To PCT mile 2039.4 (stats here).
As I have not been sleeping enough lately, I purposefully slept in. I got up 6am and started hiking 7am. I felt tired and sluggish. The terrain was easy but uninteresting and I could not develop a decent pace.
Man, my backpack is heavy. With my normal pace, it would be about two days before getting the next resupply package. So much food. I should just give half of it away. With this knowledge, I ate my breakfast at one go instead of halving it between two breaks. This backfired as the hiking was even burdensome after that.
I kept my second break in the middle of a burned down forest. Not the best place because of the lack of shade, but there was a clear stream. For some reason, most of the streams and creeks around here were cloudy. Getting my chocolate coffee did not fail, and after the break I felt better. I met with Tim, a section hiker from New Port. He instructed me that with the forth coming creek, the crossing was easy as it was shallow. I asked if you could get over with by rock hopping and he said that maybe you could, going upstream and if you were sure footed. I resolved to try this out. A huge mistake.
When I arrived to the creek, it looked fierce. It was relatively wide, and as the water was cloudy, you could not see how deep it was. I started to follow it upstream, and figured that I could go far as the trail went that direction on the other side. Or so I thought. There were lots of rocks in the middle of the creek but not enough. I kept climbing upstream and did some tedious rock climbing. Eventually I found a decent spot. One risky jump and I was on the other side.
There, the rock and sand face of the bank was steep. I started to climb it and caused a few rock slides. Some rocks that fell to the creek were as big as me. This felt dangerous. Only at this point I checked where the trail actually goes. It turned out to be the case that it continued to the exact opposite direction than I thought. There was no way to get there from where I was, so I needed to backtrack. From this side, you could not get to the other side that easily. I needed to climb some more. Eventually, I got irritated and just crossed from non-ideal place and got my feet wet and risked getting wet all over. I had wasted an hour to this adventure and gained nothing. Actually, I did feel a bit happy about the fact that no accidents happened. With the sliding rocks, I could have hurt myself seriously.
I continued hiking, irritated by the event. Why did I not check where the trail goes, but just assumed it going the other way? I decided that I will do 30 miles, no matter how long it takes. Fat chance. After one hour, my shin started hurting. Did a rock hit it when I was climbing? It might have happened, so I did not think that much about the fact. But as I continued, the pain got more intense. I am pretty sure that no rock hit the shin. So what was this?
After climbing to the highest point of the day, and entering Mount Hood Wilderness, I was forced to take a break. The pain was bad enough that it was hard to step with the foot. Was this shin splints? I got mobile coverage, so I spent the next 45 minutes on messaging. Mikko said that it sounds like shin splints. Bandit went past me while I was sitting on ground, but continued as he noticed that there is reception and that he could make a call.
As there was little I could do, I started moving down the trail slowly. Going down was way harder than up, a telling sign of shin splints. I had no water, so I needed to get that first and then get to a tent site. The next 4 miles felt a lot longer. Finally there was a suitable site for a tent next to a dirt road, next to a suspectible water source. That was good enough for me and I set up my camp. The time was 7:30pm. Hopefully some rest makes the pain go away.
As I have not been sleeping enough lately, I purposefully slept in. I got up 6am and started hiking 7am. I felt tired and sluggish. The terrain was easy but uninteresting and I could not develop a decent pace.
 |
| Mt. Jefferson, I presume. Nice to make an acquintance. |
Man, my backpack is heavy. With my normal pace, it would be about two days before getting the next resupply package. So much food. I should just give half of it away. With this knowledge, I ate my breakfast at one go instead of halving it between two breaks. This backfired as the hiking was even burdensome after that.
I kept my second break in the middle of a burned down forest. Not the best place because of the lack of shade, but there was a clear stream. For some reason, most of the streams and creeks around here were cloudy. Getting my chocolate coffee did not fail, and after the break I felt better. I met with Tim, a section hiker from New Port. He instructed me that with the forth coming creek, the crossing was easy as it was shallow. I asked if you could get over with by rock hopping and he said that maybe you could, going upstream and if you were sure footed. I resolved to try this out. A huge mistake.
 |
| A break routine on an non-optimal spot. |
When I arrived to the creek, it looked fierce. It was relatively wide, and as the water was cloudy, you could not see how deep it was. I started to follow it upstream, and figured that I could go far as the trail went that direction on the other side. Or so I thought. There were lots of rocks in the middle of the creek but not enough. I kept climbing upstream and did some tedious rock climbing. Eventually I found a decent spot. One risky jump and I was on the other side.
 |
| Creek of stupid decisions and misfortune. |
There, the rock and sand face of the bank was steep. I started to climb it and caused a few rock slides. Some rocks that fell to the creek were as big as me. This felt dangerous. Only at this point I checked where the trail actually goes. It turned out to be the case that it continued to the exact opposite direction than I thought. There was no way to get there from where I was, so I needed to backtrack. From this side, you could not get to the other side that easily. I needed to climb some more. Eventually, I got irritated and just crossed from non-ideal place and got my feet wet and risked getting wet all over. I had wasted an hour to this adventure and gained nothing. Actually, I did feel a bit happy about the fact that no accidents happened. With the sliding rocks, I could have hurt myself seriously.
I continued hiking, irritated by the event. Why did I not check where the trail goes, but just assumed it going the other way? I decided that I will do 30 miles, no matter how long it takes. Fat chance. After one hour, my shin started hurting. Did a rock hit it when I was climbing? It might have happened, so I did not think that much about the fact. But as I continued, the pain got more intense. I am pretty sure that no rock hit the shin. So what was this?
After climbing to the highest point of the day, and entering Mount Hood Wilderness, I was forced to take a break. The pain was bad enough that it was hard to step with the foot. Was this shin splints? I got mobile coverage, so I spent the next 45 minutes on messaging. Mikko said that it sounds like shin splints. Bandit went past me while I was sitting on ground, but continued as he noticed that there is reception and that he could make a call.
As there was little I could do, I started moving down the trail slowly. Going down was way harder than up, a telling sign of shin splints. I had no water, so I needed to get that first and then get to a tent site. The next 4 miles felt a lot longer. Finally there was a suitable site for a tent next to a dirt road, next to a suspectible water source. That was good enough for me and I set up my camp. The time was 7:30pm. Hopefully some rest makes the pain go away.
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