Brainless Hike

Trust me, views in the distance are to kill for

The plan for this hike was simple, do Skyline to the Sea Trail in two, instead of traditional three, days. On the way, one has to camp in preassigned campgrounds, and since they are spaced evenly, and we were skipping the first one, we had a long day ahead of us on Saturday, a bit over 20mi. Now I have hiked 20mi in one day before but never with a full pack and never in brand new boots. Yes, I am still obsessing over boots for our summer trek.

We started at Castle Rock State Park which is off the official trailhead but the beauty of this part of the trail and the views are hard to miss while the official trail goes along a busy road. This time the entire area was enveloped in fog denying us views but making our trek quite enchanting. On the request of my teen, we started much later than I would have liked to but still there were no people on the trail in this very popular park, and it seemed like the place belonged us alone.

BTW, this park will be saved from closures after all (YES!!!) because it provides access to the seashore and thus closing it would violate some federal laws.

We met one parson, a ranger, a baby ranger, really, in his very early 20's. Later on we noticed that all park employees we dealt with were surprisingly very, very young, and unfortunately very, very inexperienced. So what happened to the people who used to work for CA State Parks? Is this some another insane money saving scheme? Don't older people need to eat too?

Once we got to the forested area it felt like rain. Big water drops kept falling down soaking us silly. This is how many California trees, gigantic redwoods among them, deal with long stretches without rain. They drink fog water which condensates on their leaves and drops to the ground. Somehow we did not feel justified to pull our ponchos out and enjoyed the cool wetness.

We have done this trail numerous times in sections and once the whole thing. It is a very easy to follow, well marked tail. I was even considering leaving our map at home but then decided against it. Smart move because... should I just brag to you about our hike or admit that... we got lost? Don't ask me how. I have no idea how that was enen possible but somewhere we made a wrong turn. How is that for building confidence for our JMT hike this summer? Thank goodness we know Skyline to the Sea Trail quite well, really. After some time we noticed that the surroundings looked totally unfamiliar. Now a forest is a forest so how we could tell that it was not the forest we remembered, I don't know, but at one point both, my son and I just stopped and looked at each other and commented that we had never been here before. We had no clue how long ago we had veered off the official trail either and how far we would have to go back. Considering that we had already a long day planned, we were not looking forward to any adding additional miles.

That was a good time to stop for lunch and map studying. To make things more interesting, my reading glasses broke making map reading possible but rather difficult. So, I decided, trusting mom that I am, to rely on my teen's map reading skills hoping he had any. Since I am here writing this post, you have probably all guessed that I survived. I can assure you, my teen did to. He figured out where we were and found another way of getting us to the campground and with only 2 extra miles added to our planned 20. Not too bad but let me just tell you that those two last miles were tough on my my feet and on my mind.

Along the trail we saw only a few hikers but when we got to Big Basin State Park's Headquarter, the area was a zoo. It is a very popular destination with many car/RV campgrounds often reserved months in advance. Most people come just to admire old redwoods but some brave a hike and venture to see beautiful waterfalls.

Who needs picnic tables?

Mercifully the trail camp is set away from the crowds and while one can still hear the noise, it feels secluded. Only one site has a picnic table but it was already taken. We were happy to use a large log for our dinner table instead.

We set camp and I tended to my blisters. Another newbie mistake cost me two big ones on each foot. For 20 miles my feet felt quite comfortable but the last 2 miles were a bit more difficult. I did feel two hot spots but I kept thinking that I would check them when we got to the campground. What is two miles after all? I know better than that. I really do but do I listen to myself when I talk reason? So I paid the price. Fortunately we both took our Merrell Gloves, just in case something like that happened so the next day I hiked in those while my son decided to go barefooi.

I have never felt so famished in my entire life. I am not kidding. I thought I could eat our entire food supplies not leaving anything for my teen. No long run has ever made me feel this hungry and even though, I thought, our dinner portions were big, I went to sleep listening to my stomach beg for more food. I was to tired to oblige.

I am a morning bird. Actually I usually wake up way before any birds do. Getting out of the tent was a challenge because I was stiff as a board. I should have stretched the night before but I did not. Yes, I am lazy. My muscles rebelled and just refused to cooperate but strangely enough my feet felt fine as if I had not hiked at all. I made myself some tea and went through few yoga poses. That helped a lot. Then a short walk, hot tea in hand, and I was like brand new, ready to tackle the rest of the trail.

Day number 2 greeted us with sun

The patient mother that I am (you do believe me, right?), I allowed my teen a couple more hours of sleep while I listened to the birds' morning symphony. What a treat that was. Around the time my son woke up, other campers started stirring also, slamming their car's doors, calling to each other as if they needed to fill the silence with their voices. It was time to eat a quick breakfast and hit the trail.

This was our easy day, only 12 miles. I thought I would never say a thing like that. 12 miles in my mind seemed like nothing. Another surprise was was how easy it was to get out of the park HQ area. There is a mile, I think, long climb that used to intimidate me. This time, even with packs, it seemed like nothing. We both felt rested and strong.

Like the trail goes only in
one direction?
Guess which direction we were going?

This day started with a sun peaking through the trees but temperatures stayed very comfortable for the rest of the hike. For more than half of the trail we were alone again. Now one really cannot get lost on this part of the trail even though the trail markers are kind of funny.

Half way through we stopped for a small snack and admired the waterfall. This year rains made it spectacular, the best I have seen it yet. I just wanted to stay there forever.

Berry Creek Falls

So since we did not get lost, did not grow any new blisters, covered only 12 miles, there is not that much more to write about. Unlike on many other hikes, I did not feel like pondering the issues of relationships or problems our humanity faces. It was rather a brainless hike. I just looked around, took tons of pictures, talked a little with my son, but not too much, since neither of us (especially he, teen that he is) felt like chatting, we just plodded along.

Before we knew it, we could see the ocean. And a few minutes later we spread ourselves on the beach waiting for our ride to my car at the trailhead.

So:

I finally have boots that work for me. Yes, I got blisters but that was my own stupidity. From all the reports I am getting from JMT now, we have to have something more sturdy on our feet this early in the season. The snow is melting but not fast enough and kicking in steps in soft shoes is not an option. Our plan is to use boots only for snow fields and hike the rest in Merrell Gloves.

We promised ourselves to pay better attention to the trail. Getting lost is just not vey smart.

Addressing hot spots before blisters form is something I have always lectured kids I took on hikes with me on. I guess nobody lectured me.

I was glad to see that the SPOT beacon worked. I've been having some issues with it before and on Friday I spent almost two hours with customer service trying to figure out what was wrong. SPOT messages are very short but it is better than nothing and it gives me a peace of mind that I can also send an SOS with our exact coordinates should we get totally lost, eat all our food supplies and start dying of starvation. :-)

He still thinks he wants to do JMT even though there is no beach at the end