Thursday, June 07, 2018 – 13 miles

Glorious walking this morning! The views were excellent until the Deadfall Lakes area.

At Parks Creek Road I met a sobo hiker who mentioned that she was ready for the day to be over. Whatever her rationale, I felt the same way upon entering the next section, which was weirdly different from the terrain on the other side of the road. The forest was sparse and uninteresting and I quickly grew bored. I talked to a lizard for awhile and it cocked its head, which was cute. When the trail curved south again the scenery improved – pretty mountainous background and shrubbery sprang up to fill out the forest. Two SOBO hikers passed me on a rocky section and the woman smelled nice! She must have been wearing perfume or flowery deodorant. I stink. I’m sorry, nice-smelling woman. Your standard is too high for the average hiker to meet.

I shared a campsite at Cement Bluff with thru-hikers Chameleon and Finn and shamelessly invited myself to their campfire. Finn told me that he had been dreaming about hiking the PCT since the age of twelve. I’m cheering for the entire class of 2018, but I definitely have a soft spot for hikers for whom thru-hiking is a long-held dream. I’d like to question them after/closer to the end of the hike to find out how they feel once it’s over, or how they feel if it’s not living up to their expectations.

Chameleon had previously hiked the AT, an undertaking that I greatly admire because of all the disease-ridden ticks in the northeast United States. She told me that three of her friends on the trail had contracted Lyme disease. That vaccine ready yet? We also talked briefly about trail names, which I still don’t completely understand the purpose of. Apparently they’re extremely popular on the AT.