don't just follow the Cascadias!

Day 61 ~ miles 977.7 - 993.5

Slept late.  Again.  It wasn't even that cold out, but I reckon our body's alarm clocks have reset themselves to 7:00.  We felt strong hiking this morning, and were having a really great day.  We ate lunch by a small cascade, rested there for a while, swatting at mosquitos and rinsing out some dirty clothes.

We hit the trail, still feeling great post-lunch, and began another ascent.  Weird, I thought, as I didn't think we had to do anymore climbing today.  Oh well, I saw the tell-tale Cascadia tracks on the trail, so all was right.  Brooks Cascadias are extremely popular shoes amongst thru-hikers, and they also have a very distinct and easily recognizable tread.  We always joke that when we're not sure if we're on the trail or not, just look for the Cascadia prints.  Most of the time, this works. 

We were hiking along, when we saw a familiar face approaching. It was Bess, a hiker's girlfriend who had just come out to hike with him for a few weeks.  Her boyfriend and his brother were nowhere to be seen.  She had hiked ahead of them, and had somehow gotten off trail.  Lucky for her, we got off trail at the same junction.  Lucky for us, we ran into her; otherwise we wouldn't have even realized we were not on the PCT, we were just following the Cascadias.  In total, we walked a little more than 2 non-PCT miles, but poor Bess had done more.  We walked with her back to the PCT and hiked ahead.

Mosquito hell would be an accurate descripton of our afternoon hiking.  We wore our mosquito headnets for the first time, as mosquitos blanketed us if we paused for more than a second.  We are camped with a new face, and were happy to have a fire to keep the mosquitos away. 

P.U.D.S

Day 60 ~ miles 960.5 - 977.7

It was a bitter cold night (and morning), which makes it really difficult to get out of our warm, cozy, coccoon-like sleeping bags.  So we got a pretty late start.

The hiking today was reminiscent of the Appalachian Trail.  Lots of P.U.D.S., as they are often referred to (pointless ups and downs).  You may think that this is quite common when trekking through the mountains, but the PCT is, for the most part, usually very gently graded.  Ascents and descents are often long and gentle.  Well, not today they weren't.  I guess they're really not pointless, as they get us from A to B, or canyon to canyon as was the case today; they're just exhausting.

In other news, I swallowed a bug of some sort today, when it flew right into the back of my throat.  It triggered my gag reflex, as I heaved repeatedly until I could drink some water.  In hindsight, it was hilarious. Also, while crossing a log over a stream, I had a weird bout of anxiety that caused me to totally freeze up (how many times have I crossed a stream on a log?!) .  My heart was racing!  Eventually, I was able to cross, and laugh about it.  I blamed it on the caffiene I had with lunch.

Hoping for less P.U.D.S., bugs, and log crossings tomorrow.

no more boot

Day 59 ~miles 942.6 - 960.5

The short mileage day and time with friends was great for my foot and morale, but it's really time to get back to business.  We haven't had a strong hiking day in awhile.  I know that I should be resting, or taking it a little easier, but I have endured this foot pain for nearly 300 miles of trail, and I can continue to do so.  There's also a chance that my injury may not even be a stress fracture; most of the time a stress fracture isn't obvious on an x-ray, and mine was no exception.  I'll listen to my body and we'll do what we need to do, but I'm not nearly ready to call it quits.  At this point, my foot is actually feeling quite a bit better.  Walking with pain for so long, I adjusted my gait so that walking caused less pain.  By compensating, it screwed up my ankle and entire foot, and eventually I even had slight pain in my hip.  By taking it slow and wearing the boot when I could, all other issues have basically been resolved; now pain only remains at the initial injury site.  All that being said, I'm getting rid of the boot.   I think the additional weight of the thing on my pack may do more harm than good. 

I happily mailed my boot to Virginia, excited for my pack to become 3+ pounds lighter, and we hit the trail around 10.  So many people were out and about in Yosemite, though as we walked deeper into the woods, the crowds thinned.  We were checked for the first time for our PCT permits and bear canisters by a NPS law enforcement ranger, we passed inspection. 

The terrain was moderately easy, as we passed by incredible waterfalls and rounded stone peaks.  We arrived to camp fairly late, but were happy to have put in decent miles for such a late start.  We're camped with Pedi, Soapbox, and some other hikers.  We gathered around a small fire for a short time, but even that couldn't keep us warm enough on this frigid evening, so ino the sleeping bags we went.

Yosemite zoo

Day 58 ~ miles 933 - 942.6

No bear encounters last night, just a bit of tossing and turning (likely secondary to paranoia of bear activity).  Today, we headed to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park, where we have a package waiting.  The hike into Tuolumne was completely lacking any elevation change, in other words, it was flat and easy.  I wore my boot for maybe a couple of miles, but it has become so uncomfortable.  The pressure on my shin is more painful than walking without the boot, even though I have attempted to pad it using various items and methods. 

We arrived early afternoon to the zoo that was Yosemite NP on father's day.  There were an abundance of cars and people everywhere.  It's a little strange to walk directly out of the woods and into that bustling environment.  Tuolomne Meadows consists of a general store, post office, and grill, all in the same building, and a campground out back.  We setup at the picnic tables out front, where several hikers gathered and exploded their backpacks and packages over the tables and lawn.  We did the same.  We got some expectedly overpriced and mediocre burgers from the grill, organized food, and repacked our packs as we chatted with other hikers.  After a few hours of loitering, we hoisted our packs on and said our "see ya laters".  Suddenly, a car pulled up and familiar faces exited the vehicle; it wa s Soapbox and Pedi, 2 of the "4 guys" that we hiked with earlier on.  We were happily shocked to see them, as we thought they were several days ahead.  To celebrate our reunion, we all decided to stay at the Tuolumne Meadows campground (the other 2 guys, Quinoa and Half & half, arrived shortly).   We covered the campsites with a large number of tents, as several other hikers were also there.  We gathered firewood and made a toasty fire around which many stories and laughs were shared.  Talk about a morale boost!