Day 71 – Lazy Sunday
Originally published on Mason Hikes the PCT 2017.
Mileage: 15
After yesterday, I deserved a lazy day. Today, that meant sleeping with no alarms. Having gone to bed at 1AM, I slept soundly until the first group of hikers walked by, and then I started experiencing a pattern. Woke up, saw some hikers, went back to sleep. Woke up, saw some hikers, went back to sleep. Woke up, ate a snickers, went back to sleep. Woke up, saw it was 11:30AM, went back to sleep. Etc… I was immensely grateful to my previous self for thinking about where the shade would be if I slept until noon, because my tent was constantly shaded and was not an oven that slowly roasted me as I slept this morning, which is a huge plus!
My body needed some rest, so I slept until 12:15PM and then slowly got ready for the day. A brief systems check indicated that while a little sore, everything was functioning as normal and I felt pretty similar to every other morning after hiking. Awesome! I ate a few snacks, packed up my stuff, and got some water from Peavine Creek, which was the only place I noticed any weirdness. I was still pretty tired when I went down there and balancing on rocks was a bit harder than usual for me, so I looked like what I imagine a baby giraffe looks like while learning to walk. Wobbly, unsure, a little bit drunk… all valid descriptions, but I made do and got my water for the day without falling over. Success!
The hike this morning was slow, but only because I was still pretty tired. My legs, my feet, my back, and everything else I use to hike felt totally fine and did not seem affected by yesterday’s mileage. Good news! I walked uphill for a while to my first viewpoint of the day, and… smoke. Again. These wildfires are crazy! I could barely see Mount Shasta through the haze, so I kept on walking through the trees where there were no views for the smoke to block.
I’m about 70% sure that this isn’t a picture of Shasta
I made it to Clark Spring, where I found both water AND friendly hikers to talk to! One suggested soaking my feet in the spring runoff, so I did just that, pretending and *almost *believing I was at a luxury spa for a moment. The foot soak was amazing, as was the drinking water, and I took a seat next to Ohhh yeah! (formerly Bones), Mom Pants, and Leftovers to hang out for a while.
I sat with them for about an hour, chatting about life, liberty, and the pursuit of Canada. I learned that two of them had already attained Canada as citizens, and that all three had just gotten back on trail yesterday after many weeks off. They had met on day 1 in Campo, but Ohhh Yeah had tendonitis (random fact: also tendinitis) in his feet from his shoes, Mom Pants had tendonitis and shin splints and everything wrong with her legs, and Leftovers hiked on without them until he got giardia in Kennedy Meadows. What a stroke of bad luck! Thankfully, they took some time to heal and are back out on trail, just in time for the heat and the smoke! Hooray! In reality though, it’s pretty awesome that they made it back out to try to make it to Canada. Welcome back guys!
I wished them well on their journey and then walked on, still feeling fine but not wanting to push myself too hard. I walked past a few springs until I ran into an older man coming south, and we started talking about the ridiculous heat. We talked and talked and eventually realized we both lived in Seattle, so we talked some more about some trips he had been in, and we realized that we were in the same places in Patagonia at the same time earlier this year! What a coincidence! It was nice hearing his perspective on some of the things I may want to do in the future (i.e. hike New Zealand), but it was getting late and we needed to say our goodbyes. It was nice talking to John and receiving another reminder of how small the world can be sometimes.
I walked up some hills, as usual, and smelled some absolutely wonderful things. It was like I had just walked into a Bath and Bodyworks or a Yankee Candle in the way that the sickly sweet smell of what I think were flowers instantly overpowered me. I’m pretty sure these were the culprit, but whatever it was, it smelled like cleanliness and shampoo, so I was in love.
I continued walking along the trail, though at certain points, it was less of a trail and more of a scene out of Jurassic Park, with ferns and other lush greenery reaching out to pet me as I walked by.
This was one of the GOOD sections
I kept walking, like I always do, but once I had made it to the headwaters of Moosehead Creek, I found a beautiful campsite right next to some delicious and plentiful water. I wasn’t in a high-mileage mood today, so I set up camp early, despite having over an hour of sunlight left. It was fantastic!
The water, the perfect tent spots, the fire ring, the log bench, all of it was a great way to end a great day. I sat on the bench to make some dinner, and while I was waiting for dinner to be ready, I snacked on some peanut butter. It appears that I was not the only one looking for a snack…
Jerk.
Overall, I loved today. I’m relieved that my body feels fine and being able to spend time relaxing and hanging out with other hikers made for a truly lovely lazy Sunday. I didn’t wake up in the late afternoon or have a chance to see the Chronic-WHAT-cles of Narnia, but I slept pretty late and feel like I’m living in a different world already, so that’s good enough for me. 😊