Goodbye lush forests, hello burnt areas with no shade.

There have been wildfires in NorCal every 2-5 years for the past 20 years, and the devastation to these forests is still very much there. Burnt husks of trees, overgrown trail, and blowdowns have been a constant. It makes the days very hot, and a bit more mentally challenging to be looking at so much destruction all day.

Overall, I’ve been doing well. A few days after leaving friends I got used to being alone again, and compensated a bit with doing bigger miles. I’m trying to average walking 27-28 miles a day (that means I need to actually hike 30 miles a day, to compensate for resupply days). Doing bigger miles however means I don’t need to carry as much food, as I’m only ever 3-5 days away from the next town.

I still see other hikers with some regularity (Trip, Chip, Atlas, Yeti and Suds) but we aren’t hiking together, it’s more that we’re hiking similar distances every day, and so inevitably pass eachother a few times.

I’ve seen a crapton of deer over the last 10 days, and had some bother me one night keeping me to only 4 hours of sleep. Another night I had a few marmots that wouldn’t leave me alone, so at midnight I got up, hiked for an hour and spent the night in a cabin. Luckily these are infrequent disturbances.

I’m about 12 days away from finishing NorCal, and I can’t wait. I’m ready to finish this massive state, and get to flatter Oregon, where the miles should be less challenging. I also passed the halfway point a few days ago. Despite it taking 3 months to get halfway, the second half of the trail should go by much faster, only taking on average 2 months.

Thanks for being a fan, Noah