May 12, 2017
Mile 111.9 to Mike Herrera's Place
Mike Herrera's Place to Tule Springs
Pacific Crest Trail Thru-Hike: Day 8

It's my first night camping totally alone. Finally! I can still hear the big group in the distance, just barely, but I'm in a makeshift campsite just past Tule Springs, and looking forward to eating at Paradise Cafe tomorrow. I think I'll have fresh salad and some kind of really good sandwich. I walked 25+ miles today and my feet are suuuuuper sore.

Mike Herrera's was...not a party. It was extremely uncomfortable. For starters, he wasn't actually there. In his stead, a seedy caretaker named Josh who gave everyone a lot of side-eye and gave me a lot of the willies. Rather than a party, wood-fired pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, or even beer, there was warm Shasta. I ought to be grateful but we walked through hordes of biting flies this morning and into the afternoon just hoping against all hope that something pleasant might be waiting for us at Mike Herrera's. I am grateful for the water, and for a piece of shade for a moment, but it's hard to be grateful with the constant feeling that I needed a pair of eyes in the back of my head. I took a few minutes to give my blisters much-needed TLC, put a donation in the box, and headed out to push some more miles before sunset.

I'm worried I might have poison oak or something like it, I have a rash on both my calves, knees and lower thigh. I put Boudreaux's Butt Paste on it since it's the closest thing I have to a salve, and covered the ointment with Leukotape. It could be a sun rash, but I've never seen heat rash look like this.

Still in the process of listening to Atlas Shrugged, knocked off a couple of audiobook discs while walking today.

In blister news, this is the first night I'm leaving my feet taped up overnight because I don't have any new blisters!

Hoping that starting earlier tomorrow will help with the biting flies. They were really hard to deal with today. I can at least hope. No, literally, it's the least I can do. It's also probably the most I can do. If hope doesn't help, at least they can't get any worse.