Day 85 - Time Limits - June 29
Pecan and Walnut leave as I pack up in the morning. I head out before Rambles, Bootsie, Breeze and Outlaw. Some have left already, but I'm not familiar enough with their tents to know who.
There was a dam a few miles in, the trail looked down on it, switchbacking down and then over the road across it. You never got close to the water, although if you needed some, you could climb all the way down. Pecan and Walnut were far below, crossing the dam when I first glimpsed it. I stopped for breakfast on the other side.
I saw a vole or mole scurrying around on the ground, it seemed to be blinded by the light, just groping around for a place to hide. I got very close to it, seeing it's crazy paws. At the next water, I meet southbound section hikers Glow in the Dark and 3 Guy. Their daughter is thru-hiking this year. Breeze arrives at the water and we talk about cancer. Glow in the Dark had cancer and got her trail name from the chemo. Breeze's mother had it when he was younger. The grandmother I'm named after died of cancer when my mother was a teenager. She was only 45. Honestly, that's one of my reasons for being out here. I might live to be 100, I might die in a few years. You never know, so I figure I might as well live while I can. I don't want to wait for retirement to have all the fun. I left the water right behind Breeze, seeing how fast he walks. It's very fast. I couldn't keep up at all, he was quickly completely out of sight.
I passed three women making bird calls, heading south. I met a girl I follow in Instagram, @cruzonthetrail right at a nice creek. We both decided to stop for lunch. Mari's friend catches up to her. They've been hiking as a group of five women, including those three faster birds I'd passed. Im a little jealous of the comraderie. Mari is on the hunt for a guy in Burney. Watch out!
Rambles and Boots are camped at a road. It feels too soon for me to stop and I feel like camping alone and reading, so I continue. I ended up doing 23.1 trail miles today, the second most I've done in a day!
I took some time to figure out how many miles I've hiked now. I camped at mile 1439.6, I've done 777 miles total. There are about 2660 miles of the PCT.
If I could do that many miles every day, I'd finish September 19, 82 days from now. It's not realistic because of all the snow ahead. Plus, I need a zero every once in a while. You might be wondering why the hurry? Just take your time and finish it when it gets done, even if it's November or December. Hahaha ha haha ha. The fall snow is the time limit out here. I'm not talking about a few inches like we get in North Carolina. The northern end of the trail in Washington can get feet of snow in October. Enough to get lost in. Enough to die in. So, that kinda puts a time limit on a PCT thruhike. I plan to not be hiking in Washington in October. I want to finish the northern part in mid-September and then go back south to finish the 650 miles of the Sierras that I skipped. I do hear that the High Sierras in California get significant snow a little later, sometime in November, so perhaps I can finish that part in October. We'll see. I'll have to keep a close eye on the weather.
There was a dam a few miles in, the trail looked down on it, switchbacking down and then over the road across it. You never got close to the water, although if you needed some, you could climb all the way down. Pecan and Walnut were far below, crossing the dam when I first glimpsed it. I stopped for breakfast on the other side.
I saw a vole or mole scurrying around on the ground, it seemed to be blinded by the light, just groping around for a place to hide. I got very close to it, seeing it's crazy paws. At the next water, I meet southbound section hikers Glow in the Dark and 3 Guy. Their daughter is thru-hiking this year. Breeze arrives at the water and we talk about cancer. Glow in the Dark had cancer and got her trail name from the chemo. Breeze's mother had it when he was younger. The grandmother I'm named after died of cancer when my mother was a teenager. She was only 45. Honestly, that's one of my reasons for being out here. I might live to be 100, I might die in a few years. You never know, so I figure I might as well live while I can. I don't want to wait for retirement to have all the fun. I left the water right behind Breeze, seeing how fast he walks. It's very fast. I couldn't keep up at all, he was quickly completely out of sight.
I passed three women making bird calls, heading south. I met a girl I follow in Instagram, @cruzonthetrail right at a nice creek. We both decided to stop for lunch. Mari's friend catches up to her. They've been hiking as a group of five women, including those three faster birds I'd passed. Im a little jealous of the comraderie. Mari is on the hunt for a guy in Burney. Watch out!
Rambles and Boots are camped at a road. It feels too soon for me to stop and I feel like camping alone and reading, so I continue. I ended up doing 23.1 trail miles today, the second most I've done in a day!
I took some time to figure out how many miles I've hiked now. I camped at mile 1439.6, I've done 777 miles total. There are about 2660 miles of the PCT.
If I could do that many miles every day, I'd finish September 19, 82 days from now. It's not realistic because of all the snow ahead. Plus, I need a zero every once in a while. You might be wondering why the hurry? Just take your time and finish it when it gets done, even if it's November or December. Hahaha ha haha ha. The fall snow is the time limit out here. I'm not talking about a few inches like we get in North Carolina. The northern end of the trail in Washington can get feet of snow in October. Enough to get lost in. Enough to die in. So, that kinda puts a time limit on a PCT thruhike. I plan to not be hiking in Washington in October. I want to finish the northern part in mid-September and then go back south to finish the 650 miles of the Sierras that I skipped. I do hear that the High Sierras in California get significant snow a little later, sometime in November, so perhaps I can finish that part in October. We'll see. I'll have to keep a close eye on the weather.
Comments
Post a Comment