Am I in the Smokies?

Day 4x August 10.

It was hard to leave such a lovely tent site, but the trail called.

The mornning was cool, generally downhill, with plenty of water. Early on I passed a small lake with some backpackers. I waved. The smartest one among them shouted a question to me “Are you a southbounder?” I yelled back “No shit, Sherlock.” Truthfully, I just answered “yes” and went on my way.

A familiar pattern now, the day grew hotter, water more scarce, and I was getting wiped out in the afternoon. In fact, I dabbled in some very unclassy behavior. I was down to about a half liter of water when I crossed a paved road that led to a trail town called Etna. I actually waited there for about 15 minutes. My plan was to shake my empty water bottle as a sign to a passing motorist I needed water. It was sissy stuff, but I thought I’d give it a try since it was still 5 miles until my next source. No cars came.

I started up the trail and 10 minutes later I met a day hiker coming down. Since I had thrown away my backpacker pride with my willingness to flag down motorists, I doubled down and asked her is she had any spare water. She looked away and then stammered that she only had a little left and needed it to get to her car. It was a pretty bad lie, but I respected the quick elaboration compared to a simple “no.”

Plodding along, I eventually made it to a great water source and drank up. Cold spring water is always the best. I renewed my commitment to always drink a liter when I am at a water source. I brought an extra liter with me when I left.

The sky grew incredibly smoky. Earlier, I had seen a plume down in the valley towards Mt. Shasta. But I suddenly found myself in thick, smelly smoke, and visibility dropped rapidly. The wind had picked up from the other side of the ridge which was west. I panicked a little and sent a satellite text to Helen asking if there was a fire near me. She replied there was not, but there was a Salmon fire more towards the coast and that seemed a plausible explanation with a strong wind from the west.

Late in the day the trail began a relatively steep slope for quite some time. I must’ve passed eight northbounders in this one section. It was getting dark, but after the previous night’s tent site, I again wanted to sleep up high. I stopped to take a few eerie sunset photos, put on my headlamp, and pushed to reach the saddle where my campsite was located.

Fortunately, I had it all to myself. I had some great views up at the sky, but there were no real views outward in the smoky dark. I pitched my tent and ate in the dark. There was one strong night gust of wind, but then it was totally silent. Just me sleeping on a mountain pass with stars, smoke and nothing else.