RIVER OTTERS! Hit the 4C trail on April 17-18 with the intention of hiking end-to-end and back (40 miles total). Many readers may recall it rained that weekend (flooded would be a better term). Started out Friday evening (with Jason) saying this is insane (only because of a "little" rain) and camped about a mile in on the trail and it actually stopped raining that night. Hit the trail Saturday AM only to be inundated with water (which we knew would happen...thats why its INSANE!). But hike we did and we were rewarded with a sighting of four RIVER OTTERS (evidently very rare) in the Big Slough area...playing in the waters deepend by the unrelenting rains....so the slogging was definitely worth it.
After hiking apx 10 miles (that would be NAUTICAL miles in the water) to the shelter, where we intended to eat lunch but decided camping would be better since we were completely water logged (deep water on much of the trails), we were out of luck as the shelter was already occupied. So the decision was made to slog it back Saturday afternoon, another 11 miles...for a total of 21 miles for the day. However, we decided that a correct calculation of mileage would be to credit ourselves 1.5 miles per mile for hiking in ankle deep water, 2 miles per mile for knee deep water, and 3 miles per mile for class 2 rapids on the trail....I think we probably did 40 miles so call it a success! Ha!
We are off on the Lone Star Trail (almost) thru hike starting Thursday May 7 through Sunday May 10 (time constraints hit us) so we expect to do about 60-65 miles. That will conclude the long hikes, so anyone out there who is wanting to just get acquainted with trail backpacking on some easy, short trips, let me know...its time for a little more relaxing on the trail!
Greg
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