June 11:Bushwack

Today we entered craziness. This section of trail is infamously known for it's overgrown, unmaintained trail conditions. Apparently there are no real wilderness sections through this area, so no one besides thru-hikers really hike through there. So we spent the day bushwacking through overgrown bushes and plants, sometimes so thick you couldn't see the trail. My favorite part of the wholere I thought it should go, looked around, and eventually found an arrow made of sticks that another hiker had left pointing to the trail. We just shook our heads and laughed because it was pointing to a wall of bushes that looked like they should be framing someone's yard. But at that point, it didn't surprise us. We had been going through that stuff all day.

It was very tiring, both physically and mentally. Not only were we usuing way more physical energy pushing through all the bushes, but we used a ton of mental energy scanning plants as we walked, trying to identify if there was any poison oak around. By late afternoon we were exhausted, and I was dreading doing 2-3 more days of the same. The one, main redeming factor was that we were often in trees so, even though it was sunny and hot, we were often shaded.

I was very relieved to get to the spring we were camping at with a group. We had met up with another group as well, so there was 10 or so people jammed into a tiny space (we had been walking on ridges all day, which makes for hard-to-find large group campsites). Mark and I set up our tarp right on the trail, and another hiker did the same. luckily it was later in the evening, so not many (if any) were coming through. We were also pleased to find that there weren't many mosquitos...but instead there were tons of biting black flies. Luckily, though we had a ton find their way into the tarp, they were content to stay up on the ceiling and not on us. Day one of bushwacking was over.

Total Miles:1453.0
Miles Today:29.4
Camp 75:Group Camp, Fresh Spring

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