Day 83 - PCT 2024
PCT trail miles: 9.3 (7 on the PCT plus 2.3 on Trail Pass down to Cottonwood Pass).
Ascent: 1,116.1 ft.
Descent: 1,432.4 ft.
It’s town day! Always exciting after being in the wilderness for a while. I dream of town food and a warm comfortable bed. My own room, too. I just need some time alone to get over whatever I’m fighting and to have some space. I love hiking with a group but not having any privacy, especially while sick, sucks.
I barely slept. It was awful. I’m having upper mid back pain. Just below my shoulder blades. It kept me up most of the night. I took ibuprofen around 4am and that helped, a slight bit, but laying down aggravates it. If only my body would simply cooperate. Not sleeping; not feeling well, has me stressed. I’m feeling a lot of anxiety and I’m missing home. I miss my animals. And I’m worried about Malcolm since he’s home taking care of the animals and the house. It makes me feel guilty taking time out to do such a grand adventure. I had a lot of tears during my hike today. Thankfully I hiked behind Tina and Krista so they didn’t see or hear most of that. I put on some tunes and just kept hiking. I wish every day was a good, positive, upbeat day but it isn’t. And that’s life, isn’t it? It’s hard when you’re sick, sore and emotionally drained. I love the Sierras and that’s keeping me here, also, “embrace the suck,” so the saying goes…
The hike was stunning. The closer we got to our side trail, Trail Pass, down to Cottonwood Pass, where we’d meet Wade with his truck, I got a bit excited and cheered up a bit. The thought of real food was alluring. I was hungry. Really hungry.
As we hiked the steep descent down Trail Pass, passing lots of fresh horse poop but never seeing any horses, we found Wade! He had hiked up 0.8 miles to meet us and brought ice cold Coke and Gatorade. I chugged a Gatorade and was eternally grateful for that since we didn’t have a water source on trail today and my water was limited. I’ve lost a lot of fluids the last couple of days being sick and replenishing electrolytes helped significantly. My mood shifted. This section sort of kicked my butt but I did it!
We hiked through a gorgeous meadow to get to the truck. The view was amazing! But the road down to Lone Pine is what really blew me away. We went from 10,000 ft at the parking lot of the pass to 3700 ft in Lone Pine. It was truly a mountain road. Steep, windy, no guard rails with cliffs all around us. Views for miles and miles, even with the forest fire smoke haze lingering in the air. Super cool spot!
Town! Food! Yum!
