Black Rainbows, Magic, and Angels

Day 48

PCT Mile Marker 1578.57 – 1597.24

Miles Hiked 18.67

I heard there was a brewery in Etna. So it was super easy to get up in the morning and get ready to go.

The four of us were hiking before the sun came up. Shower, Hot Potato, Last Call, and Icebox. They were Speed Demons. They were The Big Dogs. I was Young Grasshopper, trying to keep up.

There were mountain lion tracks on the trail not far from our camp.

I managed to hang with The Big Dogs for the first four miles of breakneck speed. I stopped to take off my extra shirt, and I knew at that moment I wouldn’t see my new friends for the rest of the day.

Someday I’m gonna learn how to hike that fast.

They planned to hike 19 miles by 1pm.

There was no way I was gonna pull that off. And I knew it.

So I stopped on a mountain top and watched the haziness of range after range as they blended into the sky. Shasta, a shadowy figure on the horizon. An almost forgotten dream.

Long, steep, exposed climbs hanging on the sides of cliffs came next. Hours of it. I put up my umbrella and focused on not getting sunburned.

I had to poop, and there was just no place to do it. So I took a long look up and down the trail. Nobody coming. I pulled up a flat rock and pooped on it, and just threw the whole rock off the cliff. Toilet paper went in a ziplock bag, as usual, to be disposed of in town.

I felt clever.

I walked through a large burned area. The trees were all bent over in one direction. The raging winds and hellish heat that must have come through to leave them all frozen like that until the dirt reclaims them.

Black Rainbows.

I passed through fields of little button pink flowers plucked from a quilt, and the hot dust felt like biting fleas on my calves.

At lunch I heated up a needle and stuck it through a different toenail. The second nail claimed by the trail. Or maybe donated.

The land below stretched out, all happy and paint-by-number. Tan #12. Forest Green #6.

And then I was at the road. Just like that.

Almost 19 miles, and it was barely 5pm.

And there was Trail Magic! Someone left a case of beer under a tree with a note that any PCT hiker was allowed one beer, and there was a special one left there for my friend Turtle. Awww.

I remembered to stick out my thumb this time, but neither the UPS truck nor the Forest Service employees picked me up.

The road was not a busy one, but luck was with me. Arlene and Carl stopped to check out the view, and they offered to take me to Etna. They drove me around town and dropped me at the brewery and they were my true Trail Angels. I was so grateful. People really are good, you know?

The food at the brewery was amazing, and when I went outside, the famous Donna L-Rod Saufley was there! She owns a place they call Hiker Heaven down in the desert, and I was hoping to meet her someday. I never imagined it would have been in Etna. My other new friends, The Big Dogs, were there too and they were all staying at the Hiker Hut and convinced me to stay there too.

So I grabbed some beer and some ice cream from the store and threw my tent up with my friends. It felt too difficult to take a shower or do laundry, so I figured I would do that in the morning.

But the things that didn’t feel difficult at all:

Drinking

Laughing

Having Fun

Sleeping

Not necessarily in that order.