Had a rough nights sleep because it was crazy windy. With only 5 hours of sleep it was way too short a night. I was woken by the early morning sunlight around 0530, and probably an hour after that I left camp. I think I’m really ready for the next chapter of the PCT; the mountains. The desert is starting to put my patience and perseverance to the test. The thing I struggle with most is the fact that we have to adept our hiking time to the weather. Either hike early in the morning, or hike late at night. This leads to very short time in the evening to set up camp and relax, and thus a poor nights sleep. Changes in my sleep-routine tend not to have the best effect on me. I really look forward to having the whole day to hike in again. We’d packed enough water out yesterday to make it to the first water-source at 14 miles from camp. The morning started out with a big climb, after which it would be pretty much downhill towards the spring. Now that we’re in the hills again there’s some more vegetation and smaller trees. In the early morning I didn’t take any photo’s because I was still tired and was focused on getting the first miles out of the way. Later during the morning I spotted a deer however. It was nice enough to linger and give me a smile.
I caught up with the others who were taking a break a couple miles before the water source. Since I felt like hiking a little more in the still cooler weather, I stopped only briefly to drink some, but then quickly hiked out again. Later when I was getting real hot, I laid down under a tree for a half hour, resulting in all the others passing me again. I was the last one to arrive at the water source and found all the others already there, ready for a long break in the shade. I’d been thinking about how I wanted to spend today. I had decided I did not want to have a mega long break and hike through the night so long again. I pushed on to get more miles in, hoping to make camp at an earlier time than we have past days. It was now lunch-time, which tends to be the hottest part of the day, and with my water bottles filled to maximum capacity (5.5 liters) it was an unpleasant haul. After steadily burning down I needed to find a shady spot asap. Of course the trail let me grind for another hour or so before I was finally able to get off trail and find some shady shelter for a late lunch. It was 1430, and I napped, ate, drank and napped some more.
Around 1700 I felt ready to head out again. The next water source would be 16 miles from my lunch spot, so I had to make do with the 4 liters I had left, including the night. If my legs felt strong, I hoped to get another 10 miles done today. That would put me up a total of 25 or 26 miles, a good start to hammering out the last desert miles. With the sun setting and the temperature dropping the hiking became more pleasant. Since I was breaking in my new shoes now, there were some little pains here and there, but I believe that I that I need not need to worry about new blisters forming. So far no hot-spots.
The final miles to the designated campsite were during sunset. At 2000 I had a little under 4 miles to go. But I was standing next to a couple of beautiful camping spots. I was ready to pack out my tent and get ready for a relaxed evening, when I changed my mind and decided to push on towards the end. My legs felt okay, I would be able to get in by 2130 which would not be so bad. Right? I would have done a big day which I’d feel good about. Remember how I wrote that I changed the batteries of my headlamp? Well, either there’s something wrong with it, or the batteries that I bought were garbage, because after a half hour of walking through the dusk, I realized that the dim light would not be of much help for the final hour in the dark. Great. The last half hour I used the flash-light on my Iphone as an alternative in the pitch-black forest. I’m not sure if I will be able to do any night-hiking at all the next 3 days, because I didn’t bring any spare batteries. We’ll see how it goes. Today I hiked alone for the major part of the day, which was good. I think maybe I needed some alone-time. As I’m camped at mile 595.7, tomorrow I should hit the 600 miles-marker pretty early in the day! Right now I’m pretty beat and happy to get to sleep.
You’ve hot to hold, hold, hold open my eye-lids
If you’re you’re gonna shake, shake, shake till the morning
I’m gonna put, put things in perspective
And it’s gonna take, take, take my precious time
All we need is a reason
for us to dance, dance, dance to the break of dawn
All we need is a hook now
For us to shout, shout, shout these words out
Cause we’re all, all, all
We’re all…
You know we’re all a part of the world of course
If you know it sing it out
Yeah sing it out!
The World – The Starting Line
