Day 1 – Old Station

Last night went as expected: I slept poorly. However, I was not frustrated. I slept under the merciful stars without my tarp. I kept my glasses near me so I could put them on and look at the stars each time I woke up. I feel like there is a voice in the sky that wants to speak to me. I want to be ready when it does. Temperatures dropped into the 50s. The earplugs did a great job of eliminating all the scary noises.

Challenges

In the morning I walk around the area to get my bearings. I learn that I am three miles from the post office where I need to leave my extra food and maps. It is my plan to leave this stuff at the post office and collect it when I return here to begin the southbound half of my flip-flop. I sit down in front of a closed café to plan my day. My fortunes quickly change. First, I drop my phone. The glass cracks. I have never, EVER dropped my phone. I was trying to put it on some stupid tripod and it slipped out of my hand. Luckily it still seems to work.

I gather my stuff to walk to the post office, but when I try to extend my trekking poles for the journey, they won’t extend. I spend the next half hour wrestling with these damn poles, but are like frozen up. I find a maintenance man who lends me some tools, but even pliers can’t make these poles extend. Now what can I do? I need poles for hiking and for my tarp. I guess I will take them for the tarp because I can use them even if they don’t extend. But they are useless for hiking.

No one gives me a ride as I walk thumb-out to the post office. Three miles in 85 degrees with a 33-lb pack and an 11-lb box of food.

Amazingly, my spirits are high because this is the day I start hiking!

Those amazing postal workers

I arrive at the post office just as it opens at 11am. The postmaster is super helpful and I learn he is one of those special people that realize that life revolves around ice cream. I buy two ice cream bars at the store next door and give him one: friend for life.

The first marker

The trail runs behind the post office so I head back there and start hiking. At the marker I take a moment to pray. I don’t pray for anything in particular, but I want to spiritualized the moment.

And I’m off. It’s twelve miles to my campsite where I will find water. The woods are beautiful, and the trail is fairly smooth.

The Hat Creek Rim is a bluff that runs along the east side of Hat Creek as the creek flows north. The PCT goes up onto the bluff and generally follows the edge of the bluff north as it bends westward toward the Klamath Mountains. The environment is high desert. There is a sere beauty in desert landscapes. I think I will like it up there. But will it like me. I get my first view of the rim a mile past Old Station.

Sick

However, I soon tire as the trees thin an I start climbing to 5000 feet. I am drinking my water but I just feel drained. My heart is pounding. I am soon miserable. There are no trees on this part of the trail. I finally just take my pack off and sit down on the trail. I do not feel better. I lay down on the trail, trying to put my head in the shade of this little bush beside the trail. After about 20 minutes I get back up. I gotta make it to camp. I pass a family of five “picnicking” on the side of the trail. They seem perfectly fine. I haven’t felt like this since the last miles of my last marathon. Then I get it – I have dehydration sickness. My body is strange. Under stress, I stop absorbing water. It doesn’t matter how much I drink, it just passes through to my urine. Even electrolytes don’t help. It is the reason I had to stop running marathons. Even half marathons are tricky in the heat.

I take a few photos but my energy is flagging. Everything seems slightly surreal. Is that a mountain range over there or a mirage?

Crashing

I must get someplace where I can just be still for a while. Head down, I stumble into camp. I need to get water and then lay down. Unfortunately, the water (Lost Creek) is half a mile down an steep path with four switchbacks. Before I get to the first switchback, a rattlesnake in the hollow of a tree next to the path warns me to stay away. I do. I watch it slither into a hole under the tree. I head on down.

The family that I passed on the trail catches up to me. I do not have time for pleasantries. I am hurting now. The first thing I do is drink a liter of cold water. It is refreshing but now my stomach hurts, too. I probably drank too much. I fill up all my water containers. On the way back up to camp, I have to stop as I vomit all the water I just drank along with the water I had not been absorbing for the last few hours.

Mercifully, I feel a little better after throwing up, but I am still shaky. I do not eat because I am not hungry. I crawl into my quilt and hope that I feel better in the morning.

• June 2
• Starting mile: 1372
• Ending mile: 1384
• Trail miles: 12
• Off-trail miles: 4
• Notable animals: ice cream monsters, co-dependent rattlesnake