Today marks not only my 4 month trailaversary, but I passed the 2,000 mile mark! Dude! Celebrate!

We started the day by sleeping in…turns out we stayed out till about midnight, a very rare occasion on this trail!

We all went to breakfast across the road and I had a huge ham steak with hash browns, eggs, toast, and lots and lots of coffee. Ahhh, this is the way to start the day.

Delightful, G, and Funk had decided to take a zero day, and since it hadn’t even been a week since I took my week off, I wanted to hike out.

Mike, the owner of the motel arranged to give me and a few other hikers a ride back to the trail at about 11:30, and by noon I was hiking again.

The forcast was for potential heavy thunder storms, and I could see the storms clouds brewing, but most of the afternoon remained quite pleasent.

2,000 mile mark!!

Again the trees were absent for the most part, and soon I was climbing up a ridge line that just kept going and going and going. Looking at my maps I saw that I’d be up high for many miles and soon realized that might pose a challenge when I wanted to camp tonight.

I climbed up one steep section to find Dan, another northbound hiker…his phone wasn’t working and the wind had just whipped his map out of his hands…that sucks! We hiked together the rest of the afternoon, and soon were walking into dark clouds, brutal wind, and fat raindrops. The rain was intermittent, and at about 5ish we found a spring down on the side of the ridgeline. It was just a trickle, so we tried to form little pools to make it easier to scoop.

I had decided to camp near as the nearby trees were the first I had seen in a long time, and I wanted the protection from the rain and potential storm. Dan hiked on, and as I was making my way to a clump of trees, rounded a corner to find a nice cow tank with spring water pouring in. Doh! Oh well.

I made my way up to find a little spot among some trees and had a bit of trouble setting up my tarp in the crazy strong wind. I was finally in and cozy, but twice the flapping tarp ripped my stakes out of the ground. Uggg, this would be a sucky night. At times I was worried the whole tarp would rip apart, but just a few minutes ago the wind died down, and now I might just have a still and pleasent night afterall.

Over 2,000 miles and 4 months on trail, celebrate!

I love cake, and I love my PCT hiking partner NEMO! Best of both worlds (other than having her on trail with me)