Day 95 – Blind Date

It is the day of the rabbit show and I am not ready. I was supposed to perform in a play during the show, but I do not know my lines. The music group that was scheduled to play is not here, they cancelled at the last minute. The caterers did not return my call. “What should we do?” I ask Patti. “Don’t worry about it,” she says. “Everything except the show was cancelled because no one was ready.” I am relieved. All I really wanted to do was show my rabbits and go home.

I wake up. It is 6 am. I can’t tell if it’s still raining or not. I don’t want to get up. I don’t want to hike. But I must. I have to stay ready for the opening of the PCT. I have to have to hike the trail before me. This trail. It’s a blind date. I have pulled up in front of the house and she closing the door behind her. She gets in the car. “Hello, I’m Doolittle, pleased to meet you.” She doesn’t speak. She reaches over and squeezes my hand.

Clearing

The morning is misty. My altitude puts me in the middle of the cloud that rained on me yesterday. My wet clothes a slow to dry. If I can just get above this cloud.

I hear a voice behind me. “Behind you!” A trail runner. He goes loping by me. I still don’t understand how they can run up and down mountains with such sure-footedness. I meet him 20 minutes later at the lookout. His name is Pat. He runs this stretch of trail a lot.

We talk about the PCT. He ran a section of it near Ashland. I know that area. I ask him if he ran there during the heat wave when I was there. He did! He started at Mount Ashland and went south into Oregon a bit and then ran back. “It was one hundred miles,” he says. “What kind of pack and equipment did you take?” I ask. “Oh, I didn’t take any. I did it in one day,” he says with a straight face. “I see. So you’re one of those guys,” I offer. “Yeah, I guess I am,” he confirms. We both agree that thru-hiking is a kind of extreme sport too. But ultramarathons seem more extreme to me. I just have to walk everyday, right?

The clouds are starting to separate. They wash up on the opposite ridge like breakers on the beach.

I descend into the cloud again. The forest is like a bathhouse.

South Platte

At the bottom of my descent is the South Platte River, the same river I followed for the first six miles yesterday. There is a massive reservoir between yesterday’s river and today’s. I like today’s river. There are fishermen in the river.

I cross the bridge.

I get water from the river. I would like to fish this river, too. As I climb away from the river, I hear the two fishermen talking. They are fisherwomen! Not surprising, really. The most avid fisherman I know is my old fishing buddy, Jo Marks. She’s a woman. She would probably want to fish this river, too.

Deserted

The trail on this side of the river becomes something I did not expect.

This treeless section of the trail was burned some years ago. The trees were never very thick here and they are slow to return. I imagine this is what the Southern California desert must look like.

This trail has some flowers I have not seen before. The third one below is actually from a large shrub beside the trail. Those white filaments are so delicate and different!

God’s toys

This trail also has the craziest rock formations. It’s like God left his toys laying around here.

I just can’t seem to get going today. Everything takes so long. It took 30 minutes to get water. It took an hour to eat lunch. Something I ate made me sick. (Does olive oil get rancid?) I get cell service so I monkey around with that. I get chaffing between my butt cheeks (it happens) so I stop to clean that up and put on some Vagisil.

The trail is HOT and exposed. It makes me super thirsty. However, I need to ration my water because the next water source is actually at a volunteer fire department many miles away – there is no water on the trail.

Camp

I have picked out a (rumored) camp site. Nothing is a sure thing on this trail. It turns out pretty nice, and I get there at 5:15 – just the way I like it. This area is a popular mountain biking spot. There are several public sites nearby on the road that runs near my camp. I hear people and their dogs.

Above my campsite is the most amazing rock formation. Here it is through the trees.

I have been texting with Nico today. He got knocked off the PCT in Oregon because the smoke was so bad there. The PCT is hurting. Only Washington is viable now. Good God, can we please get some rain in the West – at least enough to knock down these fires.

Nico says he may come over and join me on this trail. That would be fun. I need a friend by my side.

• September 4
• Starting CT marker: 10
• Ending CT marker: 28
• CT miles hiked today: 18
• Total CT miles hiked: 28
• Total miles hiked: 1270
• Animals: ultramarathon man