day was a 11 mile climb up 3000 feet. The climb seem to last forever, not to mention avoiding all the poison oak as that was the last thing I wanted to get on trail.
Finally got to the top of the climb and I couldn’t find the campsite I was expecting to stay at so I walked a little farther and set up camp at the first flat spot I came across. I was a little nervous about camping in the area because there were lots of construction equipment around so I hope I wouldn’t have to deal with that in the morning.
With it being 4th of July I was hoping for some trail magic since I had lots of road crossings but I got nothing. I got my hopes at one crossing when I saw an RV right by the road but no one was home. The trail magic from yesterday made up for it.
