PCT - Day 24: 5/12/2018 - Mile 400 above the clouds

Trail miles: 26.4 from 383.9 - 410.3
Miles hiked: 22.1 (road walked around the Endangered Species detour)

hiking above the clouds

We spent much of the morning walking on clouds, or sometimes just above or below them. It was a cold morning and all of us got moving quickly as a result.

Morning light

Ziploc and I joined up at the road walk around the trail closure for the endangered toads. When we reached mile 397 there was trail magic from previous PCT hikers that included donuts, sandwiches, fresh fruit, beer, soda, whiskey and live music. 

Trail Magic and Music

It was only 10:30 am but we passed around a bottle of whiskey, ate second breakfast, and shared stories with each other. Opera sang briefly with Pig Pen who was playing a violin.

Pass the Whiskey

After leaving the trail magic, I was suddenly in a bad mood for an unknown reason. Even the 400 mile mark didn’t change my mood.

Mile 400

TreeBeard chatted with me for a bit. He also stopped and pointed out some Poodle Dog Bush. This was educational and appreciated. This evil plant can cause severe blisters if one were to contact it.

Poodle Dog Brush

I was still in a dark place while I was the hiking alone with my thoughts. Then I stopped to pull a rock out of my shoe. I heard Chilly Bin coming down the switchback above me whistling a song. She and I hiked together till we reached a campground at mile 406. She was also in a unexplainable mood. Our conversation with each other helped both of us extract ourselves from our thoughts and improve our mood.

We were enjoying a late lunch on a windy day at a picnic table at Sulfur Spring Campground when she saw smoke coming from the opposite end of the campground. We both immediately threw our shoes back on, grabbed our water bottles and ran over. Fortunately the fire was contained in a fire ring. However, the fire ring was unattended and was very hot. Nobody was around. We were the only two people in the vicinity. Whoever started this fire was long gone. Chilly Bin and I took multiple trips back and forth to an algae filled creek and doused the fire.  Unfortunately we had to leave the litter since there was too much to carry.

After preventing a potential forest fire, we decided we did not want to camp in a campground on a weekend with asshats from town potentially showing up on a Saturday night. We pressed on making the day a bit longer. She was walking in front when she saw a rattlesnake, and said “Snake!”, which oddly enough with her New Zealand accent sounded like “Snick”, which made me smile and reminisce about my “Snick” blog post.

Snake (or" Snick")

At mile 410 we caught up with Ziploc and were later joined by Socks. Socks informed us that our other friends might’ve had too much to drink at the trail magic and we behind a ways.

hiker cloud thoughts

This day ended with humorous exchanges with each other from within the warmth of our tents.

Tomorrow we are shooting for another 20 mile day. I hope we all camp together again. I’m really grateful for these great friends I’m making out here. I’m trying to savor and cherish each moment.