Fishing Again

Fishing at Echo Lake.

Feeling good, feeling strong

After quiet a few days out in the bush, Aaron and I are feeling strong but tired.  Personally, I am actually starting to really find comfort in our tent, finally.  Funny how things change, priorities and all, out on the trail, you really begin enjoying the small simple things, society is so easy...  Days are relentlessly long and dry, really looking forward to some wet weather.  We both enjoyed a swim in an alpine lake that was freezing but the sun was out and we were lost in the middle of no where, no one in site.  Thank god for these lakes, Aaron and I smell very ripe...  Every one was right, it's really hard keeping up with calories, I know I have lost a bit, going to have to get Aaron a pizza every day for month after this thing. 

Desolation

Back log due to lack of service:Forced to skip this last section due to no water, we just made it through the Desolation Wilderness where we spent a couple days of R&R in the high lakes, fishing.  There's another section that this time the USFS is advising is very difficult due to lack of sustainable water sources.  Desolation was awesome.  Aaron and I are going on a surf trip up the coast very soon, where there is lots of water.  We are also planning a kayaking/fishing trip for 3 days or so...

Forest Service

Since we were relatively close to town we decided to head into town for the USFS office to ask why all the water sources on the trail (about 20 miles was dry, I'm talking some serious river and lakes).  Turns out this last winter was the driest on record, which was bad enough to dry out some of the smaller rivers and lakes... I was like really... all the research I did and talking on forums I didn't know this and in my opinion, the USFS was negligent.  I let that lady know the reality of the situation and this little fact could have landed us  on "I Shouldn't Be Alive", melodramatic??  I don't think so it was freaking hot and dry, no water source for two days and it would have been another 16 miles till we found one.  Any ways, this has derailed our trek a bit but we will adapt.  Planning on skipping this 30 mile section thats completely dry and moving to Desolation, we got our permits... then finishing and maybe a couple days kayaking on the big lake, both of use are excited. Below are some pics of us navigating down to town, beautiful but it was so agonizing seeing so much water after two days without any water and the hot temps.  hahah pretty funny.  we are both in great spirits and really enjoying all the adventure and beauty.  We both agree, civilization has its positives... hahaha.  Playing lots of chess every night.

About the Force

We were forced to go down the and find water because this place is bone dry.  I actually got to use the compass and map as it was intended to be used and it worked (or better yet I used it right and it worked) haha.  Aaron and I got a motel room from a really cool guy for only $30, probably because we looked burned and poor, hahah. Obviously there is no camping in town so we were forced, which was really nice. Both of us were pretty dehydrated, we got a good meal (roma pizza), some beer and plenty if H2O. 

Force

Been hiking long and hard, ran out of water almost two days ago, it's hot and we need some water.  Both of us decided to hike off trail down dried river in search of twin lake, or houses, or town for H2O.  Dont worry, I got a compass and I know how to use it, only 12 miles off course.

Day 5

We hiked about 10 miles today, and headed into Heavenly to resupply.  Funny thing that happened- we ran out of water about a day before and we had miles to do still before we got into town or close to a reliable water source.  We ran into this lady on the trail and started talking with her exchanging info, names and where from's and she gave us some local info.  We pressed on and checked a few houses that had no occupancies for water but sure enough the water was turned off.  A few miles later there was an older man working on his car and we asked him a few questions from which he was.kind enough to answer and we asked for some water from his hose, which he was happy give... thankfully.  We were happy to press on knowing we had plenty of water, finally after 5 miles or so we found the elusive trail head, hiked about a mile in before changing our minds, seemed much quicker to take the highway down to the little village so we turned around and headed down the highway.  We were hiking two hours and we still had about 5 hours to go when a 4 Runner pulls off to the side of the road and the lady from the trail pops out and says "You boys want a rids down into town", kindly wd accept.  To make a story short, turns out we talked to her husband (the one that gave us water, the two were from Rancho Bernardo, and there kids too had gone to Humboldt state, they had just moved up there and she was concerned with the directions her hjsband had given us so she said she was going to go down the highway to see if she.could find us and she did.  Pretty funny, what a small world.  Needless to say, she and her husband really helped us out... people up here are pretty kind.  We resupplied this time with some higher calorie foods, got a pizza and made camp outside of town, today we are going to relax a bit we have been averaging 11 miles a day so we are feeling beat but both of us can tell we feel stronger.  Entering the desolation wilderness soon, pretty excited about that.  Aaron and I have been having some fun, last nivht we played chess all night, Nana well done teaching Aaron chess, he got my queen early on but I rallied back (would have felt really humbled to have lost to my little bro, glad I didn't on the first game), we decided to play at least once a night...