We were headed to a creek where we were going to meet the rest of the crew for a lunch break when we came around a corner only to see the infamous Billy Goat coming down the trail. We had heard he was in the Trinity Alps and wondered if we'd run into him. BG is a pretty well-known hiker. He's been hiking almost ful-time for 19 years since he was 50. He has long white hair and a long white beard and a great laugh (there was a semi-recent article on him in the LA Times if you want to look iy up). JZ knew him already, and the three of us sat down with himon the trail for a break and ended up sitting there for over 2 hours! He's doing a very unique hike. He wanted to spend the whole month of July in the section of trail between Seiad Valley and I-5 (150 miles). So he packed up 30 days of food into 2 backpacks and his goal is to hike that section 3 times. He hikes one pack about 5 miles down the trail, walks back 5 miles to his other pack, and then rehikes back 5 miles to his fir!
st pack and camps. He was very fun to talk with since I had heard his name a lot and Mark had met him on his '03 hike.
We had read that these last 50 miles or so were like a rollercoaster, and it sure began to live up to it. The trail was up and down a lot, and a bit steeper than it has been recently. We finished our day with a 900 foot climb in 1.5 miles, which is fairly steep. The data book called it a "Saddle with views," but we still had the wonderful haze, so no major views for us. We reconnected with everyone here (our 2 hr break put us a bit behind them), and after flicking a few large ants off my sleeping bag/face, fell asleep looking forward to Etna, a favorite town stop for hikers.
Rumors of more trail closures north of Etna had us anxious to hear if we had to skip forward again...
Total Miles:1587.2
Miles Today:27.3
Camp 81:Saddle With the Grandpa Group
1 comment:
AHHHHH! You lucky hikers--- meeting Billy Goat for a backpacker is like getting to see the President---or...Better!
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