#ThrowbackThursday
This is part of a series of journal entries I have made while section hiking the Pacific Crest Trail since 2013 over on Trailjournals.com. I am moving them here to Must Hike Must Eat and updating them with photos (and maybe fixing typos). Look for them on Thursdays or you can head over to Trailjournals.com and read as many as you would like!
http://www.trailjournals.com/journal/entry/430643
Trip Miles: 383.83
I was up and off at 6:08am. River was a little quieter. I had a little piece of trail karma as a broke up camp. The night before I had realized the cap on my soap was busted, leaking in the bag. As I checked around camp to make sure I hadn’t dropped anything, I noticed something on the ground I hadn’t seen the night before. A little soap bottle, score! I stuck it in my pack to fill later.
Rivers to cross, too many rivers. My feet were wet the first half of the day. After my fall last week, it has made me wary to step on rocks. It is almost better to wade across than to worry about falling in.
I know I might seem to be whining a bit but the views make all my complaining worth it. Today was beyond words, truly majestic images my phone camera does not do justice to.
Mica Lake was beautiful and a nice campsite. Would be worth a trip itself and is available by side trail!
More muddy, slushy trail, old rain forest, mossy and green. I keep thinking of that scene where Forrest Gump meets Lt. Dan and he gives him the speech about taking care of his feet. Mine are definitely tired of being wet.
I ran into a few other thru hikers in the morning, Ironman and WG coming straight from Mexico and Iceaxe Laura who flipped to Canada because of the fires. She filled me in on upcoming trail conditions and bear scat she had seen. She said it even had bones and feathers! I giggled at her later on down the trail…
I spent today thanking God for overcast days, it made all the hills a bit cooler. Wish I had a lake to go swimming in!
Continuing to struggle, it’s a hard go through this stretch. And the bugs don’t help. I stopped for lunch, found a spot and covered up with my tarp and bug net. It wasn’t long before I looked like I had been cast in the next Amityville horror or I was a body that Dr Scarpetta had yet to discover. It was overwhelming, I couldn’t eat. I just wanted to cry all the time.
It’s the last 37 switchbacks that kill ya. Just as I started to head up them through bush and bugs, the sun broke out of the clouds and turned up the heat. Absolutely miserable, it took me quite a bit to get up the hill from Milk Creek. As I made it up over the ridge as it began to sprinkle and it was such a gift.
I pushed on another 2 miles for water and found an amazing campsite below a majestic cirque at 2540, E Milk Creek around 7:30pm. The rain had stopped long enough to set up my tent. I tried to eat as much as I could unmolested in my tent, will try to do the same again in the morning. I have too much food left.
I have been telling myself, if I can do this, I can do anything. But exhausted as I am, I couldn’t help but cry thinking of meeting with my friends tomorrow. The thought of seeing them overwhelmed me with happiness. It wasn’t long before it started to rain and I drifted off to sleep as I wondered about the reopening of Rainy Pass, and what are my back up plans. Getting my passport and border permit are a must!
First post: Snuffy’s 2013 Pacific Crest Trail Journal July 20 &21, previous post: Snuffy’s 2013 Pacific Crest Trail Journal August 13. Look to next Thursday for more of my journey on the Pacific Crest Trail!
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