PCT Day 58 – SoBo Flip – Mo-squitos, Mo’ Problems

Campsite at mile 1487 to McCloud River (mile 1471)

Total PCT miles hiked: 769

Due to our early start Keith (Starman) and I arrived at the Sierras when there was still a lot of snow, and decided it wasn’t safe to attempt a crossing given my skill level. We elected to flip up to northern California and hike southbound (SoBo) back to where we left off near Lone Pine – giving the snow a chance to melt out. During this flip the PCT milage will be counting down, but I’ll include a tally of our total milage hiked so that you can keep aprised of our progress in a linear fashion.

Keith would like me to inform you that he came up with the pun for today’s blog post. If you have the chance please tell him how funny he is, I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.

And now to our regularly scheduled programming.

What is the most honest thing I can say about today?

Probably that it wasn’t very remarkable. At the same time it was beautiful and challenging and physically fun. But in another way today was just another day in the course of a thru hike. There are a fair number of these days, and they’re rarely talked about – they don’t make for epic social media posts. But a lot of hiking is really unsexy. It’s getting up early and pooping in the woods, it’s eating the same breakfasts and lunches and snacks you’ll eat all week, and then it’s walking through the mountains for like, six to ten hours. I wonder if people would be disappointed to know how much of hiking is sameness interspersed with moments of intense emotion. That hikers aren’t walking around in a blissed out nature-gasm all the time, but sometimes uncomfortably meandering up a steep climb trying to decide if that hot spot on your toe is a blister or if you can just ignore it.

Here is literally what I did today, it’s a decent representation of an average day. Also interspersed are some nice pictures that I got to take.

I woke up naturally just before 6am. I say naturally, but I think I woke up because I really had to pee. So I got up and took care of that, noticing on the way that the tent was nice and dry – a pleasant surprise after yesterday’s rain. I then returned to the tent where I saw Keith was only sort of awake, and so I went to pull down the food from the tree. Since we’re in an area with very few hikers on the trail, and this area is active bear territory, we’re electing to hang our food every night. Doing a bear hang right is actually a real pain in the butt – both getting it up and taking it down. In the time it takes me to get our food down from the tree, I’ve sustained five or more mosquito bites. Yeah, we’re definitely eating breakfast in the tent today.

Breakfast is a gluten free bagel with cream cheese, a cup of instant coffee, and one of the remaining gluten free stroopwaffle that my sister sent me. Keith eats granola and milk. After breakfast we waste some time hanging out just the two of us, Keith is feeling lazy this morning and while I want to be on the trail quickly, I’m not actually motivated enough to get us moving. Especially since I know that as soon as I’m out of the tent the mosquitos will come for me. Time together with your partner while thru hiking is really different than I expected it to be. In one way I’m literally spending all day and all night for basically this entire trip with Keith. On the other, physical intimacy is pretty scarce. Most of the time we’re sticky, smelly, wearing a backpack, and won’t be able to shower for at least a few more days. It doesn’t lend to closeness. Try hugging somebody wearing a full backpack loaded with gear, I’ll wait here while you do that. See how awkward that was? Now multiply that by 150 days for the average thru hike.

We’re finally on the trail at 8:45. It’s cool and overcast and we’re hiking through a dense green forest. The trees are massive, a positive explosion of green shooting into the sky. Below our feet the trail is a solid red-brown clay with soft pine needles on top. We climb all morning, talking of nothing in particular, until we’re both hungry and stop for our first snack break of the day. Snack is a hodge podge of Cheetos, gummy worms, a cookie that’s like an Oreo but gluten free and only 80% as good, some M&Ms, and I throw some powdered Gatorade into the water we just filtered. On the climb after snack I try to decide if I want to hike 16.5 miles with 4,500 feet of climbing and call it a short day, or go 20 and add an additional 1,400 foot climb. I don’t love either option, but the terrain here is so steep that there aren’t any camping options in between.

At lunch less than two hours later we decide on the short day. I woke up tired this morning, my sleep schedule thrown off by extra time spent in town, where an 8pm bedtime isn’t as acceptable. For lunch I eat summer sausage sliced onto a gluten free bagel with garlic and herb cream cheese that I pair with Cheetos. It’s ok, but the cream cheese doesn’t bring as much to the table as I’d hoped and Cheetos are good but overwhelming. Next time I’ll go back to regular cheese and potato chips. Live and learn!

After lunch we drop all the elevation we spent the morning climbing up, descending closer and closer to the McCloud River roaring below us. As the trail winds us down towards the river, we’re entombed in a tunnel of trees, the sun and clouds playing games overhead, neither one winning. Keith entertains me with his usual litany of puns and half baked jokes. With no preamble he says “what if instead of a coat of arms, you had a goat of arms? Maybe that’s just a goat with a small saddle with like, some maniquin arms attached?” Laughing and hiking downhill in the warm afternoon we ramble along with the joke until it’s well and truly dead.

We’re in camp at 4pm, which is still early enough to hike on but we decide to set up camp anyway and use the early evening to reset our sleep schedule. Vowing for what is probably the 40th time this trip that we’ll get up early tomorrow. I sometimes think we might actually be fast if we hiked full days. Camp is at a real campground, which just means there is a pit toilet. It’s very exciting. Two rivers confluence below us, providing the perfect white noise generator which should conceal the sound of approaching bears coming to eat us. And also dictating that all activity is done either in, or within the immediate vacinty of the tent, because there are hella mosquitos here too. I get about seven more bites.

Dinner is mashed potatoes and chili, to make up for the fact that we forgot to buy tomato paste for the chilli and it’s a bit crap without it. But this is thru hiking and there are no other options for dinner and we’re hungry enough that most any food qualifies as pretty good. I fall asleep reading while Keith giggles to himself while watching an episode of Flight of the Concords on his phone.