PCT Day 38 – Sulphur Springs
18.4 miles, near 406.6
• Carie woke me up in the middle of the night to ask why I set the tent up so she was on the side where the bears could get her 🙄
• I was hoping the valve on my sleeping pad was just not tight enough, but that was not the case, and I woke up on the ground again.
• We began the morning on the trail for a mile before being forced to take an alternate route. There was a trail closure for the endangered “mountain yellow-legged frog”, which meant a 5 mile road walk on hwy 2 and a detour through a campground to hook back up with the PCT. We hoped to get a hitch for the 3 miles of road walk, but only saw 1 maintenance vehicle rip through.
• Not much of a view from the road, but we did pass an abandoned ski hill with 1 tiny lift.
• We stopped for a snack before rejoining the main trail and stopped for lunch a few hours later. The flies were awful all day and wouldn’t leave us alone.
• We hit mile 400 in the afternoon, another quick break and photo op.
• We spotted some houses around the bend and checked for cell service. We got a few bars, enough to stop us for 20 minutes to check all our apps. Finding lots of breaks today.
• Our friends mentioned getting attacked by fire ants because they accidentally rested too close to an anthill. I guess when ants and bees get worked up into a frenzy like that, they produce an artificial banana type smell in the air. I had never heard of this before.
• My feet were really barking by the time we reached camp. We stopped at a developed campground with picnic tables and fire rings. There was also a small stream running nearby so we had all the water we needed. We made 3 dinner meals to share and stayed up talking around the campfire.
• We had a fun time watching the dudes across the way try to hang a bear bag rope on a massive tree with no low limbs. For some reason they hung an entire pack up there.
