Day 29: I Climbed A Mountain And Stuff

May 9, 2017
Mile 369.30 Highway 2 to Mile 383.90 Little Jimmy Campground

Today was a bit crazy. The morning started out with Cougar waking up with severe leg cramps and muscle spasms. It was looking like she wasn’t going to be able to hike. She said that the more she walked the better she felt, but she still wasn’t sure. I can totally relate to this. There’s nothing more maddening than when you have an injury that you’re unsure why it happened and not sure how to fix it immediately you will go insane. Especially when the thing you do or enjoy is being active and especially if it’s hiking the PCT. I have no single greater fear than having an injury that prevents me from hiking. So when Cougar woke up with this issue I was heartbroken for her. Neither Glow Worm or I wanted to leave without her and Dr. McDirty. We’ve become a family and the prospect of breaking that up was hard to swallow. Before we headed out of town, though, we walked to a bakery to get some pastries in hopes that the walking would help Cougar alleviate the pain. After eating she said she felt well enough to give it a go on the trail, much to our relief. We got a hitch to where the highway crosses the PCT instead of starting where we left off Saturday by taking the Acorn Trail. This cut off about five miles of the PCT itself. The hike began almost immediately ascending Mt. Baden Powell and it almost seemed like no time until we were up at the summit. There was some snow, but not too much to be dangerous on the way up. On he way down, however, there were several larger snow fields that became problematic, although not impassable. The last six miles to camp seemed like they took forever, though. We seemed to trudge along endlessly before finally getting to our campsite. Part of it was the temperature dropped while we were on the ridge and a small rain/snow mix storm came through which made the hike rather uncomfortable. 

Now taking modeling contracts.