I barely heard Josh when he got up at 5. Around 6, I couldn’t stand it any longer and had to get up to pee. I didn’t like what I saw (I’m not referring to my mini-me, I mean the weather). Bunny had wanted to sleep in today, anyway, so I got back in the tent and turned off the alarm. At a little after 7, I heard a sound that should be our new alarm—a tree fell above us and started a rock slide. We were pretty sure we were safe where we had set up camp, but we both jumped up and got out of the tent to make 100% certain.
Well, we were up, so I made breakfast whilst Bunny tried her hand at napping again. She nailed it! I prepared a three course meal for her and did the dishes before I could coax her out from under the covers. We leisurely packed up afterwards. As we were starting to climb back up to the trail, I saw a guy filtering water at the stream. In an unusual move for me, I stopped and started a conversation.
The guy was a nobo. He told me this was the fourth time he had hiked the PCT and he was going to finish in the Sierra once he made it up to Canada. He told me his name was Saunter. I told him we had met a guy named Saunter in Northern California. This Saunter said he was a fake and fraud, there’s only one Saunter. He asked our names and when he heard Bunny Tracks, he recognized the name (of course he had Easily Forgotten me). It was the same Saunter. He had been hiking sobo with Strider when we met him.
We spent the rest of our hiking day together. He claimed he was trying to slow down because he had had knee surgery over the winter. If slow is what he wanted, he had hooked up with the right people to provide it. He had already hiked 8 miles before he had stopped to get water where we were camping. We hiked another 13 miles together to the Mike Uriah Cabin where he stopped for a rest before continuing on. Saunter was planning on making another 5 miles before stopping for the day.
Hiking with Saunter made the day go by so fast. We didn’t even notice the climbs. We did notice the spastic weather. It was misty when we started, but we were optimistic and didn’t wear our rain gear. The weather was quite peeved at us for not giving it his due respect so it started raining which caused us to stop and cover up. A few miles later, we got a “psyche” with the sun coming out causing us to stop and take off rain gear. The weather wasn’t done screwing with us until we had repeated the routine a couple more times. We finally met a couple out for a day hike that told us the weather is going to be great for the next 10 days. Every time we’ve heard that it’s been followed by 2 days of rain. In fact, today was day 4 of a “next 10 days are going to be great” and it rained a good portion of it.
One thing that’s really fascinating about meeting hikers on the trail is the instant bond of trust and openness that is almost automatic. Saunter was very open about his life and the hardships he has had and overcome. His mother was murdered when he was 8 and ended up living on the streets by the time he was 16. In spite of the odds against him, he managed to still have a successful life ultimately paying cash for a house in Breckinridge, CO with the proceeds from building a successful business. Like us, he ultimately sold out everything and has taken the dive into enjoying life through thru-hiking in the warm months and snow boarding in the winter months. He’s Bunny’s age, so, older than me. Bunny tries to say we were all born in 1963 so we’re all the same age. Math still evades her. Just own the cougar in thyself, Bunny.
Another big topic among thru-hikers is gear. Bunny and I are struggling with all the extra food weight we are carrying to get through this hundred mile stretch of trail. Her hips are inflamed and my heel starts flaring up around 10 miles into the day. Reluctantly, I have to admit we need to cut weight and try to go ultra-light. I know a lot of our ailments will dissipate. But it’s hard to try to switch out gear and get new gear while we are in the middle of a hike. We have lighter weight sleeping pads, but they are in my brother’s basement in St Louis. We need to get new packs and possibly sleeping bags. It’s just hard to admit that the way I’ve been hiking for 45 years is all wrong. Plus, I’m super cheap, and I hate to replace working gear with newer lightweight gear just to save weight, but Saunter made me wear his pack after I had walked 12 miles with mine. He has no reason to complain at all, I didn’t even feel like he had any weight on him. I guess this will be our winter project.
A large portion of the trail today had fresh hoof prints and horse nuggets in it. As a side note, the three of us developed a new invention called a “directional horse poop diverter” to aim “fresh from the source” nuggets to be directed to the downhill side of the trail so we hikers don’t have to step in fresh poop. Bunny got going on a nice rant until I heard her say “I’m going to hell.” I thought maybe she had finally seen the error of her ways and was going to be more appreciative of all her doting husband does for her: the carrying of the food, the breakfast in bed…the list is really too long to go into in a single blog entry. No such epiphany. She saw a man on a mule coming towards us on the trail. He was pulling another mule with two large saddle buckets full of tools and wood for repairing and maintaining the trail. There were many more people out on horses doing trail work. We thanked them as we always do when we meet people giving up their free time to make it possible for us to hike in the woods.
A few sobos stopped us and told us we need to get to the cabin. There is going to be magic there this afternoon at the cabin. My foot quit hurting almost immediately when it heard about food that doesn’t require hot water. When we walked up to the cabin, they told us to drop our packs and get ready to be witnesses to a wedding vow renewal. Splash and Feet Sack were celebrating their sixth wedding anniversary by making burgers and hotdogs for strangers walking on a trail stretching from Mexico to Canada. They regularly come out to the cabin and bring drinks, beer, and food for hikers. This is the first time we have been a part of a trail wedding.
We, when I say we, I mean Bunny, decided that we would set the tent up behind the cabin and sleep in the cold rather than enjoy the camaraderie of fellow hikers in a warm cabin with a wood burning stove. Having a pit latrine is magic enough for her at this stop. We did run into Strider who was still hiking with Saunter.
We also met an amazing French man who had spent two years traveling around the world back in the 90s. One of the highlights was that he got to spend 5 weeks on a Chilean naval boat cruising around Antarctica and its surrounding islands. I hope that we are able to catch up to him again and hear some more of his travel stories. He did the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal, the first year it was opened to outsiders. This is the same circuit I did in 2009 that I am not allowed to talk about when Bunny is around. He and his wife also spent time in China before Clinton pushed for their entry into the WTO.
I don’t know what it is about hamburgers that kindles thru-hiker appetites. I had 2 burgers and 2 hot dogs before Bunny and I went back to the tent for cheese and crackers, avocado and Fritos, M&Ms, and hot tea for a pre-bed snack. Rather than count out the M&Ms from the big bag we bought, we each just had our own “shareable” bag. Some things just aren’t worth dying for. I dare ANYONE to share a bag of M&Ms with peanuts with my wife and try to take more than her out of the bag. If you don’t believe my Bunny has cougar in her, take the M&M challenge.
EFG