500 miles, tough days

I'm writing this from Hikertown at mile 518.x on Friday June 1. Today was a huge milestone as we crossed 500 miles! What a great feeling. We've hiked 500 miles, having never really hiked before taking this on. It's been a constant learning process since we left the monument way back on April 27th. We've made so many little mistakes, and corrected them. We've become more comfortable with everything. After 500 miles, I'd say we're pretty legit hikers!

The past two days have been, by far, our most, uh challenging. They've been god awful hot and the bugs have been relentless. Like I'm talking a heat that I've never before experienced, let alone HIKED in!! We are truly in desert now. Nights are coolish, but it gets hot QUICK in the mornings. I'm talking 7AM and I've got sweat dripping off me. Not only that, but water sources are so much more scarce out here that it becomes a legitimate concern. Yesterday we hiked about 8 miles or so in the morning, until we got to the red carpet cache. It was nice, with a picnic table and a cabinet full of gallon jugs of water, lots were full. We took what we needed, ate lunch and napped for a bit. Our pal Shutterburst came through and we chatted for a bit before he took off to climb up and over the next set of mountains. We slowly got ready and finally left the cache at 2:30, with the plan of making it to Sawmill campground, 14 miles away (22.5km). It was HOT, and we were climbing, and despite having been fully hydrated and taken a bunch of water to go, we couldn't keep up with what we were losing. It was unrelenting hot, minimal wind and less shade. We walked and walked and tried to distract ourselves with music. We took a spontaneous break. Threw our packs off and sat down with our umbrellas. Shutterburst came barreling through. We got ahead of him because he pulled off for a rest somewhere. A quick confirmation that we were all feeling the same way and he was on his way. About 100 feet up the trail he turned and asked if I had a trail name yet. I said nope. He asked what I thought of 'Mr. C', like Mr. T (because of my new Mohawk) but since I'm from Canada, Mr. C is more appropriate. I said right on that sounds great and so it is. Mr. C. Though Julia will still call me Boozen or Bizzy or Bizzard if I'm in trouble. Break time was over and we knew this next stretch would make or break us. It was around dinner time, though because of the heat, neither of us felt much like cooking up a hot dinner, so we walked. We walked and walked and became more tired and dehydrated, both running low on water. We were becoming a bit cranky too. We just wanted to get to where we were going. The first goal was to get to the next reliable water source. A cement tank about 2 miles before where we wanted to camp. It seemed to take forever to get there. That's the thing about the PCT, you always think you're closer than you are. We finally dumped out onto this jeep road at about 7PM and I went to pull out my instructions on where exactly this water tank was. Shutterburst had just arrived and so he called down to us and told us how to get up there, but he warned us that there was a dead mouse in the tank. 'We'll take it!' I replied and we hurried up for some delicious rat water. With some careful scooping and thorough filtering, it wasn't half bad. We had dinner, mashed potatoes, and decided that we weren't going anywhere. Shutterburst also decide to stay and so we all set up camp and passed the heck out!

This morning we LOADED up on water, about 5+ litres each to carry plus what we drank before leaving. It was going to be a long day. We left before Shutterburst and headed towards goal number one for the day. The mile 500 marker. By the time we got there, maybe 7:30 or so, it was already boiling hot. We took photos, bug nets on because every type of fly on earth was trying to eat us. The next few miles were all climbing, and in one uphill, Shutterburst blew by us. The man can walk a hill like we can the flats. We found him shortly after taking a break at around mile 505, and so we joined him, naturally. From here we would focus on getting to our spot for lunch. We decided that we'd find a good spot under a tree and pitch the tent and have lunch inside so that we could avoid the bugs. It was so uncomfortable. Heat and bugs and no relief from either, for hours. The best thing to do is keep moving. We did for a while and eventually found a suitable spot for lunch. As planned, we put up the tent in record time and jumped in. Nutella and shredded coconut wraps, and warm water. We passed out for about 20 minutes but were awoken by some hikers that walked by and couldn't fall back asleep because it was now hot in the tent. We packed up quick and started a massive decent. Well, the bugs disappeared but it got hotter, and we got lower on water. We finally hit the floor of the descent, and from there it was just rolling terrain. In any other circumstances it would be a nice walk, but today it sucked. All you want is to be there, but the PCT can be a cruel bitch. Every time you think you may be heading for the final stretch t your destination, you round a corner and head up and away from where you want to be heading. That's so tough to deal with when you are absolutely spent mentally and physically, out of water and getting a bit delusional. It felt like we were getting closer to Hikertown, we had to be. We rounded a corner a dropped down to a dirt road that lead up to the highway where Hikertown supposedly was. That road went forever. We were both exhausted, having walked over 4 hours straight through the middle of the day to get there. We went through a gate and there was a small cache of water. We picked up a jug, poured some into one of our containers and chugged. The water was HOT, but it was wet. Hikertown was finally in view and only a few hundred feet away so we bolted over to it. Upon arrival, we saw Soren and Justin packing up outside one if the buildings so we ran over to say hi and get the scoop on this place. They had ice! And water. And so generously shared. Best part of the day bar none. Once we came to our senses, we decided to stay the night and the leave tomorrow evening and hike through the night to avoid the heat. It's 17 miles of exposed, hot walking along the LA aquaduct to get to Cottonwood creek where there is a bridge and a water cache. we'll hide there for most of the day and then night hike again the rest if the way. I managed to get a ride with a few other hikers up to a local convenience store and bought ice cream bars, Gatorade, an avocado and a bag of ice.

What. A. Day.