Day 72: Monday, July 15

Sleeping on the porch of the Braatens at Little Haven, near Belden, CA (PCT mi 1289.5), walked 20.0 miles today

Slept like crap for some reason on the lawn last night. Woke up around 7 and got caught up on the news on my phone for the first time in awhile ... George Zimmerman acquitted, Andy Murray won Wimbledon a week ago apparently, Barack Obama elected president ... who knew? Left the house around 9 with the other hikers, we made the short walk to the Quincy main drag to an earthy "natural-foods" grocery store situated right next to a coffeeshop. I went to the latter for a latte and a breakfast scramble, they went into the store to buy quinoa paste or whatever it is one buys at such establishments. Left from there around 10:15 with local citizen and hiking enthusiast Steve who had approached me at the Safeway last night and given me his number for a ride out of town in the morning. He refused gas money, as is typical in these situations. At the trailhead itself, I was distracted for a while by a register book, the first one anyone has seen for about 500 miles. Despite the fact that I'm doing more consistent miles, everyone I know seems to keep widening the gap in front of me. What to do.

The 20 miles to Belden feel like they never even happened. They were so easy for the most part ... even though I started at 11 I was at the other end by 6, and comfortably. The last 7 miles or so were a huge, knee-lifespan-shortening descent down to about 2200 feet. Was unsure when I got down there whether I would push on or call for a ride here to the Braatens', the local trail angels. Yogi's guidebook had painted the Belden Town Resort, which the trail passes through, as some sort of druggy hell-hole because it hosts ravey music festivals all summer, but today was a Monday and there weren't many people around, and the place actually has a sweet restaurant setup overlooking the N Fork of the Feather River. Went into the bar and got an Asian chicken salad and a soda (I guess I wasn't feeling my usual bar meal of pork rinds and 5 shots of Jim Beam), and once that was over it was 7 and therefore too late to push on, I determined. Called up Brenda Braaten ... They live only a mile down the road, so I was picked up and delivered to their house within about 5 minutes. They have a small guest suite of sorts that hikers pretty much have the run of ... bathroom, small kitchen, a few beds, porch.

The other hikers at the house for the night are Robin Hood, who is great, and two unrelated fiftysomethings, Rodknee Dangertrail and Iceaxe, who are tough to share such a small space with. Iceaxe is so called because she is still carrying a 3lb iceaxe down the trail. She had about 2 hours of phone conversations, all with befuddled-sounding men, all on speakerphone (why why why?), and would literally follow me into whatever room I tried to escape to until she finally caught me giving her the death glare. Rodknee isn't quite at her level but he still talks an incredible amount, whether anyone's listening or not. Robin Hood and I both said no thank you to sleeping anywhere near those two and chose the porch for the night, which is less hot and stuffy than the house anyway. Tomorrow I don't know what I'll do ... I don't have to do particularly big miles to get to Old Station by Friday to meet Kristin. The first 15 are all uphill, so that might be all that gets done.

Other people's hiking blogs

I'm just finishing a zero day where I have access to a real computer with real internet (read: not the 3G connection on my phone), so I thought I would post links to blogs that friends of mine are keeping for their long hikes this year. I've done my hike and my blog a certain way, but as these other ones show, there are many ways to skin a cat, both with hiking and writing.

Most of these are people I've met on the PCT so far, but I knew Spins from the AT in 2011; she did the PCT last year and is now on what sounds like a perilous adventure on the Continental Divide Trail. For a taste of what I'm probably going to be doing at some point in the next few years, go to http://spinscdt.blogspot.com.

I met Tribhu in the very early days of the PCT (Julian and Idyllwild). He is way far ahead of me by now. There's a spiritual angle to his hiking and writing, at http://awalkofsurrender.blogspot.com.

I haven't seen Rocket Llama since Big Bear City. She is way far behind me by now. For an example of people having way too much fun on a thru-hike, and someone who writes exactly like she speaks, read her trail journal at http://www.trailjournals.com/alejandrawilson

I hiked with Muk-Muk for a day in the Sierra around VVR, and at the time didn't even know she was blogging. But her page got recommended to me recently, specifically because of the post on July 18 where she posts several videos of being stalked by a mountain lion for an entire night. Her blog is at http://mexicotocanada2013.wordpress.com.

My foreigner friends Lenny and Becca, aka Captain 'Murrica and Concrete Babe, have a rarely-updated but always entertaining blog at http://beaton-berg-cake.blogspot.com. They're not even planning on thru-hiking anymore, so this could turn into more of a general travelogue as they visit places like New Orleans, Orlando and San Diego before their visas run out.

Finally, if you want to read about two donkeys and a Frenchman wandering all over North and South America, visit Pascal's blog (I met him around mile 125 and again on Glen Pass when his donkeys were in a spot of bother), http://longears2chile.blogspot.fr.

Day 71: Sunday, July 14

Cowboying in Mark and Jenny's backyard in Quincy (PCT mi 1269.5), walked 19.0 miles today

What comes down has to go up ... Woke up down in the river gorge and had to spend the first 11 miles climbing back out of it. It was shady and very peaceful all the way up except for a few exposed areas near the top, and the ascent was never too steep. Poison oak reared its droopy, waxy, tripartite head again for the first 5 miles or so. Got up to the top right around noon and just as I was starting to get concerned about my water, a spring with ice cold piped water--so cold there was mist rising off of it--was pouring out right next to the trail. Made the most refreshing liter of Tang that's ever been made and moved on.

By 3 I got to Buck's Summit, with the road to Quincy and its 24-hour Safeway, a welcome departure from the shitty overpriced small-town general stores that we've all been struggling with for the last 300 miles. It took an hour and 15 minutes for someone to give me a ride, during which time Hummingbird showed up and tagged along into town with me. He and I had no plans other than the grocery store and the pizza we ended up eating for dinner ... Motels were expensive and it was looking like stealth camping somewhere in town for the night. But then I went into the Safeway to buy a Haagen-Dazs pint for dessert, and the guy in front of me in the express line (which was taking 10 minutes--some things don't change about Safeway) asked if I were thru-hiking. I said I was, then he said that he and his wife liked hiking and had read some books about the PCT recently, and had considered becoming trail angels because Quincy didn't have any, as far as they knew. He asked if Hummingbird and I would like to camp in their backyard for the night, and take care of laundry and showers and whatever else we needed in their house. Of course we accepted that incredible offer ... Hummingbird later dragged in Uncle Famous, Miss Maggie and Ain't Nothin Wrong, who were just arriving in town.

Got cleaned up and spent a long time chatting with Mark and Jen about the trail, about law school (which I'm still not planning on, don't start any rumors), and about our respective travels abroad. Their pets, Boris (dog) and Ivan the Terrible and Catherine the Great (cats) took too keen an interest in my tent during and after setting it up so I took it down again and decided to sleep out. People, especially crabby old hiker people on certain online forums, sometimes like to say, "All those hiker feeds and coolers by the side of the trail aren't real trail magic! You don't know what real trail magic is!" Well, does this count? This has been some perfect storm of serendipity and generosity in a town that I didn't even plan on being in as of last night. The trail provides.

Day 70: Saturday, July 13

Tenting by the unbelievable Middle Fork of the Feather River (PCT mi 1250.6), walked 27.1 miles today

Woke up at 6:45 to Redbeard leaving, got going myself by 7:30. Don't really remember what happened in the morning, other than that I was alone and the weather was cool and forgiving. Around 11am, after 10ish miles, got to Quincy-LaPorte Road, which Yogi assures is has very little traffic. That was true, but the one truck that did come by offered as much cold juice and yogurt as we could carry to me and the two other hikers, Robin Hood and Hummingbird, who were sitting there on our break. Ate a Chobani mango cup and filled up a liter of bright pink Guava nectar, which made the next five miles to water so much easier.

The terrain today was not as remarkable as yesterday's--just a lot of low brushy hills with literally a hundred or more downed logs to scramble over or around--which is maybe why I'm having trouble piecing together the events which led to me covering 26+ miles in 12 hours (maybe there was an alien abduction somewhere in there). At 16 miles I had to go what felt like an eternity (0.3 miles) off-trail to draw water from a spring, then the next 10 miles flew by and suddenly the trail was dropping hard into a canyon with this gorgeous river, the Feather, at the bottom of it. One of the best parts about the PCT is when I arrive at some stunningly beautiful place that, despite all my hours of pre-trip research and on-trail grapevining, I've never heard of or been warned about. This is such a place, a complete surprise. Went in for a full-body dunk, but not really a swim, and got cleaned up before setting up camp. Ate dinner with Robin Hood, a pretty cool dude from Bismarck, NoDak (he doesn't know Randy). Hummingbird and Gone Slow showed up later. Going to bed feeling very clean compared to the usual, knowing that I'll get dirty again climbing for 10 miles tomorrow morning, but that there are burgers and sodas at the top at Bucks Lake.

Day 69: Friday, July 12

Cowboying near the W Branch of Nelson Creek (PCT mi 1223.9), walked 25.2 miles today

Woke up at 6:45 to some apparently very early risers walking around me on the trail. Hadn't expected anyone to come out of town so early, but they had started hiking at 5:45. Crazy oldsters. Sky Eyes came by later as I was packing up, still sitting in the middle of the trail, and gave me a fist pound because "Fuck it dude, I fuckin love sleepin in the middle of the fuckin trail." Got hiking by 7:45 and climbed up over a couple of miles to the Sierra Buttes, which everyone could see from down in town yesterday. Really stellar views, and if I had had enough water at the time, I would've run off trail to the fire tower at the tippy top of the peak ... Alas, I was pretty parched and had to push on to the nearest spring. Water is back to being an issue, something we have to constantly be aware of and plan for. It was a nice 450 miles with water everywhere you looked, but those halcyon days are over.

Rolled through some very easy-on-the-eye terrain all the rest of the day ... If it wasn't a shady hemlock/fir forest, it was a lush verdant hillside covered in wildflowers and lamb's ear. Walked alone and had a genuine struggle for motivation in the middle of the day, one of the first times it's really happened to me. I had just taken a long break and was alone and was tired of being alone and wishing I could catch up to the people I like in front of me. But I kind of eased out of that low mood after walking awhile, and by the end of the day I was back to being very happy with just about everything.

Got to a mildly famous water source, the A-Tree spring, at 6 pm and had to endure a little too much lecturing from an older section-hiking couple about not treating my water. Normally I will take a brief tsk-tsk, counter it with "I understand, but I've spent 6 months in Sri Lanka and have 2000 miles of treatment-free hiking under my belt now, and I haven't gotten a serious intestinal condition yet" and then we can leave it at that. But these people wanted to go on and on about it, so I actually left early without taking my planned longish break there. On the last 5-mile stretch, Red Beard caught up to me ... On Monday the 1st he left the trail from Bridgeport for 5 days because of an issue back home in Seattle, got back on on Saturday morning, and has since hiked 200+ miles to try and catch up with Blast, Orbit and Slack, his trail friends. A pretty epic week of walking ... Today he did 30 including a trip into Sierra City. He's the type of person I like to point to when people accuse me of moving fast. He and I are camped at this water source, which is _barely_ running. It's listed in Yogi's book as "usually has water," so it stands to reason that it's dry enough this summer that any water source with even the slightest chance of failure should not be counted on. Tomorrow should be a 26-miler to a swimming hole.

Day 68: Thursday, July 11

Cowboy camping on the trail (PCT mi 1198.7), walked 10.9 miles today

Got walking at 7 sharp and the descent was constant and very gentle for 5 miles sharp. At 8:40 sharp, meaning I was walking 3 mph sharp, got to Wild Plum Road, the turnoff for the 3ish-mile alternate route into Sierra City. Halfmile doesn't mark this on his maps for some reason, but looking at the geography it's an obvious shortcut, and Yogi's notes mentioned a great waterfall and swimming hole midway down the road. Sure enough, it was an incredible spot ... Normally I don't really get off on swimming holes when hiking, although some people really do and they seek them out. But even I have to say this place was perfect and was the highlight of my day, probably the last couple of days. There was a waterfall dumping into a deep bright turquoise pool with bracing cold water and rocks all around perfect for jumping off of. Spent over an hour there swimming, jumping in, cleaning myself and my clothes and then letting them dry.

Ran into Simon just as I was getting back on the road toward town. Halfmile's notes had mentioned an elderly male citizen of Sierra City who had been reported to make "unwanted sexual advances" toward younger male hikers over the past several years ... Simon was probably the worst possible person to walk into town with because every innocent old man that we saw, he would whisper, "I bet he's the one" and then make some crude insinuation about his private life. Neither of us did a good job keeping a straight face through any of this.

Made it to the Red Moose Inn, which is hiker central in Sierra City because they allow free camping around the back and showers inside, and serve dinner for a concessionary rate. Bill and Margaret, the couple who run the place, are extremely helpful and patient but Bill especially seemed a little weary of hikers ... When I left he said something interesting to me, which is that he'd been doing this for four years and had seen a "noticeable decline" in the "quality" of hikers coming through. I obviously don't have other years to compare to, but I can see what he meant about today's crowd--I can't point out anything specific to illustrate it, but, to be snooty about it, the amount of intelligent life among the hikers who hung out on the porch all day today wasn't especially high. As I have said before, there are nice people in this herd surrounding me, and there are no specific ones for whom I have a strong antipathy, but I don't really care to spend much time with this crowd. For that reason, decided in the middle of the afternoon that I would stick around for dinner but not for the whole night.

Got errands--shopping, shipping, laundry, soda-drinking (they had Sprecher in the store!)--done in the afternoon. Was reunited with the town t-shirt I'd bounced ahead from Kennedy Meadows, and picked up my cutoff jeans in a maildrop from Kristin. Dinner was great--pork ribs, carrots, beans and home fries, with a bottle of Moose Drool on the side and watermelon for dessert. Afterward I packed up and headed out of town. Had to road-walk a half-hour just to reach the trail, and once I was on it, it was going up the whole time and it's just getting started. Could tell that there might not be any flat camping spots for awhile, so knowing that no one's coming up behind me until midmorning tomorrow at least, decided to crash in the middle of the trail. Haven't done this before but it's certainly comfortable, my only fear is a deer tripping over my face in the middle of the night. Bears are supposedly active around here so I've taken the unusual step of putting all my food far away from me halfway up a tree ... If it gets ransacked tonight I turn around and go back to town tomorrow. Almost no bugs for the first time in ages. The plan for this section is to make Belden, 92 miles away, in four days starting tomorrow.

Day 67: Wednesday, July 10

Tenting in a medium-sized clearing (PCT mi 1189.8), walked 26.8 miles today

Even though I had gone to sleep about 9, couldn't bear to open my eyes til 7:30 today. Was moving by 8 and the terrain was so ridiculously easy, and the weather so cool and pleasant, that I started to think I could do 30 miles even with the late start. Kept seeing people from the mini-herd all morning, but by noonish I was past all of them. Kept my breaks short and just kept moving ... The trail spent a lot of time rolling around in fairly dense evergreen forest, but then periodically would climb to a treeless grassy ridge with a great view. Never got to sit and enjoy these views for any length of time because the wind was always blasting, hard enough to alter the placement of my footsteps, whenever the trail went up high.

I would have been well on pace for 30 but a grave case of butt-chafe struck in the mid-afternoon. I have no idea what causes this--my theory from the desert had been sweat running down my back, but I haven't had to sweat much lately. It definitely got worse with the long pants I started wearing after Mammoth, but I'm no longer wearing those. Today was the absolute nadir ... Nothing I could do to treat it was very effective and I had to make a chew toy out of that little plastic ring that comes underneath the cap of a Gatorade bottle, just to keep my mind off the pain. Waddled into camp a lot sooner than planned and am trying to take care of all chores in the tent for the evening in the lying-down position. Even when it's bad I almost always have a few hours of pain-free walking to start off every morning, and I'm only 8 miles from Sierra City, so I should be in town before it makes its dreaded return.

Day 65: Monday, July 8

Tenting at Squaw Creek (PCT mi 1142.9), walked 22.3 miles today

Had one of the best night's sleeps on the whole trail in the ski hut and blazed right through my alarms, woke up at 7:30 and was gone by 8:15. Was surprised to see 6 people still passed out in their sleeping bags next to the lake, but later I learned they were up til 2 a.m. whoopin it up and catchin crawdads, hot damn! Dirtbag's new trail name is apparently Crawdaddy because he bagged "like, 30 of them." The morning was a very easy climb to Barker Pass, where there was a vanload of Tahoe Rim Trail hikers who gave me some food, including a protein bar that might as well have said "All new POOP flavor!" on the front. There was also a cooler with 1 PBR and one bottle of aloe vera juice, which is a new concept to me. My esophagus wasn't sunburned or anything, but I took the juice. It had chunks of something floating in it. It tasted okay I guess.

Shortly after the pass, ran into 2 thru-hikers, Luna and Werewolf, who have just picked up a dog from their parents and are trying to take him to Canada, but he's not really cooperating. He seemed to want to run off trail a lot and then sit in the shade and refuse to move. Got caught without much water over an 8-mile stretch in the mid-afternoon because I was distracted by the dog and not paying attention to where the trail was about to go, high along a ridge. Tried to appreciate the views of Lake Tahoe from said ridge anyway ... There was what looked like a new wildfire burning on the east side of it (see picture). Later the air around us got kind of smoky, presumably from that.

Took a 1.5-hour break after I finally staggered up to a water source, Simon the British guy was there for most of that time with me. Took care of the final 5 miles alone with music in ... I listen to music while hiking rarely enough that it always really pumps me up and I want to sing along, but I can't because what if I walked right up on someone's snack break yelling, "R.O.C., we runnin this rap shit!" to myself? I'm honestly more afraid of that than of someone walking in on me pooping. When I got to this site it was only 7 and I could've kept walking, but I'm liking this whole sustainable-pace thing. Noticed that the pattern in my mileage lately has been to race race race, a bunch of 25-mile or more days, and then flame out in town with a zero and/or a huge nearo. I feel 100% each morning if I keep the previous day's mileage at or just under 25. Tomorrow there will be a long midday break at the Soda Springs store but I ought to still have total mileage around 15-20, which is close enough to the 21 per day that I figure I have to average to get to Canada by Sept. 20, which would be ideal. Camped nearby are Sexy Legs, Johnny Reb, Jug and Chozen One, as well as a LASHer (long-ass section hike) couple named Lodgepole and Wuzzy. The first four are doing more experiments with campfire cooking, which is ironic because fires will soon be explicitly banned everywhere we hike, if they're not already now (signage has been unclear).

Day 66: Tuesday, July 9

Tenting not far past the Peter Grubb Hut (PCT mi 1153.0), walked 20.1 miles today

Got moving around 7:15 this morning and after about 5 miles of climbing popped out on the very top of a very steep and very exposed ridge with 360 views ... Stayed up there for a couple of miles, and it was a fantastic morning of walking. There was a stiff breeze on the ridge, but I can only imagine what that area would be like if it were really blowing. Took a bathroom break at the Benson Ski Hut, where my poop fell from possibly the highest distance it ever has--the commode was on the second story, there was an entire first story below it, and then below that was the pit. It was fascinating. I could have sat there all day.

But town food called ... I continued the next 6ish miles to the old Hwy 40, where there was an older couple, the family of Werewolf and/or Luna, handing out cold beer and fresh cherries. Hung there awhile with Sexy Legs and Johnny Reb, then caught a quick hitch 3 miles to the Soda Springs store. Ate a pretty good sandwich there, drank some Mtn. Dew, which I'd craved all morning, charged my phone and grabbed some extra snacks for the next 35 miles to Sierra City. Was back out to the trail via another quick hitch in about 2 hours. 4 miles from there, the trail passed under I-80, where someone had left more trail magic, with some very recently stocked coolers of soda and beer, and some frosted donettes for good measure. Drank two sodas and moved on. Had started to feel very antisocial because I had seen about a dozen hikers, most of whom I don't really care about, in the vicinity since returning to the trail and knew they all had the ski hut, the Peter Grubb, in mind for the night. I got there at 7 and it was closed for repairs, which is going to disappoint a lot of people. Went less than a half-mile past it, figuring they'd all camp in the building area anyway, then poked around off-trail for a good stealth site, found one under some nice big pines. Relishing my aloneness because I'm clearly around a mini-herd and my not have much time to myself between here and Sierra City in 35 miles.

Day 64: Sunday, July 7

Sleeping in an ACTUAL SHELTER, the Ludlow Ski Hut by Richardson Lake (PCT mi 1120.6), walked ~23 miles today

Set no alarm but woke up around 6:45 anyway and was going by 7:30. Aloha Lake after a few miles was quite spectacular, a throwback to the High Sierra. There were good lakes all throughout today, come to think of it. Climbed up Dicks Pass, did not see the anatomical snow art that I'd heard is often present at the top in years past. Had been alone til then, but found thru-hikers at the top--Sexy Legs, whom I knew already, and Rafiki, Johnny Reb and a British fellow named Simon, whom I did not. They were hilarious and we hung out for awhile talking food and bodily functions, mostly.

Ambled through the afternoon, hiking at times with Legs and/or Simon, and at about 6:30, which is normally way too early to stop for me, got to this lake. It had a multitude of very nice camping areas all around, including this Sierra Club hut which we eventually discovered on the other side. The front door was locked so to get in, I had to climb a ladder to the second story, open a door that leads out of a wall onto nothing, climb down from the loft and undo the bar on the main door from the inside. Back outside, more hikers were stopping for the night, including Messenger, his visiting cousin Gili (also Israeli), Chozen One, Dirtbag, Johnny Reb, Rafiki, a guy named Jug, Britta and Karen. Messenger is obsessed with building fires and cooking anything and everything on them, so he got working on that. Jug disappeared for 30 minutes and came back soaking wet but holding a crayfish from the lake, which he and Rafiki then boiled and ate. Messenger and Gili carry flour so the latter worked up some bread dough ... Chozen One tried too but he was competing with a pro and his dough did not exactly have the perfect consistency, while hers did. She baked some of it by wrapping strips of it around a stick in a spiral (see pictures), then they handed out the rest for people to make their own calzones with whatever food they happened to have in their personal stash. After awhile the fire got too hot and one of the rocks that was under/in contact with the coals exploded ... No one was hurt, which was kind of lucky, but a little flaming rocklet landed on my pack and bored a hole in the fabric. Ended up staying out well after dark and left when there were a series of explosions of smaller rocks ... I've never been useful for much around campfires and I figured I'd leave that problem to the guys who started it. Went over to the hut around 10 and laid out on one of the dining tables inside to go to sleep. No tent hassle and no bugs ftw.