It was a pretty long day. I was so sleepy when I first woke I wanted to sleep in some more. I started getting ready a bit after six, but for a number of reasons, including repairing a hole in my left sun glove, I didn’t get packed up and out until after 8.
And even then, it took another five minutes to get to the trail. The road I had camped on was actually way down the hill from the trail. Although it eventually met the trail if I continued along it, it would require a two mile detour before it got there, skipping a section of the trail less than a mile long. So I started my day by climbing straight up a wooded hillside. Then, I followed a doe and her newborn fawn up the hill until I got to the Cold Springs Trailhead.
I don’t know why it’s called the Cold Springs Trailhead because Cold Springs was more than 15 miles away from it and way off the trail. But there was a comment for it on Guthook that said “Prepare to bushwhack for about 10 miles.” Right after beginning up the hill, I met a hiker coming the other way dressed in a khaki costume that said “park ranger without the patches.” He said there was no bushwhack ahead, the trail was good except for occasional blowdowns and there was a ton of good scenery. So the comment must have been about the trail north of that point, referring to the bushwhack I had already done the previous day, which had not lasted anywhere close to ten miles. What a pleasant surprise.
That wasn’t the last hiker I saw that day. There were a dozen or more. Some of them I spoke to and some I just mumbled pleasantries to in passing. All in all, it was the most other hikers I have seen in a day since in 2021.
Shortly after my morning snack break (a notable occasion because a critical balance strap which had been taking a lot of weight and slowly coming apart finally snapped as I loaded up to great out), I was startled by a bird, some kind of pheasant or grouse I think, suddenly jumping down into the trail and doing an intimidating display, running past me, and doing the same thing on the other side, before stalking back and forth around me for several minutes. I recorded what followed.
There was also plenty of water on trail. Every mile or so, there was a stream flowing right over the trail. Sometimes there was a stream flowing along the trail. Sometimes, the trail was a giant pool with water coming in and out at different places. One time, on a rocky outcropping under a melting glacier, water ran into caves cut by previous snowmelt and under the trail. Once, late in the day, a stream flowed through a steep meadow filled with thousands of centipedes. No matter where I was on this hillside, I could stop and look in any direction and see a centipede.
So I arranged my day around the water. I stopped for lunch in a shady grove in the middle of the longest dry stretch. I took my afternoon snack on the shore of Paradise Lake and collected water from the spring that fed it. I had supper on a rock on a hillside next to a pair of streams.
But with the late start and all the ups and downs, by the time I ate supper I had gone less than thirteen miles. I committed then to making it to Cold Springs, another nearly five miles away, no matter how late I got there. I walked into Marble Valley, where some hikers who had passed me earlier were already encamped, then climbed right out the other side. I stopped on the centipede hill to take off my hat and sunglasses as the sun was sinking, but by nine the sun had just set and there was plenty of light. I stopped on top of the next ridge that had cell service just long enough to download a podcast I couldn’t wait for.
It was close to ten when I finally stopped to put on my headlamp and have an after dinner snack. While I sat, a bat swooped past me a couple of times, gliding rather than doing the traditional wild chase trajectory, so I got a really good look. The darkness also brought out to play the most enormous toad I’ve ever seen in the wild.
When I reached the Cold Springs Trail junction, there was a tent set up nearby, but I didn’t bother the occupant. I took the trail all the way down to the spring and past it to a long established campsite. Always best to use an established cleared and leveled site to avoid further impact to the wilderness. It was already 11 by the time I was in my tent and ready for bed.
The few moments I had had cell service had been enough to get in a notification that in two days, the nearby valleys would have a heat wave putting their temperatures at well over a hundred degrees. I was glad that temperatures in the mountains above would be several degrees lower, and that I would be spending at least one of the days of the heat wave inside all afternoon if all went to plan. The other I’d figure out how not to hike in the hottest part of the day.
But all those plans would only come to fruition if I got in another pretty big day of hiking. And given my late finish, there was very unlikely to be an early start.
Trail miles: 17.6
Distance to Etna: 20.6 miles
