Cold Spring (mile 1305) to Highway 70 (mile 1287)
Total PCT miles hiked: 951
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.
I wake before Keith and hobble from the tent on tender feet to take my morning pee. Squatting between trees I relieve myself into the loamy earth. The act feels feral. Uncivilised. Wild. One of those mundane moments that takes on sudden significance for no apparent reason. A moment that allows me to view the picture in it’s entirety, and laugh. Backpacking, for all its affected grandeur is one very weird activity. Undertaken primarily by the white and affluent we clad ourselves in high tech synthetic garments so we can retreat into the natural. We seek to get out and explore through a series of developed trails. We eschew the hygienic modern toilet so that we can dig holes in the earth and poop in them. Does it feel a little contrived to anyone else?
Which isn’t to say I don’t love hiking. There does seem to be a deep, nearly animalistic desire to wander in wild spaces nestled in my core. A pulling ache of sorts that propels me to take advantage of what some anthropologists call humans greatest inheritance—the ability to travel astonishing distances by foot. And perhaps it is because I feel so very comfortable with hiking, feel no threat of being an imposter, that I can so easily laugh at the occasionally absurd nature of this sport. Though, can we really call hiking a sport, it’s more of a past time.
I believe it’s comedian Jim Gaffigan who has a bit about camping in which his wife tells him that her family has a tradition of camping, to which he counters that everybody had a tradition of camping until they invented the house. Touché Jim, touché.
A lovely snow plant, which has nothing to do with my pee.
I recently purchased a Pstyle which has revolutionized my backpacking bathroom breaks. It’s freaking AMAZING. Also it is fun to pee on trees instead of making sure you don’t pee on your shoes.