June 9
Mileage 20.5
Mile 942 to mile 962.5

I bolt upright at 6:30- everyone is up but me. I slept so late! But it was so good. I had wild, violent dreams. I feel awesome.

Twig builds a morning fire. Twig makes a fire every morning and every evening- he also carries an external frame pack, which he wears without a shirt, and has a mullet. I like to pretend that Twig is LARP-ing 1970’s National Geographic, and that he has to stay in character. I make a tuna sandwich with tuna and mayo on GF bread and eat it next to the fire. I decide that this will be my new breakfast of choice.

Twinkle pulled a muscle in his neck! Today he can’t move his neck to the side, and it hurts something awful when he wears his pack. I hike with him slow in the morning, taking breaks when we need to, and we leapfrog with the others and then they’re ahead of us. We walk through a beautiful meadow that looks like Alaska, and a coyote is chilling there, just sort of loping around. We climb up and descend, climb up and descend. We play “remember the PCT”- going back through each day on trail so far. The whole gang planned to do 26 miles today and we’re resigning ourselves to getting into camp late when we drop down into a meadow with a beautiful stream and see Twig’s evening fire there, and everyone huddled around it. To be in the wilderness, and to happen upon this! These 20 mile days in the sierras are so sweet.

Photos on instagram.