Day 9 - PCT 2024
Trail Miles Hiked: 13.9
Total Ascent: 4,194.2 ft.
Total Descent: 2,896.7 ft.
Packing up this morning was a bit of a rush. My bag is heavy. I decided to leave some food behind because I had to carry more water during this stretch. I’m also carrying my old pair of shoes while I adjust to these new zero drop shoes. The shoes are bulky and don’t fit well in my pack. I checked out of the Julian Lodge at 9:30am and strolled over to the gear shop with Dean (Snax). Matt (Impulse) and Jo met us over there.
A Trail Angel (those who help hikers with things like rides, laundry, hosting, etc) named Fossil Lady, a trail name fitting as she’s a palaeontologist, met us at 10am to give the four of us a ride back to the trail. I was so grateful to not have to hitch hike. The road down out of Julian is long and windy. Matt felt a bit car sick. Once back at Scissors Crossing, we hopped out, each gave Fossil Lady $10 for her generosity and walked back to the trail.
Today we got back on trail! It was the hardest trail day I’ve had so far. The climbing never seemed to end. I have blisters. My knee is feeling it. I’m a bit worn out. I wonder if that’s to be expected after a zero day in town? Or maybe I just needed another day of rest, lol. Either way, I’m back on trail and the views are stunning.
I got stabbed in the outer thigh by a cactus. Pulling the needle out was painful. I’m surprised it’s taken this long to have a cactus incident but I’d rather walk through blackberry brambles than pull cactus needles out of my flesh.
Jo, her trail name is now Failure to Launch, was having some feet problems today and needed to slow down. Her shoes aren’t protecting her feet from all of the rocks. She bought new rocker insoles in town but it took most of the morning for her feet to properly mold to them. I was happy to slow down a bit too. We stopped for a proper lunch break about 7 miles in which was heavenly. I took my shoes and socks off to air out while I devoured my orange, Fritos and pepperoni. Interesting lunch combination but my goal was to eat whatever I could to lighten my pack for the next 7 miles. I drank some water but needed to reserve my last litre in case I didn’t make it to the water source at mile 91.
Two miles before camp it started raining. Just enough to get everything wet. After about 5 minutes the sun came out in full force. I was so tired and just wanted to get there. We passed a few tents along the way. I don’t blame them for giving up early because it’s a hard stretch of trail, but I didn’t want to dry camp (camping without a water source) since I was so low on water. We finally made it! Impulse was already here and happy to see us! We quickly put our tents up and headed down to the water cache to fill our bottles. It was a long way down, and back up, from the water cache but it was necessary. This is such a dry stretch of trail that I’m so grateful someone put pallets of water out for the hikers.
I just finished eating potatoes for dinner. I think that’s all I’m going to eat because I’d rather crash. First night with my new quilt! Maybe I’ll sleep in or treat myself to breakfast before carrying on. I hope to take it easier tomorrow while I find my trail legs and adjust to these new shoes.
