Met two cool folks, Gizmo from AZ and Dirtknap from NY. There was some trail magic for us at the highway today. Soda and red pepper were very much enjoyed. Tomorrow hiking into south Lake Tahoe! Cannot wait.
7/12
1062
27 miles! On accident. (Intended to do 25 but there was no camping at that water). My biggest mileage day ever. Man I'm slacking. Gotta pick up the pace. Not that this is a race. Someone once told me that the winner of the pct is the last one to make it to the border before the snow. Testament also gave me some good advice I've been taking often- "one foot in front of the other, it'll take you there."
Another first on trail for the day- I SAW A BEAR. At around 8 pm right before the sun finally dipped past the mountains. Funny thing is my wish from earlier today came true. A woman named blue butterfly told us this morning she had just seen a cinnamon colored bear and it ran away from her. I said "I really want to see a bear", and what do you know, I see my first bear out here. A cinnamon colored cub! Lil teddy graham.
Another cool thing about today- trail magic times 2. Back to back. Arriving at ebbits pass highway, there was a "death" bike race going on. Something crazy like biking up and down 42 passes in one day. And people think thru hikers are crazy, hah! Just kidding, were all a little bit bizarre, aren't we?
Anyways they had leftover cans of ice cold v8 juice and soda. The best.
Then meadow Mary, a trail angel brought a cooler of apples and cookies. Oh another wish that came true today, I said aloud "I really wish trail register books would come back, so I can see who's ahead and by how many days/hours" and voila! In the cooler from meadow Mary was a trail register! Made me so happy :)
Oh and something that made me laugh, we heard noises that sounded like a stomp band, people banging on pots and pans. Turned out to be a herd of cows making so much constant noise with their COWBELLS. Yep, so much cowbell.
Another thing, gypsy and I have made three corny animal puns that are so aprapo. A few days ago She said that a deer was so cute, I said it was a'doe'able. Then yesterday she said her mystery egg in her pocket was a 'bird'en. Then today while talking about how I don't understand bear behavior and wondering what controlled field studies are done with bears, gypsy said there are too many variables. I said, you mean 'bear'iables. Okay I'm not embarrassed by this. It's just 11 and I am silly sleepy.
7/11
1035
Most beautiful hiking day of my life, possibly. Left Kennedy meadows north resort with siesta fiesta after eating breakfast at the diner. Trail magic by a woman named Mac at the Sonora pass trailhead. She mentioned something about the weather being left over from an Arizona monsoon. Non of us reacted or asked questions. Gypsy found a spotted egg (potentially a dinosaur baby) and carried it for 6 miles before I was going to smash it to find out what was inside. It was Gypsy's "bird-en." It was just a hard boiled egg, so Testament ate it. No food left behind! Cloudy, nearly rainy all day, made the temperature so perfect. The hike was simply mystical. I stopped a lot to take video, write down my thoughts, etc. but my Phone is all out of room for photos! Ah! I wish I could delete some music from my iPhone out here but I don't know if I can.
7/10
1013
Hiked from Dorothy lake to Sonora pass. Must have passed the 1000 mile mark. Got hailed and rained on with some eerie thunder. The landscape changed to volcanic lava mountains. It was like walking on another planet. Phone was dead so no photos of this spectacular walk. A wooden post had ptc carved into it, instead of pct. Someone coming south asked if I had been out a while in passing, and I reacted saying "been out all day" haha. I looked very dirty, my yellow shirt stained multi colors with dirt and caked with salt. No wonder he asked. The weather was stormy and ominous. The landscape, barren with lava rock and snow. So excited to get to the road, the last 5 miles felt like 10. Finally when I was 1/4 mile away from the road, the guy I've never seen before, walking south bound, named Crush, said to me "is there cell reception up there?" And I said my phones been dead for 3 days I dont know. Then he proceeded to ask if I was thru hiking and oh you're going southbound? I was very confused by this. No I'm going north, the way I have been the past few months. No you're going south, he said. By this point in the day I was so exhausted, hungry, wanted to make it to Kennedy meadows to meet siesta fiesta again. In disbelief I argued with this guy for a good 5 minutes back and forth. I'm going north, no I'm going north. This flipped my switch, and Irritable me started crying "what are you elling me?? I've never been here before, this is the pct, I can see the road, so I can't be going south. This guy was going the wrong way. Ugh I was a little upset. Just an hour before this happened I was thinking about what I would like to work on getting better at. Not sweating the small stuff, or over reacting when something small stands in my way. Then this happened. Crush apologized very sincerely about making me cry. I thanked him because it was a lesson for me to not let the little things flip my switch. But I like crying, it helps get things out.
Put my thumb out and got a ride from Jack, a kid from Buffalo who is supporting the person doing the speed record on the pct. He's running it. For cancer. Wow. His name is Joe. The ride to Kennedy meadows with jack was very cool. Gorgeous drive. I had so many questions. Joe is where I am right now. He started June 17, he does 45 miles a day average, and his friends bring him food and water and sometimes he just has a day pack. Amazing. His website is runforcolin.com. Arrived at Kennedy meadows north, shared a cabin with siesta fiesta. Shower, laundry, big turkey dinner, wine, resupply, sleep in bed.
7/9
Walked to Dorothy lake and camped with Ewok, Parker and Torri from NY, really sweet and amazing people. I took a nap at 2 ish in the shade for 15 mins with my pack on. Half step came walking south and took me by surprise. He and Switcharoo, Timex and Sweets were flip flopping south from south Lake Tahoe back to toulomme. They got a ride to south Lake Tahoe for the 4th. It was cool to run into them.
7/8
978
Hardest day ever for me. So steep up and down like a roller coaster all day. Up 1000, down 1000. Repeat. Repeat.
Got out of camp late, hiked slow all day. Hiked only 15. Couldn't make it to siesta fiesta.
7/7
Out of toullomne, hiked 20 with siesta fiesta, it rained. Gypsy saw two deers doing IT. Camped with new friends hippo and thirsty. Hippo has a wooden flute that she was playing as I rolled into camp.
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