River To River Trail- Failed Thru Hike -The Good, Bad and Ugly.- Day 3

The theme of this hike, unfortunately, seems to be the temperature. It was hot all night. No dew or moisture at all last night. My hiking shirt completely dried overnight, it is going to be another very hot day. To be honest my enthusiasm for this hike, not the terrain or the scenery, has waned. It is just exhausting to be in this oppressive air. 

Breakfast was a quick affair as I tried to be quiet as I packed up and walked out of the campsite well before most of the campers were awake. 

My view this morning was great as the sun was rising. 

This morning, packing up, I interrupted stink bug "whoopie" 😀😉

One last look at my view from the campsite

Leaving the quiet park 

back into the woods and 5 miles to the town of Herod.

The trail climbs you up to a ridge line for about 2 miles

There are several horse camp spots and camping sites along this ridge. Found a couple of piles of abandoned clothes. A Trail Show flashback, the only thing not here was a torch! IYKYK

The view from the ridge line was very nice

Several very old trail markers along this section

You reach a split in the trail. The well maintained one goes off toward The Hitching Post, an old convenience store- gas station. It is probably were some horse riders would start or end as it is located along Eagle Creek Rd with a good sized parking area. The other is marked the R2R trail and is a much less used single track. You can immediately tell that the trail from Garden Of The Gods has been maintained for stock as this trail is portion is far less maintained and overgrown. 

After only a half mile or so, you also come out on Eagle Creek Rd and have a road walk of about a mile to the town of Herod

Reaching the town of Herod, you come across the Herod Springs Baptist Church.

They do something that is really amazing for walkers, bikers, etc. They have a large pavilion with picnic tables, a refrigerator with cold drinks and snacks and electrical outlets to charge batteries, phones, etc. It is a very nice gesture of goodwill and they ask nothing for it! 

I spent about 45 minutes at the shelter trying to cool down with a couple of cold waters, but I was not having much luck. Having stopped in the shade, I started to feel my core temperature rising and feeling nauseous. I immediately recognized the feeling as the onset of heat exhaustion. The day to this point had not been very strenuous in terms of hiking, but was the hottest day so far. I was unable to eat lunch or really anything. I had a couple of apples left over from Al at the campsite last night and I barely kept those down. 

I thought about my options and in so doing recognized that if I am thinking about things that I might need at this point in the hike my chances of finishing were diminishing along with my energy.

I had a couple of names of members of the R2R Facebook group that I had corresponded with before the hike and they had offered various forms of assistance if needed. I made sure that while I had good cell service that I had their contact info handy. 

Leaving Herod on Hwy 34 (by the way the Post Office in Herod is directly in front of the Church.) It does not keep regular hours which is why I didn't send myself a resupply package to this location. 

You are only on the busier highway for just a couple of blocks then you turn on Raum Rd for about a two mile road walk. 

The road walk was very hot and dry. You get off the road just up a hill past a bridge that crosses Harts Creek. This is a bit bizarre as this little section through the woods takes you back to Harts Creek on a very overgrown section of trail that goes steeply up and then steeply down. There was a path that ran along the creek just before the bridge that would have brought you to this very same place.

There is another of the R2R society picnic benches. Very welcome for sure, but in a bit of a strange place. 

The rest of the afternoon does not have much to tell or show from my point of view. You enter the portion of the trail called One Horse Gap and the Eastern Lusk Creek Wilderness. The trail is overgrown in much of this area. While the trail is not hard to follow, be a bit aware that the trail markers in this area did not align with the description in the trail guide. The trail guide references FS trail numbers 145 and 170, neither of which I could find on the Avenza Map Set. 

The reason it didn't apply to me was that I went down to the first creek crossing near FS trail 120 and it was bone dry, as all the smaller creeks have been. Not feeling well at all, and not wanting to have further trouble in a 6 mile section of denser forest, I returned to the gravel road marked 186. This would take me directly down to my planned camping spot at Benham Ridge TH. Saving about 4 miles on the day, I decided the easy gravel ridge road walk was the better part of valor for today!

Reaching the Benham Hill Trailhead out of water and realizing that there is really nothing here but a gravel circular parking area, I had to make a plan B. One of the people that I had corresponded with was Shannon. She has a cabin on the trail just before Bethesda Church, which would be another three miles, but has a water tank, so that was the new plan. 

Benham Hill Trailhead (One Horse Gap Parking Lot)

After about a mile and a half you come off the trail (FS 1476) and onto Raum Rd again. There was a farm building and I spotted a well pump. As quickly as I could I filled my bottle with water and filtered it along the side of the road. This let me get some water in me after about 4 miles of being out of water. 

Just a dusty hot walk to the cabin and end of a very long day. 

The official count of spider webs hitting my face on this trip now stands at 700! 

The cute cabin was a site for sore eyes after a long (19 mile) day in 94f heat. I had not eaten anything today after breakfast at 7 am this morning, except two apples in Herod. 

FYI- Garmin watch said I did 27 miles today.... there is a good chance it is headed for the trash can!