Day 56 (July 4th)
Mile 1264.6 – mile 1287.7
Today: 23.1 miles
Total PCT: 832.4 miles
We had a nice morning in town– enjoying sleeping in, our continental breakfast, watching the Office… At 11:30, Trail Angel Lynn (who we met while getting dinner last night) arrived to drive us back to trail. She had her two beautiful dogs with her, so we got some good kisses and cuddles on the way to trail.
Unfortunately, Thunder’s new tent hadn’t arrived yet, so she would be staying in Quincy for another day or so to wait for it. We plan to meet up in the next trail town in a few days.
We said our goodbyes and headed back to trail. My weather app told me it was 35°C and it felt like it in town, but it actually wasnt too bad once we got hiking.
My feet are still quite sore and I hiked slowly today– not seeing the boys until I made camp around 7:30pm. It was a beautiful hike and the terrain wasn’t too hard, apart from a steep, knee-crushing descent for the last 6 miles or so. We are camping by another river tonight, which means swimming! I took a quick dunk as the sun set which was a lovely end to my day.
Day 57 (July 5th)
Mile 1287.7 – mile 1311.4
Today: 23.7 miles
Total PCT: 856.1 miles
I hiked up over 6300ft of ascent today! Nearly the entire day was relentlessly uphill. I am not a huge fan of long uphills like this, but fortunately I had my audiobook to keep me occupied. Despite the hard climb, I still managed to hike over 23 miles– which means that I will be able to get to Chester tomorrow instead of the day after. It was a busy day of listening to Wheel of Time, so I didn’t really take many photos, but I did take this nice one of our friend John!
Some notable moments:
- Walking through the town of Belden, which seemed to actually be an RV park with a restaurant.
- A bridge that seemed to have burned in the last forest fire, resulting in a creative river crossing
- Finding a cute California chorus frog! We’ve heard them singing, but this is the first one I’ve seen.
- Crossing out of the Sierra Mountain range into the Cascade range.
Yesterday, Salty saw a bear during his hike, so I kept an eye out for wildlife today– no luck though! I am camping alone tonight, so right now I am hoping for no nighttime wildlife interactions.
A quiet and peaceful day overall! Looking forward to catching back up with Corpse and Salty tomorrow.
Day 58 (July 6th)
Mile 1311.4 – mile 1332.4
Today: 21 miles
Total PCT: 877.1 miles
I’m in town, enjoying my town night! I showered, did laundry and then ate an entire bag of curly fries and watched the entire 4th season of Love is Blind.
Yesterday night, while camping alone, I fell asleep to a sound that I am quite sure was a mountain lion screaming. I had planned to wake up early so that I could catch up to the boys before town, but due to the lion, I didn’t want to leave my tent while it was still dark. I woke up at 5:30am and was hiking by 6:10am. Only 21 miles to town and our AirBnB!
I didn’t see a single person all day on trail and so I spent the day singing to myself, philosophizing and finishing up the 4th WoT book. At around lunch, I passed the PCT midpoint! Halfway to Canada (minus the 455 miles that we skipped of the Sierras)! Right before the road, there was a river with no dry crossing. Sometimes I take off my socks and insoles to cross these spots, but since I was so close to town and a zero I just hiked straight on through.
The boys had reached the highway before me, so I told them I would hitchike alone. I haven’t had to do a lot of this since I met my tramily before the first town stop– but I have only had wonderful experiences hitchikkng in trail towns. It took about 20 min before someone stopped– a cop! Half expecting to get a ticket (is hitchikkng illegal?) I went to chat with him. He offered me a ride and let me sit in the front of his cruiser. He took my ID and let dispatch know that he was picking up a ‘4112’ which I assume must mean a very nervous hitchhiker. Travis the Cop was a nice guy, but I did feel a little like I had been arrested. We chatted, and I only stumbled over my words a little, but I was too nervous to ask for a picture. He dropped me off at the dollar general where I bought my curly fries, met up with the boys and headed to the Airbnb for a night of gluttony.
Day 59 (July 7th)
Mile 1332.4 – mile 1332.4
Today: 0 miles
Total PCT: 877.1 miles
Zero day in Chester! After our late night of watching trash TV we slept in and then lounged on the couches for a few hours in the morning. Hikers are truly very lazy people– if you ignore the hundreds of miles of hiking.
Eventually we headed out to have lunch and do our chores. Luckily Chester is a small town and very hiker friendly. Any time we walked anywhere with our backpacks, people would pull over to offer us a ride. On the way, we saw that the sprinklers in the Park were on. Corpse and I grasped hands and ran through the sprinklers while Salty laughed at us. Thunder arrived in the afternoon and we met up while resupplying at the grocery store before heading back to the airbnb. In the evening, we did facemasks, ate watermelon and I made some spaghetti and tomato sauce out of the remnants of the Airbnb’s pantry. We then lounged on the couch for the rest of the night.
The whole day I hobbled around the house like an old lady. It’s astonishing that the feet that can hike 24 miles per day on trail can barely get me from the couch to the bathroom during a zero… As soon as the shoes come off, the feet decide it is time to rest. Hopefully they have got what they needed!
