Day 31 – Caffeine, please
Originally published on Mason Hikes the PCT 2017.
Mileage: 32 to Lake Isabella (mile 652)
I woke up as usual, at 5:30 PM underneath a bush in the middle of the desert with a lizard playing in my hair, and knew it was time for a night hike! I had learned from my mistakes in the past few days, so I had slept at a water source (Willow Spring) and hydrated the entire day, which also allowed me to douse myself in water whenever it got too hot (constantly).
Willow Spring!
I hadn’t had the greatest sleep today because some other spring lovers were yelling to one another, moving around their things next to my face, and peeing near my nap spot, but I got a few hours and I was comfortably hydrated, so it was worth it. Today’s hike was not the doozy of yesterday, but at 32 miles, it certainly wasn’t a walk in the park either. Well, I guess it actually WAS a walk in the park, but 32 miles is nothing to scoff at. If I could walk 32 miles by 7:30 AM tomorrow, I could catch the bus into Lake Isabella and potentially go swimming!!!
I ate a quick breakfast at 6:15 PM and set off on my next adventure. I hadn’t seen a single person hiking during the day in the past few days and today was no different. Even at night, I haven’t seen anyone hiking in three days. Everyone stays at water sources until it’s dark and then hikes for a few hours before napping and morning hiking.
The first few hours of my hike flew by for some reason and everything was feeling good. Things were relatively flat and I was making good time, but I knew 5,000 feet had to come at some point and when it did, boy did I feel it.
A combination of it being midnight and apparently not having eaten enough made the climb more difficult than it should have been and I started to worry about making the bus. Was it worth it to walk this far just to go to a town I didn’t really need to visit? Should I just catch a later bus or hitch? When I start thinking negative thoughts like this, I get stubborn. Of course I could make it, I had calculated how much time it would take and given myself plenty of buffer. I just needed to stick to the plan and everything would be fine.
My spider friend from the climb
Despite sleeping during the day, I was definitely NOT well adapted to the nocturnal lifestyle yet. I slowly continued chipping away at the remaining miles, but knew I needed something to keep me going until 7:30. That something was supposed to be a Mountain House feast, but even that couldn’t do it for too long. I needed my other 2.5 Hour Energy. And a Nuun energy electrolyte tablet first to make it to the point where I was 2.5 hours out. Overall, I’m not a huge caffeine person, but it sure does work the way it’s supposed to. I went from dragging along to basically running down the mountains at 5:30 in the morning. We’re going to have to see what my sleep schedule looks like after this.
I ❤️ sunrise
Today is the longest day of the year, the Summer Solstice. As such, the hiker community has also deemed it International Hike Naked day, because why not? I, for one, am not sure if it’s a celebrated holiday on the PCT, but I will say that I was quite startled to see a fellow hiker early this morning after not seeing anyone for two days. 😱
Since I ran down the hills (I wasn’t kidding about that), I made it to the bus stop with plenty of time to spare and sat with some scorpion guys for a while hoping that they wouldn’t pinch or sting me. I was so distracted that I almost didn’t see the bus driver barreling down the road, who also apparently didn’t see me. After andjumping waving my arms and running, I got in the bus and was on my way to Lake Isabella!