Day 65 – Friday, July 28

PCT Mile 970.6 to PCT Mile 985.5
Day Total: 14.9 miles

What do I think about when I'm hiking?

In the desert, for the most part, the trail was easy to follow and a surface where I didn't have to worry about where I put each footstep. The hiking part was brainless, so my thoughts wandered from food to many other topics.

I often consider what I want to do for work after the hike and in the future.

I think about my family and my friends and what they are doing at that very moment in time.

I think about the trail and wonder about the other hikers we've met, if they're ahead of behind us, where they're from.

I would think about science and politics and what books I want to read.

Today wasn't like that.

Today was hard.

The trail was steep, with lots of ups and downs, and rocks on the trail that were big but loose. Every footstep was calculated. The trail was blocked by countless downed trees that I had to go over or around. There was water on the trail I had to dodge. Snow fields to navigate.

I didn't think about anything other than the trail today, and that makes the time go by really slowly.

We were exhausted at 8 p.m. and found a little campsite along a stream. It was the buggiest campsite in the history of the world!

I have never seen so many mosquitoes. It was awful. We set up the tent in record time and raced to throw all of our stuff and ourselves inside. When we got inside and finally slowed down we were finally safe.

Stephen cooked dinner by reaching just his arms out the door of the tent to the stove. We couldn't go back out there.

I even thought twice about drinking water because I didn't want to have to go to the bathroom.