The Naked Trail

5/10/10 Zac slept inside a forest service truck in a shed on the outskirts of town last night. When he got moving this morning he went to check to see if a package he had been waiting for had arrived. The postal worker gave him a post card from his Aunt Lou and Uncle Dwight from Chester S.C. and told him that was all he had. He was thrilled to get word from loved ones and that alone was worth the trip to town but that package was needed and was the main reason he hiked the 4 miles off the trail in the first place. He asked her to check again and she suddenly realized that his package had been put in the wrong bin. “Ahhh, here it is” she said. And with that the day began on a brighter note and he was on his way again. He was unable to hitch a ride back to the tail head so he hiked four miles before actually starting the trail. The day started out foggy but turned into a nice warm day and Zac made good time. He went by Deep Creek Hot Springs. He would have spent some time there but there were too many naked people there. Everyone was running around skinny dipping he said. He also said he didn’t recognize anyone. Ha ha. I guess that was a good thing. He decided to move up the trail some before stopping to eat lunch. He caught up with a group of eight hikers he knew and walked with them for a while. He crossed Deep creek later in the day and the water was up to his waist. He said he more concerned about falling in that he was about freezing. He crossed in good fashion and after changing into some dry shorts he continued on. (He was mailed a small box of clothes this morning) About 500 yards down the trail he saw a place to cross that was only ankle deep. Oh well….He made good time hiking today, almost 20 miles, and was trying to cut the distance between the group he left the day before and himself. He did talk to the Golden Child by phone today and their group was still about ¾ of a day ahead of him. Tonight he was camped in the bottom of a canyon in a boulder field to try to get out of the harsh winds that were whipping around. The wind made it difficult to set up the tent. Zac said it took thirty minutes to tie it down to the rocks. He smoothed out the sand between the rocks to make it as comfortable as he could. The big boulders around his camp were blocking some of the wind. He was eating a dinner of peanut butter and snicker bar because it was just too windy to light his camp stove. He plans to reach Wrightwood by Friday. He wants to get an early start in the morning to make up even more space between himself and the group ahead of him.