Almost half a million steps into our hike, I’m beginning to regain that eagerness I started with. In the beginning, I overestimated myself a bit… I didn’t realize how heavy my bag actually was. It feels light during practice hikes and it feels light the first few miles, but when you’re walking 15-20 miles a day, it begins to weigh you down a lot. Thinking of the positives, and looking for sweet nothings, I began to entertain myself as you will see.
Apparently, one of the most common shoes for the Pacific Crest Trail is a brand called “Lone Peak”. During the southernmost sections, you’re mainly walking through sandy ground and can see the prints of peoples shoes before you. This one print looked like a baby’s foot print! I became obsessed. Every time there was a fork in the trail, I’d look for the baby foot and say “It’s this way! Baby foot went this way!”. It was the same with taking a break – filled with excitement that this baby foot took a break in the same exact spot! Eventually, we met and passed the woman ahead of us who was wearing this Lone Peak shoe and I thought the mystery was over. But, to our surprise, this baby foot print keeps popping up all over the trail and my excitement has come back to stay.
Along with following silly foot prints, I’ve also come to thoroughly enjoy a nice sitting rock and the rare occasion of flipping a pebble over with my shoe! When people say it’s the little things, it really is.
On a different note, walking during night hours has been very beneficial. It gets hot down here in the desert and it feels incredible to have a few hours to walk in cool weather. To our surprise, around mile 75, we entered a different kind of desert full with animals we hadn’t seen yet. Walking past dusk into the night, we encountered two rattlesnakes, a tarantula, a scorpion, and black widows everywhere! Needless to say, we walked with so much caution after that, it took an hour to walk a mile. Now we know that all these critters come out from dusk into dark and we’ve gotten back to our routine of walking around 3AM until we’re finished.
More updates to come! Thanks for reading.