Hiking With Jason

Detached From Reality

Day 34: Another wet and soggy day

Day 34 – 5/25/16

Golden Oaks Spring 583.3 to Robin Bird Spring 602.1

Total miles: 18.8

Well today sucked!

I wake up and reach over to my phone to check the time. 5:00 am exactly. My internal clock is perfect. I never set my alarm since my internal clock is usually accurate within 5 minutes. I’ve demonstrated my power a few times and I’m almost always able to predict the time within a few minutes. I promise to use it only for good.

I start packing up in the cold morning. In my tent it feels colder than usual. I get out  and as the sun is rising I notice it is foggy. Very foggy. Great… I finish packing up and 5 Star and I take off at 5:25 am. The terrain for the next 19 miles is wet trees, wet grass, and mud. Uphill. Visibility was 100 feet at best.

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I didn’t take many pictures since there was nothing to take pictures of and it was quite wet out. It didn’t rain but the trees would keep dropping drops of water. So I suppose you could say it only rained under trees.

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Around 10 5 Star and I take a break. We are eating when we hear in rapid succession boom boom boom. Almost like are artillery strike or bombs being dropped. Then about 20 seconds later we hear the deep sound of a large jet fly by. Where the heck are we?!

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We continue on but I’m not feeling it today. We made good time for 13 miles but then the wet, cold, and uphill sapped all my energy. I was lagging way behind 5 star and barely putting one for in front of the other. What is going on? Why do I feel like crap and lethargic so often?

I continue slogging on counting down the minutes until I can stop for the day and crawl inside my warm tent and quilt. I catch up to 5 Star and we come across mile 600. 600 miles. Not even a quarter of the way done yet. Hell, only a few miles back did I finish 1/3 of California!

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600 milea and still looking good. A little muddy right now. It’s the parts you can’t see that are destroyed. The insoles are paper thin and I’m sure the cushioning in the soles are worthless now.

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Beards are very efficient on collecting moisture in the air.

Only 2 miles left in the day. 2 very long miles. My feet were soaking wet and my shoes covered in mud. I just wanted to be done for the day and it was only 1 pm.  Finally we cross a dirt road and a sign pointing to Robin Bird Spring in 100 feet. Beautiful. We walk down the path and come to a piped spring. We walk past it to find a place to set up our tents. 5 Star and I quickly set up our tents. Mine isn’t set up perfectly and a few of my stakes are half in the ground since part of the ground is hard as a rock.  I don’t care. As long as it’s up. I throw my stuff in the tent and get situated. I change into my sleeping shirt, crawl into my quilt and lay down. I’m exhausted and hungry but eating can wait.

After 30 minutes captain and crew show up. I don’t get put of my tent and I can’t see them. They too had a doozy of a day. I sit up and dig through my food bag deciding what to eat.  I complain to 5 Star that the Spartans can no longer hold back the Persians. I just don’t want to go back out there. I put on my flip flops and grab the tools of my trade and walk up a steep path. I take care of business and walk back. My feet are wet and muddy.  Ugh.

I wipe of my feet and put on my sleeping socks.  5 Star says to check to see if I have service. He has AT&T and had bars but not AT&T service. I take my phone off airplane mode and have full bats of 4G! Awesome. I check my messages and send out my post from yesterday.  Lucky I had service but I still don’t expect service for awhile.

I check the weather and it shows thunderstruck tonight and tomorrow. Hopefully not up where I am. Hopefully.

Only 100 miles until Kennedy Meadows!

8 Comments

  1. Your pictures of the fog are beautiful.

    Thanx, Jas

  2. Good pics.

  3. You inherited your internal clock “power” from your Grandfather. Are you sure your beard just isn’t turning grey?

  4. From reading quite a few PCT blogs over the years it sounds like you’re not getting near enough calories. I know a bunch of PCT hikers over the years would have a Snickers bar (or two) one mid morning maybe and as a mid day pick me up. Give you a few calories and make you feel a bit better,

    Good luck. Good blog so far – especially the trail pictures.

  5. I seem to find the best things to take pics of when its foggy and damp out. Even a drop of water hanging from a leaf photographs well, but I must say the closeup of your beard was pretty awesome! You’re doing great by the way ~ that’s a lot of miles in 35 days!

  6. Thanks for always being honest about your experience! I look forward to your posts every day. You rock! Keep on keeping on!

  7. Great pictures. Love the fog and you drippy beard. Sorry it was a rough day. Better days to come.

  8. Worst superpower ever.

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