Benny and Chill Are My Kind of People

July 25, 2017
Mile 1161.2 to Mile 1187 (ridge before Sierra Citty)
Pacific Crest Trail Thru-Hike: Day 81

Song lyrics from today! To the tune of Oh Christmas Tree:

Oh water stream, oh water stream,
Where are you on the traa-ail
Oh water stream, oh water stream,
Where are you on the traa-ail

I want to drink out of your flow
And give myself a healthy glow
Oh water stream, oh water stream,
Where are you on the tra-ail

Oh water stream oh water stream,
Please don’t be warm or stagnant
Oh water stream oh water stream,
Please don’t be brown or fragrant

If there is some-thing dead upstream
I hope it’s re-cent, hope it’s clean
Oh water stream, oh water stream
Please don’t taste like a vagrant

Oh water stream oh water stream
Do not give me a sickness
Oh water stream oh water stream
And please have no weird thickness

I only ask a single glug
Without the gi-ar-dia bug
Oh water stream oh water stream,
Flow with a mar-ked quickness

Today we went almost 26 miles. We’re camping on a beautiful ridge just 8.4 miles outside of Sierra City. Near the city are what look like mountains of Mordor, but they are called the Sierra Buttes.

We saw Benny and Chill several times today—they are dangerous to run into because we end up talking to them for at least half an hour each time.

We still don’t know where Sam is, Alex doesn’t think he’s in Sierra City, but he’s also trying to prevent himself from getting his hopes up.

We had to go off trail for water today. What the hell? Madness! I think we may ship our snow gear home for now if we can figure out some way to send it—ice axes are a long, sharp, awkward shape to put through the mail.

It’s great to see how energized Alex is after chatting with Benny and Chill, as if he’s thinking “NEW FRIENDS!”

It does feel great to be meeting people we click with, when for so long we’ve felt like we were just alone at the back of the pack.