After yesterday’s excitement, I just wanted an easy day into town. I don’t ask for much. I’m a simple man with basic needs, way less than the average person. I’ve often said the secret to happiness is lower expectations. I’ve lowered them to the point where my only goal is that I don’t soil myself. Yesterday, and long distance hiking in general, has shown me that I’m still aiming too high.
Bear was not at all comfortable walking along exposed cliff edges, today. He and I are both afraid of heights, but he’s still shook up thinking that Sassy was falling yesterday. I’ve noticed he doesn’t like walking behind Sassy. I’ve walked behind Sassy and I understand…she tilts. Sassy tends to wear her back to her left, and it’s not straight up. Every couple of days, Bear adjusts her pack so that it’s almost straight and she gradually tightens her straps to pull the pack to her left. When she gets to the point that she starts having backaches, Bear will adjust the pack again.
I’m the opposite. I don’t like to have Bunny behind me when I’m walking. I like to have her in front so I can keep an eye on her if anything happens. Generally speaking, she’s sure footed as a mountain goat, but I’ve also watched her trip over a leaf when we come to a town. I’m afraid she might have a stumble while on the trail (very rare—she’s only fallen maybe 5 times in the 6000+ miles we’ve hiked together since we got married), but if she does fall, I want to be able to see it. If it’s in a dangerous position, I want to be able to help. If it’s into water, I want to get a picture.
We crossed a few high passes crossing into adjacent valleys. After about 7 miles, we made it to the highest point of the day where we had a little bit of cell signal; just enough signal to send a text to the hotel. We let them know we were 3 miles from the trailhead. We waited for a response, but never got one. We finally just accepted the fact that they must have been too busy at the moment and they would meet us in about an hour and a half.
In another mile+, we came to a trail register. Charcoal B and Struggles had left us a note saying “Hurry up, Easy.” We had hoped to catch up with them in Oregon, but they are pushing the miles this year. When they get done this year, they’ll only have the desert section up to Forrester Pass to be done with the PCT.
We made it to the trailhead a few minutes later than I thought we would, so I fully expected the ride to be waiting. The only person there was a tow truck driver padding a pickup truck onto a flatbed. We waited about 20 minutes and the ride never showed up. In fact, no vehicles even passed. This is a lonely stretch of highway. I tried texting the hotel again from the inReach and still didn’t get a response. We decided to ask the tow truck driver if he’d call the hotel when he got signal. He took our info and said he’d call.
I started scrolling through comments on Guthook and found a different number for the hotel that could accept texts. We had been texting to a land line. Just as I discovered this, a car stopped and offered us a ride, but they only had room for 1. We decided to send Bear to town for him to arrange a ride for us. Next we texted Sarah, Bunny’s daughter, from the inReach and had her try to contact the hotel. In the end, the hotel got a call from the tow driver, Bunny’s daughter, our inReach, and Bear in person. We finally got word that a ride was on the way.
Our ride was finally secure, but only after we had spent over an hour waiting in the sun on the side of the road. Now that we had a ride, other vehicles started showing up and offering us rides. A pickup truck brought a pair of nobos up and we could have gotten a ride from him. Another pickup truck with a woman driver pulled up and told us “stupid flatlanders, get out of the sun and get on the road to get a ride.” She said if we were still around when she came back by in an hour, she’d take us down. She even gave us a frozen gallon of water. At least we had options.
A few minutes later, an SUV pulled up and Shanno for out. She apologized right away for the confusion. They have been having with the land line and forgot to give us the cell # for texting. She had her daughter in the backseat and her dog up front with her. Bunny took the front seat, Sassy took the backseat, and I took the hatch and sat with the packs. This turned out to be one of the smartest things I’ve done recently. The road varied from two lane down to one and was very curvy. Shannon was comfortable enough to drive full speed downhill. I was so thankfully I couldn’t arch the road.
We had hoped to get to town around 2. Instead, it was now 4. We decided to skip showers and laundry and head straight to food. As soon as we sat down, I drank 2 glasses of water then ordered iced tea. In just this one meal, we split a large appetizer of baked cauliflower, a large order of truffle fries, a large salad each, and we each had our own 14” pizza. I drank at least 4 glasses of iced tea.
After our food orgy, we stopped by the grocery store to get some snacks for later. We finally headed back to our rooms and gave our laundry to Dereck who washed our clothes while we showered. The hotel did have loaner clothes, but the only thing that fit me was a pair of women’s shorts (nice bright pink) and a girls tank top. The stripes clashed with my shorts, so Bunny refused to let me go out. I honestly don’t know how women stand the open back tanks.
EFG
“My only goal is that I don’t soil myself” 😉
You crack me up
My same mantra when I do my half marathons and longer walks!!!
It was my grandmother who always insisted I wear clean underwear…just in case