Day 2: Part 2 - Hard, Rocky, Slow, Painful
After leaving Horsepound falls, we traveled up the Collins Gulf trail towards Collins West on our way to our final destination of Collins East Campground. About an hour up the trail we all decided to stop for a bit of a rest at which point I grabbed one of the fruit cups that we’d purchased before the trip. Note to self: Don’t ever get the Wal-Mart brand Mandarin Oranges. It wasn’t very good, and I knew as soon as I tasted it that I would likely be sick.
Anyway… we pushed on toward the campground but the trail kept getting more and more difficult. There were a few more waterfalls and some beautiful scenery, but I was looking toward the prize; the campground, my tent, and a bit of rest. As we hit the trail head junction between Collins West and Collins East I saw a sign stating that we only had 1.4 miles to go.
It was the toughest 1.4 miles I have ever walked!
Let me give you a bit of a map reading lesson. If you look at the area right beneath Sutter Falls on the map above you’ll see a few topographic lines with plenty of white space in between. However, if you look right above the Collins West parking lot you’ll see dark topographic lines without any white spaces in between. Now, typical topographic maps are based off 20 ft. elevation changes. This means that between every black line on the map, there is a 20 ft change in elevation.
If you’ll notice… the lines between Collins West and Collins East are so close you can’t even see red trail lines much less any white areas depicting elevation change. Needless to say this was exceptionally rocky and steep terrain; terrain I certainly wasn’t expecting.
By the time I stumbled into camp I was feeling quite a bit nauseous. I wanted to get in bed as soon as I could so I setup my tent, unrolled my sleeping bag, and tried to lay there few minutes to let my stomach settle down. After getting back up to finish inflating my air mattress I felt that old familiar feeling in my throat. Remember those Mandarin Oranges; I barely got into the woods prior to having them upchuck onto the forest floor.
Once again, dinner was slim, as I couldn’t hardly keep anything down, and I was simply ready to go home.
Stay tuned for Day 3’s trail information.
