Day 87

Middle Velma lake campsite to five lakes creek - 26 miles

Total - 1137.0 miles

I’ve given up on the pad. I don’t even bother to blow it up in the middle of the night anymore. I really can’t complain as I have done nothing to fix it really. I have patched three holes but it keeps deflating. I need to try the water method but I’m just too lazy so instead I’m going to bring it to the repair shop in truckee to get those hoes to fix it for me. Mosquitos were bad this morning so I tried to do everything I could in my tent before fleeing the scene. Left camp promptly at 5:57 with Caleb and we booked it. A lil too fast because after a couple miles I needed to slow down. Not by much though as I had Caleb in my eyesights every now and then. The mosquitos did calm down as we walked. Pretty much the first half of the day we were in the trees just below the ridge line. Felt very much like oregon hiking. Nothing too exciting happened to me as we were cruising all morning. Caleb recommended caffienating later in the day, not right out of camp bc that’s usually when I feel the best so I waited until like 9 before downing 200 mg of caffeine and it truly did make a difference. We soon hit a trailhead where Ben had said their might be trail magic but sadly we missed it. Instead we met this nice man who we talked to who was waiting for his son who was hiking with his girlfriend for her own section hike from Tahoe to the Oregon border. We quickly realized we passed them two miles back and had talked to them. They were a fun ass family. Really cool dynamic. Once they showed up, the dad was handing us watermelon, asking us a whole bunch of questions, and cracking jokes. The daughter loved the idea of trail magic and joked that she should’ve brought so much more or just bring drugs lol. The son was super nice as well as the girlfriend. Probably one of my favorite interactions with a stranger on trail. It’s amazing how many people tell us how proud they are of us for doing the trail and trying to get to Canada. It kinda means a lot especially from a stranger. After an hour of hanging around with them we headed out and cruised through some uphill. I think I felt the strongest I have ever felt on trail today. The uphills had me sweating but I was still going up them with a heavy pack at over 3 miles an hour. We stopped for lunch and caught up to gourmet who we saw at the trailhead with trail magic. He told us he camped at Richardson lake and had a bear encounter there for the first time. A bear walked by his tent, left his ursack alone, and grabbed a different pct hike food bag and ate everything but the takis lol. They didn’t have a lot of food in the bags as most of it was in their bear can but it is still a loss. Didn’t touch gourmets ursack tho so that’s good. The bear left and then came back later and started batting around all the bear cans before leaving and coming back a third time and scaring function while he took a shit apparently lol. Crazy night for them. The couple who’s dad we met at the trailhead also had a bear encounter, and it was playing with their bear can as well. Some terrorizing was happening around that lake and thankfully I was not there as I would’ve panicked. We had one more uphill which was along a ridge. The wildflowers were amazing covering the slopes with purple and yellow. Caleb took an edible so he slowed down to admire the scenery. The last push was downhill which kinda killed the ankles, and knees but my hip felt pretty good all day which I was very happy about. Got to camp and immediately set up my tent, washed the dirty lil grubby feet of mine. Are a lil snack before a delicious dinner of smoked maple pouch salmon, mash potatoes, and freeze dried chicken. 26 felt real good today. I remember the first time we did 20 miles and I was in so so so so so much pain. My feet felt like they were about to fall off. I could feel every bone in my feet which was so incredibly awful. But now? Easy peasy. Pocket change. Literally could walk a marathon every day. It’s amazing how far I have come.

Louisa’s ankle was hurting so she’s camping farther back and same with Klara. Ben from Boston, Caleb, me, and gourmet are camping together tonight. Rocklicker I think is with Klara but who knows. It’s a different dynamic than what I’m used to. In the desert we always camped together no matter what. The sierras I was with my dad so we were always together but now in Northern California (a whole new map which I forgot to mention aka new section!) we are splitting up so much more and camping at different sites. I like camping with everyone so it’s not my ideal situation but I get why we are splitting up especially for injuries or ppl are behind on miles. Just sucks. I like everyone and I wanna camp with everyone.

Also crazy to think I’ve got a lot of compliments on my skin while on trail. Literally do not do shit to my face. Not a single skin care routine whatsoever. Back home, I had a whole line up but out here I sometimes wash my face with stream water and that’s it. My face is really red from the sun but not a single blemish. Probably jinxing it by writing about it but oh well. I’ve struggled with picking at my face and trying to pop the blemishes just bc I had really bad acne when I was in school. It only got better maybe sophomore year of college but I do think I still have a ton of trauma from it and it causes me to pick. But I rarely look in a mirror out here so I’m not picking or touching my face as much. I thought I was going to be pimple city but it’s not. Again, probably jinxing it. It’s very baffling but I’m not complaining.

Another note emotionally wise: a different couple broke up on trail. Makes you just kinda think about yours. I still stand by the fact that if you break up might as well be on trail as you have a routine, a group of supportive friends, and something to do to keep you distracted. Doesn’t mean I don’t think about it. Ive talked about it a lot with people on trail as I think it’s better to talk about it and not hold it in. Lots of people are having troubles on trail but they have talked it out and are actively trying to maintain relationships, putting in all the effort they can into it as it’s worth fighting for. I haven’t talked a lot about mine on here since it happened but I have thought about it a lot. I have just been really really angry about it but after the couple broke up and we heard about it, it got me feeling a lil more sad rather than angry. The anger is still there though lol. It’s a rollercoaster really but it has only been two months so I’m not expecting to be fully cured.

On another note: Caleb and I agreed that we have to fully see the trail through together as we started on the same day. I think that would be the fucking coolest thing - technically starting solo but we did start on the same day and have been hiking pretty much the entire time. After we finish we will head to a tattoo shop and get tattoos for the pct together. I really want to do a tattoo that stands separately but also kinda similar. We will see.