Day 80

Campsite to Sherald lake campsite - 15.2 miles

Total - 1050.1 miles

Last night, a large tree cracked and fell around 12am. Initially I thought it was a bear as the branches cracked first and then it came tumbling down. It was close as well with barely any wind happening so then I got really paranoid. There has been a couple of deaths on the pct from trees falling on people. So now I’m going to be extra careful picking tent sites. I fell back asleep after and woke up around 5:30. Today was a short day as we are trying to get to Tahoe by the 3rd for the Fourth of July as well as letting Caleb catch up. I felt slow today even though I was going my normal pace. The climbing wasn’t too bad. Marc passed me earlier in the day and then the big climb of the day I had a girl in front of my which I didn’t want to pass because then I would have to speed up and I didn’t want to do that. Wasn’t in the mood. So I would stop let her keep going and then catch up and then stop again. It was kinda nice but I did want to get done with the climbing. At the top of the climb I met back up with Marc and another German dude who he had been hiking with. There was service so I got a lil scroll in. Emma cut her hair and I saw it on her Instagram and she looked good asf. Worth the scroll. We lounged for about 30 minutes before Ben caught up to us. We all ate a lil. Eventually we decided to head out sadly and leave the scrolling behind. I am only doing this hike to scroll in cooler places so I don’t feel bad scrolling at home. JK. There was some surprising snow fields that had little to no tracks causing me to try to side step down a small steep snowfield around 12 pm meaning it was slippery as fuck. I ended up falling on my ass and sliding the extra two feet down into so mud. I then had another snowfield and this time I thought I was smart to go straight to my ass but instead in the four feet of slide I hit the ground running and slide into some more mud. I was able to limit the skid marks on my ass thankfully. One more small glissade and I was on solid ground thankfully. I did have to look around ast one point to make sure no one saw my biff. Luckily no one did. After some filtering a lil later down trail, I snaked my way down the mountain. It was a fun downhill honestly as it was switchbacks after switchbacks on solid ground with an amazing view of the green landscape. Everything was green today. So many snow run offs creating little streams which I had to hop and skip over gracefully. We had one smaller uphill which I felt strong on after a heavy morning it felt like. Marc caught up and we did the last little dips together. I was once again sweating my ass off all day. The sweat was dripping into my eyes and down my nose. The worst part is I know it’s only 75 degrees at most but the blaring sun makes it seem so much worse. Northern California is known for some pretty intense heat waves so if I’m sweating this goddamn much at 75, I know I am about to suffer. Pulling into camp, a top of a rock mountain was an American flag flapping in the wind. Always fun to see. We are camped currently in between two little lakes, both which are not swimmable sadly. Mosquitos aren’t bad but they did start to swarm at random parts of the day. We lounged around in the shade before setting up. I was in head to toe rain gear to protect myself from even the small amount of mosquitos. I took a small nap. I was rooting uncontrollably tho. Same with Ben. It was a bad day for toots. Yesterday at camp I wore sandels and socks not thinking that the mosquitos would pay too much attention as they haven’t been in the past. I was dead wrong. Those bitches ate up my feet. Easily 20 on each foot but only on the top of the feet. THEY ITCH SO BAD. But I am a self control bad bitch so I have only itches them twice today. Technically, the campsite we chose we were supposed to meet floris and his friend who are going south bound from truckee but Klara ended up texting me that she’s not feeling good so she’s camping by the road about 0.6 back to go into town tomorrow morning and I am assuming the guys followed. So it’s only Marc and Ben at camp today. Caleb will catch up tomorrow most definitely. We did get done by 12:45 so we had a lot of down time. Personally I love it but the guys get bored. I have my audiobook and my hip hurting to keep me occupied and a good reason to always be laying down. So overall, good day but kinda boring towards the end. Didn’t drink enough water like usual. Tired like usual but ready to knock some miles down.

Terrain is reminding me a lot of utah in the Wasatch and uintah mountains which kinda makes sense as we are on the same latitude area. Very similar vegetation and rockiness.

Ben’s knee has been hurting for awhile now. He’s been on the fence about being done with the trail as he did what he wanted to do (desert and sierras), went a lot farther than he thought, and he’s just not obsessed with the idea of finishing. He has other things he wants to do. So he’s thinking about being done either in South Lake Tahoe or truckee. Obviously I don’t want to see him be done as he has now become a great friend but I get it. We talked about it a lot today at camp and it’s sad to think he’s leaving trail possibly. He seems content and I think that’s all that matters out here. You don’t want to regret anything and I think it will be sad but I don’t think he will regret it especially if you are in pain from an injury.