Large wooded campsite
Castle Crags Wilderness
Miles: 3
Trip: 815
Fifteen mile in two days is pretty embarrassing, but I can't imagine going any further than we did today. Our night played out like a bad sitcom: first plagued by mosquitoes; then legions of ants all over my shoes, socks and pack; then wind rocking the tent Andrew hastily erected to escape the insects; and finally an emergency midnight trip to the manzanita bushes to evacuate what felt like very unhappy bowels.
We didn't start hiking until 9am, a sorry start to my ambition of hiking 30 miles on my 30th birthday. I have to credit Andrew big-time though. Even though he was feeling just as lousy, he still made today all about me. Ironically, most of the gifts he carried in are edible - on the only birthday I've ever turned down chocolate.
So what's gotten into us? It could be water- or food-related or just exhaustion, but whatever it is knocked us both on our asses. After two grueling hours of willing my body forward despite a growing urge to vomit, we decided that, in the long run (or long hike in our case), rest would be more useful than torturing ourselves through miles. So we camped at 11am and I spent my 30th birthday sleeping the day away under a canopy of firs and sugar pines. Definitely not the worst birthday I've ever spent. With a sympathetic boyfriend willing to do anything to make me feel special (I have birthday balloons on my backpack!) I think I've actually got it pretty good. Now if we could just wake up tomorrow, refreshed and healthy, I'd feel even more like the luckiest girl in the world.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the things you did do." - Mark Twain
(Editor's Note: Another unpleasant birthday surprise was discovered after writing this entry. Zero the Ultralight Penguin stayed behind in a Mt. Shasta City motel. He was a good friend, and I will miss him.)
Shaggy says:
Last night was rough. It was just one problem after another. Both of us went to sleep with stomach aches. Then the mosquitoes would not let up. They buzzed around our heads just enough to keep us awake. Around midnight I set up the tent. The area for the tent was really too small for our large tent, and we both ended up sleeping on rocky uneven surfaces. Then there were ants, millions, on everything. So as we are throwing our stuff in the tent, we are shaking off ants. They were on everything. Luckily we did hang our food in a tree to keep the rodents out.
This morning we both felt terrible. We had stomach pains and felt really tired. I felt so bad, its Lauren's birthday and we both feel like vomiting. Our dreams of hiking 30 miles today were shattered as we were both exhausted.
We decided to hike to the next water source and call it a day. A whooping 3 mile day. We camped in a saddle and slept most of the day. Though its no fun being sick, we did enjoy resting here. We are both in high spirits, played a few games this afternoon.
We are feeling a bit better this evening, hoping to get back in the groove tomorrow. We also talked about hiking back to town tomorrow and getting a bus up to Etna after a couple days rest. Not ideal, but we may need more rest.
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| Even birthday balloons couldn't buoy me up today. I leaned on my poles pretty heavy for those three miles. |
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| Of course we were sick in on of the nicest parts of the trail - Castle Crags is worth a visit. |
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| A dry, limey creek bed reminded us how dry this area can get. |
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