Start: 2215
Stop: 2252.7
Today’s miles: 37.7
Total PCT miles: 1969.3
I woke to condensation on my tent, in the desert! And when I got out of my tent and looked at the sky-there were some major storm clouds rolling in. They made for an absolutely epic sunrise: cotton candy pinks and neon oranges.. but I was concerned for what was to come. I had good reason..
We left by 6:30, and immediately hit a climb. This type of trail, the cirques I think-where the trail doesn’t really switchback, it just winds up around the sides of the mountains and you get to see the whole valley around, is my favorite. It was so pretty, but the trail was in rough condition-very eroded and loose feeling under foot. And let us not forget about all of the stupid bushes that have 92,764 million ways to stab, poke, or pinch me.
Around 8 something, we made it to the top of the first part of the climb, to a campground that was closed, with a ranger’s station that was also closed, and a house where Ranger Todd lives-but appeared empty. Dammit, Ranger Todd! The whole way up that hill, Marquis and I were fantasizing about all the great treats the ranger might have for us when we got there. At least the day dreaming got us up that climb I guess, and the pit toilets were open with TP, plus there were two jugs of water for us to use to fill up our bottles.. so we were happy, and took advantage of both the water and the toilet. That’s one hell of a run on sentence, but I’m too tired to figure out how to shorten it. Sorry, guys.
It was here that the wind really started to blow and the sky started to drizzle. It was the rest of the way up that climb when it started to really rain and then we stayed in the clouds the rest of the day! The wind was blowing so hard you could see it whipping the rain across the trail. We saw a dirt road a little lower in elevation than where we were on trail, so we bushwhacked down to it. It felt safer to have a wider trail to walk on, not to mention to not get attacked by the now very wet and prickly bushes.
When we ate lunch at 11:30, we got drenched. We both looked defeated, laid out on a dirt road soaking wet eating wet bagel sandwiches. It’s a good thing I have Marquis with me, because this would have had me in a tizzy of anger and frustration, but even in this mess, he had me laughing at our situation.. to the point of almost enjoying it.
We passed some guys doing road clearing and wished they’d let us warm up in their trucks or give us a ride to literally anywhere, but no dice, we hardly got a wave out of them. They were probably annoyed we were on the closed road and not the trail, but hell-it’s treacherous out there! We did pass another hiker going northbound, also on the road, who confirmed the trail sucked for him so he got on the road.. ok, so we’ll stick to the road as long as we can, too.
We got water at a fire station area and kept pushing. The rest of the day was much of the same, except the rain did quit eventually. It stayed cold though. I couldn’t warm up for the life of me, even with my fleece on under my rain jacket. I was shaking and trying to walk fast to warm up, even though all that seemed to do was make me sweat and then stay even more cold.
When we got to where we wanted to camp it was only 5:30, so there’s no way we actually hiked a 37 mile day, the dirt roads must have been cutting off more miles than we realized. I was so cold that I talked Marquis into getting to the next road crossing to try to hitch to town.. I wanted a shower and a bed. Ridiculous, I know, but thankfully he obliged.
We got to the road and got a hitch within 30 minutes. Two women, looked like mom and daughter picked us up and took us to a motel. I didn’t care the cost, I would have paid anything for that room, but it wasn’t bad. Marquis let me shower first, I took a L O N G one, then he showered and we did laundry. We had to set alarms because we both dozed off between the cycles.
He was asleep when I went to get our clothes out of the dryer, and once back in the room, I got in my bed and was knocked out, too (I’m writing this the next day at breakfast, no way I was doing any writing yesterday!). Thank you Lord for motels, hot showers, and laundry! I feel revived!