Wonderful night a sleep next to the creekside. I wake up to 7 texting me hey what time is it? He says his watch says 4:44 but his Garmin GPS says 5:11…. I don’t even know how the minutes are off but neither were right. I had 6:15AM.
I continued to start my morning off in a gnarly manner. I take a look at my blisters. I actually just had surgery on that toe in January too. I have to say, it’s been 4 years and I’m still dealing with the repercussions of leaving a folding chair in the middle of our living room one time the day we moved in. I walked out in the middle of the night to pee and wham. Broke my toe, toe nail, my spirit and my hope for the future.
I debate what to do, do I pop it or just send it. Wolf says to just send it. It’ll pop at some point, when it does I only have 1 little thing of neosporin. So I need this toe to get me to PVC. LETS GO! I text two buddies I’ve been chatting with this week some photos, one a marine and one a trauma surgeon. One says yikes! The other says it’s only skin baby!
Which friend do you think said what?
I leave promptly at 7AM, I filter 3 liters of water from Agua Caliente to keep me hydrated and I get moving. The day starts with uphill, uphill and uphill. Every time I’d stop to catch my breath the beauty would keep me going.
I started beneath the cloud cover and slowly work my way above it. I stop only to pee, I eat breakfast on the move and drink water each quarter mile while walking. In the first hours I’ve eaten two Snickers bars and a bag of gummy worms. In my head I think the beef jerky’s next.
The trail today climbs to over 5,500 feet and the snows back. I was planning on keeping my feet dry today but the snow gods think not. Rather than tip toe through, I say screw it and just get marching. 10 more miles to Mikes Place and I want to be there before the mid day sun.
After a bunch of downed trees and roughly maintained trail I arrive at the trail junction to Mike’s place. There’s a water cistern here I absolutely need to hit and I’m curious what all the talks about. Mikes a trail angel who lets people use his property because it’s so close to the trail. When I arrived at the place it was empty. No one home. I mean legit empty, kinda weird feeling being here alone. I yard sale my gear on Mike’s clothes line and sat down in his actual rocking chair for my lunch break.
An hour later Seven arrives, he says the same thing I did. “Honestly man I was about to just turn around and leave.” We crack a few odd vibe jokes and hang out. A few minutes later a truck pulls up. It’s Mike and the boys. I get talking to him and ask him how he got this place. He said his brother was walking through here with the boy-scouts and saw it was for sale, he had sold a property that year and wanted to buy something else, 25 years later he’s still here. He was smoking a long dirty blunt when I met him. It smelt like mids, but I told him I still respected it! He gave us three grapefruits to eat after we talked.
After hanging out and checking out the property, Wolf arriving and also deciding it was worth hanging out a bit more. We talked about how much further we have to go and semi plan out the next 2 days. Mikes place looks like a great spot to spend a night in April. I think we are just too early. Looking at my watch it’s time to get moving again. But first, big stretches!
After that stretch it was off for another five miles of up. It started with a quick uphill from Mikes place to get water. After filtering 2.5 liters we took off. Wolf naturally led the pack and Seven wanted to take his time in the back. That left me in the middle which was awesome. The whole last few miles I could see Wolf on a ridge ahead of me and Seven where I just came from.
My mind completely clear I actually ran the last 2 miles to camp. My bag felt light, my legs felt great and my feet didn’t feel like anything at all. I felt high off the day, the reality of my legs getting cut up from the thick brush, blister popping in my shoe. I didn’t care. Everything was perfect at that moment. Maybe Mikes mids hit me with a contact high? Maybe it wasn’t mids? Classic Mike and the boys.
I stop abruptly and pull my phone out to check the map thinking man I have to be close by now I’ve been moving! And just like that I see Wolf pop their head up, they must’ve heard me rustling. “Hey Mouse that you?” It actually startled me.
I’ve arrived at camp for the night. I search for a piece of ground to drop my tent. I make dinner, assess my feet, text my dad my location, and then pitch my tent on what ended up being a nice hill. I’ll be sliding around tonight, But I’m too tired to care the only flat spot had red ants. We don’t have them in Boston, but I’ve seen them in Texas. I don’t ever want to see them again.
As we settle down Seven educates us about dew point and how tonight will be 32. Nice sleeping night I guess. I respond by teaching him about what I felt was appropriate given my situation.
Y=MX+B or how to calculate the slope I’m sleeping on. We all learn something new everyday out here and we’re all for it. After saying good night, it’s off to sleep with what feels like the 11th night of a full moon.
The Pacific Crest Trail 