Day 106: Mile 1594.0 - 1599.7

Today we woke to a hazy skies and a reddish sun, all accompanied by heat that was ok in the mountains--it was cut by the breeze--but got worse when we descended into Etna, where by mid-afternoon it was sweltering. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Today was a short hike--less than 6 miles--and then getting a hitch into Etna. The hike, though short, was reminiscent of the Sierras: as Double Snacks pointed out, the footing and some of the trail construction (i.e., the series of little half-steps all in a row) was very similar. But even the scenery: we were walking on these rocky ridgelines, looking down into these blue lakes far below, ringed in trees that looked so small from up here. It wasn't the grandeur of the Sierras per se, but it was definitely the idea. 

As for Etna: we debated whether to stay the night in Etna (i.e., take a nero) or go try to get back on trail tonight (i.e., do a full turnaround), but in the end we opted for the former and are camped out (with a ton of other hikers) in the park in Etna. My reason for staying was to avoid another series of thunderstorms in the mountains, but then we got thunderstorms here in the afternoon anyway so, eh, can't win for trying.

I will say this: when in bad weather conditions like this, I tend to shut down. I noticed this at VVR, when I was stuck on the covered porch eating tortillas and finger-bombing nutella with freezing hands, and I found myself getting sleepy. Only moreso finding myself just wanting the world to go away, and sleep is one way to do it. I got the same symptoms here: sitting at the covered picnic tables in the park, watching the rain pour down onto my tent, again I found myself yawning a lot and just wanting to go to sleep. Just shutting down. This is a bad tendency on my part--demonstrates a certain lack of resilience, which will likely come back to bite me in the butt later on the trail. So likely will have to come up with some way to combat it. (Double Snacks gets by by totally enjoying the rain: she's always looking up for the lightning, for example--and sees it, bolt and all!--whereas I always miss it and just hear the thunder, mostly because I'm concentrated just on getting to where I'm going which is hopefully out of the wet.) Because I'm pretty sure we'll be getting afternoon thunderstorms the next couple days in the mountains--weather report calls for it--so I better get used to be being wet and unhappy!

As for Etna itself, just a standard town visit: get in, eat, do laundry, hit the post office, hit the gear shop, hit the grocery store to resupply, shower, then eat dinner. And that was the day! Here are some little details, though, to make things more interesting:

-- Our ride into town was courtesy of Colton, who drove up to the trailhead (from Etna) in a Volkswagon bug convertible (with the top down), and gave myself, Double Snacks, and CC a ride into town. And also gave a brief tour of the town when we arrived so we knew where everything was. He recommended a couple restaurants, and we ended up eating there, and they were pretty good. He had a lot more conversation with CC in the front seat, but most of it Double Snacks and I missed: sitting in the back, mostly what we heard was just the wind!

-- When we got into town, we got breakfast at Bob's Ranch House. Where they brought out my main course, but then forgot my dessert until after the bill came and I went up to the counter and asked about it. In the evening, we got dinner at Denny's Bar, where they brought out my main course, but again forgot my dessert until after the bill came and I asked about it. Hmm, that's too much to be a coincidence. Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something. Maybe it's trying to tell me I'm getting too fat!

-- For my cook system, I have a little stove--a knock-off--that Eugene gave me when he first heard I was going to do the PCT (he was more excited about it than I was!). And it's worked great so far: it's just a little loud (compared to everybody else's stove, it sounds like a jet engine taking off). Well yesterday, I went to get it for dinner, took it out of its little baggie, and it promptly split into three pieces. Hmm, not so good. It still lit--it seems the striker portion is falling off and I that hasn't worked in a long while--but today in town I just went ahead and bought a new stove. If I was younger, I would have kept using the old stove--would have made for a good story, belays a certain ruggedness--but at my age, I just don't want to deal with things possibly breaking, so I'm nipping it in the bud and replacing it. I did send the old stove home, though: when I get back, I'll look into repairing it.

-- Incidentally, the gear shop here--Etna Creek Outfitters--is really nice! I highly recommend them. They've only been open a year, but the customer service is top notch, and they even have a porch in the back for hikers to hang out. And charge their phones. And play corn-hole. And have free Otter Pops! (With a pair of scissors right there: that's the kind of attention to detail I'm talking about here!) I bought the stove from them, and they talked me through my options without any condescension, just with a genuine desire to explain what they had and the pros and cons of the different options. Very nice place, very nice staff, even a very nice (and clean) trail registry for hikers: again, highly recommend!

-- Man, the weather. When we got into town, it was sweltering hot--coming out of the laundromat it as muggy as I remember Taiwan! (ok, I'm exaggerating a bit, but it was muggy)--and in mid-afternoon that turned to thunderstorms. The storms seemed to break a bit by sunset, and so far in the night we've only had a brief shower, but yeah: heat to thunderstorms is something that makes sense to me logically, but given my Bay Area upbringing--where sun/heat and cloud/rain are two very separate cycles--having them both in the same day is still pretty odd! As I said, I don't do well in thru-hiking in the rain, so this weather does have me down some.

-- I met Turtle--a hiker who carries a ukelele with him--in the park, and he asked me my favorite genre of music. To which I don't have a good answer--I like "good" stuff, often regardless of tradition, which isn't really a genre. So he asked me what song I've had in my head recently. So I told him: Silent All These Years, by Tori Amos, off Little Earthquakes. And he declared, Tori Amos is coming back, and pulled it up on his phone to listen and learn. And went around to the other hikers and declared the same, only none of them seemed to know who Tori Amos was. And I remember sitting at Bob's Ranch House and hearing Red Hot Chili Peppers playing on the radio, and realizing, hey, this counts as classic rock now. I mean, I remember when this song came out, I remember when it was new, but, yeah, in today's world, it counts as classic rock. Evidently the same is true of Tori Amos--it's old stuff now, and while it's good, nobody's heard of it!

-- I talked to Dennis during the rain, partially to pass the time, mostly to try to raise my spirits some, and as he's in the movie industry, we somehow ended up talking about Star Wars and the editing thereof. And he agreed that Star Wars was saved in the edit, that so much of that movie was saved by the editing crew, but that it's still his favorite of all the Star Wars movies--possibly his favorite movie period--and how he could teach a class on the editing, and how he could go on and on about it. About voiceovers for some of Tarkin's lines, about the whole rebel-base-about-to-be-destroyed during the Death Star run, about how the editors suggested killing off Obi-Wan and using his voiceover talking to Luke as a spirit, all these things. And I knew some of these edits, but some were also new to me, and it was great listening to Dennis just talk: it's great listening to almost anyone talk about something they really love and enjoy, and go into detail about it. And the fun part isn't just in the knowledge, but just in the tone of voice of the person and maybe, for a moment, allowing yourself to be in their place, looking at it with their wide-open eyes, and enjoying it as they do, in a sort of sympathetic synchronization. Wonder with them, laugh with them, grouse with them. It's good fun and almost--almost!--distracted me from the rain.

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Some notes:

-- Paynes Lake > Etna Summit Trailhead > Etna

-- Dennis is also staying in town for a couple more days: the inner door of his tent is broken, and while he has a makeshift solution involving a bunch of clips, that's not going to work if we get into areas with more bugs (e.g., Oregon). He has a new tent coming in Seiad Valley but in a few days. So he had the option of hanging around Etna, or hanging around Seiad Valley, waiting for the tent. He's opting for the former. Etna's a bigger own and plus, tomorrow, there's a rodeo in town! And Dennis was excited about going to see it. I, for my part, tried to make a joke: Dennis is in the movie industry, so I asked if he was going to "film the rodeo", which is an editor's term of derision. So you're filming this movie, but then you need extra footage, and there happens to be this rodeo coming to town that you didn't know about but here it is, so you film it as it happens, and then add that footage to pad out the film's runtime. But Dennis--who knows the phrase and what it means--blew right through my joke and took it seriously, saying, look around this park. You see all these tents? And these are folks who aren't homeless, but who choose to be this way, who choose to do this. And if I had a camera, this would be a great documentary, just shots of this park, and then some interviews talking to folks about why they're hiking the trail. If I had my camera, I'd shoot this, he said. And my little joke--which made me feel so clever--was done with, just done with!

-- One of the problems with the fires pushing all the hikers together is that, when we arrive in town, we tend to clean out the stores. For example, in Etna at Ray's Grocery Store, there was no ramen left. At all. All gone. And, for those who don't know, ramen is one of my staples. Now it turns out they have some at the gas station down the street, but that's was a ways away. I was nonetheless committed to heading over after dinner to pick some up--I had even inquired as to their closing time earlier in the day when we were out there (the laundromat is out that way)--but at dinner, Moonbeam asked if anyone wanted any ramen. Because she was sick of it. And I said, yeah, I'll take it. And I got two beef ramen and a shrimp and, more importantly, Moonbeam saved me a walk to the gas station! And I was pretty grateful for that!

-- Incidentally, when I say it was "a ways away", that's from a hiker's perspective. In reality, Etna's not that big a town: it's probably a quarter of a mile away. And you, dear reader, are thinking, wait, a quarter mile? Haven't you walked over 1000 miles? How can a quarter mile seem "a ways away"? Well, it a quarter mile in town and not on trail, and that makes all the difference. Tell me a quarter mile on trail and I'll say, hey, that's pretty close, tell me a quarter mile in town and I'll say, hmm, can I maybe call an Uber? (Short answer: in Etna, no--there's no Uber.) Why, I don't know, but that's just the way it is!

-- So back when we started at Dunsmuir, I met Almost Famous and Moonbeam, who are hiking together. And Almost Famous noted that I'm always jotting things down in my pad and suggested a trail name: Checkpoint. As in Checkpoint Charlie! Which I had some qualms with: I try to stay away from Cold War references, and Checkpoint Charlie was the primary transfer point between West and East Berlin during that period. Back in Tehachapi, I think it was, I remember talking to some guy on the street--older guy--and I mentioned my name was Charlie and he said, really? I get to call an Asian guy Charlie? You're not Vietnamese, are you? To which I clarified I'm not, my background is Chinese, but I got what he meant: the Viet Cong--the Enemy, who fought Dirty--were called Charlie during the Vietnam War. Now I can't change Charlie--it's my name--but I do try to avoid Cold War stuff. So when I got into Etna and bumped into Almost Famous and Moonbeam again, and he looked at me and needled, Checkpoint, right?, I explained this to him. And I think he gets it. He's a younger guy--I myself, who am much older, am just on the cusp of remembering the Vietnam War, mostly from movies in the 80s--so it makes sense that terms like Checkpoint Charlie would sound familiar and iconic, but don't necessarily invoke the same history for him.