Day Three
30 August 2016
Mile 2495.7-2518.8
Day total 23.1
Tally 57.2 miles
Total up/down: +6856/-6671ft
Camp: 1/2 mile past Mica Lake
LL: 48.167563, -121.155024
My body is screaming. I have not worked out in months. I have been eating junk food, drinking coffee, and steadily gaining weight as my scrawny muscles turn to mush. Now my weak baby feet are getting blisters, my thighs are bloody from chafing, my shoulders and knees are tight and bruised, and my low back sometimes siezes in pain. I feel like a poser trying to claim this PCT finale, as I shuffle into camp as a bundle of aches. Every time I stand up after a break I have to shake the life back into my legs. I am definitely not in thru-hiker condition right now. But I love this. I wake up each day excited to get on trail, ready for the beating. I cannot imagine a better way to spend my short break from school.
We have decided to stick with 20-25 mile days so we don’t keel over in piles of misery. Endless of course is fine, having 3000+ miles under his feet this summer. For the rest of us, we have been plushly living in our off-trail lives. We are strategically headed to Stehekin, to catch the bus times just right to get in and out in the same day. S+M has a stricter finish then the rest of us, so we are trying to travel the appropriate distances to get her back in time.
One thing I have been thinking about the last few days is a special hiker dress. I need to have people donate old running tech shirts so I have enough material. I hiked most of the PCT in a lively Target clearance special. It was made of rayon and stayed surprisingly classy. At least until it started to disintegrate with my whole backside exposed and my deteriorating unders on full display, despite my nightly efforts to patch the tears. I retired that dress to my growing pile of clothes for another memory quilt, and replaced it with a new dress. I am hiking now with that same dress. I have only positive things to say about hiking in dresses. Anyways, I want to design a dress based on my favorite features from all those dress experiences.
Elizabeth Erickson 