Day 11, Monday, July 12. Spring & Campsite, TM 1612.2–(13.7 miles)

10 nights in a row! Everybody, bend over and kiss your asses goodbye. I need to get to a town where I can drink a couple of gallons of iced tea.

It was Bear who returned from his orange bag expedition and declared the Sierra his best morning poop experience. There is no better place on earth that compares to the Sierra on a cool, bug free morning. Only Bunny has refused to weigh in on this topic. 

Sassy was feeling better today. They think they’ve narrowed down what her problem was. Sassy hates to climb hills. We tried letting her lead yesterday so she could maintain a comfortable pace. Bear clocked her at 3 mph. She’s like a horse returning to the barn. This theory seemed to hold for the first 6 or 7 miles until she got sickly again.

At this point, we can’t rule out anything. She has described what she is feeling as all day long morning sickness. Could Sassy be pregnant? Who are the parents? Perhaps the aliens have lost their fascination with anal probes and moved on to new experiments. Alien implantation is the most likely answer which brings up another question—What species is the baby? Or, could Sassy have Covid? Bear had vertigo the first few days on the trail. Could Bear have given her a virus? Worse yet, could Bear have given me a virus last week? Sassy has been getting up to pee in the middle of the night (tent walls are thin) so we don’t have the exact same problem. 

We were hiking along in our standard formation: Bear in the lead to keep Sassy from running herself to death, followed by Sassy; followed by Bunny; with me in the rear. I use my position in back to take pictures and space myself further back so I can rest more often in the shade. I was thinking of how I would have run Medieval England as a benevolent king (I don’t use ear buds to listen to podcasts). I started to realize Bear likes the lead so he doesn’t have to watch Sassy in dangerous situations. As that realization came to me, Sassy affirmed it by falling. 

Once she was on the ground, she started dragging her butt like a dog trying to express herself. I tried to tell her to relax a minute before she moved to make sure nothing was broken. She responded “I’m trying to get out of the sun.” Bunny and I tried to shade her as she continued expressing herself towards the nearest tree. 

Fortunately, nothing was damaged other than ego. We agreed to take an extended break at the next water stop at the 9.5 mile mark. Even ill, I had a hard time keeping up with her. I’m sorry Sassy is feeling ill, but I like not being the weakest link in the group for a while. Even though Bunny did virtually no exercise in the off season, she already has her cardio back and can hike the same pace all day. I need someone else to slacken things up for a while. Sassy has stepped up for me. 

After a long lunch by a cold creek in sparse shade, we wet ourselves down for the impending climb. It was a 2.5 mile walk with a gain of just over 1000’. This works out to about 400’/mile of grade. On the AT, this is known as “level.” The PCT is a much nicer and forgiving trail than the AT. If you ever take your eyes off your feet on the AT while your walking, you’re going down. Not so on the PCT. Most of the time, you can look around while walking without any fear of falling. 

There were a few sections in this 1000’ ascent where we were walking on narrow shelves with significant drops beside us. I looked back to see that Bear was in front of Sassy. I stay in front of Bunny for the same reason. It only took us about an hour and a half to make the climb. Near the top, we encountered lots of smoke. There are several wildfires in Nevada and California, already. Bunny and I hope we can finish the PCT this year. It’s giving us fits. 

Coming down the south side of the pass, we quickly dropped below the smoke. For some strange reason, I was still leading as we were descending. I saw an old man with skinny legs and a long beard approach me. Donkey and Chia had told us there was an octogenarian hiking the trail. I asked him how many times he had hiked the PCT. “I’m finishing up my 9th and 10th times this year. I have just a few hundred miles left.” This was Billy Goat. He’s 82 years old. We talked for about 15 minutes, all the while his back was to a steep fall. Every time he rocked back and forth, I got more nervous. 

We had passed 3 old women prior to meeting Billy Goat. He told us they were his traveling companions. He’ll hike to where they’ve set up camp and cooked supper. He’ll eat what they’ve cooked then lie on the ground and go to sleep. He only Cowboy camps. 

Even though we made our 13 mile target today, we’re going to be just a bit shy of making it to Sonora Pass in time to catch the shuttle to Kennedy Meadows North on Wednesday. We went through all of our food and decided we have enough to spend an extra night out and catch the early shuttle on Thursday. 

EFG