Day 92

Pack saddle campground to west branch bear trap creek - 19.9 miles

Total - 1228.4 miles

Last night the campground was BUSY but I put my earbud in and immediately fell asleep. Woke up at the usual time and quietly got ready. Last night rocklicker slept on the picnic table which was hilarious to wake up to as it looked like funeral and he was corpse. I did a quick photo shoot of it as it was too good to pass up. Caleb and I hit the trail by 6 and it was so fucking hot omg. We had a big ish climb that was well graded but I was lacking the enthusiasm to get up it so I quickly fell behind. Drenched in sweat at 7 am in the morning was not pleasant but like the brave girl I am, I pushed through. I just wasn’t having the hiking today, I was in a foul mood that not even music could fix. The views were gorgeous but I was just in my head not even paying attention to any of it. Met Caleb for snacks and I was hella sassy to him I will admit. So it was a quick snack. Pushed through a couple more miles to lunch and was better but I was still acknowledging the fact that I was in a sassy mood to put it kindly. Caleb handled it well. Kinda. I needed him to just take it but the man was sassy back to me like he honestly should but didn’t mean I wanted it. We stopped at the spring which had a pipe spewing out cold refreshing water. Caleb was talking to stealthy who is thins guy who tries to get everyone high on trail. He has a Fanny pack double the normal size filled with just weed from a nectar collector (learned what that was later) to joints to a pipe. Absolutely crazy bc he had the finest pack with the biggest Fanny pack. We chilled at the spring for awhile before rocklicker came and then Ben from Boston. We chatted and chilled in the sun before the climb. The climb wasn’t too bad except the fact that I was sweating from every pour on my body causing every piece of clothing to stick to my body. My shirt was so damp. I have never felt so disgusting in my life. You couldn’t even escape the heat in the shade as the solar power radiated throughout the entire forest that we were climbing up into. I finally got to the top and started heading down before rocklicker caught back up to me. We chit chatted for the next couple of miles continuously sweating even in the downhill. I was sweating through my fucking pants. My knees on the pants slowly changed to dark grey as sweat seeped into the fabric. I didn’t get a good look at my ass but I know I had swamp ass. Finally after awhile we made it to the creek that Marc said he was siestaing at. I spotted him and immediately was feeling better. It was bad though as now I had to meet his FIANCÉ so so so so sweaty and smelly and nasty and gross. She is absolutely lovely though. We joked around as last time Marc took leoni on an adventure to Norway he made her do 100 km on the first day. This time he made her do 3k in elevation gain in 8 miles in the blistering heat. There’s a trend of him putting her through the ringer. She’s a badass though and always does it. Eventually everyone pulled up to the spot to hang and we decided to stop early today as the campsite that I orginally chose was a dry campsite and with all the heat we rather stick to water near by. We chit chatted and then went to the creek to rinse off all the salt, sweat, and dirt off our bodies. Eventually, rock licker decided to head out as he is doing the skip we plan on doing tomorrow due to severe blowdowns, widows, and overgrown area. The PCTA recommends a driving skip of 30 miles and while we are hitching it, rocklicker has a continuous footpath and is planning on just walking the entire road at night with caffeine fueling him. Caleb has given him so much shit about it and so have I lol. I respect it though and if I had a continuous footpath I wouldn’t shut up about it and make it known to everyone that I was better than them. Sadly though, but not regrettably, I don’t have a continuous footpath. So he did 20 miles today and plans on going as far as he can into the night. We all chilled out before dinner when Caleb started chirping me and the bad mood came back and all of a sudden I couldn’t take a joke. He was nice about it late though and we apologized lol. Such sibling energy honestly. Mono was also at our camp who I saw in Sierra city yesterday. Everyone is just chirping everyone now at camp. No one is safe. Hanging with Leoni (I hope I am spelling that right) was super fun as we have heard so much about her. Marc looks so so so so happy to have her here which is so cute. We got to hear about the details of their engagement in Tahoe. I think they are officially getting married in Vegas which we will try to make of course and then have a true ceremony in Germany in a year or two. UGH I am so happy for them.

It’s a new pain and ache everyday again. My heel on my right foot was HURTING on the downhills. I think it contributed to my sour mood. Hip was okay. Then my left knee had a bit of twinge to it occasionally which I just know is from my fall a lil while back. I JUST WANT TO FEEL OKAY GODDAMIT. But this is life of trail and I will never be okay.

Forgot to mention but it was super duper Smokey this morning. It’s that time of year where you love the outdoors but you can’t go out without the smoke fucking slapping you in the face to remind you that the entire world is on fire and nobody is doing anything about it. What a glorious time to be alive.