PCT day 8 - mile 137 to mile 160

Ask: Bist du Deutsch?
Me: No I'm Polish, are you German?
Ask: No, I'm from Seattle.

"Rejoice that your phone is still
here. Why not just turn it off? 
Why not just keep it off?
Instagram and Facebook will not care.
The world of human busy-ness and strife has not
noticed that you are AWOL

The ribbon of trail takes away choice
and replaces it with freedom to be still
here".
Excerpt from Still Here, poem by Mary "Trail Angel"

We racked a lot of miles today, again. Tom set himself a carrot on a stick aka Paradise Valley Caffe which was fifteen miles from where we camped, so he pushed a killer tempo of three miles an hour to get there in time before they close - I wasn't feeling the best since morning, I think it was a mixture of calories deficiency, kind of crappy night and our walking tempo. We slowed down a little but still managed to get there by 1pm.

As we walked, we stumbled upon a really interesting place called Little Free Library run by Mary "Trail Angel", where you could exchange a book, camp or have a break in a shaded place with bench and table! Place was teeming with poetry and good vibes, the owner set up a log book asking people what have they learned while walking PCT so far, and the answers ranged from jokes to very heartfelt ones, one girl was missing her husband, someone else learned to follow new hikers to find free food, I just put down that I learned to remind myself about washing socks as the one I'm currently wearing are so stiff they are pretty much standing on their own. The second log book will be waiting for us at The Bridge of God's where we will be able to review our answers or write new ones.

After reaching the Paradise Valley Caffe we spend there two hours eating "best burgers on the PCT" (I shall revise that) charging our phones, and refilling our sodas for free (Murica!) We also met our friend from Julian - Calves, who unfortunately injured his feet, so he was hitchhiking to Idlewild (town up the trail) to have a zero day and heal up, I exchanged emails with him as he wants to hike from Canterbury to Rome in 2024, so depending on my situation then I might join him or at least meet him for a beer before he sets off.

At 3pm Caffe got closed so we topped up our water bottles, hiked one mile back to the trail, and then another eight to the campsite. It was overall a good hike with lots of boulders, sand and black geckos sunbathing and copulating along the path. There were few friendly international faces once we got to the camp, The Courier from Taiwan (walking all the way so far wearing flip flops, respect!), Lucy from Czech Republic and Ghost Face from America, we had a brief chat about how the trail treated us so far and what's our plans for tomorrow. Then very quickly it got dark.

It's 8:20pm now and it's time to sleep.
Goodnight.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Appalachian Trail (day 77) - Hikers Welcome Hostel to Eliza Brook Campsite / mile 1816

Image
"After hiking in White Mountain's everything else seems easy" Sue First day in the White's, I can confirm now that terrain here is unlike anything we faced on the AT so far. In the morning I had a coffee and a breakfast muffin at the hostel, surprisingly despite the early hour Tum Tum, Iceman, Yukon and Gutsy were up as well. Weather was supposed to be a mixed bag but we were all determined to climb Mt Moosilauke today. I headed out and started the 4000 feet climb first, it was a long, steady uphill going through well maintained terrain, problems only started at the top. Day was quite windy, combined with the rain and exposed, alpine environment, it became a recipe for a very wet, cold and uncomfortable time. At the top wind was pushing me left and right and rain was cutting across with great speed, I was completely drenched in just few moments. Luckily exposed section didn't last too long and the AT dived into the pine forest soon after. ...
Read more

Appalachian Trail (day 12) - Icewater Sorin Shelter to Cosby Knob Shelter / mile 231

Image
Today could be described in one word - windy. And it was not your refreshing summer breeze, it was the kind of wind that chills your bones and the moment you feel it you want to turn around and go back home, except there's no home and you can't turn around. The food I hanged last night was completely frozen, it was funny to crunch on a solid snickers and granola bars for breakfast. At least it was sunny, I've put all my layers on and started hiking. Trail looked really good, I could see small patches of snow and icicles probably formed last night hanging from the bushes. Later during the day you could see the damage last years hurricane has done, fallen trees, layers of uncovered rock showing that there was not much trees could hang on to beneath, trail was trying to manoeuvre around the blow downs and disturbed earth. I haven't met many people today but I hiked alongside Blazer, a friendly, older American guy. He also hiked PCT, so w...
Read more

Appalachian Trail (day 76) - Lambert Ridge to Hikers Welcome Hostel / mile 1799

Image
Hot, humid, stormy day. My goal was to place myself withing the short distance before the climb to Mount Moosilauke. AT in New Hampshire definitely prooved from the very begining that it means business. The first and second climb of the day:  Smarts Mountain and Mt Cube were steep and rocky, the path was muddy, overgrown and not very well marked, combined with the hot and humid weather I was moving at a snail's pace. Views were quite rewarding though and after the initial struggle trail got easier for the rest of the day. I've seen yet another two bear cubs, no mother in sight this time around which got me a bit spooked. Cubs climbed so high up the tree I could hardly see them from the trail, they were so incredibly agile! I've taken a blurry video of the couple as I thought it was fairly safe to do so, that's 10 black bears I've seen so far on Appalachian Trail.  At one point I took a break  by the road and tried to dry my feet a...
Read more