Getting started on trail today felt like the beginning of a whole different life. After spending so much time in the Sierra, enjoying whatever came my way and and any blue-blaze (secondary route) or sidequest I happened upon, it was time to get serious (ish). I woke up while it was still dark this morning, packed up my minimal cowboy camp and headed up the ridge. A steep climb up Devil’s Peak, followed by an extremely hot, dry, and exposed section along the tops to me into camp. I hiked through red, dusty trail until reaching Cook and Green Pass, covering 13.3 miles, 21.4 km.

I woke up this morning at 5 am and it was still fully dark. I just cowboy camped on my foam mat last night since it was so hot; packing up took all of 30 seconds. I had some breakfast and coffee, and was ready to go by 6 am.

As the sun rose, the trail revealed itself to me. There was tough overgrowth on both sides in places, and sparse forest in others. Out here, things felt very different to what I had become used to in the Sierra.

As I climbed up to the ridge, I passed through burned forest, and emerged onto an exposed section of trail with fantastic views up the valley towards Mt Shasta. The heatwave was in full effect, and once again I find my reflective umbrella was a lifesaver.

I spent hours walking along the hot ridgeline, encountering only two hikers along the way, both southbound. Along this section, I saw the first rattlesnake since leaving the desert, hundreds of miles ago. For months, rattlesnakes hadn’t even been on my radar. I was pleased to see that this one was just as chill as most of the others I’d encountered in the first 700 miles.

At the end of the day, I reached a forestry road junction with camping and a spring nearby. I decided to cowboy camp again, this time with my air mattress for a better rest. I met two other northbound hikers here, Camilo and Inferno Man. It was nice to see that I’m still with other NOBOs, but the required pace back here is 30-35 miles per day, which is a bit much for me to handle right now. For now, a good night rest is all I need to think about.