My sleep schedule is on point; I’ve been sleeping 10+ hours per night and feeling very refreshed, even though I’m walking before first light.
It feels so efficient and productive, and I’m elated.
I don’t pack everything up properly in the morning, I just stuff it in the pack and I go. There’s no tent stakes, no extra clutter to keep track up.
I just, go.
I stop at a stream before sunrise, and I sit next to a couple of spiders that are completely still.
We have a chat.
I didn’t catch their names, and they weren’t talkative, but I’m glad to have met them.
As I come off Oakley Mountain, the trail goes along a paved walkway, right next to Chief Ladiga campground.
Apparently the campground owner is difficult to get along with, and isn’t very welcoming.
I’m not sure why backpackers would stay at a campground anyway, since you can just walk several hundred feet away and stay at an arbitrary place on the trail, so I just walk on by.
I cone upon a handwritten sign that says this section of the trail is closed due to logging. Signed, USFS.
So official.
I bet that’s some solid advice, or at least that’s what I think as I walk right by it.
Apparently there’s a road walk that goes around this section, but a handwritten 8x11 letter isn’t what I would consider trustworthy.
It’s Christmas weekend, and as expected, there’s no one working. Clearly they were, as they left all their massive logging machines here.
I wonder if the keys are in the vehicles.
I bet this area was really dangerous when they were active, I think I as I step over some downed trees.
This was the right day to walk this space.