MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU

PCT_D21: Mile 384 (Little Jimmy Camp)  – Mile 411.7

Wednesday May, 4 2016: 25.7 miles (41km)

I was going to entitle todays post ‘pretty pedestrian’ as it pretty much summed up our day until a bit of trail magic changed everything.

We left Little Jimmy Camp pretty early. Even though we were at around 7,000 feet altitude it was not cold at all.  The sun was shining and the morning hiking seemed very easy. A few miles after leaving camp we had to make a detour off the PCT due to an endangered species habitat closure of about a 3 mile section. We had a choice, we could walk a 20 mile detour or take an old alternative route which was around 5 miles and involved some road walking.  We took the latter option as the section of road walking  was along Highway 2 which had hardly any traffic. It has only just reopened for the summer season. It was quite a pleasant option.  We were hiking with Jim and the time and distance just seem to pass in conversation. 

We rejoined the PCT  at Mile 398 having walked along the highway a little bit longer than the alternative route suggested. The trail from here seemed to criss-cross Highway 2 at least another 6 times. The landscape was not that grand and there were very few spring  flowers to attract my attention.  Some days you just have to do the miles. So we were lucky to have Jims company to help the miles roll on with interesting conversation.

By mid afternoon and at least another 6 miles of planned hiking, spirits were flagging. We stopped at the last highway crossing when a car pulled over. Blessings, we had a trail angel with a car full of kids,  sweets and other treats and a TV to watch Stars Wars movies. Today is the “may the force be with you day”. We got Pringles chips and Hammer got a cold Pepsi. It was a very windy spot so we did not stay for too long. But we were supercharged by this unexpected calorie and caffeine infusion, the rest of the afternoon just flew by. We got to our planned campspot around 6 pm nearly 12 hours after leaving Little Jimmy. We were back at 7000 feet in elevation and it was very cold and windy. We set up camp really quickly and got into our sleeping bags just to warm up. The wind is howling with no signs of letting up as the light disappears.