Chap. 33 – Porcelain Princess and Pancake Breakfast

It’s me, I’m the Porcelain Princess. Every time I have access to a bathroom, I use it and value it. Last night, just before I went to bed, I realized the bathrooms were closed, so I had to dig a hole across the street. I don’t know how anyone could prefer being number two in the woods compared to even a disgusting bathroom. Maybe I’m just too lucky to find good places.

Anyway, Boostie and I woke up around 6am to see the magic of the pancake trail. As soon as we packed our things, we sat down at the picnic table. I had two pancakes with berries and syrup, some iced coffee and a tangerine. The rest of our group slowly began to arrive. First, Marathon. Then Coyote, Black Hole, John, Jan and the Aussies. The Australians arrived after the trail angel had left, but we saved them some food!

At the beginning of the day my ankle was pretty sore, which surprised me. So far I haven’t had any problems with them, at least not like this. Fortunately, once I warmed up I felt much better. I wore compression stockings last night and massaged them, so I thought I might try elevating them tonight to see if that improves the next day.

Shortly after noon we reached our first stream of the day. Marathon, Coyote and Black Hole were already there, along with a group of girls we’ve been hiking with the last few days. Boostie and I decided to hang out for a while, but we wanted to continue to the cave.

In FarOut, we saw that we would be passing through a cave today, so naturally we wanted to check it out. It’s worth it! We ended up staying in the cave and taking naps from 2pm to 4pm. The temperature inside the cave kept us cool during the hottest hours of the day, and we were able to see this mom salamander protecting her eggs. How beautiful! Towards the end of our nap there with John Squad, I sang Adele’s Someone Like You in the back of the cave. I thought the echo might sound good. When I finished, one of the Johns said, «I didn’t know we were sleeping in the same cave as Adele!»

A lizard that then climbed into my backpack. How friendly!

Boostie and I avoided the trail for the rest of the day. As soon as walking down the road was an option, we took it. A poodle bush surrounded the trail tonight. It was overgrown and difficult to avoid. So we avoided it by taking the longest route we could. We finally had to turn back to get to our tent site…which was also surrounded by poodle bushes.

Our group did their best to make it work, which meant most of us were cowboys camping. This will be my first night of cowboy camping on the PCT, so I hope it goes pretty well! When Boostie and I said goodnight, I said, «Goodnight, and don’t let the poodle bite you!»

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