The day after Kyle and his fellow hikers left Acton, CA after mile 450, they all ran into this same spooky fog and unexpected weather.

They all said that this Stephen-King-inspired fog was so dense they got to where they could not see the trail. But worse, was it was also basically like standing in a shower. Most put on some of their rain gear, but their bags were still exposed, and you’re also sweating. Which means now thanks to our bodies awesome cooling system you’re now wet and cold from the inside out. And this went on for miles and miles – and there’s nothing to do but just keep trudging.

Kyle said he finally emerged, and it was by then nearly dark and still cloudy. He and Jeremy ‘Space Pants’ joined up for a while and then Kyle found a group of campers at a campground and they all shared the spot. And…they had a visitor! A cute cuddly black bear decided to come into camp and try to break his way into the bear-proof trash cans they have set up. They all jumped up and scared him away but naturally no one got a lot of sleep. And then sure enough in the middle of the night he came back, sniffing the outside of the tent of one of several women on the trail. She screamed bloody murder and again, everyone jumped up and sent him on his way again.

Now for a long day into the Hikertown area at mile 518:

Hope I’m not boring you all, just one more post until we’re caught up, it’s a lot of ground to cover. (Heh, heh, but we’re not walking it!)