July 14

1425-1455

Well, it isn’t 105 degrees, but it is in the 90s and humid, so we are sweating massively and I am drinking over 2 gallons of fluids per day to make up for the loss. All in all, It feels like a massive improvement.

This section of the trail, California Section O is notorious for how little trail maintenance it receives. We are in a middle of nowhere locale and not a lot of attention is paid to the trail through these parts.

Many hikers joke that the O in section O stands for “Overgrown”It is frustrating to climb over the endless amounts of blow downs and push through heavy brush, but much preferable to walking through burn areas so we try to keep our complaining to a minimum.

We have close calls with a rattle snakes hidden by the brush. I come within inches of stepping on a baby rattler since the trail is completely obscured.

I make an effort to probe ahead with my hiking poles to avoid and additional encounters. In the afternoon we have our first rain in nearly 3 months. We don’t even put our rain gear on. It feels good to get doused.

A beautiful ridge hike completes our day. The sun is blood red from the smoke in the air.