I wake late-for-me at 6, and not a human is stirring yet. I made enough noise coming in late last night, and I don’t want to bother anyone on both ends of the sleepytime clock, so I eat my dinner for breakfast in my bag. I’ve never eaten in my sleeping bag before – I’ve been a bit wary about critters of the bear-y variety – but  I am sitting and warm and getting calories, and that’s kind of all a thruhiker can ask for. As I finish my dinn-fast(!), the other tents start to stir, so it’s pack up time for me. I apologize to Tumbleweed for last night’s late entry, then head out across the North Fork of the Feather and onwards. Continue reading →

The camp starts to move as one at 5:15, the growing light a call to our morning matins of hastily-munched pop tarts and languorously sipped coffee. Blessed is the Meerkat, I boast, for she is the bringer of coffee and consciousness. Six jokes about renaming her Coffeekat, but she’s so much more than that. Coffeekat is just an aspect of the wonder that is Meerkat. I finish as quick as I can to let her pack the pot I’m using, and then it’s packing up myself. I’m packed and up and out by 6:00, reveling in the glowing sunrise. Continue reading →

I try to sleep, but end up sweating the evening away until I’m exhausted and it’s like I never took a shower at all. Still, I’m up at 5:30, despite the five and a half hours of sleep. Pineapple and I manage to make our way out to Brenda’s truck by 6, we’re back to the trail by 6:10, and hiking by 6:30. Continue reading →

In the morning, we lounge – we only have 20 miles to Belden, and we’re not in a particular rush. Meerkat brings me coffee again, because she is a goddess among women. How have I survived this long without coffee? Or without Meerkat? Or both? Eventually, I drain it, and it’s up and out and onwards to town – and this rave we’ve heard so much about. Continue reading →

The first thing I notice after the silence of the evening is the loudness of the morning – a low-grade hum that seems definitely out of place. It’s definitely not hummingbirds. There are so many bees, and not the fluffy, bumbly kind. I stay in bed as long as possible, assisted by Meer donating some hot coffee to the cause, before running out and tearing down, bees investigating, but not stinging. I have to pee, but don’t want to expose my delicate ass to the bees, so I hold it and move on along. Continue reading →

The night continues to be dead silent – emphasis on “dead” particularly when, in the dead of night, I hear walking outside my tent. Slow walking. Step. Step. Step. None of the others are camped particularly near me, so my brain automatically interprets this as something trying to kill me. You’d think that’d make me spring up out of bed, alert and concerned, but my brain won’t let me move my arms or legs. Welp, I guess I’ve had a good run – I’m back asleep before I can think much else.

Continue reading →

I’ve left the fly off my tent, so I wake in the morning staring at the tree-mottled sky. I’m a little spooked at first – one of the trees is leaning RIGHT OVER ME HOW DID I NOT SEE THIS BEFoh it’s just the seam in the mesh. I take some time breathing, relaxing, soaking it all in. A brief moment sans anxiety; I’m just an animal, man. An animal breathing deep under the trees and the mesh and the down of my bag.

Welp, that’s about enough of that. I’ve got a town to get to. Continue reading →

Pineapple and I are up at the usual hour, but we take it slow this morning, enjoying the inside of the Peter Grubb Hut and the company of Six and Meer and the section hiker therein. We’re an hour later than usual before we convince ourselves to get a moveon, head out, do the thing. Continue reading →

It’s easy to wake today since I’ve got a mission on my mind: CATCH PINEAPPLE. MUST CATCH PINEAPPLE. MUST HIKE HARD AND LONG AND FAST AND CATCH FRIEEEEEEND. I’m walking by 6:15. Continue reading →