So today started off on a high, feeling good and ready to bust out these 19 miles to N and Out. A pretty iconic stop on the PCT. I got going with Tinkle and said bye to Lost and Found, Olaf, supplies and another female hiker. It was beautiful walking above the clouds, looking below at the desert floor with the wind turbines fluttering in the wind.

I began A Giver Of Stars and it took me down the mountain for most of the morning. Super into this southern ass book. I passed by Koviet, Jake, and Soft Spot. We caught up for a bit. And then I ran into Hot Mess and Lindy. Then another hiker named Hoss. Everyone was saying there’s a big crew ahead. This climber I met yesterday Eddy, was also still on trail and we ended up hiking together all the way to the water fountain. He’s a super nice guy and he told me about his life here in California and his mountain adventures. When we got to the water fountain, the first water source in 20 miles, I met up with Goblin, Lemming, Teva Jesus, and Susanne. We let Lemming know about his brother and he had no idea. He was pretty upset, as anyone would have been and he started tracking his brother who was moving 2.5 mph. Which is pretty fast for someone with a bum knee. Hopefully that means he’s alright.

So we relaxed there at the fountain for a bit and I took off my shoes to see that my allergic reaction was back in full force and was not going away anytime soon. It was so disgusting and hurting pretty badly. I kept going back and forth on what to do. Everyone at the fountain said it looked pretty bad and goblins friend even had the same issue. Goblin messaged her friend and said she had to stay off of it for a little bit and just let it do it’s thing. Which I didn’t do originally...

Tinkle and I hiked out to Eddys car and he offered to drive me to urgent care, which was extremely nice. I was so bummed. Today was probably the saddest I’ve felt on trail because I want to keep hiking but this damn reaction won’t go away.

So we went to urgent care, and the doctor I saw was a complete asshole to top it off. Just a very arrogant guy, who wore his mask below his nose. From the beginning he was like well I’ve never heard of this leukotape, I’m an outdoorsman and I just use moleskin. He even had the nerve to say next time, make sure you just use moleskin. Like okay dude. He just wouldn’t listen to me when I kept saying it was an allergic reaction. And he was very condescending when I told him I’d been to the doctors a few days before and received a steroid shot. He’s like oh well since you’ve started your own process then tell me what you’d like to do. At this point I’m just so frustrated with the situation and tried everything not to cry in front of this asshole. So I ended up getting another steroid shot and a few topical creams to put on the blisters.

I went to Walgreens and it took forever and for some reason my insurance wouldn’t go through. So I had to call my insurance and that took forever to figure out. And then I couldn’t get one of the prescriptions because they needed the doctors permission, which doesn’t make sense and that could take up to 3 days. So I just left without that one and went to N and Out with Tinkle and finally landed in our hotel room. It was just a long ass day and I was having to accept that I needed to stay off trail probably for the rest of the week.

I cried a lot. I had some really good friends reach out and I talked to my mom and sister on the phone for a while which helped. Having Tinkle here was really comforting too. I’ve looked forward to this adventure for years and I’m only a few weeks in and this is what’s happening. I know things happen for a reason and I need more patience with myself. I just can’t wait to get back out there. All the familiar faces will be ahead of me considerably now which makes me sad but I’ll be in a new bubble when I hop back on. Hopefully it’ll be alright. I know folks are already in tramlies and such, so hopefully I’ll be able to jump into one of those. It’s still really only the beginning.