Mile 1197.9 to 1226.3

Our camp was perched precariously on the side of a forested mountain. Just off the zigzagging switchbacks on a ledge just wide enough for a sleeping pad. As I tossed and turned through a night of fitful sleep, I stared up at the trees towering overhead and the slivers of night sky.

My alarm went off at 5:00, and I changed into my hiking attire. Only one other body out of the five cocooned in their sleeping bags was moving. It was Bedazzled.

We climbed over the still sleeping hikers and headed back to the switchbacks to finish the remain 7.5 miles of a 10 mile climb.

After a mile of steady uphill, we came out on a ridge and began to contour the mountains moving down a valley. There were forested slopes below and rocky ones above. Around a bend of trail, we heard some clanking on the rocks. It sounded like hooves on cobblestones. Sure enough, when we came around the bend a doe was making its way up the trail.

She cast an inquisitive glance over her shoulder and then trotted down trail. As we continued, she moved down trail again. Finally, exasperated at her followers she lept onto the rocks above the trail and bounded away.

When the climbing was over, we had relatively flat trail with views down to beautiful blue lakes.

The water shimmered in the light tempting us, but alas the lakes were too far away for us to get to. With temperatures reaching the low 90s, we cast jealous glances over our shoulders as we walked past. One day we will get to swim in a lake on the PCT that isn’t freezing. I swear it.

Walking up a forested incline, a female hiker comes plodding down the trail. I am going uphill and have the right of way as any PCTer or backpacker should know. As she gets closer, it is clear that she is not stepping aside. She has her ear buds in so I say good morning loudly. She keeps barreling down trail, and I step slightly off trail as I keep walking. She mumbles something as she goes past then stops 20 feet down trail and yells, “I said HELLO!” in a bitchy voice.  I yelled back that you yield to people going up hill. She put her ear buds back in and kept stomping down the trail. I have thus given her the trail name Trail Witch for the purposes of this blog. I would have assumed she wasn’t a thru-hiker, but I saw the class of 2017 bandana on her pack. I can’t wait for her to reach the Sierra, they have a way of humbling people, especially this year.

With temperatures reaching their peak,  Bedazzled and I stopped for a long lunch break. Bedazzled unfortunately had to resupply at the under stocked and heinously overpriced general store in Sierra City. She is stuck eating poptarts, crackers, almonds, and sunflower seeds for the next 5 days. I had quite a bit of food left over from the last stretch, but I still had to buy a packet of hot dogs to serve as my meat instead of salami since 3 oz of salami was $6.99.

After lunch, we carried on for another 12 miles. It was largely uneventful. We hiked around Bamboo who got his trail name because he uses bamboo sticks instead of trekking poles. We is a veteran of the Appalachian Trail and super friendly.

As we were getting toward the end of the day, Bedazzled ripped her second shoe across the top! We stopped a little early and she sewed it up. Hopefully it holds the remaining 102.5 miles to Chester.

As we were sitting in camp, Wing-it walked by. There was room for him to camp, but he said he had the energy to keep going and he heard there was a dirt road 1 mile ahead. Next came Scotty. He stopped for a bit and then said he heard there is a dirt road a mile ahead and went on. As he goes, I remark, “man, I have never heard so many people excited about sleeping on a dirt road.” He smiled and carried on. Vipr and Fun Dip come along last and…you guessed it they are excited about the prospects of camping on the dirt road. The only time I have been excited about a dirt road while on the PCT is when it has trail magic on it. I’ll take being surrounded by pines, wild mint and strawberries, sage, and thyme any day over a dirt road.