PCT Day 84

Start: 1284.4

Stop: 1308.4

Today’s miles: 24

Total PCT miles: 1159.2

It started to lightening last night, before I fell asleep. I got nervous, but it never thundered so I prayed it was far away. And then, around 10:30pm, I had to make a mad dash out of my tent to go poop. It was pitch black, thank God for my headlamp!

After that, I didn’t sleep too well. My stomach was roiling and I couldn’t seem to get it to calm down. So, my sleep was off and on, worried I’d have to get up in a hurry again. Thankfully, I didn’t until 6am.. which still sucked, but at least it was daylight. I don’t think the iced coffee yesterday was my best idea.

Margot and I left camp right at 7am. I was pretty cruisy all morning.. I felt fast and was making the miles. There wasn’t a whole lot to look at, even if we did cross into Lassen Volcanic National Park after 4 short and easy miles. This whole area was a burn zone, so it was just exposed and hot. I stopped to eat lunch in front of a ranger station, mainly because I was getting hangry and didn’t care to look at the maps to see if anything better was around. Apparently I stopped only a quarter mile from a nice lake.

Margot joined me, and didn’t mind that I stopped before the lake, either. And after we got started again, the lake was covered in mosquitoes, so i no longer regretted it. I got water as fast as I could and kept moving. I slowed down tremendously in the afternoon. While some of the views were pretty, it was all through burned trees. It rained for maybe 20-30 minutes, although the storm clouds looked like they were ready to release a flood.

The wet, charred wood got to me late in the afternoon. My head started hurting and tears kept pricking my eyes. I couldn’t explain the why, but I was definitely struggling with my memories and they kept snatching my breath away from me. At one point I had to take my headband off, because it felt like it was suffocating me.. trauma and claustrophobia, how fun.

The wind picked up within our last 2 miles of trail before camp. I saw two dead trees fall, heard 4, and saw plenty of little limbs go flying. It was pretty nerve wracking. We went down a side trail to see the Thermal Geyser. It was neat, and a short side trip, so I was happy we went to see it.

When we got to the junction for where we were going to camp, I honestly didn’t like it. There were so many dead trees everywhere, the water wasn’t easy to get to, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep good there, after seeing trees fall today. We kept moving down the trail, got water from a stream crossing it, and then about half a mile later, I spotted a fire ring downhill from the trail.

I waited for Margot to catch up to me and asked if she thought it would work. She agreed and we made the side quest to the fire ring. The area is the end of a gravel road, so it’s rocky, but flat. We were able to stake our tents out by using the bigger rocks, lots of cuss words were said by both of us. We made it work, and then sat down to eat dinner. We’re both pretty exhausted. I’m afraid tomorrow will be a tough one, with lots of elevation gain and loss.. hopefully it’s the mild kind that you don’t really feel that much.
One can dream, right? I’m off to do just that. Goodnight y’all.