PCT day 24 – Baden Powell
We were up early again - 8 people in one cabin may be a few too many! Roxanne,Cool Breeze, Lucky and I packed up and left while the others were having a later start.
We met a guy who runs the mini mart last night and he told us to drop in on out way out – he gave us a bag of goodies! Roxanne and I got a hitch after about 15 cars and I had Napoleon on my knee for most of the ride!
I felt like I was struggling mentally a bit this morning, it's always difficult to get back into it after a day off it seems. I felt a bit miserable, but I cheered myself up by thinking about all the support and nice messages I've had over the last few days.
We were eased into the day gently by climbing Mt Baden Powell with Roxanne and Meta (someone new!). It was a fairly tough climb and it was steep but we had it done in about 3 hours.
The PCT doesn't go to the top of Baden Powell but there is a .1 mile spur trail to the top. We left packs by a 1500 year old tree and went to the summit. Without my pack it felt like someone else was controlling my body, my back was moving all over the place, I lookedl ike a puppet on a string. We met the Swiss boys properly and we were taken by surprise when they asked for a photo...
We had a rest by the tree and more of the gang came along – Lucky and Zog. I walked down to Ittle Jimmy spring with Cool Breeze where we filtered the water falling out the mountain. Bobaroo was there, he is 67 and he is out pacing all of us! Here he is checking his iPhone...
On the way down we saw 5 or 6 Nuns, they had climbed up with a wooden staff each and they were staring out over the clouds. It was a bit surreal.
We got to Little jimmy campground where we saw JBird, he had a great set up with a fire ready to go, so tempting to stay but we carried on 3 more miles to the start of the detour (part of the PCT is closed because of an endangered species of yellow frog). We started descending into the clouds.
A group of us met up at the start of the detour – Cool Breeze, Roxanne, Growler and the Swiss Boys. We all decided to do the 5 mile road walk together – safety in numbers! We only saw 4 cars, but the clouds kept rolling and and the visibility was poor. The road walk seemed to take forever but we played some games to pass the time and we got to know the Swiss boys better – now named the Swiss army – someone said their English wasn't very good but it's great.
It started to get cold, really cold. Freezing. Our hands, feet and legs had gone numb.
We arrived at a camp ground with drop toilet and bear box – all the luxuries. We set up camp and ate super quick so we could get in our tents as soon as possible because it was so cold!!! We had also done a 24 mile day so lying down was a priority. I can't even think about tomorrow...