Well, Eliza has announced that she is officially bored this afternoon. I am supposed to come up with something fun to pass the time. "The gnats and fruit flies aren't doing it for you?" I ask. Apparently not. Nor are they for me.
We are sitting in the middle of the trail eating "Munchies," some ridiculous cheesy mix with an ingredient list the size of Mongolia. We love them. Eliza is wearing her slick new duct-tape visor. Everyone we pass comments on it, that it is one of the coolest thing they've seen on the trail this year (gear-wise, that is).
The terrain on this side of I-5 is much mellower than the western, Castle Crags side. The grade is easy, the tread is pine needle softened, the views have been nonexistent for the most part, with the exception of some nice shots of Shasta early on today. All in all it makes for fast hiking, but we are both feeling a little lazy. It could be the low elevation and some subtle humidity, combined with the fact that we never rest -- it may finally be getting to us. It is difficult to know though. How important are sweeping vistas and beathtaking cliffside traverses? I would say not all that important in general. How do people get through the AT? There are comparably very few views out there and it is still a wildly popular hiking trail -- the most popular, in fact.
Eliza got sick this afternoon. Lost her lunch off in a thicket of poison oak. The flies have been a nuisance. I decided that we should camp early and take a breather. We deserve it, I reasoned. Eliza is extremely driven, but I don't want her health to be deteriorating so visibly.
So, here we are, camped earlier than we have in weeks, catching up on some writing, just lying around in our little sil-nylon home by the bank of the McCloud River under a stand of Ash trees.
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