Miles 10.9 Bonus Miles .2 PCT Mile 102.1 It was a bear of a night. Calm, then blasts of rain, then some more calm, then wind so hard we were quite certain it would pull our rainflies away into the night sky. Then quiet. When it was really time to get up, the worst of it had passed and it was a beautiful dawn. Anji took pics, of course. She’s always snapping away at this Read more…
Miles 9.6 Bonus Miles .2 PCT Mile 91.2 We got a late start. After all, I wanted to blog for a while and Anji was snoring her sweet little snore, so I let her sleep in. The clouds were all swirly gray and black with a bright blue behind and I took some photos, all artistic and stuff, of the tents with the dramatic sky. I finally got her up when the clouds looked like Read more…
Miles 4.3 PCT Mile 81.6 We gathered our belongings and were ready when Professor showed up in his Subaru to collect us and take us back to Julian. So soft-spoken, I nearly had my head in the front seat with Anji just to try to hear him. Finally I gave up and let her be the conversationalist. She’s really good at that. Mom’s Pies gives out a slice of pie and a drink to PCT Read more…
Mileage 5.6 PCT Mile 77.3 I dreamed I was at Urgent Care with my mom, and I had poison oak on the bottoms of my feet. How did we get here, I asked her. It doesn’t matter honey, she said, we’re here now. I woke up in agony, crying. My toes hurt so much. I willed my toenails to just fall off already. We slept in fits and spurts until 6. We were on trail Read more…
Mileage 12.2 PCT Mile 71.7 If rocks didn’t weigh so much, I’d have twelve of them in my pocket already, Anji said. Look how pretty they are! She moved down the trail with a long, smooth gait. Confident and in control. I liked following behind her. She sees everything and stops to take photos of all sorts of neat things. Cacti, and ice swirls in the sand, and rocks that strike her fancy. I just Read more…
Day 4 and 5 Miles 0 PCT Mile 41 We woke up around the same time in the middle of the night and hung out for about two hours, stretching and visiting and whatever whatever. We woke up again super early and sat around for an extraordinary amount of time. Finally Anji had enough and went for a walk while I put more holes in my toenails. She saw some viewpoints and went to look Read more…
Day 3 Trail Miles: 3.5 Bonus Miles: 2.4 PCT Mile: 41 ANJI, I tried to scream but nothing came out. HELP ME. Nothing again. I was quite certain a mountain lion had its nose against my back. It was the middle of the night and I was paralyzed with fear. It didn’t move. I couldn’t move. After a while, it still hadn’t moved and I finally figured out it was just one of my bags Read more…
Day 2 11.2 miles Camped at mile 22.6 And there I was, at 2:17 in the morning, quite certain I was going to die if I didn’t eat peanut butter immediately, but I couldn’t find it and I had to pee and where was my spoon? Oh the torture of being on trail… When 5am showed up, Angie laughed. “It’s okay, you just had a peanut butter crisis. It happens.” Of course I also dreamed Read more…
Ice formations around telephone poles and in puddles looked like topography maps and there was snow on the cacti as we moved down the trail. We were on the PCT. After all the planning and calling and timing and stress and money well spent, there is no longer anything to do but walk. So walk, we did. We wore all-the-clothes because it was so cold, but then it was so hot and we were sweating, Read more…
And then it was 5am and the puppy we got last night squiggled around the bed like a little inchworm and my husband rubbed her little back. My heart melted into a warm mushy pile of goo. But 5:15 came and it was into a freezing ass car I went after dusting off the snow and scraping off the ice. Down-down-down in the darkness to the airport where I sat and wondered if the plane Read more…