PCT day 22 – Above the clouds
I woke at 6am to the sound of a blaring train horn, on the edge of a dirt road with the sun streaming in my tent. The last thing I wanted to do was get up but I could already feel the heat. But I'm glad I did get out my tent – what a view!
We were above the clouds, and we arrived at camp in the dark so we had no idea what we were looking out on.
For the first 4 miles I was on the struggle bus. My right knee hurt going down. My left achilles hurt going up. I felt sick. I needed a poo. I needed a wee. I felt dehydrated. The poodle dog bush smell was making me feel more sick. I had 5 bug bites on my forehead, 2 on my leg and 1 on my foot. I thought everyone was miles away (again) but there weren't and I found them after 4 miles having a snack. But the views all morning were amazing.
Because the trail goes through a burn area there was quite a lot of poodle dog bush along the trail but it was easy to avoid.
After the struggle of the morning the hiking got so much easier and the views were amazing.
I got to 12 miles and walked up the steepest hill there has been so far on the whole trail, luckily it was short, and I could smell washing powder so I knew there was a day hiker or someone up there. There was a man stocking water. He was day hiking a few days ago and noticed people needed water and has been stocking the cache on his way to work. Javier was so kind, I was chatting to him for a while then Horsing Around and her horses arrived. I got brave and stroked the horse. It must be so difficult on a horse, logistically hard, and the trail is so narrow in places.
After a little rest I flew the next 5 miles I even beat the horses to Inspiration Point (where we hitch in to Wrightwood)! There were some steep ups and some steep downs but I'm good on the downs, I can jog a bit! It seems a few people skipped this section and decided to road walk instead, mainly because of the waterless stretch, but it is really not that bad. There is a nice cold wind on the ridge.
When I got there a man in the car waved and he was just waiting for hikers to take them into town. We waited for the others to catch up. He gave me strawberries and they were so good!! It was up to me how many I left for the others so I ate about 5 and left one each for my friends – and they won't know that unless they read this!
He took us to the hardware store and we looked at the trail angel book, Jesse called and said I could crash at his place. Ace. So the others went to the campground only to find its closed, only opened on weekends! So they got a room in the pines motel too. I moved over to their cabin as Jesse and Goatsy were planning to hiking out at 6:30am!
We got pizza, drank beer and played pool
Tomorrow we rest.