Day 106

Trail miles: 24.6

Total: 1568.8

I tried to get up a little early but it didn’t work so well. I’ll have to try a lot harder tomorrow. I am always in pain yet the pain moves a lot. At first it was above my left knee, then my hamstring, then the back of my left knee, then the top of my right foot. I stopped trying to be tough and just took the ibuprofen. I might have to start taking it regularly which is bad but I hope two months of it won’t hurt my liver too much. Same with caffeine. I’m done trying to ration it, I’ll just consume it when I need it. Which is just about twice a day now. I have completed depleted all of my serotonin. Hiking is miserable after 10 miles and nothing is helping. The only thing that give me any joy still are dog snapchats. There were some section hikers at the hop of a hill that I didn’t even pause my book for until they made weird faces at me. I thought waving was sufficient enough but they seemed to want a verbal response and to know if I was ok. Well like Zach from Backpacker Radio says, PCT hikers are dead behind the eyes by this point. Right before lunch I crossed a road with a blind spot and when I was halfway across, a car came around the corner. I had to do a little jog across. Then I was pooping in the pit toilet without a lock, and some dude just busts open the door without knocking. Turned out to be Orion who we’ve met before.

The hill came out of no where to save the day. I was feeling so crappy, and somehow the hill made me feel loads better. It was like doing a puzzle after staring at the TV all day. The hill stimulated my brain in a way the earlier terrain didn’t. And then we had service at the top so double win.