Mile 1454.1 to 1472.5 – 18.4 miles total hiked on PCT

I couldn’t see the sunrise from where I camped, but I saw the effect it had on the area and Mount Shasta!!

And (maybe most importantly) it increased my will to continue my hike.

I

I definitely felt the sting in my hand, but didn’t see any obvious swelling or even a puncture wound. It took a little examining, but I did finally find one little dot that might’ve been the spot. For all I knew the stinger was still inside.

And maybe get some trail magic. 😀

As I descended towards McCloud River, the insects start swarming me and I had to put in my mosquito head net. Flies and gnats, but also mosquitoes.

Since I treat all my outer clothing with permathrin, the insects pretty much leave everything except my exposed face alone. Which is why I need the head net to keep them from getting into my face and biting me.

Sometime after that, I felt a really bad sting on my hand. Since my gloves were permathrin treated, that was unusual. I waved my hand and trekking pole to get whatever it is off, on then took off my glove and looked at my hand.

Considering the amount of pain, this thing was it wasn’t mosquito. So a bee, wasp, or hornet were most likely.

Since I was holding my trekking pole, I think something was checking out the smells on the pole and I might’ve accidentally crushed the stinger or the bug and it stung me and flew away.

As far as I know, I wasn’t allergic to stings. But I still kept a close eye on the hand. I even cleaned it with purell and then later some alcohol sweet .

Some of the trail, I hike on this day, ran along the side of a steep crevasse. I’d like to call these kind of trails “Hiking on a knife’s edge”. One slip, and you could be sliced and diced on the way down to the bottom.

After that, I started thinking about my campsite for the night. FarOut information showed a campsite about a mile and a half short of McLeod River.

If I went all the way down to the river there was a formal campground with a pit toilet, although apparently that bathroom had bats!

The campsite on the way down turned out to be just a little clearing off the side of the trail, I decided to do go for the river campground. It was all downhill so maybe I could break my record for Miles hike on the PCT.

After checking my progress for the day and my campsite options, I decided to continue all the way down to McCloud river.

That would also bring my mileage for the day over 18 miles which I had never done before during this year.

Sadly, it was nowhere near sunset time. The sun took on an orange juice hue because of smoke in the air. Fortunately, the smoke was not from a nearby forest fire.

The campground turned out to just be some flat areas next to the river and the afore mentioned pit toilet. Quick check and I didn’t see any bats inside.🦇🦇🦇🦇 Not even Batman.

There was no one else around the campground (no trail magic either), but I found a somewhat isolated pad for my tent and set it up.

The bugs had followed me, so I made sure to zip up the tent after setting it up and kept my head on most of the evening when outside the tent.

After sunset, the bugs left me alone, and I made a point to wash my hair and underwear and hiking shirt with soap and water. After four days on the trail, they were getting very funky. Don’t usually like to do that at the end of the day so hopefully they’ll be dry by the morning.

18.6 Miles hiked on the PCT this day!! That’s the longest I’ve ever hiked this year on the PCT. Or, really ever with a full pack. Patted myself on the back for that. 😄

So except for a few fisherman who showed up around dusk and then left in a car, I saw no other people today.

So, ZERO hikers on the trail in either direction besides me.