(Mile 387 to 407
via Burkhart Trail detour. This adds 1
mile. 3 accidental miles. 24 miles)
 |
| Gumby gettin' her rock hoppin' on. |
Well, we were
off to a good start this morning with the old endangered species detour. The old detour is about 5 miles, missing 4 of
the PCT; the new detour is about 18. We
chose the old reroute for obvious reasons.
(Though, we did meet Iron who accidentally took the long detour. But he's well over 6 foot and didn't seem to
be suffering.)
 |
| The missed turn. |
So, the shorter
detour ... coupled with an accidental detour onto the closed portion of the PCT
for about 1.5 miles. We missed our
detour turn -- a deep left we cruised on by partially because it's easy to miss
and partially because we misunderstood Halfmile's directions. It was a bit of a blow, hiking 3 extra
miles. But we stopped for an early
dinner at our last water source of the day, then put in our headphones, and
were off! Gumby set the pace, and we
raced to mile 407 where we had intended to stay. We arrived before dark. I did the math, and our mileage (errors and
all) is 24 for the day! A high for us.
We are beat up,
tired, sore, and blistered; but we did it, and in good spirits. Tomorrow brings another big day through the
Station Fire burn area -- filled with Poodle Dog Bush and hot, hot sun. Nearly 23 miles to our destination. Think of us as you sip on a Coke in the AC!
 |
| Mystery scat. It's everywhere (prominent places) and looks like tar when dried. No bones or fur or seeds ... |
So my best guess at the scat is Gray Fox, although often you see other stuff like berries in it. But they are notorious for depositing scat in prominent places like on top of rocks, middle of the trail, etc...
ReplyDeleteThanks, Heather! Any idea why it's so runny? A spring thing? I'm used to the canine scat being more strung together. (Scat is one of my favorite things. :)
Deleteit's hard because it doesn't really look like any one species' scat, I'm just going off behavior. Although now that I think about it, raccoons also leave their scat in prominent places, but they also have tubular shaped scat, so I'm stumped. I would look for tracks next time to help solve the mystery.
ReplyDeleteI may be off the mark, but instead of scat, I think you are looking at a fungus that appears about this time of year and weather conditions. Is it fairly flat, no high center and older samples are brownish along the edges?
ReplyDeleteIt does look like tar and is stiff when dry. Lou
I can't believe you waited until Day 29 to publish your first picture of scat! Scat definitely is one of your favorite things! Papa...rjk...
ReplyDelete