To PCT mile 1799.3 (stats here).
The night was not good. I made the mistake of cowboy camping and suffered the results. The headnet does not stop the mosquitos to buzzing around in an irritating way even if they are not capable of sucking your blood. In addition, there were lots of ants. I woke up constantly as they walked on my skin. It was way too hot to be inside a sleeping bag. I should have just put the bugnet on, but this felt like too much of a trouble.
I got properly up 5:15am and started 6am. I was irritated about the night and my motivation was lost. The rocky, volcanic surrounding irritated me and also other negative thoughts invaded my mind. For some reason, past happenings and mistakes of my life, so to speak, filled my mind.
In paper, the trail seemed hard today. There was lot of going up and down. In actuality, the elevation differences were small and it was easy. During my second break, I took my power coffee-chocolad mix and felt energized. The coffe made my bowel to work so I needed to heed that call as well. The combined effect was that my mood improved tremendously. Add a nice chat with an elder section hiker, and I got my motivation back. I put Beck's album, Colors, to cherish the moment and developed a really good pace. What helped also was that the blisters were not giving any trouble. My ankle was a bit stiff but that did not prevent me of going really fast. I was hitting well above 3mph.
As has been the case now the past few days, I kept the amount of water I am carrying really low. During my 3rd break at a water source, I cameled up a liter and only took one liter for the upcoming 14 mile stretch. Under the canopy I do not sweat that much. And elder section hiker, a retired electrical engineer, was marvelling this. We chatted away in good humour before I departed, determined to try to return to the 30 miles a day club.
The rest of the day was a bit more difficult. There was quite a lot of ascending on rocky terrain. I meat two men travelling in the opposite direction with their mule, Jack. I was amazed that they could do this. The terrain seemed to be challenging to humans, let alone for mules or horses.
At the peak of the climb, I met with Butterfly. He did not want to descend from high up but had camped on the highest spot. I needed to go down a mile further as I had no water. The next water source would take me also to over 30 miles. There were some familiar faces as the South-African couple that I last met at Burney Ranch were there. I was at camp around 8pm so I had a good pace today. I treated my feet, set up my bugnet learning from previous nights mistake, and ended the day in good humour.
The night was not good. I made the mistake of cowboy camping and suffered the results. The headnet does not stop the mosquitos to buzzing around in an irritating way even if they are not capable of sucking your blood. In addition, there were lots of ants. I woke up constantly as they walked on my skin. It was way too hot to be inside a sleeping bag. I should have just put the bugnet on, but this felt like too much of a trouble.
I got properly up 5:15am and started 6am. I was irritated about the night and my motivation was lost. The rocky, volcanic surrounding irritated me and also other negative thoughts invaded my mind. For some reason, past happenings and mistakes of my life, so to speak, filled my mind.
In paper, the trail seemed hard today. There was lot of going up and down. In actuality, the elevation differences were small and it was easy. During my second break, I took my power coffee-chocolad mix and felt energized. The coffe made my bowel to work so I needed to heed that call as well. The combined effect was that my mood improved tremendously. Add a nice chat with an elder section hiker, and I got my motivation back. I put Beck's album, Colors, to cherish the moment and developed a really good pace. What helped also was that the blisters were not giving any trouble. My ankle was a bit stiff but that did not prevent me of going really fast. I was hitting well above 3mph.
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| Lots of easy terrain today. |
As has been the case now the past few days, I kept the amount of water I am carrying really low. During my 3rd break at a water source, I cameled up a liter and only took one liter for the upcoming 14 mile stretch. Under the canopy I do not sweat that much. And elder section hiker, a retired electrical engineer, was marvelling this. We chatted away in good humour before I departed, determined to try to return to the 30 miles a day club.
 |
| I wonder how he managed the upcoming part of the trail. |
The rest of the day was a bit more difficult. There was quite a lot of ascending on rocky terrain. I meat two men travelling in the opposite direction with their mule, Jack. I was amazed that they could do this. The terrain seemed to be challenging to humans, let alone for mules or horses.
At the peak of the climb, I met with Butterfly. He did not want to descend from high up but had camped on the highest spot. I needed to go down a mile further as I had no water. The next water source would take me also to over 30 miles. There were some familiar faces as the South-African couple that I last met at Burney Ranch were there. I was at camp around 8pm so I had a good pace today. I treated my feet, set up my bugnet learning from previous nights mistake, and ended the day in good humour.
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| This time the dramatic evening picture was accompanied by a good mood. |
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