PCT day 18 - An almost perfect day
My food bag is so heavy. I went a bit overboard with the food resupply. Oh well, I'll just have to eat more, or eat half of it on the first day! We had a leisurely morning and went to teddys restaurant for breakfast as our ride back to the trailhead wasn't until 9:30am and we all get up at 6!
I just had an oj but Rowan had a massive (second) breakfast. Kat and Cuban are staying longer in Big Bear to rest up a bit. We got a ride to the trailhead by someone that volunteers for the hostel. We had 9 people in the car plus 8 very heavy backpacks, the bottom of the car only scraped the road a couple of times!
We set off hiking at around 10am – a late start! The trail was lovely today, almost perfect conditions. The weather was great, a few clouds and tree cover so not too hot, but warm enough for a tshirt with a gentle breeze.
Rowan soon blazed past me with a cry of 'I'm off to projectile vomit!' You can just see him here in the distance...
The trail went up and down gently and was even a bit flat in places – this would be a really nice introduction day! But, it wasn't perfect because there were a few too many rocks. Rocks everywhere. The rocks are ok until later in the day when you legs get tired and then you start to trip and your ankles start to roll.
I was going at a decent speed and had covered 10 miles before I knew it (morning miles are much quicker than afternoon miles). I collected a litre of water at the cache. We had views of the lake and mountains for a lot of the day...
I crossed over with the tits again and Wet Dog for most of the day. I came across JBird and shaggy at around 13 miles - shaggy has hurt his knee and I suggested he change his name to gimpy, he wasn't that keen!
They were in a great spot and making a fire, they tried to convince me to stay but I have to make more than 13 miles a day if I'm going to get to Canada! After I saw them I had 6 miles to go and I flew. It only took me 1hr 50mims!! That's more than 3 miles an hour! I was feeling good, no pains and a good steady rhythm.
Dinner looks good...
Tom Tit lit a (safe) fire in a fire pit, the whole area we were in had burned before, we didn't want to be responsible for it burning again! And there was some serious blogging around the camp fire.
I packed out some Lindt dark chocolate with orange as a treat, only to find out it had almond slithers in. Gutted. Absolutely gutted.
A girl called Goatsy arrived and Lucky came by, lured by our wonderful fire! We chatted mostly about food, a lot about ice cream. We were up until 10, way past hiker midnight!
Tomorrow, I'm not sure what tomorrow holds...