Day 96: Mile 1103.2 - 1125.7

And in the morning, I woke and got out of camp after Lux and Kahleesi (who left very early), and after Mark (who left a bit after them), but before AC/DC and Outlast, and Dylan. We had coordinated the night before to aim for the campsite at 1125.7 and, as I'm not that fast, I wanted to get started earlier rather than later to make sure I got there. And as I headed out I was pretty tired for some reason: in the morning, going over Dick's Pass, I was almost sleepwalking. It was strange: I was hiking along, at a good enough clip, and conscious enough, but it was like I was asleep the whole time. Nothing would really register fully in the brain and, when it did, it wouldn't stick, much like how dreams register but they flutter away. Anyway, around 10:45 I opted to take a 15 minute break, just sit down and rest for a bit, and that seemed to clear up my head. But that's a long time to go in a peculiar mental state, and one that I admit I haven't experienced on the trail so far.

As for the hike, today was a day of lots and lots of lakes. This section is also evidently very popular, and must be close to a trailhead, because there were plenty of folks going southbound with whom I crossed paths. But there was Dicks Lake, then Fontanillis Lake, then the Velma Lakes, then Richardson Lake: the trail was just climbing up and down terraces to get to the next lake. And the lakes were all very pretty--I don't know if they were all swimmable (although Dylan ended up swimming in Fontanillis Lake, whose name he couldn't remember so he kept calling it "that French Lake", but Fontanillis sounds more Latin to me), but I'm sure the scenery was very pretty, and had I been less tired in the morning, it probably would have stuck better.

In the afternoon, I ended up hiking with Double Snacks, who technically I had met yesterday evening as we were heading into Gilmore Lake. But I got to talking with her today, and hiking with her. She hails originally from Portland, now from Berkeley, where (I believe) she got her PhD? She has a PhD anyway, in molecular biology, and when I did my standard practice of asking her about her dissertation (handy tip: if you're talking to a PhD candidate and don't know what to talk about, ask about their research, be genuinely interested in it, and you'll have enough conversation for the rest of the night!), which was on studies of bacteria and seeing whether how this one photosynthetic bacteria responded to a lack of light, in particular, which pathways activated in the bacteria in the dark, and how it stored energy. Usually this strategy of asking about a dissertation leads to lots of conversation, but this time my little strategy backfired because it'd be pretty long ago and she hadn't thought about it in such a long time. So I dropped it rather than trying to force it and make it awkward. (Handy tip: sometimes my handy tip doesn't work, so really it's not so handy.) Nowadays, she works for ApotheComm (sp?)--a portmanteau of apothecary and communication, which largely explains what they do: they help medical companies communicate not so much with the general population, but more with journals and regulatory agencies. Unlike me, she was able to convince her company to give her a 6-month leave of absence for the trail, so she has a job waiting for her upon her return; this is good, as she seems to like her job. I admit that, in the afternoon, I didn't see much: I find when I get involved in long conversations, it's almost like I run out of attention, so the sight sense almost turns off to better feed the make-word sense (and hopefully at least elevate it to make-sentence).

We hiked together for quite some time--it turns out we were both heading to the same campsite for the evening--talking about random stuff as hikers do, until, towards the end of the day, we came to the Barker Pass Trailhead and saw cars (!), and chairs (!!), and food? (!!!) Ah: trail magic! Hosted by a couple who lived in Truckee and had just driven up to do it (he had hiked the AT and CDT before, they were hiking the PCT in 2023 if I remember correctly), they had two Sprites left (Double Snacks and I each took one) and one plate of pizza rolls left (which we shared). And we sat a spell and enjoyed the last bits of trail magic!

After that, it was a short jaunt to the campsite, less than a mile. And what a campsite it was: set atop a ridge, overlooking a broad valley that lead all the way down to the lake. A spectacular view even with the sunset behind us; can't imagine what it'll look like at sunrise with the sun before us. We had dinner on a fallen log right at the edge: you'd have to pay good money for such a view at a restaurant, Double Snacks remarked, and I agreed. It was a pretty awesome sight to go with my simple ramen and seaweed and pork fu, but a good end to what turned out to be a pretty good day!

I will say this, though, hiking with Double Snacks for half the day did remind me that there are various different "styles" of hiking. In particular--and just because these are all in a list doesn't mean they're all equivalent--I know of:

-- Kiwi Style, named after a brother and sister pair from New Zealand hiking the PCT who I met near Echo Lake a few years ago. On flat land they were incredibly fast--I almost had to half-jog to keep up--but at any obstacle, a fallen log, a tricky bit of footing over some roots, a walk over rock scree, they would slow to a crawl and take it very very carefully. Likely a result of their Sierra experience (it had been a high snow year that year), but to me that's Kiwi Style: fly on the flats, careful and slow on anything remotely technical.

-- Uno Style, named after Uno, who once she plugs in her headphones, can just fly. Uno says I'm faster than her, but once that music is playing I think she's as fast as me on flats, and faster than me on descents. The only thing I have her beat on is ascents. But those headphones seem to put her in the zone and, once in the zone, she just *goes*.

-- AC/DC Style, named after AC/DC, which involves strong effort followed by breaks. Breaks are sometimes short, like during a climb, but can also be longer, like after a little section. AC/DC style is basically what I did in the Sierras, mostly because I had to: the Sierras are tough, and require high effort just to make progress. And so, inevitably, that high effort is followed by long breaks to recover.

-- Double Snacks Style, which is slow and steady with almost no breaks. Kind of the dual to AC/DC Style, Double Snacks keeps a mild pace throughout but rarely stops. She eats on the move, she drinks on the move, she'll stop only occasionally during uphills to drink, but otherwise she's just constantly moving. Breaks do happen, for lunch, for example, but usually they're relatively short, no more than an hour or so for something as substantial as a meal. 

There are likely more styles that I've seen (for example, there could be a Dylan style, but that's just to be damn fast), but those are the ones that come to mind. Who's to say which is best, or even that any is best? Rather, I think it's probably better to pick and choose the style for the particular area, or even the particular day: maybe one day you need to do AC/DC Style, and maybe another day Double Snacks Style works better. The list of styles is more a toolbox, I think, then a prescription or exhortation: it's more about knowing what's available, than making any particular choice.

Anyway, a strange note to end a day that started strange, but ended pretty nice: that view! (It was so impossibly nice that it made me think of Milliways!)

Previous   Next

Some notes:

-- Gilmore Lake > Dicks Pass > Dicks Lake > Fontanillis Lake > Middle Velma Lake > Richardson Lake > Barker Pass Trailhead > Campsite

-- I had two goals for the day. First, 10 before 12--get in 10 miles before noon--which I did, just barely (ok, I cheated a bit, got 10 before 12:10). Second, to reach the campsite at 1125.7, which I did. So 2 for 2 today!

-- There were two girls at the trail magic who were doing the TRT, which is about 170 miles, in 5 days. 5 days?!, I asked, a bit exasperated. Yep, they said, they're running the whole thing. Well, they're technically hiking the uphills, but running everything else. They had done 40+ miles the first couple days, they were on a 30+ day, then had a 30+ day tomorrow and just a 20+ day to finish it off (although they noted that the 20+ day would be mostly uphill). And they were carrying camping gear--albeit very compact and very light--with them too! Well, that's just amazing!

-- I didn't see anybody else from the Group during the day: I passed Mark early in the morning but other than that, saw no one. Only late at night, Dylan sauntered into camp, headlamp on, as I was hanging my Ursacks for the night. Turns out everybody else had camped a couple miles back, but he wanted to push ahead to 1125.7. He had had a good day--got in some swimming--but kept getting vortexed into conversations throughout the day. But he had made it, updated me on everybody's status. I let him know my plans for tomorrow--to head to 1146.6 and keep up the 20+ mile a day pace--and we chatted in the dark for a while before finally heading to bed. But it was good to see him and know that I hadn't just passed someone and not noticed! (Although I had evidently passed Lux and Kahleesi at some point and not noticed: how does this even happen? We're all on the same trail: there's only one way to go! It's not like there are alternate routes everywhere, we're all going the same way! How do I keep passing, or getting passed, and not notice?) He mentioned that he might not see me again--they're getting off at Truckee the day after tomorow whereas I'm going all the way to Sierra City--and he had prepared The Speech for me, but wasn't emotionally ready to give it. So I gave him some ribbing for that, but said I'd probably see him in the morning, so he could always give it then if he wanted.

-- Oh, so I've had this cold and cough for the past few days, and in South Lake Tahoe I suddenly remembered that, due to the rib contusion, if I developed a cough I was supposed to inform my primary care physician for a followup. The concern is developing pneumonia. So in South Lake Tahoe, I belatedly sent an email to my Kaiser doctor informing him that, yeah, I'd developed a cough, but it's mostly from a cold, and I was medicating it with Dayquil/Nyquil. And today, when I got a bit of signal, I got the reply. Which was from another doctor--evidently my doctor is out (likely on vacation--he's more outdoorsy than me!) and this doctor was covering. And he said, please see the advice attached below. And the advice attached below said: you should talk to a doctor. Really? I need another doctor filling in for my doctor to tell me that I should talk to a doctor; I thought that was what I was doing! Ok, to be fair, I think he meant I should actually *talk* with a doctor rather than just email, which is a valid response (if not as funny), but also a bit impractical given my current situation! I don't know where I'll be when, and I don't know if I'll even have signal when I get there, so scheduling doctor appointments starts to become tricky, if not impossible. Ah well, I'll just keep medicating and hope for the best, I guess!