Day 5

Hyatt Lake wildcat camp - South Brown Mountain Shelter (19.1 miles)

Today was a hard day. Despite catching a beautiful and foggy morning over the lake, I woke up in a funk and wasn’t feeling well (mind/body/spirit).

I was a little queasy at breakfast so couldn’t really eat. We packed up and walked on. Every step was an effort for the first 7 miles. I was leaden and emotional and low energy.

We hiked through the recently burned section of the Hyatt Lake Fire (burned earlier this month) and the area was eerie and devastated. The ash was everywhere and there were huge holes in the ground where it was clear entire trees and their root systems has simply incinerated. Before the trip, Rica and I had both seen reports of this fire when it was burning, but neither of us told the other so as to not cause undue anxiety. It was walking through this destruction today that I had my first thought of “what am I doing here??” I let the emotions flow as I had nothing else to do but walk on.

Finally the queasiness I was fighting all day subsided and we stopped for a break at an aqueduct. I was able to eat some protein and rest by the water and felt rejuvenated! Somehow, the next 4 miles to our water source flew by and I got my second wind.

We spent a lazy 2 hours at the water source and both felt refreshed after. I think part of what was hard was that I suspected today would have minimal views and an unremarkable camp spot… sometimes, you just have a day on the trail, but each step brings me closer north.

About 3 miles from camp the mosquitos really started to get bad so we broke out our head nets for the first time and have never looked cooler. We were eaten alive all the way to camp and then… they got worse. There were some other hikers who were already there, but the mosquitos were so bad we ate in our tents and turned in for the night. Tomorrow is another day and our first resupply at Fish Lake! We have planned a few easy days coming up, so hopefully that will be refreshing!

Onward.