Day 35

Lake Hughes road to horse trail camp - 22.4 miles

Total - 508.1 miles

500 mile club!!! Woke up bright and early and got out camp early as usual. I was fueled by 200 mg of caffeine and music today. Shot up the first climb and immediately had to poop so in between all the poodle dog bush (scary) I found the most perfect spot to shit. After I finished I walked out and Marc had caught up so it was awkward. We pushed on. The landscape was dry and burned from a few years ago is my guess and poodle dog bush was everywhere. Poodle dog bush is the one plant besides poison oak you don’t wanna touch here as they have tiny lil spikes that get everywhere and can cause reactions. There are horror stories of PCT hikers drying their socks on the bush and then wearing the them and having an oozing reaction similar to poison oak. It also smells like weed. Apparently a girl tried to smoke it and ended up in the ER. Idk if that’s true or not but I’m spreading it as a rumor anyway. I felt good the entire morning pretty much so I was pushing. We were hopping mosey all day as well. We finally hit 500 and had one more climb up to the water source and lunch. I was sweating my ass off as it was hot and I wanted to be done for lunch. My heels were hurting from my new blisters that formed on the outer and inner part of the heel from the new shoes. Marc and I had a lil photo shoot at the 500 marker as well. Got to the top and was greeted by Ella!!! That was a very pleasant surprise as we were trying to maybe catch up to them before the aqueduct to hike it with them. They pushed on but we should see them tomorrow. Marc was kind enough to fill my cnoc and once he did Caleb came and looked miserable (I mean this in the nicest way). He had pushed 7 miles on one liter which wasn’t the brightest idea but understandable to some extent. We only care about his well being so it was a quick scold. He wasn’t feeling great but ate and drank water and the morale changed really quickly. I was chirping him a lil too much as I soon was going to feel like shit. After the bard caught up and we chilled while Marc pushed on to hopefully reach hiker town so he could do a zero to work on his paper. Which is insane bc that’s a 31ish mile day. I was struggling with the 22 mile today. After we left lunch I was feeling like shit. Caffeine crash and was a lil sickish. Caleb and the bard kept playing games in our hiking line. One game is called bad rap. You start a rap and then the last word you change that doesn’t rhyme if that makes sense. So it’s just horrible rapping but it is funny. They were crushing it but sadly I was too miserable to join. I let them push ahead while I slowed down. I think I had a little heat exhaustion but nothing too crazy so I just chugged water. I also had the hiker shuffle where you look like you have a stick so far up your ass, you shuffle. Everytime you take a break everything just tightens up and you have to loosen it up again. I’m seeing the future for myself in 40 years. Brutal. Finally got to camp and put my feet up. My feet were and are disgusting. So much dirt covers them that it looks like I have a disease. The water source was down a steep slope so I had to nick up and go grab some but it was beautiful down there with all the green, shade, and the water was cold and refreshing. The days are starting to merge together and I can’t remember when we hiked what. Thank god for the blog.

Forgot to mention the landscape changed to shady trees and grassy slopes after the first huge climb. It felt like I was transported into a whole new world which is sad because we are leaving it very soon for the dry dry dry dry desert officially.

Physically, I am still being broken down especially after 3 - 20 mile days. My legs feel strong and I can tell I’m not getting winded as much. It might’ve been the caffeine and shitty auto tuned rap music (still so good tho) in my ear today that made me feel so good. It really does help. Emotionally, I feel good but a little disconnected. Feel like I had processed a lot of my emotions before the breakup happened so it truly hasn’t been bad besides right after it happened. Plus I have things to do like walk lol and socialize with the people I have been with and meet new people. I get sad but haven’t cried since that first hour. Not sure if I should be happy about that or not but just trying to think about it and process it instead of trying to ignore it. So while I have been busy, I have thought about it a lot. Obviously everyone would like to know what’s going on in my head but I won’t put anything on blast on here unless someone begs me then I might. JOKING. I’m just putting the general shit ya know so you guys know I’m doing okay and not wanting to quit or whatever. Haven’t thought of quitting yet. Okay maybe once but I was being dramatic on San Jacinto.

Side note: my hands are the only things on my hand that are tan. I’m pale as hell everywhere else.