Brad's Adventure

Miles 47-77

The start of the trail has been chaotic. Being sick since mile 0 while also dealing with bizarre weather on top of the traditional struggles of adapting to walking 15-20 miles a day with 30 lbs on my back was really tough.

Day 5:

The night I stayed with Rolo and Seth at the cabin I woke up really sick with bad chest pain. Immediately I realized this wasn’t something I could continue to hike through. It was a tough call but I encouraged Seth to hike on without me and he convinced me to go to the doctor in Julian, the first “real” town on trail.

We knew it was likely at some point on the trail we’d have to split up at least temporarily, but didn’t anticipate that happening the first week out here.

Once we all got up and checked out of the cabin we said our goodbyes and I hitched to Julian. It’s not an easy hitch but luckily I was picked up by a couple who did the trail last year and were in the area specifically to help hikers and hand out some snacks.

When I got to Julian I was informed that a water line had broken and the town had no water, an event that had never happened before… My PCT attempt was quickly becoming a Lemony Snicket novel.

I sniped a burrito at the last restaurant that still had running water 5 min before they ran out and closed for the day at 11am. They gave me a few slices of pie for free which I gave away to a construction worker.

I booked a room at the gold rush hotel, a weird Victorian place that reminded me of my grandparents house. The staff were so polite and formal I was honestly a little disturbed. Made it to the doctor later and he said I had something that was going around San Diego, he said he thought it would take SEVEN days to recover. My immune system is built different so I rounded that down to 3.

Day 6:

The next day I was given another entire free pie from a shop that had closed down from the water. Julian really likes their pie. I wandered around town for a bit, it’s a tourist trap for sure but there are some cool stores. Booked a room at a less creepy hotel and Seth showed up that afternoon, already over 30 miles ahead of me! We hung out and ate some pizza and pie, he slept on the floor in my room.

Day 7:

The next morning Seth took off and I decided I wasn’t paying for another night at a hotel, Seth had the idea that I camp on the trail at mile 39.5, an awesome spot with tree coverage  and only 2 miles from Mt Laguna in case I needed something. I hitched back up to Mt Laguna(mi 41.5), grabbed a book from a hiker box (a common thing for lodging to have on the pct. Just a box that hikers put unwanted stuff in that other hikers might find useful.) and hiked 2 very slow miles backwards with 20 pounds of water and a box of tissues. I basically just read a book all day.

Day 8: Mile 47.5 – 63.7

Three days of doing nothing really helped the illness and I felt pretty good so it was time to grind. Seth was already at mile 91 and getting faster, I wanted to catch him. I dumped 10 lbs of water and hiked back into Mt Laguna, ditched the heavy book in a hiker box, and got a hitch from some mexican dudes in a giant truck meant for paving road lines. I got to sit in the small chair on the back outside the cab, it was really fun. We chatted for a bit when they dropped me off and I was finally back on the trail doing new miles. I stopped at mile 57 to get water and there was an older couple setting up an aid station for the San Diego 100 ultra running thing. Sadly they only had beer and energy drinks, not the best for recovering from being sick. Ended up making it around 17-18 miles and felt pretty good. Is this what hiking without a crippled immune system feels like? I met Redtail, a very interesting (and fast) hiker who has done the “Buckeye” trail in Ohio and some other obscure trail no one has ever heard of.

Day 9: Miles 63.7 – 77.1

Day 9: the last day that I use the weather app to check weather. It was supposed to be 75, ended up being 88. Super exposed 14 miles, hiking down into the valley it got hot very fast. Many hikers were caught off guard. The desert is relentless. A guy I passed ran out of water 1.5 miles before the mile 77 hitch into Julian. I thankfully made it to the underpass by 1pm and got a ride into town. I went straight to the now open pizza place and saw Redtail there with another hiker. Got a whole, huge pizza. Ate less than half, packed the rest into Ziploc bags, bought some supplies and a sun umbrella, and hitched back to the underpass where I hung out with a trail family of 8 who were planning on night hiking 14 miles to beat the heat. I ate pizza in the shade under the bridge while I watched them trudge up the hardest section of the next 34 miles at 4pm when it was still 90 degrees outside. I felt bad because when they had asked if I wanted to hike up with them at 4 I thought it was a joke and laughed it off. It looked miserable.

No pictures this time around, it was a pretty boring desert section and I didn’t really vibe with any other hikers over these days, most of them I blew past and probably won’t see again for a long time. Here’s a future pic of the valley I was in at the time though.