Miles Hiked: 24.7
PCT Mileage: 676
I slept absolutely amazing last night on Freddy’s floor. The only thing under me was a carpet and I was so comfy. Didn’t even bother to blow up my sleeping pad. I woke up early and energized. The first thing I did was get caught up on quite a few days worth of blogging. I like to blog every night to stay on top of things but lately I have been hanging out with everyone late at camp. I usually always prioritize being in the moment and hanging out with friends over anything else on the trail. It just means I’m having a lot of fun. Anyways, I wrote about two posts before everyone else woke up and then I started packing up my things and doing the remaining town chores. I downloaded some new music and charged my headphones so I could have some audio entertainment and inspiration. This last section my headphones have been dead and I was really craving some music the whole time. For breakfast I ate fresh fruit and some kimchi. We stopped at Mc Donalds on the way to the trail and I bought my favorite treat from there … Ice coffee!
We were back on trail at the bus stop at 9am. We all took a picture together and said goodbye to Freddy before we went on our way. I hiked less than a mile before I crossed Walker Pass road and headed up into one of the last desert mountains. Pippin and I hiked together for a little bit before we both put in headphones and I pushed on. I was feeling absolutely fantastic today. The Mc Donald’s coffee definitely gave me massive energy boost. The trail went uphill for a long time but I found it to be very gentle and cruisey. It really felt like I got my mojo back today in a big way. The entire time between Acton and Walker Pass I was feeling very sore and fatigued. I wasn’t hiking how I wanted to and it was frustrating me. The first ten miles uphill flew by so fast. The trail was very pretty today as well. I got a sweeping view of the Mojave desert floor below and a glimpse of some granite looking mountains in the distance. I took a break at the top of the climb with lumber Jack and ate a ton of food to sustain me until my next break at Joshua Tree Spring.
I hiked pretty quickly all the way downhill to the spring in the heat of the day. I passed lots of Joshua Trees and I wondered if they would be the last ones I would see on this trail. I left the break spot before everyone else and flew to the next water source. I was still feeling amazing. The source was a trickling spring. I used my empty talenti ice cream container to collect water to put into my pouch to filter it. In about a month I would guess this source to be dry. Here I ate my dinner and got ready for a final push to camp.
The last uphill of the day was really nice. I got to hike along the top of the mountain during golden hour. My favorite part of the day. Lumber Jack caught up to me and we took a break on a saddle where a lot of other people had set up camp. We really wanted to make it to Kennedy Meadows tomorrow so we hiked on into the night. It was 9:30pm by the time we made it to camp and I was still full of energy. We set up directly next to the trail so that Pippin and Fry could find us. My head was literally one foot off the trail. The two of them showed up about 30 minutes later.
Happy Trails!
-Early Bird
Des Hikes Thru 