Day 59 | mile 1092.3 - 1109.6

Went to sleep pretty late last night because I was catching up on journaling. It was warm in the bedroom upstairs. I snuggled up to mom and she scratched my back.

Slept like a rock. Woke up at 8. I had honey bunches of oats. And oatmeal. I miss cereal!

I was trying to figure out my food and mileage plan. Alex informed me that my hiking poles are in his trunk. And he’s driving home from Lincoln now. Fuuuuuuck.

Decided I’d do without poles until I see Alex next weekend. That means my tent is useless, so I left it with my mom. So I’m hiking the next section without poles, without a tent, and without a filter. What could go wrong?

Lunch: snappy skinny sausages, omelet, bread and good butter, pate, strong tea. So so good. I loved sitting around the table with the whole crew for lunch. Sam is really into asking, “and why?” right now. :)

Packed up. I started crying. We took a group picture. Vova looked for his car keys for a while. Got dropped off at Echo Chalet at 2:30.

(Yes, I skipped 2.3 miles from Echo Summit to Echo Chalet. I didn’t have the maps for that section because I had already switched to NorCal section on Guthook. And I got lost on that section when I was doing the TRT. And I wanted my mom to see Echo Lakes.)

I didn’t cry when we said bye, but I became a fucking mess a mile later. I kept patting my chest repeating “I’m ok” over and over. It didn’t help. I started saying “5 more days”. It didn’t help either.



Being in this beautiful place all by myself is some kind of torture. I thought about the TRT and how similarly miserable I was walking through Desolation. And I was only 1 day away from being home. So mad at myself for putting myself through this again.

I put on Grit. I logged into Jackie’s audible account for this stretch to listen to her book selection. Grit is good so far and it calmed me down a bit.



Flew up to Dick’s Pass. It was nothing after the Sierra, even without the poles. Called Alex once I got reception and cried again. I’m such a needy bitch. And I probably need some kind of professional help, not this PCT bullshit.

The views were awesome from up there. Ran into a guy going south with his two dogs. He said the pass wasn’t that bad.

Ok! Well, the mosquitoes were pretty bad up there anyway, and that would’ve been the only reason to stay at Dick’s Pass over Dick’s Lake. So, I decided to come down.

I was still kind of a crying mess when I saw a bear coming down toward Dick’s Lake ahead of me. Oh shit oh shit oh shit. That sobered me up real quick. I thought is was a bear cub, but I didn’t see a mom. Fuck!



I ran/slid the rest of the way down and then away from the lake. Phew. Everything looked like a bear for a while after that. I really didn’t feel like camping alone tonight, so I passed a few empty tent sites.



I finally heard voices and stumbled on a big group camping together. I asked if I could squeeze in a cowboy camp with them. They were really sweet and ate together in a circle: Sugar, Sassy K, House, Chef, Lamb Fat, Sniper, Cannon.

Cannon is Swedish and we spoke in Swedish a bit. A bunch of the group is learning Swedish just for fun and they were very impressed. Her real name is Annika and she worked in Luleå for a year. Also, she was in the Swedish military. Her birthday is tomorrow and the group is planning a surprise birthday for her. So cute.

Sugar is definitely into Cannon. He is learning Swedish and they are chatting into the night right now.



It’s warm. The sunset is gorgeous. I’m quietly sleeping with my food even though it’s probably not safe. Mosquitoes all up in my business. Goodnight!