The devil, deer, and the color purple

Day 57

As with most other days here on the bear country part of the PCT, I start in the dark by relocating my bear canister that I placed over two hundred feet from my tent yesterday. At first I couldn’t find it this morning so either a bear had been playing with it or I simply had remembered well enough where I put it as the surrounding landscape had few very distinct markings. I went back to my tent and started over and luckily found it within a minute or so.

As for the injuries from yesterday, the bruisings on my left shin are looking nicer. However, I had also banged up my right kneecap and that had started hurting a lot more today. Fingers crossed that it isn’t anything serious.

Early in the day I had to pass a wet area between two lakes, and didn’t want to have get wet feet, so I very carefully walked barefoot in the cold water. It turned out to be well worth it as I could cross all the remaining water of the day without getting wet feet. Nice!

First thing I saw today in terms of nature was “Purple Lake”, which was nice enough but not really purple. Also, should you have thought that I was going to talk about Steven Spielberg’s movie “The Color Purple”, then I will have to disappoint you, unfortunately.

After some initial ups and downs, most of the trail was pretty flat and after some time I passed the 900 mile point shortly after followed by Deer Creek, which was a creek like the hundreds of others that I had already passed and there weren’t any deer. My point is that it was false marketing again 😉

Later in the day the landscape turned more volcanic wit a random red hill peaking up at one point as well as volcanic rocks here and there. The trail also brought us by “The Devil’s Postpile”. That is not the same as “The Devils Tower” as seen in Spielberg’s “Encounters of the Third Kind“. Why do you keep bringing Spielberg up? Anyways, but the tower and the postpile are made out of hexagonal lava columns.

Later in the when I wanted to refill my water bottle from a stream, it was gone. Shoot! I must have lost it trying to put it in a pouch but confusing that with a nearby strap on my backpack and not have heard the bottle dropping (with my all important water filter attached) because of the soft ground. I therefore backtracked, but only for three hundred feet or so before I met another hiker who had seen it and picked it up. I was lucky this time.

I pushed myself through 29 miles today to have good chances to reach Tuolumne tomorrow. I sure hope my body won’t punish me for that. After cooling down the knee is unfortunately starting to hurt again. I squeezed in on an already somewhat cramped camping site (with my neighbors permission) as I simply didn’t have it in me to go for the next one. It was nice to not camp alone. It was also quite windy, and for once, the wind didn’t die down during the night. I didn’t mind, however, as I slept like a baby.