PCT day 16 - mile 285 to mile 314

"Sometimes you need to put your head up and look away from the stones." Adam

"Oh this is not my tempo either, I'm holding to my dear life" Mason.

It was a very interesting day on the PCT. First of all Tank Top and Mason from Kenny's Place managed to catch up with me the previous evening and we decided to hike together for few days. We started to walk at 6am, I went a little bit earlier but soon enough I've been overtaken by the Shinkansen of Tanks tempo :) As I mentioned previously he is the guy doing the Triple Crown challenge which consists of three biggest hikes in America done together in one calendar year, so he's used to doing big miles. Tank Top hiked 2000 miles of Appalachian Trail this year already, which is more than I walked in all my hikes combined.

So my approach to keep up with him and Mason was to have shorter breaks, and it worked fine for the day, it won't work long term tough, but since I have 15 miles to catch-up to be on schedule, I don't mind having few tougher days. It's also quite humbling to be that slacking guy for once, it puts things in perspective.

The trail wasn't too demanding today, there has been a lot of shade, walking next to the rivers and plenty of good spots to have rest. On my way to Deep Creek Hot Springs I encountered my first rattle snake of the trail, and what a big bastard it was! It started rattling just to my left about a meter away as I was passing through, but luckily it wasn't close enough to be a danger, but it still felt like someone was pointing a gun at me. It made his way uphill still rattling, he must have been about 5 or 6 years old judging by the amount of rattles he had on its tail. Very respectable creature, it surely scared the bejesus out of me!

After few miles we reached the hot springs, it was a great spot to break the day sitting in the natural hot tube alongside the river, it was fairly crowded, but apparently it can be way busier during weekends. Also it's a well known nudist spot, so we seen a couple of old butt cheeks as well.

At this point plans have changed for our camp spot, we added few extra miles to reach a local pub just off the trail called 'Joshua's Inn', we arrived at the point where road crossed the trail in the late afternoon. The owner came to pick us up, but since there was six of us, two ended up riding in the trunk of the car and I was one of them, haha. We drank a couple of beers (PBR beer - cheep and cheerful brew I ought to remember) and played some pool, it was nice and very westerny looking pub in the middle of nowhere.

Apparently we will get the ride back to trail tomorrow morning, but we shall see if that will be the case. Overall as far as hiking goes, it was an action packed day.

"The roosters morning cock-a-doodle-do is driven by an internal clock finds new research.." I think your clock is broken mr rooster, it's 1:40AM!

Tank Top, myself and Mason in :

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