I got a great nights sleep. I was shocked at how clear the night time sky was considering how smokey the valley had been. The night sky was ablaze. It has also turned very warm, perhaps a little too warm. Just used the sleeping bag as a cover. Got up early and had breakfast and starting hiking while it was still a bit dark.

The trail continues to be a pleasure to hike but also continues to be rather dry. All water seems to be off the trail a ways and sometimes walking to that water yields no results. One stream that was .3 miles off the trail however was flowing, was cold, and was clear. Filled up with 4 liters of water which was enough to keep me going for the day.

It is towards the end of the day and almost to where I want to camp for the night when I have an accident. I am descending at a pretty good angle and stepping down from some rocks into what looks like some soft dirt. However, it is a thin layer of dirt on top of hard pan and my feet slip out from under me and down I go. The trail is pretty wide at this point and so there was no danger of me going over the edge but I hit hard and scrape up my left arm and hit my head pretty hard. My back also hurts but not too bad at his point and I manage to get back to my feet. I believe getting back on my feet with a 50lb pack is probably where I did the major damage to my back but still at this point I am not aware the damage is all that bad. I continue hiking for a bit to get to my camping spot and then set up the tent for the night.

This turns out to be an interesting night because it is the first time I heard something, I knew not what, outside my tent. I ignored it the first time but the second time hearing the noises I decided I had to check it out. Not too long ago I read a magazine (backpacker) that indicated the worst thing to do was to ignore the noise and hope it goes away. So I get on my boots and my coat, my headlamp, and my knife and get out of the tent to check it out. I scan around for animal tracks and don’t see any and so I just start scanning the area with my headlamp for about 15 minutes. Finally as I look out, I see two sets of eyes reflecting back at me. The eyes are moving in my direction and I have no idea what they are. I start grunting and making loud growling noises and then it occurs to me that the noises I am making might just sound like food to whatever is out there. Or worse, I might sound like a female bear in heat and the eyes out there might belong to male bears. So, I start making human noises. I shout that whatever you are out there do not come any closer…. watch out because I am well armed. And I was well armed. By this time the knife was out in one hand the rock I used to sink the tent stakes into the group was in my other hand. The eyes seemed to turn away from me and disappeared back into the woods. After awhile I got back into the tent and just sat straight up in the tent and listened. Sure enough, I started hearing the sounds again. Again I got out of the tent and this time not 10 yards away I saw a deer. The deer was not concerned and just started at me and continued browsing. Off in the distance I could see the other set of eyes acting just like the deer right next to me. Quite a relief actually. No bear, no mountain lion, just 2 deers. I got back into my tent and slept good the rest of the night.