I knew something was up the third time I saw Sassy pass our tent before 7. She used to be known as “double barrel” Sassy on the AT, but these days more than one morning excursion means trouble. Someone must have slipped her a Mickey (gluten in her case). Every trip after the first, she popped an Imodium until she finally managed to plug things up (or Bear put his finger in the dam—note to self, don’t shake hands with Bear). She wasn’t feeling great, but she soldiered on and was ready at a little past 8.
While we were packing up, an older couple passed our camp. Bunny tried to be friendly and say “you’re up early hiking.” The old guy just grunted while the wife responded with an air of superiority “we get up early every day and hike.” Hike your own hike, just remember part of our hike reserves the right to criticize how you hike. Every day on the trail, we make time to talk to all who are willing. We laugh a lot, and sing with our beautiful trail voices (could this be the reason we rarely see wildlife?). We stop along the way to take breaks and soak our feet in a cold stream or pond. We are out here to have fun, see as much as possible, and meet people. I don’t understand people who take all the joy out of hiking and turn it into a grind.
We saw a few other nobo hikers, but they were too into covering distance to take the time to talk. It wasn’t until we stopped for our first and only water on the trail today that we met a really cool trio of thru-hikers: Thing 1, Thing 2, and Thing Maker. A mother was thru-hiking with her 18 year old son and 15 year old son. Actually, she was splitting duty with her husband, Thing Chaser, in hiking the whole trail. These kids are starting life with the right mindset. They’ve already hiked the El Norte Camino in Spain. This is a family doing it right! It was refreshing to meet such well informed, respectful young men. Thing Maker and Thing Chaser get kudos from me.
After we left them, I started rethinking a lot of choices I’ve made in life and things I would have liked to have done different. I wish I had the balls to have hiked the AT right after high school and maybe hitched through Europe when I graduated from college. Maybe, I might have been able to conform to American society better if I had gotten some of my wanderlust out of my system. Or maybe I might have just become a vagabond. It doesn’t do any good to think about it now, unless there is a possibility for reincarnation. As I lay dying, I hope to be able to prompt my being by repeating “remember” so I’ll get it right next time.
Today was the first day which we hiked in complete mosquito freedom. Even when we stopped to soak our feet in the Howard Prairie Aqueduct, we weren’t bothered. We were almost attacked by a pair of squirrels wanting some food, but Sassy scared them away. She didn’t even resort to throwing her shoe at them (like she did me this morning when I innocently suggested going a few extra miles today) or punching them (like she did Bear when he suggested hiking faster to get our average miles up). The squirrels only wanted food and Sassy has been having problems with food. A mild scream solved the squirrel problem.
Once we topped the final climb for the day, we did manage to get enough signal to make hotel reservations in Ashland, OR. It took a while to decide upon a location as a group. Sassy, Bunny, and I were ready to pull the trigger, but Bear likes to comparison shop to the Nth degree. I politely reminded him that his “male card” had been suspended once before over similar actions, then he got on board and made the reservations. We’re all set for a triple zero.
While we were finalizing our plans, we got a text from Charcoal B and Struggles telling us they had left Ashland yesterday. By the time we hike into Ashland and take our triple, we’ll still be a full 7 days behind them. It looks like we’ll not be able to catch them before Mt Shasta when we’ll jump down to Old Station to skip the section of Northern California desert we hiked last year. We hope to catch up with them in one of those places. Behind Bear and Sassy, we’ve hiked the most with Charcoal B and Struggles.
Speaking of hiking a lot with someone, today was the day we passed the 1000 mile mark of hiking with Bear and Sassy. We will celebrate this milestone in Ashland where I’m pretty certain pizza, ice cream, alcohol, and Indian food will be involved. That will be quite a meal!
After the reservations were taken care of, we still had 4 miles to go to make it to camp. We discovered the resort next to the campground had a restaurant with a “PCT favorite hamburger” on the menu. Bear called to find out how late they were open and if they might stay open a bit longer for us. No dice. They lock the door at 6 and if we get there at 5:59, they’ll seat us (I’m sure spit will be on the menu, but from personal experience in France, it can actually enhance a dry meal). It was 4, we were 4 miles from the trail junction, we were wearing sunglasses, and Bunny was hurting. We had to try.
There was only one way we might make it…we had heard the camp host had driven some hikers to the restaurant. If we make it to camp and immediately meet the host there was a slim possibility. We got into the camp at 5:50. Bear was a bit ahead of us when we saw a golf cart coming towards us. It was the host. We had all of our eggs in that cart and our most charming front man on the scene. It…didn’t…happen. The host said his watch was 5:57 (Bear’s was 5:52). We could tell he wasn’t willing to try.
We made due with supper of beef jerky in mashed potatoes with peanut M&Ms for dessert, followed by a long, hot shower. The other reason we chose this campground was 2-150 gallon hot water heaters supplying unlimited shower time for hikers. We may not have gotten the burgers, but we have reservations in Ashland and clean bootys to sleep on tonight (as well as flushing toilets for the morning and picnic tables in our camp). We have achieved hiker nirvana.
EFG