We made a refreshing stop at a creek, where we washed off mud, crossed its bridge and enjoyed sack lunches. The hike continued with the children (with amazing stamina) blazing the trail, often so far ahead as to be out of sight. I got very warm and there was about half an hour in which it was hard to stay dressed. I changed from the sweats in which I had begun hiking into my shorts and T-shirt saying, "I wear my T-shirt when I'm with you and my birthday suit when I'm with the skinny-dippers." My shirt was well appreciated by the barefooters who donned their own saying "Go Barefoot!" on the front and "Set your feet free and your mind will follow" on the back. Since during the past few years most of my hiking is done nude except for shoes, it felt very strange to have this reversed. Clothing which had brought me comfort in the chilly morning now felt like an obstruction. Most portions of my body were missing and craving the gentle breezes that were blowing by my arms. I re-experienced how sweating in clothes felt, and thought of how the breezes usually help the sweat to naturally cool me, as Rich has taught me.
People we met along the trail reacted to our bare feet with as much astonishment as those we met when hiking nude on other occasions. One woman took off her shoes after seeing our group, which reminded me of the woman who got nude after seeing us at Bass Lake.
This year's winter storms had downed several trees, so there were a couple places on the trail where we needed to climb over them. We hiked a loop of about 9 miles, encountering mud a few times, but most was on packed earth with more or less redwood carpeting and periodic opportunities to walk on moss-covered downed trees.
We got back to the parking lot around 4 p.m., about an hour later than originally planned due to our leisurely pace and the extra time for maneuvering around trees.
Ironically our feet felt fine but Rich and I hobbled around with sore leg muscles for three days. As far as barefooting goes, I'm going to continue to experiment.
Cheryl Gendotti