PCT 2023 - Day 5 - Just wow!

The one with the wow moment!

📍 Location: Mount Laguna to mile marker 47.8 tent site.

🥾 PCT Mile Marker: 47.8 / elevation 5450ft
🥾 I actually walked: 9 miles
💰 Money: Breakfast $16 coffee $2.60. Bounce Box $22.80
⛑️ Health: I feel great today. The night in a hotel really helped rest my body and my mind. (Thanks Rebecca)

☀️ Weather: Perfect! It did get hot and the umbrella came out, but it was manageable.

🍲 Food: Breakfast was two huge pancakes with berries and a side of sausage (they call it a sausage link). I then snacked all day on nuts, snickers, nature valley bars etc. When we got to camp I was low on water so had dry food of tortillas and lemon chicken.

💤 Sleep: Slept like a baby last night in a real bed!

🐍 Snake count: Zero! After seeing photos of snakes that others have seen at breakfast, it’s just a matter of time.

👨 People update: I saw Hans at breakfast this morning. He has also been very poorly and has been throwing up. I reckon everyone is suffering from some kind of heat stroke.

LEARNINGS:-
Being in nature has a way of lifting your spirits. Todays wow moment was really difficult to put into words.

THE LONG WINDED VERSION:-

💤 5am - Had a great nights sleep and woke up feeling creative. I edited three YouTube videos and the series is scheduled to start from next Monday. I wrote up yesterdays blog and I’m enjoying the process of documenting my hike and I’m loving the encouragement and comments form people that are following along. Thank you 🙏

🍳 9am - I’m all packed and sorted but the post office doesn’t open until 12 noon so I decide to enjoy a leisurely breakfast at the Pine Lodge Cafe. I’m sitting with Hans & Jack and a few others. It’s good to feel part of something special and talking “trail talk”. My breakfast is delicious. Pancakes, berries and a sausage with a good cup of tea.

👍 Jesse turns up and he has fixed the hole in his airmat. I’ll be walking with him later today as we plan a short 5.4 miles to the campsite. I’ve not heard from DinkyDi and hope she is ok.

🏥 At breakfast I got talking to Samuel from France and Simon from Switzerland. They are very worried about their friend Justin who is in his early 20’s and was rushed to hospital from the campsite last night. He had heart problems. The ambulance took Justin’s backpack but his tent and sleeping bag etc are still at the site. Simon said he will pack it all up and give it to the Pine Lodge Cafe. He is going to ring the local hospitals to see if he can find out how he is. I’ve got their numbers and hopefully we can find out more info.

✉️ 12.00 - I pack up my bounce box and walk the short distance to the post office. It gets shipped to Warner Springs $22.80. I should be at Warner Springs within a week or so.
I’m just about to head out on trail when my phone rings. It’s DinkyDi! She’s just got into town. “Stay where you are and I’ll come and meet you a coffee”. There she is!! I give her such a big hug. She tells me of her night at the campsite and superb trail magic.

1.20pm - Di has already walked 9 miles from Cibbets Flat but she is happy to trudge on another 5.4 miles to camp. We make a stop at the shop for re-supply food for her, the post office and also the info centre to top up with water. Can I have a selfie? A guy who was driving back home and had chatted to us on the trail a few days ago stopped his car, jumped out and asked for a selfie! It was all a bit of a whirlwind but also very flattering. We are true PCT hiker trash! 😂

2pm - and we are off! We have a choice to walk down the road or cut through the forest. Someone told Di to take the forest for the most amazing views and she was not wrong! Wow! Omg! Wow. As we emerged out of the forest trail by a small parking lot we have views of the desert floor and mountains beyond. I need to find better words for “stunning, gorgeous, beautiful, breathtaking” they just don’t seem powerful enough for what my eyes were seeing.

2.13pm - Di and I are happily walking together and chatting when we spot Dan coming in the opposite direction. “You e done the same as me” he announced. “You are going the wrong way!”. I check the FarOut app and he is right. We are going down the map rather than up the map. Perhaps I should start counting a squiggles rather than snakes!

Back on track with the magnificent views to our right now (not left!) I’m singing away. Di says “I suggest the trail name of Jukebox” for you. Each time Di mentions a word then I have a song about it. It’s something I do subconsciously. For example, we are walking down the trail and come to a creek where a German lady is having a break. Di says “Hi ho” to the lady and I start singing “hi ho silver lining, everywhere you go now baby”. I do it a the time and luckily it doesn’t annoy Di, she just sings along with me. The best song today was “top of the world, looking down on creation”.

Wow, just wow. More views at each turn.

🏕️ 5.35pm - We never did find anyone else of our trail family but eventually found a campsite at 8 miles into the hike (or 17 miles for Di!). Just me and Di tonight. A bit of stealth camping…. Sssssh!

By 6.30pm we are tucked up in our sleeping bags and wish each other goodnight. I had no idea that this would be a terrible nights sleep….. the story continues tomorrow.

Thanks for reading my rambles.

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