Brutal, brutal day. And no, I was not able maintain yesterdays stride…. Today my body just said: “nope, not gonna happen”. It started by either sleeping through my alarm or instead of hitting the snooze button, accidentally turning the alarm off. I woke an hour later than I intended. Bleh. Grizz and Same Same had left camp before me, and since I didn’t want to hike alone I started the day in a rush. Also the terrain would be mostly climbing out of the river valley. My feet got sore and tired quickly during the early morning hours. Taking lots of breaks and listening to podcasts didn’t really do much good, I kept feeling lethargic throughout the most of morning. Initially I had my mind set on a campsite 28 miles away, but that pretty soon became an unrealistic goal. Instead I aimed to get 25 miles in and camp with the others.
The scenery today was more of the same, which also didn’t really help my cause. I kept telling myself that this was just one of those days, and that tomorrow I would probably feel better. Of this I’m actually quite certain since we’ll be heading into Chester in time for breakfast. That should make for a nice pick-me-up.
Before starting on the last 5 miles of the day, we collected water from a creek 0.3 miles off trail, and lots of it too. There would be a 12 mile water-less stretch, and the aimed for campsite would by dry, so we stocked up on plenty water to get us through the night. The others were just about to hike out to get the last miles in when I showed up. They quickly told me which campsite they had in mind and I would meet them there later. I’m glad I won’t be camping alone tonight; Tomorrow we will be passing the official halfway point of the PCT! This time I will be able to celebrate with the others as opposed to when I hit the 1000-mile marker by myself. We should pass the halfway point in the early morning, pretty exciting!
After taking way too long a break to fill up all my water bottles, I got ready for the last 5 miles ascent. It felt like the longest 5 miles yet. The campsite seemed like a mirage, me not able to get any closer and I seriously considered dropping my stuff and pitch my tent at the first possible flat spot. Somehow, somewhere I found restrain and willpower to keep hiking. During the last mile or so my phone died, so now I had no way of checking how far I had left to go. Nor had I music to keep my feet moving. Just before sunset I finally climbed over the crest and saw Same Same standing on a view-point, enjoying the beautiful vista of orange and red as the sun dropped behind the smoky hillsides. I ditched my pack and joined him.
One glance at the turning skies, and all was good again.
The views were amazing, and even though I kept telling myself during the grind that my misery eventually would end, I could not get to that feeling while I was hiking.
But I had been right; and looking out over the valleys with sun casting beautiful lights across the horizon, I admitted to myself that this brutal day, in the end had once again been worth it.
Am I more than you bargained for yet?
I’ve been dying to tell you anything you want to hear
Cause that’s just who I am this week
Lie in the grass next to the mausoleum
I’m just a notch in your bedpost
But you’re just a line in a song
(A notch in your bedpost, But you’re just a line in a song)
Drop a heart, break a name
We’re always sleeping in, sleeping for the wrong team
We’re going down, down in an earlier round
And Sugar, we’re going down swinging
I’ll be your number one with a bullet
A loaded God complex, cock it and pull it
Sugar we’re going down – Fall Out Boy
