The alarm went off at 6:30. I promptly shut it off and hoped Bunny hadn’t heard it. I know she wants, nay, demands her coffee be ready when she first wakes up, but I just didn’t feel like getting up yet. We had agreed we were only going 9 miles today, so what’s the rush?
While we were finishing up our packing, two hikers we had met yesterday going up Baden Powell showed up at our camp. We asked about Blue’s and they said he was right behind them. We figured this might be the last chance we get to see him, so we waited. I looked up and saw him running down the trail. When he got to us, he dropped his pack and told us he wanted to get in 24 miles today. We don’t understand him or Wolf. They are both getting off trail for a month because of all the snow. There is absolutely no reason to hurry. That’s why we’re only going 9 miles today. We’re trying to give Mother Nature the time she needs to get off her ass and melt the snow.
LA Route 2 is to the PCT just like the Blue Ridge Parkway is to the AT. The trails keep crossing them so many times, you wonder why aren’t we just walking the road. The difference is the Blue Ridge Parkway is built for great views while LA Route 2 is built to get through the San Bernardinos as quickly as possible. This is a favorite route for motorcyclists and car enthusiasts because of all the winding curves.
We were forced to walk another 3-4 mile section of Rt 2 today because the PCT crosses through an area where an endangered species of frog has been discovered. We walked an extra mile so the Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog could fornicate in peace. I wonder what their favorite after sex snack might be. The flies were swarming me all day. My presence on the trail might have provided a feeding opportunity allowing the yellow-legged guy to gather enough energy to get it up one more time.
Bugs can ruin the fun on a trail. For instance, midges in Scotland lead to a couple of terrible days of hiking without rest. Whenever we stopped or slowed down, they would swarm all over us. We caught a break with them, though, because it only takes a 1 1/2 mph breeze to keep them at bay which just happens to be our primary cruising speed.
The flies in the Pyrenees in France were extremely thick because of all the livestock and associated excrement which the flies found appealing. It seems like every restaurant we went to in the mountains had a fully occupied fly strip hanging over our heads while we ate. The sight of the flies still squirming above our heads as we ate did help to curb our appetites.
Last year, on the AT, we nearly went crazy from gnats and mosquitoes through New Jersey and New York. I associated those two states with absolute misery until we entered New Hampshire and started dealing with the Appalachian Money Club and learned that parasites are worse than flying insects.
The flies of today were reminiscent of our worst experiences with bugs during the last few years of hiking. We stopped in a picnic ground for lunch and the only place I could find peace from the flies was in the privy. I don’t know why they haven’t figured out the poop connection yet, or, maybe our thru-hiker funk is at its peak as well. If these flies are indicative of hiking in the desert in April/May, I am so happy we started in February. We’ve only got a few days of this to put up before we finish this section.
The detour turned out to be a very pleasant walk just like what Bunny had been expecting on the PCT. We were hiking in a pine forest next to a strong flowing creek. We were out of the sun so we weren’t over heating. There was a pleasant breeze that kept the flies out of our faces. We need about 2000 more miles of this.
During our final mile of the day, we met a couple from Vermont that we’re doing a flip/flop. They started at Walker Pass heading to Mexico and are going to head back to Walker when they reach Campo. Although he has lived his whole life in VT with the AT literally out his back door, he has never gone backpacking until they started the PCT this year. With long distance thru-hikes, it usually 1 or 3. I can tell they are going for all three because she’s already hiked the AT and they were talking about starting a sobo AT hike later this year after finishing the PCT.
Something unusual happened this afternoon. We completed what we wanted to hike today by 3:30 and set up camp. We got to lay around and have a leisurely, early supper. Bunny even washed her hiking clothes out in a stream hoping to get rid of some of the funk. I can tell already, it didn’t work. We are wearing shirts made out of polyester which we had swore off a couple years ago because of the chemical reactions our bodies have with polyester and the smell it creates. Bunny’s reacting at full force. I still smell neutral (if gaseous emissions aren’t included).
EFG