Day 15
Got up at 4:30 again and when the sun finally popped up it turned out to be a tremendously beautiful morning, so I took a lot of pictures. Passed a hiker by saying “Good morning. I ‘m sorry if I scared you” with him not hearing my approach. Later as I stopped to take pictures again, he passed me and stated “Ha ha! Leapfrog!” Well, most hikers are friendly and a few drops of ink doesn’t color the ocean black. By 10 am it had turned very warm, as in the wind doesn’t feel cold but warm, and by 1 pm I reached the first water source in 20 miles and waited out the mid day sun there. Had planned that that would be it for the day and take the next section which was a long, exposed and hot section very early tomorrow, but around four pm it had cooled down a bit, and I had gotten somewhat impatient, so I went for it. The section was weird in the way that it cris crossed a sandy and bushy flat lowland and was marked with intermittent tall poles to lead the way. Hiking it had me down a bit because it meant I wouldn’t get by the “Mesa Wind Farm” which were known to be friendly towards hikers and sold soft drinks. I would really, really pay a lot for a cold cola at that point. I soon reached the Interstate bridge, which according to my PCT handbook was a somewhat sketchy place, so in anticipation of that with the thinking that there were intrusive hobos there, I made sure my headphones were packed away and braces myself to look stern and determined. There were a lot people there, but turned out to be NoBo’s instead, that is northbound PCT hikers. I joked about that my thoughts about hobos were mostly true. My punchline was slightly late, as I was rather tired. Then one of the hikers said that the was probably some trail magic left with soft drinks (more on “trail magic” later. I was about to take a sip of my lukewarm tap water at that moment and in a somewhat comical manner I said “oh” and quickly put down that bottle of water and made it for the flamingo boxes. First box contained cans of root beer (a chewing gum flavored soft drinks that for, I think a good reason hasn’t made it into the mainstream here in Denmark) and I thought well, that at least something, but then looked in the next flamingo box and lo and behold, there were cola and sports drinks. Took one of the colas and boy, that was the best cola I had ever had!Didn’t matter one bit that it was a knock off brand. It was cold and at the right moment at the the right time just like I had wished for. God bless the good people who put it there. It sounds silly to be so excited for something that small, but it really boosted my morale. I went on heading towards the wind farms. Briefly after crossing the bridge I saw my first rattle snake. Shortly after it reacted to my presence and gave a long and loud rattling before retreating to a bush near the trail. I gave it a very wide berth and continue on. Rattle snake bites are rare when not provoked and very rarely lethal. Soon after that I started craving another cola or even a root beer.
Went on hiking to the wind farm, where I had been told there would be camping. I didn’t find anything there except for some rather exposed sites, and due to the nature of the wind farms business model of converting wind into energy, it was in fact a rather windy region. Bugger. Had thought that would be the end of the already rather long day. It quickly got dark, so I pulled out my head lamp. I couldn’t understand how three hikers who passed me could hike with any light. Somewhat later I realized it was because I still had my prescription sun glasses on. I also still had my wide brimmed had on. I must have looked somewhat weird, but I was in no mood for changing either due to tiredness, so I walked on. In part because of my refusal to take of my sunglasses I couldn’t see anything but the trail, so I simply assumed that all the dropoffs that I couldn’t see the bottom of were deep. This was not a really nice situation. I also briefly thought that it was a shame that I didn’t see all the potentially nice nature around me, but the main concern was how long it would be before I could get to bet. The place I headed for was the “White Water Reserve”, with the last part of the trail leading off into it seeming somewhat like a labyrinth. At least to me and my sunglasses in the dark. I finally made it and mobilized some of my last remaining energy to make camp. Got to bet 23:30, 29 not exactly easy miles. It was a day with both ups and downs.
