We’ve never been subjected to a Peeping Tom on the trail before, but we were both subjected to the indignity today. A very forward marmot watched us both do our business. I hope he hasn’t made the adaption to human feces to compensate for the lack of horse traffic in the area. He was close enough that I could have pet him, or even grabbed hold of him and used him to clean myself. Who can be sure his brown fur was natural in color.
It was a long shot, but we waited at junction to Horseshoe Meadows in hope of someone might be heading out. If so, we would have a good chance of getting them to take our trash. I felt asking the three guys last night would have been a bit excessive since the6 gave us power and food. “Oh, just one more thing after saving our hike…would you please carry our trash for a few miles?”
Trees are much more sympathetic and family oriented than people. Living trees will hold their dying relatives as they pass. Just because a tree has fallen doesn’t mean it’s dead. The trunk above ground is just one portion of the being. The roots, invisible to us, may still live for years. Imagine the feeling of love to be held by your relatives as you are passing.
After the turn to Horseshoe Meadows, we expected to have trail to ourselves. It’s pretty late in the season to be heading north into the Sierra. Instead, we ran into 4 nobo hikers who had started at Kennedy Meadows South. This gave us a potential goldmine of information.
First up was Huckleberry. This is his 4th LASH of PCT. We’ve nearly crossed paths over the years. He hiked the AT sobo in 2018 (same year we went NOBO) with wife Butterfly, Before that, they did Camino in 2016 (we hiked in 2017). He thinks he might know Bob K and Chris J from when he used to live in VA. These days, Huckleberry and Butterfly live in San Diego. They have 5 grandkids which cuts down on Butterfly’s hiking time, Huckleberry did confirmed water locations for us which was a huge relief.
Next up we’re two more Nobo’s that didn’t have Guthook. They’d never even heard of it. They were no help and had no idea where any water spots were. When/if found water, they’d carry as much as they could. I told them about water ahead of them, but without Guthook, it probably didn’t make any difference.
The 4th hiker was someone we had met in 2019 in the desert section, Marmalade. He tried flipping in 2019 ended up breaking his ankle in WA. We’re pretty sure we had pizza with him in SoCal at reservoir with a huge group of people. I remembered his name and we knew a lot of the same people from that year. He’s doing same section we are completing all the way up to I-80, just in the opposite direction. We met him right at the turn to Dutch Meadows and he confirmed the water location for us.
We had the tent set up by 2:30. We tried taking rare nap after getting water, organizing food, and making beds. This is the last leisurely day for a while. Hopefully, Bunny’s batteries are recharged because we’ve got to put in some more daily miles if we’re going to make it. It’s 12.2 miles to the next water source and the days are hot.
EFG