“Yippee Kiyay Mother Fuckers!” Die Hard
Tough to leave a town with food and nice people. Had an offer for free breakfast but I was ready to get back to the trail since I’ve only just begun and not feelin like I’ve earned the in town day yet. Goofy rational I know. Thanks to Keith at the store in town along with Jim and Julie. All great people in Julian!! Walked the road a mile until John finally picked me up. Gave me a ride back to the trail. Discussed crazy prices of cities these days. Found out he goes back and forth between Julian and Pagosa Springs. Not sure how he pulled that off but fookin awesome! And yes John, I’ve heard of the best kept secret Wolf Creek. Just never skied there.One of these winters. really want to go there.
Look who we have here!! Just walking up to the road is Kwame and a new dude Luke or trail name Copper. I was excited to see them and hike, but they were lookin to hitch up to Warner Springs 30 miles.
Today is a heat check day!! Hot. Switchbacks on the side of a desert mt. Hiked a ridge line in and out pretty much all the way up to mile 92. Gradual up, in and out, twist and turn. Well heeey, look who decided to hike instead. Kwame and Copper caught me around noon since I’m breaking every four miles to air out feet and change socks now. Good to have some fools to walk with. Got pretty quite and slow around 4pm, but we finally made it to the water cache at mile 92. Spirits are up. Water is glugged. I’m going for my third Ramen lunch in a row. Should be fun to cruise with these guys. We’re not short on jokes. Just shade. Copper is another youngster just graduated from CU. Go buffs! Lookin to move out to Oregon. Grab a masters in natural resource management. Work on sustainability of some sort and save our planet hopefully. And of course drink beer! Glad he joined up with Kwame. I wanted to hang with Kwame but I knew he was going to be to easy to convince to stop, maybe set camp early. It was going to be a touch to slow. We would of played negatively on each other as far as movement, and I was very aware of that becoming a thing. Now there’s Copper who is a hell raiser and wants to go go! Matter of fact we’re just beating the heat for a few hours and it’s NO STOP TILL Warner Springs! That’s another 20 to tack on through the night. Saweet. Was going to slow test the blisters. Instead it’s Yippee Kiyay motherfuckers. Also thought of this movie because my feet are starting to look like his at the end of the movie. I’ll give the blisters a C, they pass for walkable but by no means is it comfortable.
Night hike was awesome! I love getting out there at night. It was nice and cool and I’m very glad we did that section at night instead of the day. Had another decent ridge to climb. Sunset and moonrise was definitely one on the best things seen so far.
The night ridge hike was fun especially with a full moon. As far as making Warner Springs…not even close. Started slowing waaay down at 10 pm. First night electing to go no tent. Nice to sleep under the stars!
Things are heating up!!
Day 7
“Did you hear that!??”- Elf
Still enjoying the mind fuckery of every little noise. What was that? Gotta be a Cougar. Definitely hot wired, pre conditioned to come to the scariest conclusions. Guess that’s part of the problem. Negative/scary/dangerous topics are what’s worth talking about and better for gossip so the most irrational conclusions are what we come up with. But it’s not a Cougar obviously. What is it? My scruff rubbing on the sleeping bag, a bird, a branch against Lukes tent, etc etc. I do really love these brain games. Crazy irrational brain vs. rational/what the hell is really going on brain. Was doing this the first day as well thinking about snakes. Read to much snake crap. So every bush that rustled I did a double hop. What was it actually? Wind. A Lizard(50 billion of these fools. Some big doggs too!), me actually hitting the brush with my bag, etc etc. Common sense came back day two. I’ll see or hear the damn thing on this huge trail. I did hear one once, decent way off trail.
Got hiking at 6. Dropped down off the ridge and hit some flat desert trail. Mile 8 ran across the famous Eagle Rock. Pretty cool rock sitting in the middle of nowhere fo sho.
Downgrading these blisters to a D. I’m at the slow waddle pace. Besides the pain, I can’t stand this pace. I’m a fast walker damnit. I don’t want to waddle for hours!! Also changed my socks in a pile of ant. It waaas exciting!
Happy to roll into Warner Springs. Rec Center provides a spot to camp, resupply, foot baths. Nice spot to stop. We decided to stay through to tomorrow night and hit up some more evening/night hiking. Sun is crushing everyone. Ran into a decent amount of hikers with similar start dates that are reassessing their hiking strategies. Chub, Yellow Toe, Britta ( 18 year old girl crushin it. Good on her! Also provided me with some blister help!), the Czech ladies, Emily, both Canadians in da house. So we’re definitely not the only crew fighting the good fight.
Made double mac and went to bed at 8.
Day 8
“No Jump Tonight!” Band of Brothers.
11 hours of sleep. Noice. Today we’ve just been laying low getting ready for the night. Kwame found a new bag in the hiker box, which is a very good thing for him. His awkward loose fitting bag looked like a constant struggle. New bag looks way better.
Got some breakfast at the one restaurant. Then destroyed everyone at scrabble.
Now, looking for all the blister help I can get. Hiking guide Emily is going to doctor me up when she gets back from lunch. Crossing my fingers that we can get these grades up. B- maybe…, that’d be awesome. Otherwise the next 3 days to Idyllwild will once again have to much focus on pain tolerance vs. the fun hiking…..…..
……. Boooooo!!! No jump tonight for me. Tried to hike off into the sunset with Kwame, better known as Cherry B out here and Copper. Mind so ready to go. 95% of my body so ready to go. But, I’ve done a serious number on my feet. Feels like I’ve almost got stone bruises on my heels as well as the blisters. It would of been foolish and more importantly no fun if I tried to power through it.
So I’ve got to hang back another night. Might try to head out with Emily and Britta tomorrow. I highly doubt that’s going to work, sooo the PCT probably just turned into a sectional hike for me. Bounce ahead a ways. Let the feet fully heel. Get my real hiking boots (wish I would of just done that in the first place), join back up with the guys, and come down to finish whatever I skipped Thanksgiving/Christmas time……..or something like that.
I guess that’s why they trail named me New New Game Plan. Made me laugh. I guess that’s pretty on par with my type b, adjustable, go with the flow, change course daily attitude. So...if you’re feet are fuuucked up its time for a new new game plan. Guess I’ll figure that out in the morning.
Goodnight!
Day 9
“Game on”-Wayne’s World
There goes Emily and Britta bright and early. Not a chance I’m gonna be a go. What a bummer. Just me and yellow toe chillin at a random red center with ailments. He’s got a balloon finger that he’s already been to the hospital for. But still waiting for it to go down after getting some drugs. Smart man…..if it was my finger I bet I would of ran outta there to eager to keep hiking.
Well…..what to do what to do. I’ve used up a lot of every bodies blister care stuff including mine. Now I’m super gluing everything which helps a little. Since I’m the bike...I’ve now decided to cement glue some rubber patches on top of the super glue! Yes….I read the warning. I’ll call my doctor later. Feeling pretty good, pretty good! Wrap it up and stuff it into my shoe. Nope nope nope. Way to many points of contact and to much rubbing. Hmmmm. Oh Boy….you know….they felt pretty good in my Crocs. Oh yea. Oh yea! Perfect hiking shoe. Squishy. Breathable. People are doing it in their Sandles and now I get why. Oh the game is back on!
Left at 1 ready to cover some ground! Thought about doing an all nighter to catch up with some peeps but that didn’t happen. Because this next 20 miles from Warner Springs was a gradual uphill back to 6000 feet. Proud of myself though. Definitely went beast mode on that hill. Probably because I had two days rest. And, I was cookin’ do to the power of music. First day I plugged into listen to something and maaan oh man was I feeling that hike. Another incredible sunset. Matched the Starbursts I was eating. Ooo. Red. Oooo. Orange. Oooo. Red. Most Incredible. Pink!!
Darkness was super fun. Bats would land/or be laying on the trail and my head lamp would hit their orange eyes. Took them awhile to finally take off. Mile 17 came to a dead stop. Face to face with Mrs. Skunk and a fresh baby pup (no idea what skunk young are called). Well. The child was not moving from the trail any time soon. Mama circled for a while, then slinked off the trail behind a rock. Nooot exactly sure how far away. Shit. Well. Here we go!! Sprint!!! Hop the pup. I smell skunk! Gotta be babies first release. To quick for you guys!! Muhaha. Maybe, we’ll see what the next person says that I run into. Water refill mile 18. Then I decided to chug up to the top of the hill. I can barely comprehend the beauty of that moonrise. Dark mountains, clouds zippin by. Wow! So fun. Spent hours trying to get some good pics. Camp at 1130. Slight breeze. And snore.
Day 10
“Some people just weren’t cut out for life on the road”- Dumb and Dumber
Gooodmorning! Time to climb down the mountain in order to climb back up that next one over dere.
Don’t forget toothpaste. Definitely the least I’ve ever brushed my teeth. But at least I’m savin weight brah.
Uh. Gotta say. I was not feeling today...reason for that quote. Rewrapped a bunch of blisters. Preventative measures on a couple new ones. Went back down into a valley. Starting today temp was suppose to go back up into the 90s from mid 70s and I feel it. Nothin really to new scenery wise. Same desert scene. Below is my bush of shade for lunch and siesta. Emily and Britta caught me since I was fooling with my feet so much. I passed them somewhere late in the night. Instead of pushing on I was easily convinced to hit the breaks and camp with them. Not the biggest fan of this spot. The creek was mud water that we had to treat and the second I layed down I was covered in tiny ants again!! Tonight has got me thinking about yo-yoing (term for bouncing around and section hiking) again. Not sure why do the extreme heat down here and then maybe muck up WA cause of cold and snow. We shaallll seeeee!
Day 11
“It’s already been brought!”- Bring it on
Had another 15 mile sluggeroonie to the Paradise Cafe cutoff. Time to bring it on! Kind of annoyed that I let myself stop yesterday and left so much for my feet today. Got to an unmarked water cache early which was a wonderful thing! Started listening to a book. Hillbilly Elegy. Pretty crazy story. Kept my mind off my feet. There was some cool cliff and desert sections I liked in here. Dipped off the trail down to the highway. Gotta eat at Paradise Cafe. Best burgers off the trail they say! Loaded up on allll the good stuff. Food comma time. Hiked a few more miles. There’s a fire diversion where you could go walk random dirt roads for “true mileage” or hitch the 10 miles to Idyllwild. Pretty sure everyone was hitchin and so am I. Not out here to walk roads and plus… my feet. Just a couple balls of tape and pads at this point. Draaaggging ass in town. Slow slow slow walk to the campsite. Another interesting brain game. Was able to tune out my hurting feet for 15 miles cause I essentially had to walk it. Then the minute you get to your destination, the Adrenalin or mind function that blocks that shit out disappears annnd I can barely walk again! happy to get off my feet...even though I’d love to shower and go grab a beeer! Tomorrow. Sleeep
Day 12
“ Stand me up today and tomorrow I’ll walk you to the front door of the school in my robe and pajamas.” -Uncle Buck
No connection with that quote...except robe and PJs sound pretty good.
Idyllwild is another awesome mountain town! Could definitely hang out here for a while. Got breakfast with a couple new hikers. Eric (Indiana Jones- got a high awareness of snakes) and Adam. The girls elected to get a room but I decided to camp the next couple nights. Taking another couple days I think for the feet. There’s a few other broken down peeps here. Eric doesn’t have blisters but his feet are not letting him go. Scout just came off the mountain with some Rangers. Knee says he can’t go. Not an easy adventure to stay in the game. Idyllwild is bigger than Julian with some more shops and stores annnd wiinne. Loaded up on blister care supplies and bought a new sock wardrobe!! So happy to find legit hikers gear. This new new set up should prevent the extreme blistering. (You’d be happy to know I now have the toe socks mom.) Just gotta repair the old damage and vunderbar! As fun as those 45 miles in Crocs. Super Fun! But Meh. Supportive shoes are cool too. Gonna go watch Solo tonight with Indiana. Hope they didn’t ruin Han Solo for me. We’ll try to get back out there tomorrow but who knows, could just end up moving here and serving popcorn at the theatre.
Cheers
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