After an unplanned zero in one of the nicest trail towns, we hiked out in the heat of the day. Everything seemed to be going wrong that day but the tip of the iceberg came when the strap of Beaute's backpack snapped off, rendering it unusable. We got back in to town and took yet another unplanned zero, to give her time to fix it. She sewed it together with dental floss and reinforced the other straps just in case. The next day, we ran into a couple other thru hikers before all leaving town together. It was a long highway walk that dragged on for what seemed like forever. We saw a small side street and took a quick break, away from the cars flying by. A car pulled up to our break stop and a young man asked us if we wanted and sodas or water. It turned out he had hiked the PCT last year and was driving through looking for hikers. We stayed there for hours, swapping stories, filling up on goodies, and hiding out from the rain behind his car. After a few goodbyes, we hiked on a bit before finding a camp spot and setting up. We all sat and ate dinner together but were interrupted when it began to rain again.
We all got moving early the next morning and had a long, hot, road walk that was neverending. We made it to a water source by lunch and tried to rehydrate and find bits of shade. The afternoon was hotter and we struggled to keep the pace up. We made it to a small reservoir, just as the sun was going down, and had a nice group dinner before retreating to our comfy tents. Heat lightning began soon after and it felt as though a swarm of paparazzi where outside our tents. Flashes of light went off constantly for most of the evening and has started again when we woke up. The thunder was loud in the morning and I wondered if we were in store for a storm. I climbed out of my tent to a gorgeous morning. We made it to our first water source, a sludge surrounded by cows, and took a long nap in the sun. We reluctantly got moving again but didn't make it far before finding an extremely rare patch of trees and taking another nap break.
We made it to camp a bit later and set up for the night without our tents. The next morning we planned to wake up early and try to hike a double marathon day into town so we wanted to be able to pack up as quickly as possible. As we fell asleep that evening, four wild horses showed up and began drinking out of the pond next to us. I couldn't help but feel like this was a really special thing to experience. When my alarm went off the next morning, it was still completely dark out and felt very early. We were ready. We packed up quickly and got moving. The sky lightened up as we walked, eventually giving way to a gorgeous sunrise that we don't often get to see. By our first break, we had gone 17 miles and felt really good. It seemed very attainable to complete our goal that day. The wind was in our face all day, which slowed us down, but we powered through. Just before lunch, we began to feel the effects of all the miles. I dragged on, hoping my feet would keep moving.
By lunch, we had gone 28.5 miles and we're completely beat. We found a spring and took a quick, much needed nap. As the heat of the day was hitting it's peak, a large blanket of clouds settled over the basin. It was nice to have a break from the relentless sun. We made it to 37.5 miles that evening and stopped for water. There was a nice campsite nearby and the urge to quit washed over me. We still had 15 miles to go and it was already 7 pm, meaning we wouldn't make it in until midnight. Our legs ached but we knew we would keep going. As the evening began to get dark, a large bird flew low overhead.
Beaute made an owl hoot and it flew back at us, swooping low to check us out. I'm not sure I had ever seen an owl so close in the wild. The sun set, leaving us in the dark with nine miles still to do. We got out our lights and tried to keep our legs going. By the last three miles, I was in pain. Ever step was a struggle and my joints ached with each movement. It seemed as though it would never end. We finally finished the longest three miles of my life and were too exhausted to try and celebrate. We crawled into our tents and passed out. I woke up once that night in excruciating pain. My lower body hurt so much it took my breathe away. After a few deep breathes and trying to move around a bit, my exhaustion took over and I fell back asleep.
The next morning was a lot less painful than I had expected and it was nice to get to sleep in for once. We only had two miles to the road which felt like nothing after our previous day. We started hitch hiking and we're passed by a cop car that stopped and reversed back to us, turning on his lights. Thinking we were about to get in trouble, we put on our best faces and hoped we could get put of it. He hopped out of the car and started moving stuff around for us to sit. So we climbed in to the cop car and he took us all the way in to town! Mile Marker 1773