Day 93

West branch bear trap campsite to Quincy to nicks summit trailhead - 8.2 miles

~30 mile skip recommended by the PCTA

Total - 1269.6 miles

What a fucking day. Woke up early and got out of camp early and I was fucking sweating my ass off at 6:15am while hiking up three big uphills. During our hike we learned that rocklicker walked all night into Quincy which was a 22 mile hike. So he did 20 with us, 8 more to get to the road and then 22 after that, all in 24 hours overnight. He ended up sitting around 3am and “accidentally” fell asleep till 5am, got mad, and then finished off the hike into Quincy. Absolutely mental. Mad respect but omg so fucking dumb…respectfully though. He ended up texting Caleb “if I ever do something this stupid again on trail please slap the shit out of me.” Caleb and I had our minds blown when we learned this. We finished off the hike dripping sweat to the road, passing multiple people on the 8 miles. There’s an unspoken rule that it’s a first come first served sort of deal with hitches and that’s why we were juicing all morning. 8 miles in 2 and a half hours to arrive at the road at 8:30am. Brutally we waited for a car to pass knowing based on FarOut comments that cats come every 20 minutes or so. In the 30 minutes we were there with more and more hikers showing up only one worker car passed us going the wrong way. So we whipped out our handy dandy garmins to text the only person we could rely on…rocklicker. The man was posted up in a cafe, so we pleaded with him to ask around to drive up the 30 minutes to the trailhead and come back down. Within 5 minutes of us texting him, he secured us a ride from a lady named Debra arriving around 9:40. We chit chatted with the other 7 hikers letting them know we would try to fit everyone that we could. Around 9:40, two cars came slowly around the bend and blew right past us, killing our hopes of a ride. 9:45, we hear an engine coming up the mountain, quickly turning the bend with fucking rocklicker behind the wheel with a big ass grin on his face waving to us as he pulled a U-turn into the parking lot across the street. Our minds were blown. The man shouldn’t be driving off two hours of sleep and 50+ miles in 24 hours. Debra apparently had been caught street racing so many times that she is on probation from driving so instead of her coming to pick us up the next logical thing was to give rocklicker…a stranger…her car to pick us up. We truly believed she was a street racer as her miles per gallon was 7. As happy as I was to get a ride, we had 8 hungry hikers wanting to fit in Sudan that had junk everywhere. Again, it’s first come first serve, so yeti an older guy got first dips, then Caleb, me, fawn, Snow White, and a Hungarian guy. This left Marc, leoni, Ben from Boston, and a UK guy at the trailhead. Caleb and I were up front with rocklicker while everyone else crammed into the back squeezing in between the junk. We then had a very steep downhill which gave me ptsd as in Kennedy meadows north I witnessed a brake failure car crash. Once the grade became really really steep, I started smelling a weird smell. I immediately asked Caleb if he smelled it and he did as well. Rocklicker then confessed he was hoping no one noticed the smell bc he could feel the brakes starting to overheat and slip. He pulled over and we all got out to give the car a lil rest proving further that Debra definitely abuses this car in street racing. Eventually we got back in and headed into town to give Debra her car back. We did hit a squirrel and killed it just to top off the drive. Windows down, wind blowing in our hairs we pulled into the trailer park, scooching past the happy dog to park. All of a sudden, water hits my back in the front seat of the car as we are opening our doors. Everyone flees from the car but yeti and rocklicker. We finally meet Debra. The woman was cleaning the inside of her OTHER car with a hose on her nose. The minute we pulled up, she turned the jet hose on us INSIDE her other car. We would try to get our shit out and the minute we came into range, the deranged woman would spray us. Snow White decided if I stop running she would stop spraying me…she didn’t and he ended getting soaked. Caleb tried to get shit out of the back and she sprayed him, which in response Caleb used yeti’s backpack to deflect. Eventually we got away…or so we thought. We pull up to the street corner and get a hitch from a truck to the breakfast spot that we chose that I’m forgetting the name of all of a sudden. It was me, the Hungarian, and Caleb. We thought we were just going to meet the other three: fawn, Snow White, and yeti. Rocklicker was walking lol. As we pull in…fucking Debra screams out cheatterrrrrrrrrsssss as we had been in a hitch instead of in her car which yeti was driving because the woman can’t fucking drive anymore. Scared we quickly get on the list for SEVEN people planning on ditching the crazy woman. Quickly learned that she is persistent and moved in on the bench with us sadly next to me. We order and then that’s when shit starts going south for me. She pulls me in close to let me know how she wanted to have sex with this guy that’s playing hard to get but now she’s trying to play his game BUT she hasn’t had sex for 12 years so he might have a difficult time as it’s all scared in there but that won’t stop her… Truly traumatizing. If I had to hear that information then Caleb had to hear it as well. Finally rocklicker joined in after walking the 1.2 miles for a continuous footpath and that changed her target from me to him as she was flirting up a storm with him. Apparently she kept using the line “I’m cold” implying she wanted his jacket which he had brought in. MIND YOU, it’s 95 outside and pretty damn hot inside as well. He was nice and gave it to her anyway. The entire time we waited for our meals, she was going out and about trying to talk to the many victims in the establishment. At one point she grabbed a picture frame with musical lyrics off the wall and told everyone to pass it around the table and memorize them. We got our meals soon after, just as Marc, leoni, Ben from Boston, and the English guy came taking the spot from Debra next to rocklicker. That caused her to choose her next victim: the UK guy. She was non stop talking his ear off and everything she said made him react which can’t be good. Eventually she left to harass some others where we could debrief on how fucking crazy she is. When she came back, she joked “what did we learn today kids?” Which the UK guy quickly responded “don’t talk to strangers” causing the entire table to choke and hold in their laughter as Debra reacted. Just had to be there. Most of this group that we were having breakfast with, we had never met before or hadn’t seen since the first couple of days. Within hours, this woman had United us and bonded us together for a memory that we will never forget. Yeti during this time was also super hilarious and nice. He ended up buying everyone dessert as a thank you for including him on the ride. We kept reassuring him that it’s first come first served and not to worry about it but he insisted. He also was a victim to Debra as he was convinced to drive her here to breakfast. He was asked by her if he was married which he quickly responded with yes. Smartest thing he’s done as he says as he’s not lol. Finally we had enough of crazy Debra so we scurried away when she was harassing a kids table. As we were leaving, a guy stopped us and gave us a homegrown joint…spring water only. Then came back and gave me one as it was sooooo unfair that he only gave us one. Truly phenomenal. Finally we ditched Debra and headed to a park while rocklicker headed out on his last 12-15 miles uphill in the blistering heat to get back on trail for his continuous footpath.

At the park, I was able to call dad and give him this entire story and talk a lil which was super nice as always. We then headed to a pub where we boozed until 3ish. During this time, we attracted another crazy: Bob the miner. Luckily I clocked out for this conversation and only got bits and pieces. At one point Caleb instigated him by saying “these liberals” to something which prompted Bob to ask if we were democrats and how he used to be one but now he’s not. He also said the environmentalist were killing the city industry? Idk the man was off his rocker clearly. That didn’t stop Ben from Boston and Caleb from smoking with him in the back. I stayed back and got approached by a trail angel asking if we needed a ride but we didn’t plan on getting back on trail until later. At this point as well we bumped our mileage plan down to only 7 miles that day after town. That quickly dwindled down to 4 miles after the guys came back high asf. Bobby the miner finally sat down while the bartender continued to make the same two jokes to us: “make sure to not fuck Bobby tonight, he’s a minor,” and “hey are these guys bothering you, I will kick them out.” Impeccable if you ask me, put him in front of a fucking mic. After all this, we decided on a place to eat aka round table pizza.

We started walking and I, of course always have my thumb out just in case someone, anyone, would give us a 0.5 miles hitch as it was so goddamn hot outside. We caught one guy and he offered which was a very pleasant surprise. Immediately ordered a extra large bbq chicken pizza wirh garlic Parmesan drumsticks with a pitcher of beer like real men. We ended up talking to another hiker who was there who ordered an only anchovy pizza which we heard the workers chirp later after he left lol. Once the food came we demolished it and it probably was the best thing I’ve had for awhile. I was full but a couple minutes later I was be hungry asf again. I also was texting rocklicker throughout the day to give him updates on how good we were doing while he was suffering on the side of the road. Wouldn’t be a true friendship if we weren’t harassing him.

Earlier, I posted on the Facebook for a hitch back up to bucks lake summit to get back on trail but not hike as we were too drunk and high to do that shit. We didn’t get a hit but once we stuck our thumbs out and sweet older woman pulled over in her three seater saying get in! We squeezed in (his from cops while we could which basically just included me ducking) and she got to cruising to her goat farm to pick up her dogs before taking us up to the summit. She was the coolest woman. She studied at Santa Barbara and then getting her PHD when she learned about botany lol. She taught for awhile and then moved out to Quincy to start her lil farm. Right as we pulled up and practically fell out of the passenger seat to find the cutest dogs begging for our attention. One was an older dog named miles who looked HELLA raggedy, but the other was an 8 month old COWBOY CORGI. I think I found my dream dog honestly. Lola, the cowboy corgi, had been attacked by a German Shepard and became blind in one eye adding to her charm honestky. She was the sweetest most lovable puppy omg. We had a lil photo shoot with her before grabbing some 805s and heading in a new car, same trail angel, to the trailhead with puppies in our laps.

A short ride later up a windy road without seeing rocklicker at all, we made it to the trailhead. Set up camp and the boys quickly got to drinking the fireball Caleb had bought rocklicker if he made it to the trailhead to celebrate. We chilled and the boys harassed me for not wanting to take shots with them. We threw rocks at Ben from Boston while he was all curled up in his cowboy camping set up. It was gorgeous evening while we waited. Around 9ish, I had to head into bed and attempt to write out what happened today. 20 minutes into my writing, I hear footsteps in the dark. No fucking way, but rocklicker was shuffling into camp around 9:30pm. Caleb was there to greet him while we all chit chatted about his day. The poor man had to turn down hitch after hitch and explain time and time again that he had a continuous footpath. The heat killed him and he was only limping on the flats and felt good on the ups. The man finally finished his 36 hour, 65 mile-ish trek only to wake up the next morning and do 19 more miles to total 84 miles in roughly 48 hours. Absolutely insane. Don’t know how he is mustering up any of the energy to do what he’s doing.

That ends one of the weirdest days on trail. Quincy is great to pass through but if you do stay avoid a short woman with grey hair wirh a crazy look in her eye named Debra.