Day 100 - A Brutal Day

Mile 1632.1 to Mile 1663.6 - 31.5 miles

I picked a hell of a day to record my first 30 miler!! It all started with a 15 mile downhill stretch which sounds easy but was anything but... I was in a major burn area the whole way which afforded little shelter. At the campground at the bottom the ranger there explained that the 2014 fire burnt an area the size of Austria. A helicopter was working the area hauling out old logs to allow recovery. One victim was this bridge

So Ranger (the hiker) shows how you navigate a tricky section on a log

A nice surprise at the 15 mile mark was Pop Tart & Chance doing some trail angels work with cold drinks & hot dogs.
The next brutal part of the day was a 6 mile road walk as part of the PCT - in the middle of the day in 109 degrees Fahrenheit  (I don't want to know what that is in celcius). Apparently we were lucky as it was 114 degrees yesterday. The road reminded me of Murchison or the Whanganui River Road with the Saied River close by. It was good to see we had our own road sign though

At the Saied Valley store there was a gaggle of hikers awaiting the heat to dissipate before taking on the exposed 5000 foot climb

While there, I got the chance to catch up with Topo & a number of other hikers who had converged at Saied including Tiptoe, Digger, Proton etc  At 6.00 pm Topo & I set off on the climb. The late start was a smart move as the intensity had gone out of the sun. At 10.30 pm I had reached my target although I was sick of night hiking & had set up camp. I was joined 30 minutes later by Sebastian. All this hard work will pay off as I think I can make Oregon tomorrow.
One unusual thing from the previous night was an animal or hungry hiker chewing on my hiking pole handle

Maybe a chipmunk or squirrel or deer or sasquatch....Weta