South Yuba River Aftermath

 It's the same pattern: crap out the next day, bounce back the day after, and then struggle for several days. It took 6 days in all to recover, about the same amount of time as the aftermath of Reno/Incline Village trip. Let's just hope that I'll be able to avoid this gradual descent and struggle by staying on the road. I've done it many times before, I should be able to. As long as I don't over do it, like Castle Crags.

Hoyt's Crossing Trail

Today I'm making a big loop through Hoyt's Crossing and Edward's Crossing via Nevada City. Hopefully I will be able to make a charging stop at Marriott Court Yard in Grass Valley to power the loop and then make it back to Loomis supercharger. Maybe I'll also stop at The Range in Grass Valley for a shooting practice while waiting till 4PM. I don't want to get to Mountain Dog swimming hole off Edward's Crossing too early; it is Saturday and there will be no place to park till late in the afternoon.

The road to Hoyt's Crossing from the campsite was a lot better than the one from Edward's Crossing. The Grizzly Hill Road out of the camp ground is unpaved for only about a mile and it was infinitely more passable than the one from Edward's Crossing. Then it is paved all the way to Route 49, a scenic highway adorned with rolling granite/volcanic rocks. 

I got to Old Route 49 Bridge Crossing at 10AM. It was Saturday and the parking was already getting scarce. I managed a spot on a pull-over stop about 100 yards away on the north side of the bridge. Another 30 minutes, it probably would've been impossible to find a parking spot and I would've had mosquitos to blame then. They stayed active till past 8AM and I had to wait till they died down. I really have to get a DEET spray for the next time.

It was just a beautiful day. Bright, hot and beautiful. The bridge over the canyon, the river and emerald pool underneath all came together under the exploding sun.

As tempting as the emerald pool under the bridge was, I hopped on the trail without making a stop. This sparrow in the granary had bigger fish to fry this time -- he read about many secluded pools up the trail. It is an in-and-out trail  for the total 1.6 miles, but it was steeper than I expected. It went up and down following the river. And you had to climb down quite a bit to get to the river. At about half a mile mark, I spotted a large pool. I rounded the corner to see if there was a better alternative and then climbed down for it. I was exhausted by then and I wasn't feeling ambitious enough to look for a better one.

I couldn't locate the pool when I got down. I walked about a bit, and asked the topless girl who just came out of the water if the pool was deep enough to swim. She said it was in the middle of the pool. I considered for a second and then climbed back up to see if I can locate that pool again. Turned out, it was that pool. The thing only looked larger from distance. I didn't feel like going down again; I got exhausted getting down to it and then climbing back up. I figured I would take a dip in the main pool at the trail head. A few hundred yards from it, however, was a bigger pool that was easier to get to. 

I spent an hour in that pool alternating between dipping in the water and sunning on a rock. I didn't swim; I was cramping all over in the cold water and cramping is the last thing you want to do in water. More people came as time went on and the pool was getting packed: family with children; a group of young people with a tent for shade; a man and a naked women further upstream. This trail is popular with nudists.

I left there around 12:30. I was going to plug in my car in Grass Valley and have lunch there before heading to The Range for a shooting practice. But the Tesla charger at the hotel was kaput: it only did 2.5kw instead of 17kw. Now I didn't have enough electrons to make it to Mountain Dog and then back home. I decided to give up on Mountain Dog and go back home after the shooting practice. It's close enough; I can come back for it any time.

A gun show was going on in the parking lot of The Range. The guy at the door said the lanes weren't open because of the gun show. No Mountain Dog, and now no lane. I thought things weren't working out today. Then the guy next said they might be open and told me to ask at the desk. They were not only open, it was free. It was the Father's Day and lanes were free for fathers. I wasn't going tell them I wasn't one, of course. The day worked out just like that, after all.

Day Off at the Camp

 Alright, it's now 30 minutes into the hot hours and I'm starting to sweat despite the constant water spray. The water is not evaporating -- the air is as still as a corpse. Will I be able to stick it out till 5PM? Stay tuned. I'll stay in the shade and write blogs till then. If I get tired of it, I'll play guitar or edit photos. I have enough to keep me entertained even without the Internet.

12:20AM, It's still bearable. The occasional breeze pushes hot air into shade, but the dry air still helps evaporate water and sweat. I'm sweating but that doesn't matter; I'm half naked and I'll take a bath this evening. I just need to stay hydrated. So far so good.

It's now 1PM and I'm still not hungry. The heat must be suppressing my appetite. I was going do some cooking today, but I gave up on that idea. It's just no fun cooking when hot. I'll instead have a can of soup and bread. I left the bread in the fridge so it's nice and cold. And the salty soup will hit the spot. 

1:30 PM, now I'm all fed, hydrated and content. I think I'll crawl into the tent and take a nap. I threw a heat shield on the tent in the morning and the inside of the tent is actually a bit cooler than the outside. See? I told you, the sun is the enemy. You reflect the sunlight back into the space, and the temperature drops. They should seriously think about the sunlight reflector in the sky to solve the global warming problem.

1:45 PM, the tent is no longer cooler than outside. The hot air blowing in from outside equalized the temperature. I'll sit under the tree and do some more photo editing and then crawl into the back of the car if I get tired. I still have options to beat the heat.

2:15PM, the computer is almost out of battery. I'll plug it in and crawl into the back of the car while it charges.

3:50PM. The problem with climbing in the car is that it is hard to climb back out. What was bearable before no longer is once you are acclimatized to the air conditioner. I could stay in and roll around till the sun goes down, but I need to conserve the juice. The nearest supercharger is 50 miles away in Loomis or Yuba City, and spending 100 miles and 3 hours to gain extra 100 miles is not worth the trouble. And running the air conditioner in hot weather takes about 5 miles off the tank per hour. Now I have 91 miles left in the tank which would be barely enough to make the loop through Hoyt's Crossing and and Mountain Dog via Nevada City, and then make it back home the next day. I will have to stop at Marriott in Grass Valley for some extra juice. They have a Tesla charger and may let me plug in for an hour which will be good for 50 extra miles.

4PM, the heat has abated a bit. I'm not spraying water and yet I haven't fainted with heat stroke. The hot hours are from 11AM to sundown, but the worst is between 1PM and 4PM, it appears. Just keep hydrated for a few more hours and I'll be alright. If I get tired of water, I have Pepsi in the fridge.

5:30PM. The day is coming to an end and I need to bathe before mosquitos return. I'm getting very good at conserving water: I use less than a gallon to bathe and wash my clothes at the same time. I'll need to reformulate Dr. Bronner's soap though. I took only about a spoonful of it and diluted into a quart. It obviously wasn't enough: it left my hair still a bit sticky even after soaping up twice.

7:30PM. There still is some sun left, but mosquitos returned. I'm moving indoor and staying there till they go away. It's still too warm to cook, so I'll wait.

8:30PM. The sun is completely gone and it is starting to get dark. I need to cook and eat before it gets too dark. I don't feel like elaborate cooking; it's still too warm for that. I'll just fix a ramen soup. The salty soup will be nice after a sweaty day. I'm sweating again while cooking.

9:30PM. Mosquitos don't go away when the sun goes down. The air is thick with mosquitos all evening long. I made a mistake of going out topless to brush my teeth and I got bitten all over. I'll have to get a DEET spray. And get the indoor plumbing worked out so that I don't have to go outdoor to brush my teeth or pee while mosquitos are active.

Epilogue:

It appears that I can manage the heat. But it's not that fun. I need to lie down and rest on my off days to manage my ME/CFS and the heat prevents me from doing that. I'll have to avoid heat by following the snowbird schedule and stay high during the summer. If the heat is unavoidable, then I'll just go to hotel and rest. Whatever I do, I'll need to keep in mind that I'm doing this to rehabilitate myself out of ME/CFS; the last thing I want to do is to make it worse by over-stressing my body.

Illinois Crossing, South Yuba River

The biggest enemy of hobos is the sun. The heat it generates, to be more precise. When cold, you can bundle up or turn on the heat. When hot, however, you have no choice other than to look for a shelter in cool shade or air-conditioned building. Often neither of which is available. I could stay in the car and turn on the air conditioner, but there is only so much you can do in a car. You could sit in the front and do some work. Or you could climb in the back and lie down. Either way, it's not exactly a spacious living even for the hobo's standard.

This was supposed to be my day off. But I could feel the air getting stuffy by 11AM and I decided to stroll down to the river to escape the heat. It looked to be about a mile total on Google map. But it turned out to be a mile one way, not exactly a stroll. Add all the ups and downs, the elevation change was about 400 feet too. Yes it was within my limit, but I was tired from the activities the day before: packing, loading, driving, shooting and climb down at Edward's crossing. Add to that wading through the water to cross the river a few times, it became a full day. It sure was cool in the shade by the river though.

The South side of the river was not only shaded, it had a secluded white sand beach. I first spent a couple of hours in the shade and then went out to explore. I waded the water in all directions then came across this secluded beach, maybe a 100 yard up the river from Illinois Crossing. I had the river and the beach all by myself. Something I've done before in the Great Barrier Reef some 30 years ago. I'm sure I'll come back here. I rolled around there for a couple more hours and then headed back to the camp at 4PM. 

South Yuba River Campground

The great ammo shortage of 2021 must be over. In an off-chance that I may score some, I took the gun with me and  I stopped at Bass Pro in Rocklin on the way to South Yuba River. And guess what? They had heaps of ammo. I grabbed 2 boxes and made a beeline to The Range in Grass Valley for a shooting practice.

The sound of gun going off is not a low rumble that you hear in the movie or video game. It is a firecracker going off. And it is hard not to flinch when a firecracker is going off in your hand. I'll have to fix that the next time. I did well though, for a first timer. The bullets found it's target half the time.

Boondocking was a convenient excuse for a gun. It's true that you are much safer in the wilderness than in the city. But you never know you may encounter while you are all by yourself out there. I may also camp near the city and there are lots of crazy homeless people these days. It was ultimately for the city, however. I'll eventually get a CCW and carry in the streets of SF or NYC. You don't want to get caught pants down while all these anti-Asian terrorism is going on there.

I got to Edward's Crossing in the late afternoon. It was still packed with people there, but I managed park askance under a tree and walked down to the river on the south side. Turned out, there was no place to dip in the water unless you jump off a rock. I climbed back up and drove to the campsite. I originally planned to go to Mountain Dog swimming hole, just a short hike from Edward's Crossing, but I left it for another day. I've done enough for the day already and I didn't want to push it. 

There was a couple of nice sites still available at South Yuba River Campground. But the campground was almost full and there wasn't much privacy. I figured I'd check out boondocking sites nearby and then come back if I couldn't find a suitable one. I found a workable one a few hundred yards up the dirt road and unpacked there. There supposed to be lots of boondocking sites, but I found none except this one.

Over all, a productive day. I finally scored rounds, made to South Yuba River and now all set for the next a few days.

Monkey Rock Hiking Aftermath

It's the same pattern: crap out, bounce back and then gradual descent. And that bounce back always gives you a false hope that this time it may be different. Never such luck. The struggle was a bit milder and shorter than the aftermath of Mt Shasta and Castle Crags hiking: it's roughly proportional to the difference in the difficulty between the two trips.

I'll have to rethink the hobodom plan. The 4 day trip to Reno was a rather mild one and I spent most of time in the luxury of hotel. If that puts me under the weather for a week, what would prolonged living in a tent do? For now though, I'll chalk it up to the steep 200 feet climb at the end of the trail . The hiking was only 2.6 miles and 400 feet elevation, but that climb took a lot out of me. If it weren't for the climb, it could've been a standard 3 day recovery.

I'll proceed with the plan for the South Yuba River next week. I'll lounge around at the camp most of time, and do a few short hikes down to the river. If a week of that puts me under the weather again, I may have to abort the plan for the hobodom.

Monkey Rock Trail, Incline Village

I was all set to embark on the second trial of hobodom. Then my sister called and said they'll be in Reno this week. I figured I would go up there to see them and then continue on the South Yuba river for the camping. But I left out my Instant Pot, chair and, most of all, charger for my computer. I won't have anything to do during off-days and evenings without the computer. I didn't have my fridge either - I returned two previous ones for defects and Amazon failed to deliver the new one in time. So I'm instead spending this week in Reno and Lake Tahoe. Then I'll return to the home base, restock and restart. 

Incline Village is only 30 minutes from Reno over Mount Rose. We went over there yesterday to hike Monkey Rock Trail. It's 2.6 mile and 400 feet elevation, so it's well within my limit while on the road. The last 200 feet of elevation, however, was straight up. We could've decompressed the elevation by taking the trail around the peak but we didn't know that. In all, it took us 2 hours to complete the hike. Not particularly fast, but  we took only one break before going up and then another after coming down the steep portion. Still, it was less than a third of what I did on the Shasta expedition. Hopefully that'll prevent another prolonged PEM like Shasta aftermath.

After the charging and lunch stop, we lounged around at Sandy Harbor Beach. The water was cold enough to hurt; it won't warm up enough to swim in it till August. I took a couple of dips and then rolled around among the ants crawling in the sand. 

The fridge will arrive this week. I'll install the window covering (the heat from the sun warped the fridge the last time, so I'm covering the windows with Reflectix), reload and then off to South Yuba River next week.