August 12, 2017
Etna to Mile 1600.9
Pacific Crest Trail Thru-Hike: Day 99

Cooked farmer’s market food all day at the hostel. Pickled beets, egg salad, mashed potatoes (with REAL potatoes). Gave Blossom a box of veggies. Went to the bakery for breakfast, each had 2 donuts and shared a breakfast burrito. Took away an apple fritter and 4 bagels. Met Jen at the bakery, then saw Ted, Vice, and Boathouse get into town.

I get really claustrophobic sometimes with Alex, like I’m running away from my own shadow, or like I have a second shadow. I feel really conflicted when that happens because I like him to be around, but want to still have my space. The feeling comes and goes. It went away, and then it will come back again later.

Here Comes Santa Claus

After biking around town for miscellaneous supplies, we went to the Paystreak Brewery again for fries and onion rings, deciding if we should stay in town for Saturday night or head out. We headed back to the hostel without a conclusion and were finishing cooking the farmer’s market stuff. Blossom said she had to leave to pick up 5 hikers from the trailhead. She came back with both the last people I both expected or wanted to see. Blis, the two girls, and Trail Name. Fucking Trail Name.They brought news from trail that a new fire started today, taking out at least 6 miles of the PCT in Oregon. The entire state of Oregon is on fire, it seems. With the arrival of the antagonist and the increasing pressure of the trail burning to the ground, we asked Blossom for a ride back to the trailhead, threw our shit into our packs and got the f outta dodge.

Trail Trolls

We wanted to hike 6-8 miles past the trailhead. We stopped after about 2.5 to have dinner by the trail register and played trail trolls—almost 10 people passed us during dinner and I held out the register for them to sign. It was silly, but fun!

Fires Below and Above

When we finished and headed down the trail, we only made it about two more miles before running into an inordinate amount of closely clumped hikers. It was only a moderately flat spot big enough for two tents, but there were about 15 people all crammed in together. Cake and Beave were among the mass, too! Turns out there’s a fire burning in the valley below that JUST started, and the only reasonably nearby campsites are engulfed in smoke. We walked for about 100 feet and decided to camp with the masses, hoping the fire wouldn’t spread and block our progress forward.

There was a bouldery rock outcrop that extended towards the sky past tree line, and it had some cleaner air and a breeze, so we found a place to put our tent up there. After starting to cook dinner, Cake climbed up and chatted with us for a bit, telling us it was the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower tonight. Sitting from the highest point in any nearby landscape, we could see the sky for miles around. The sun set, and we kept our eyes open just long enough to see a few shooting stars. Then it was off to bed.