Week 1: Feels Good to Feel Good

My brain hasn’t quite caught up with my body yet, as starting this blog post has been significantly harder than anything else I did during week one. This is partly because I am taking it easy out here. I aimed for 10 miles per day for this first week, which wasn’t necessarily easy, but certainly wasn’t hard.

Time to Spare

Hiking only 10 miles in a day means that I am left with a lot of time on my hands, especially compared to when I was hiking 20 miles a day last year!

I downloaded a bunch of books to my phone, and chewed through most of those during lunch breaks, afternoon siestas, and in camp while waiting for it to be dinner time.

I stayed atop this ridge just south of Devils Staircase, hoping for fewer bugs, and a great sunset. I only got the later.

 Unfortunately, most of those hours had to be spent on my tent because the mosquitos were so numerous and aggressive. I’ve seen worse, but not by much. Those bug bites were the source of most of my physical discomfort during the week – not my foot or knees!

Feeling Good

Although I did have a few twinges and aches, overall the things that I expected to go wrong (my knees and the previously broken foot) held up quite well. Not being in pain while hiking is a huge mood booster – it feels good to feel good!

That I do have twinges doesn’t fill me with confidence that I will physically be able to complete what remains of my thru hike this year. However, it doesn’t seem like I am going to fall apart immediately, which is a huge weight off my shoulders.

Feeling good and having time to spare made it easy to relish all the amazing views,

The mountains seemed to stretch into infinity in every direction, giving magnificent views like this one.

and the awesome wildflowers. The combination of those two things made this section of trail my favorite in terms of scenery of all of the PCT that I have hiked so far.

Two different shades of creeping phlox, plus a third unknown flower in dark purple.

In looking at the wildflowers, I learned this week that one of my favorite flowers, which I had been calling Dr. Seuss flowers, is actually the seed pod of the western anemone.

The western anemone in bloom, transitioning to seed pod, and in my favorite stage, as a seed pod.

I managed to get picture of it in three stages right at the end of my hike, as I was headed back to Harts Pass, where I had parked my car. Since I live in Washington, I had decided to drive myself up to Harts Pass, and then take a triple zero at home before I return for more.