Day 51 (24 June)

Miles 706.6 to 725. Rivercamp to forestcamp.

​The next day we get up early. Brad remains sleeping as he has had a terrible night - he is just not used to sleeping in a tent anymore! The three of us quickly make our way up the first mountains, stopping for breakfast in a beautiful spot overlooking the green valley, enjoying the first rays of sun.

​We are hiking fast because we know a river is coming up and we are so excited to go swimming again! When we get there already a lot of hikers are there chilling in the grass. This is only the beginning of the Sierras but oh boy, we are so ready for more of this! Bring on the creeks, rivers and lakes, forests, and mountain passes!

​In the afternoon a huge climb is waiting for us. I urge the guys to go ahead because usually I am the slowliest and I don‘t feel comfortable when the others have to slow down because of me. It takes a while to convince them to go ahead but then they go and off into the quiet and steep forest I walk, listening to an audiobook, concentrating on my breathing. About 40 minutes later I find Dario sitting on a log, with a big grin on his face. „I have some good news and I have some bad news. First, we are already half way up - yaaay, second, we lost Simon.“ He went up the wrong way. Apparently Dario yelled after him but Simon was listening to AC/DC on his earphones, his go-to music for serious uphill climbs, so he wasn‘t hearing Dario screaming his name. We figure he will realize his error soon, return to the trail and catch up with us quickly anyway, and start climbing again. Sure enough, there‘s Simon waiting for us at the next water source. No idea how he got up there - such a mountain goat! This would totally be our trail name for him if we hadn‘t already named him BBC Radio. He is the most entertaining person to hike with. You name a subject - he can tell you an elaborate story! I honestly am not much of a talker when the hiking gets tough, so I much enjoy Simon‘s company where he mostly does the talking and I can just listen to his fabulous British accent.

Anyway, we finally reach the top and now only have 2 miles downhill to reach the campsite. We are still walking in the woods, the setting sun is poaking through the leaves and branches of the large Sequoia trees. Life is grand in moments like these! Except for the mozzies, because this is the time of day when they like to greet us greedily. Bloody mozzies! So we quickly set up our tent and hurry inside to „clean“ ourselves and make dinner. It‘s still BBC Radio, Brad, Dario and I at this point. Hopefully Wizard and Thibaud will catch up soon.