4/30/20, mile: 410, elevation: 5,951 ft.
Though I wanted to be up early, I didn’t set an alarm. With my bladder this morning, it wasn’t necessary. Giving up oatmeal to save time, I was on the trail fairly early. The initial hike was a couple of miles of non-PCT trail following a creek downhill. It was a cool pleasant morning with all of the accutraments people envision of backpacking: big trees, cool shady spots, sunny warm spots, large boulders strewn about and a loud flowing creek nearby. Oh, and no other humans around.
But all good things must come to an end as the re-joining with the PCT meant I was now hiking upstream. And the temps were rising. And the sun exposure was increasing. And the …..nevermind. The morning just transitioned. By midmorning, the trail was closely paralleling Highway 2, but without the sound of the light traffic, most times you wouldn’t realize it was even there. In late morning, SoCo caught me as I was talking with some day hikers. And soon after that, we caught up to two new hikers to me; Prickly and Pac Man (a different one). Prickly is from New Hampshire, and Pac Man is from Chile. I swear her pack is as big as she is. When I asked them where they camped last night, they gestured to the ground around us. They were just starting their day. Wow!
Drum roll please! Another big milestone. 400 miles! I was feeling more driven today, and now this. It doesn’t seem very long ago that I passed 300. Which sounds cool and all until I put it in perspective of the total length: 2,652 miles. Oye vey, that’s a lot of shoes and Clif Bars!
By this time, the day was getting really warm. My frustration with my performance drove me back to wearing ear buds and consuming LOTS of water. Whenever possible, I drenched the buff around my neck as well as the sleeves of my shirt. And I kept snacking. I also had made a decision to switch up my eating. Instead of salami, cheese and tortillas for “lunch”, I made my hot meal normally consumed for dinner. I figure these hot meals had more carbs that I needed midday while the salami and cheese with their fat and protein were better for a body going to rest.
During this stretch, I caught back up to Prickly and Pac Man. As we were talking, I heard a commotion from down trail. In comes running Waft, whom I met at Bud Pharm. He’s good buddies with Prickly, and you should have seen the reunion. This was the type of trail commrodery I was envisioning. It was cool to see buddies reunite and catch up on “old” times. Feeling like a fourth wheel and needing to make time, I split.
I think the eating plan worked a bit. My day ended with a climb to a saddle, and I think my body worked better this time. Listening to Godsmack for the last 40 minutes probably didn’t hurt, either. Of course, despite having the Griffith Observatory and all of those antennas above L.A. in sight, I still couldn’t get AT&T cell reception.
I layed out my groundcloth and setup for cowboy camping. I was so exhasuted from the 18 mile day (only 16 of which were “on trail” due to the closure and detour), that I just lay on the ground looking blankly around me. And then I saw the smallest of flowers I think I’ve every seen. And they were all around me in the coarse sand. What a dose of reality to pull me out of mind trap I was in.
Yes, today was a good day in a way. It was physically and mentally tough, yet I pushed hard and didn’t injure myself. There was a lot of time for self-reflection, rehashing discussions I’ve had with myself over the last couple of years. Am I on the right path? Am I doing this for the right reasons? Who’s to judge? I made another big milestone. And I didn’t die. I guess I get to hike another day.
Savior out.