Day 51
PCT Mile Marker 1611.57 – 1632.15
Miles Hiked 20.58
The mountains had sticky fingers, and the cotton fog clung to them way down below me in a thousand valleys. Kleenex on a stubbly beard.
Suddenly the land became lush and green. Plants fighting each other for space to breathe. Growing higher and higher. Bigger and bigger leaves. Flowers on flowers on flowers. I pushed my way through them. They whacked me in the face.
Flower-Face-Whacking.
The boulders and rocks bright white against all the green.
The Marble Mountain Wilderness.
I took a wrong turn. I even looked at the map app on my phone when I was about fifteen feet onto the new path, and it registered that I was going the right way. About 3/4 mile onto the new path…it just didn’t feel right. The PCT has an actual FEEL to it, which I cannot explain. Except to say that I just knew it FELT wrong. I looked at my map app again and it said “You Are Not On A Recorded Trail”.
Wasted Time. Which was particularly awful because I needed to make as many miles as possible. The post office in Seiad Valley has weird hours. They’re only open from 12 – 4pm. Aidan sent my food for the next stretch, and I needed to get the box. If I missed the 4pm cutoff, I’d have to wait until the next day and I wouldn’t get on trail until 1:30 in the afternoon.
That wrong turn could cost me, basically, an entire day.
It was cold and then hot and then cold again. All day. I couldn’t figure out what to wear, so this time I went for cold. I didn’t wear any extra clothes. I just froze to pieces all day.
Icebox.
But the views were so spectacular, they hurt my eyes. The feelings they gave me. It was some sort of longing for something I once had. Or once saw. Or had never seen before.
There was a fire on a far off ridge, and the smoke lazed around, not being serious about what it was doing.
It made the sun a burnt umber while it was on its way to the other side of the planet.
And it was my favorite color ever.