Start: 0645 - near Brown Mountain
End: 2030 -a pond near Snow Lake
Miles (today): 28
Miles (cumulative): 1838.5 (1676.5 PCT, 94 alternate, 68 off)

Wow - today was exhausting!

The first 5 miles were ok, although walking on the lava rock was a little tricky at times.  However, knowing we were going to see Mark and Mary at the next road crossing helped make the miles fly by.  I thought Mark and Mary were simply going to meet us with some water, but they brought us food, too: French toast, sausage, apples, bananas, cookies, and brownies!

We found a beautiful spot next to the river for our 'picnic' - I even laid out my sleeping mat and everything.  Mary watched Nick and I devour the still warm food while Mark played trail angel to Moonshine and Snacks, who needed a ride to Fish Lake campground because Snacks wasn't feeling very well.  I'm pretty sure Mary was a little shocked at how much food we consumed, especially since we had just eaten a solid breakfast a mere 2.5 hours before.  (Sometimes the amount of food I eat scares ME).  Sitting by the river with Mary (and Mark when he returned) was wonderful and relaxing - I could have stayed there all day!  After a little over an hour, however, Nick and I forced ourselves to say goodbye so we could commence hiking.

At first, the hike was fine.  There were a few downed trees but I thought they were fun- it was sort-of like an obstacle course and it kept things interesting.  When we encountered some people doing trail maintenance, I thought about how much work it would take for them to remove the downed trees on the trail. 

Sadly, I was wrong about it only being a few downed trees - we continued to encounter downed trees and it seemed as if there was a tree blocking the trail every 10-20 steps.  What was initially a fun obstacle course became an exhausting nightmare.  We were constantly jumping over, crawling under, or walking around downed trees.  I am not exaggerating when I say we easily walked at least an additional 0.5 miles (probably more) because of the trail conditions.  The downed trees also prevented us from moving very fast, which meant we didn't get to camp as early as we thought we would.  Those poor people doing trail maintenance- it's going to take quite a while to clean up that section!!

It was a long day.  I struggled to stay in the moment and find the joy in what I was doing- not only was the trail a mess, it was pretty rocky and the rocks caused my feet to cramp something awful.  I failed to relax during a water stop/break, too, because I was so focused on just getting to camp. 

Around mile 22, after I jumped over a downed tree only to trip on a rock, I decided a break was in order.  The good thing about being surrounded by downed trees is there are a lot of places to sit, so I plopped myself down on the closest log and pulled out my snacks.  Just as I was about to eat I saw Mama Lion and her 9 year old son, Boon, come up behind me.  I had passed them a little earlier (when they were talking to Storm Chaser) and seeing a 9 year old boy walk by me with all this energy made me feel a little pathetic.  After watching the energetic Boon walk by, I told myself to suck it up, I quickly ate some crackers, and I resumed hiking the trail-turned-obstacle course with a better attitude. 

As luck would have it, after about a mile I bumped into Mama Lion and Boon again so I decided to walk with them.   Mama Lion talked a lot, which helped take my mind off my cramping feet;  Boon and I chatted about Harry Potter (he's listening to the series on tape as he hikes).  It was so nice getting to know them!  

Mama Lion and Boon stopped to camp about  two miles before the Snow Lake trail junction, where Nick and I planned to meet - without them to keep me company, walking those last two miles was slow and tedious (it was extremely rocky). By the time I got to the trail junction for Snow Lake I was shuffling like an old woman... But I made it and I'm so happy to be here!  We are camping alone for once and it's really nice, although I'm not too fond of the warm pond water (the ice-cold water in the Sierras definitely spoiled me).  Nick assessed the pond and declared it to be very healthy due to the presence of dragonfly nymphs and caddisfly larvae (he's constantly assessing the water we encounter - he definitely loved that part of his former job!) so I suppose I don't really have anything to complain about (except perhaps for my swollen, achy feet.)

Along the trail: