500 in the books

Wow time has spend on by! Over a month into the trip and have now walked…. Over 500 miles!! Thank you Lord for a strong body, strong mind, and strong heart.

Leaving Big Bear (mile 266) my tramily picked up another! Arc, from Baltimore, joined our gang and we became a group of 5. Also going forward from there we kept running into another tramily of eight and gradually started walking more and more together and camping together until we started calling each other our cousins. It has been an absolute blast hiking with them.

However… our cousins constantly go 20+ miles a day and in Agua Dulce (mile 454) Annie, Arc and I were feeling pretty dang tired and in need of a break. We tried to talk our tramily into taking a nearo (low miles day) before jumping up again to 20+ days but they decided to push on with our cousins. So we dwindled down to 3. THEN in Hiker town (mile 518) Arc left us!! And we were back to square one, just the two of us.

That’s been a hard thing I’m discovering about this trail. There’s a good saying of “hike your own hike” but also it’s fun to stick with the people you have gotten to know and love. That’s not to say there’s no one else on the trail by any means, there are many more people we have gotten to know and are always meeting new people. But it’s fun sticking with a crew and getting to know them too. Good news is now in Tehachapi (mile 559) we have caught up with our tramily and cousins and will be starting off with them again tomorrow!

More thoughts I’ve been pondering is I would say this trail is what I was expecting in that there’s lots of beauty and the fun social aspect and it’s hard, but it’s all way more extreme than I had thought. More beautiful and more social and harder. I think also the highs have felt really high and the lows really low because I have this goal of doing this trail for five months. So when my legs and back are aching and random pains pop up and I feel utterly exhausted I think there’s no way I can sustain this and achieve this goal I have set. And it’s an incredible experience so I should be enjoying it more. But 1) the hard parts are part of the pct too so nothing to fear experiencing and 2) I’m hiking this partly for the challenge and because I think we should try things we’re scared of failing and 3) this is a crazy thing I’m asking my body to do, so when she retaliates a bit that’s really only fair. So I’ve been learning not to grasp on too much to the highs but enjoy them and accept and roll with the lows. Easier said than done.

The highs have still been abundant. Obviously the people as I keep ranting about. The tramily and cousins and other friends we keep running into. The desert maaaay have gotten a little monotonous but still enjoying the beautiful views it provides and all the desert life. I’ve also been enjoying the freedom and spontaneity of the trail. Just having a backpack and walking with a group of friends. It’s like having a vacation that’s already all planned as the trail is already there. The route is planned. You just get to enjoy it, take a longer break to sit in the shade or cruise hiking or chat or swim, whatever you please.

What’s also really stuck out to me in this is all the support from people along the trail. Going into town lots of people “trail angels” will provide rides to and from trail or even currently we’re staying two nights in the home of a trail angel who lets hikers stay for free! Along the trail we have also received “trail magic” where people will come and provide food for us on trail. It has been incredible and so fun doing this crazy trail and receiving all this support.

Highlights

Can confirm mayo with lunch wraps have been bomb. New wonderful food hack was taught by Tiny Dancer (one of the cousins): put less water in for ramen and add peanut butter to make Pad Thai. It’s delicious

Arriving to camp late one night in the dark, just enjoying the cool of the evening and seeing their headlamps from a ways off and knowing I was expected there.

A hummingbird went right up to my jacket one evening! I feel like being out here so long I’m getting to enjoy a lot of little wildlife moments.

Favorite part so far was Deep Creek Hot Springs with the cold creek deep enough to swim in beside it! Nothing better than swimming on a 96F day

Geeking out on California water resources infrastructure going by dams and literally walking across an emergency spillway

Stopped at a McDonald’s that’s 0.3 miles off the trail at Cajon Pass. Famous to all PCT hikers. We stayed there for 5 hours and feasted. Even shot the moon successfully in a game of hearts.

Lorax (on of the cousins) giving me a compression sleeve when I told him my shin had started hurting

Arc ordered Annie, Rambo, himself and I rocky mountain oysters at the 49er Saloon in Acton

Just enjoying the small towns and local people knowing each other

Crossing the 500 mile mark. Randomly this milestone I was walking by myself and it was just very impactful taking that moment in by myself. A lot of gratitude for my body

The aqueduct! There’s a 20 mile stretch of trail that follows the LA aquaduct. Completely flat, straight, and no shade so we rallied with about 20 (!) other hikers and did it at night. We hit the aqueduct with face paint and glow sticks and even got trail magic at 11pm of hot dogs and pancakes 14 miles in!!

With the aqueduct Annie and I ended up doing a 34 mile day!! Which those last 6 miles were NOWHERE near a highlight but coming into camp, pulling out the pad and sleeping bag and immediately crashing felt so good. I got a fist bump coming into camp from someone I couldn’t see in the dark and I’ve never had a fist bump go so hard. Longer days have definitely been rewarding.

Made it to Sunday mass today! Pentecost Sunday even!