Day 39

Another zero!

Woke feeling hungover but not the worst I’ve ever felt! I force fed myself some granola bars and drank so much water. Even put some electrolytes in to hopefully speed up the hangover process. I woke up around 5:20 and chilled, charging my phone and waited for the others to get up. The bard woke up and informed me he couldn’t even get the piss Gatorade bottle out, so he just peed straight out the vestibule of his tent. We decided to go to the German bakery again so we rallied the troops. We woke Caleb up by standing over his tent. He had gotten in around 1:30am with the others. The stories he told after we left were hilarious. Ella was going band for band with him, chugging beers and keeping up like the badass she is. There’s a group that hitched in from Hikertown 50 miles back to the American legion for the night and we’re also partying it up. They had taken shrooms at like 10pm and were chugging beers and shaking ass. Apparently the bartender was also drunk asf with them, taking shots, and pouring drinks. Caleb kept checking in with for payment as they were going through shots and beers like nobody’s business. There were like 4 pitchers of beer which never saw the bottom, always filled no matter how many times someone refilled their drink. We went through a whole keg of pbr. But guess what Caleb owed? $42. The same as last time when we went earlier in the night. Truly phenomenal. Best bar I’ve ever been to. Could improve to have louder music to dance to but for the price, I’ll do anything. Caleb was hungover which was hilarious. We all kinda looked miserable. Best part of any going out is the gossip sesh after aka story time. Which we got. Made our way to German bakery again and blew up their bathrooms with hungover shits. We saw a whole bunch of people we have been bunny hoping with which was cool. Then I had my massage. That man has hands of the gods. He did a true deep tissue massage where no stone was left unturned. The amount of knowledge and wizardly he has was impeccable as he was able to sooth every muscle in my body where I felt like I was lifted up into the heavens. I wanted to fall asleep. He was also able to confirm my back which has been hurting that I didn’t pull it or anything and was able to give me some stretches to loosen up the muscles as he said I had a very tight piriformis muscle which if you don’t know is a muscle in the pelvic area. Yeahhhhhh I took anatomy what can I say. My right side is also more tight than my left which is interesting so I’m going to try and focus on that to loosen it up. After we headed back to the German bakery LOL (it was cheap and good) to get sandwiches (so so good) and then pack up our tents in Jenny’s yard. We then hitched a mile ride to the best western where we got our first hotel on trail. I did everyone’s laundry as it was easier to do one massive load. We chilled by the hot tub before we headed back to the same burger place as of yesterday which idk if I mentioned that. I got a Nutella milkshake and chicken sandwich which was delicious. After all the chores were done I fell asleep at 8 as I was so so so so sos so sosososoososososos tired.

The other thing that happened was a fire started about 50 miles ahead of us on trail around a wind farm. It initially was about 300 acres but now has gone up to 3200. The PCTA has a warning out but the trail has not closed or they haven’t recommended anything. It’s about 2 miles from trail blowing east but with a wind farm, the wind can change directions at anytime. As of this morning it is 20% contained but no updated from any website since last night. We are trying to figure out our plan if we hike or not. There is a group ahead of us that is hiking. We’ve come up with 3 plans:

1. We hike today and pray no wind changes
2. We wait another day and zero again and see what the updates say. If containment is about 75% we will hike the next day. Or if we are advised to skip or not then we will follow those directions.
3. We head to Ben’s for a week, then skip up to ridge crest and then do the 50 miles into Kennedy meadows. There is no good access roads to hike and then get off right before so it would be a big skip. The access is hard in this section

We have time as again we are trying to get to Kennedy meadows around June 1st and we have max 140 miles left with plenty of time. It just sucks to skip especially for a fire so early on in the trail. The other part is this is easily one of the worst sections of trail as it is finally true dessert with long water carries and hot hot hot days requiring a midday siesta to avoid the heat. I wouldn’t be opposed to skipping but I don’t want to get off trail for a week as I think it would affect my mentality of the trail. I want to be in the pct mind but we have to do what’s best for us and our bank accounts.