Day 3: Mile 20 – 32

What a crazy day!! I started out day three with my body feeling like it had been hit by a train. I was thinking that there was no way I was hiking even close to what I had been the past few days.

I started packing up, doing so quite quickly and heading to mingle with the others and trail angels before heading out for the day. I waited until coffee was ready, which meant that I left camp later than the people I was hiking with. Leaving camp hiking along the sandy brush-covered landscape, I felt pretty lonely, bored and demotivated, and desperately wished I had hiked out with someone else. Obviously, I was pushing through, but I told myself I would try to make sure I hiked with someone in the second half of the day.

And sure enough, I popped around a corner and saw Claire, and I was so happy to be able to hike with her! We chatted during the descent from Lake Morena. Elene caught up too, and we all walked through an oak savanna. This section really emphasized the diversity of landscapes we would be encountering on the trail.

We soon made it to Boulder Oaks, where trail angel and host Tammy aka “Oracle” kindly walked us through our next few days on trail, what campsites looked like, what the water situation was, and told us that now we were exactly 1% complete with trail at mile 26!

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed when thinking about more than a few days out of trail, but I still really appreciated her help. She had an RV parked in her site and a black and white cat named Tink in the window. It really made me miss my cats, and was the first time it really hit me that I would be away from home for so long.

The climb out of Boulder Oaks was gorgeous, an absolute botanical garden of desert flora, which unfortunately we could only sort of appreciate given how rocky it was.

I started feeling stiffness in the side of my right knee earlier that day, and continued feeling it hiking alone to the next water source at Kitchen Creek. It was around 8 or 9 miles into the day when I just started feeling awful, hot, and worried about the way my body was recovering. I worried I might have to zero and leave the people I was hiking with, or that something was wrong, and was feeling like I was zoning out trying to get through the miles. I told myself, though, that I would try to push worries aside until I had rested, ate, and made a plan at the water source.

I met Elene and Claire at Kitchen Creek, and spent about an hour chilling in the sun and soaking our feet in the cool, rushing water. I ate, hydrated, and stretched. Miriam (another hiker who joined us later) has this awesome picture of us hanging out and me stretching on the rocks by the creek. There must have been something magical in that creek water, because I felt so much better afterwards!! I think I just learned that you really need to slow down and take breaks out here and also not catastrophize when things are not going right immediately.

I left Kitchen Creek a little after the others, thinking I’d be hiking solo to our campsite. But sure enough, I saw the group at the trail junction to the highway, where there was more TRAIL MAGIC!!! Keith was a trail angel with a sick Denali with decals that said TRAIL MAGIC, and he offered me gatorade and snacks, which I happily took. I was happy to see my group again! Keith was very sweet, and said that “this” was the reason why he did trail magic, to see hikers get together. We were gunning for camp so we didn’t stay long, but I appreciated the sugar boost before the final climb of the day.

Our climb to Fred’s Canyon, our campsite for the night, was absolutely jaw-dropping. Think expansive views of the desert, flowers blooming on the ridge, and intense wind blowing all around us. I really was happy to be hiking the PCT in that moment. It was one my favorite views so far.

Our campsite was awesome too, tucked away into a little canyon and protected against the wind that was forecasted. Dinner was great, and I had great company to share it with. Overall, today was a day that showed how much attitude can shift over a short period of time out here. One moment I felt like crap, and then ended up having a great day in the end.

Tonight will be cold!! Crossing my fingers that I stay warm!!

Day 4: Mile 32 – 41.5

Woke up on Day 4 to a rainy morning! I pitched my tent too high and let in some of the wind, so I definitely slept a little colder and worse than I could have. I am really learning through trial and error out here!

It took me awhile to get my morning started, which I was glad for when it started raining on people who had already put away their tents. The people I’m hiking with (Miriam, Elene, Claire, Jake, and Lipstick) were ready to go earlier than me, so I told them not to wait up and that I’d catch them at a water source or break (LOL I thought!). I ate breakfast with new hikers I met, Brian and a British guy named Hell Yea (his trail name because he shouted HELL YEA in response to pretty much everything.) Some weekend backpackers had set up a tarp, and I was so grateful for it.

When I left camp, it was raining and windy, but not too bad. It felt like hiking in Oregon, so I genuinely wasn’t concerned at that point. I had my yellow raincoat on (which I bought since the color reminded me of the “duckies” I wore with my trail crew last year) and enjoyed the cool weather on the gradual climb alone. My body felt so much better compared to the day before, maybe because I was stretching more and taking longer breaks.

I saw lots of trail runners doing a training race in the gloomy conditions, and some Boy Scouts backpacking to Mount Laguna. While taking a break, I also met another thru-hiker named Matt, who was from WA. I really love meeting people from the PNW here!

During my hike alone, I was mostly thinking about plans for the day, where I would camp, things I wanted to buy while in town, and how my body felt. It’s funny how little I was thinking about “deeper” introspective things. I honestly had to stop myself from worrying too much about the plans for the day and focus on the hike, which was starting to get colder and windier. It was beautiful though. The green colors of white sage and other desert plats were starting to pop.

I hiked about six miles, and was a little concerned that I never saw my group. I ate a sad lunch of cheese and tortillas while drenched in the rain. It was here when my morale started to drop. The wind was picking up significantly and the rain was not letting up.

The wind was gusting probably 35 mph hiking up on the ridge to Mount Laguna. I was taking lots of stretch and fueling breaks up to this point, but the weather was so miserable that I decided to push the last 2.5 miles to Mount Laguna. I wish I had my headphones accessible to listen to music to distract myself, but they were buried in my dry bag underneath my soaking wet tent.

I was so relieved to start seeing pine trees as I turned corners on the climb, which meant I was getting closer and closer to the top. The last mile or so was hiking in a beautiful meadow, but I barely paid attention to it given I was cold, tired, and overstimulated from the wind.

I hobbled to town and to the Pine House restaurant. I waited shell-shocked outside, until I was greeted warmly by my group. I walked inside the warm lobby, and I as surrounded by practically everyone we started with on Day 1. Apparently, the group that was faster than us was camping on Mount Laguna last night, and the winds were so bad that tents were blowing away and people were sleeping in the bathroom, which resulted in everyone taking a zero day. I can’t describe the feeling of walking up to the warm, inviting table of people in front of me after hiking through such horrible conditions. I was nonverbal with exhaustion, but felt so happy to be around everyone again.

All the rooms at the hostel and hotel were booked, but luckily Claire found a huge AirBnB and booked for us. She then received a message from the host that unfortunately the person from the cleaning service for the AirBnB was ill, so if we still wanted to stay at the house (albeit a little dirty), she would discount the stay to cost $100 TOTAL!!! The dirtiness obviously wouldn’t bother us, so we gladly checked in for the cost of $12.50 person.

It was so wonderful to have a place to stay that night. There would be 45mph winds that night, and the temperature with windchill was forecasted to be 12 degrees. I resupplied, dried out my gear, washed my clothes, and showered. We made a dinner together and had a sweet time talking about the revelations we’ve had on trail so far. Mine was that I spend a lot of time worrying about logistics, only to find that things end up working out okay anyways, and that I wanted to spend less time planing for the worse outcome in my head.

It was nice to be with a group, and it felt like a “tramily” was forming. I’m a pretty independent person, so sometimes it feels conflicting to be swept up in other people’s plans and not feel pressured to follow along to conform to the group. But it’s also so important to make connections and be able to rely on people out here, so I’m hoping as time goes on I’ll be able to strike a balance between doing my own thing and hanging out with a group. I’d say my greatest challenge on trail so far is just navigating what I want socially out of this adventure. I don’t think I have an answer yet, but it’s early days!