1400 mile PCT update: What happens when you lose your spark?

Wait, are we back in the desert?

While we left Lake South Tahoe, I knew there would be a change in the field. What I did not know was that it would feel exactly like the desert again: temperatures in the 90/100, completely exposed, long water holds, half -day naps and night walks. I thought that my love for hiking would make me immune to the North Blues. The combination of desert vibrations and my persistent knee injuries caused this stretching to be mentally difficult.

As I reflected on Norcal’s stretch, I realized that I was losing emotion to walk. The Burnout will happen at some point in a long walk like this: 5 months of walking without stopping is not a joke! I decided then that I was going to do everything possible to find that spark again. The first step was to work to cure my wounds. I’ve been doing my exercises every day: the tree sits, slow squats and clams. The second step was to look for more than I like the most about hiking, be more spontaneous instead of planning, going to random secondary missions and meeting new people in the community of excrementants. This always brings me back. I know that returning to Oregon will also renew my spirit.

Now for the summary! Our next stop after South Lake Tahoe was Donner Ski Ranch. Chipmunk and I just wanted to enter and leave, so we asked for some food, we talked with hikers and then we took a trip in a nearby city to resume. While we were in the city outside the store packing our backpacks with delicious sweets, a couple asked us if they could do something to help. People are so kind! We said we were looking for a return trip to Donner to return to the road. A few minutes later it began to clarify intensely, harder than I have seen. They asked if we wanted to wait instead of their friends, and we took them with their generous offer. We have a lot of fun about life for a couple of hours. I love meeting new people and becoming instant friends in this way. When the storm finally fell and the sun came out maximum, it was time to reach the road again.

A couple of days later we enter the city of Sierra, a small beautiful city that looks like the old west. It was the perfect place to replenish, wash clothes, shower and rest, because the general/restaurant store, the post office and the hotel were right in front of the other. The less steps outside the path, the better! I had fun catching friends on the phone while relaxing in a hammock. I was a bit too relaxed, because we ended up spending quite late. We were ambitious and we still wanted to walk 7 miles, so he returned to the night of hiking. It was a hard climb in loose rock. Taking breaks and looking at the stars helped us happen.

As we were trying to move a little faster, we were trying not to take zeros and keep them for our walk until the days of the path. However, we reserve a motel in fifteen, which we were so motivated to arrive. This stretch was Nortal’s most difficult so far with a ton of hot climbing through the bad Spikey plants. Every time there was a shadow patch, we took the most.

Fiftey was the most beautiful city. He had incredible vegan options in the local cooperative and the delicious food everywhere. We even have free ice cream in the toy store! The Gold Pan Motel is my favorite motel along the way so far, because they had tons of DVD that you could see. Obviously, we choose hunger games.

The next day, we slept a little and return to the path. Unfortunately, Chester’s stretching was more of the same hot and dusty walk through the burning zone. The only most prominent thing that is worth pointing was that I finally wore the tin clothes in the spring of the hydromassage bathtub (place all its clothes, a little water and camp of camp on the can of your bear and stir vigorously). I felt like a true forest woman.

My 3 -month -old trainiversary ended up being devastating. While packing my backpack, I began to panic since I could not find potatum anywhere. I had accidentally left him sitting in a rock outside my store during the night. Unfortunately, I think the most likely stage is that an animal took him at night. I was disconsolate, but I try to think about the potatum coming out in a squirrel nest somewhere and makes me feel a little better.

We reach the midpoint before entering Chester. It is crazy to think about how far we have come and how far we have to arrive. We enter and leave Chester as quickly as possible to maintain our impulse. The next day, we had to take a beautiful rupture of the cave to get out of heat for a second. When we were sitting, a little boy asked if we lived there. If only!

That next day was one of the worst days that I can remember along the way. We were going through a heat wave while we were in the burns section. I received a heat eruption in my calves, which I burned every time the sun touched my skin. It was hot and exposed all day, even shaded spots were not a real break due to thin trees.

We continue to jump rocks with our new path of Path, Worm, and we convinced her to enter Burney Guest Ranch with us. She is the fastest hiker I’ve met, so she won us there. While we walk along the long road, we realize in the defeat that we barely miss dinner. Suddenly, two women in a small truck are breaking along the way. One of them shouts, are you Annika? (Real name of Chipmunk). Worm had proposed that we were coming, so they came to look for us not to miss dinner. It was the best path of path we could ask for. When we entered the dinner area, we must have seemed that we had passed it, because the other hikers gave us applause. We all laughed, then we snort a great spaghetti dinner and potatoes before addressing our bunk.

After that difficult day, with our injuries acting, we decided that we needed a zero. We take the time to plan our next stops, discover our adventure in the days of trails and most importantly, swim in the pool.

Back on the path only some miles, we could see the magical Falls de Burney! It was really pleasant to escape the heat and remember the beauty of this path, even in burning areas.

So that takes us to Mile 1434. Will I find joy on the path again? Be attentive to find out!

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