May 4 Mileage 28 Mile 220.5 to mile 248.5 Heat wave/the desert can be fucking brutal. Climbing for 20 miles, from one thousand feet up to eight thousand feet. I cross paths with two angry rattlesnakes, one horny toad. I feel awful all day. Water tastes bad, I'm not really peeing, eating makes me naseous. … Continue reading Day 10: draggin ass in the heat
PCT 2014
Day 9: the closest I’ve ever come to a helicopter ride
May 3 Mileage 25 Mile 195.5 to mile 220.5 I sleep bad, wind coming and going, first hot then cold, wake up for the last time at 5 a.m. with the others and stuff my things away, golden light burning just over the edge of the dark world. I'm thirsty, but my gatorade bottles are … Continue reading Day 9: the closest I’ve ever come to a helicopter ride
Day 8: magical pine forests and long, long descents
May 2nd Mileage 18.5 (16 + 2.5 on the devil's slide trail) Mile 179.6 to mile 195.5 Woke and dragged myself from the warm soft bed, shoved my things away, ate a bag of salt and vinegar chips for breakfast. Discovered that I'd left my trekking poles at paradise valley cafe- luckily a very nice … Continue reading Day 8: magical pine forests and long, long descents
Day 7: It is ideal to be idle in Idyllwild
May 1 Mileage 13 (12 plus 1 mile roadwalk to paradise cafe) Mile 140 to mile 152 I had my first good night's sleep on a warm, cracked cistern beneath the dusty stars. At dawn I rose to fill my gatorade bottles with tannin-colored rain water drawn from the cistern with a bucket- bits of … Continue reading Day 7: It is ideal to be idle in Idyllwild
Day 6: would you rather
April 30 Mileage 25 Mile 115 to mile140 Today I was walking through the desert with TwinkleToes and McButter. The sun was directly overhead, the air was hot and still with the occasional burst of dry, irritating wind. My feet were on fire- stuffed like swollen stumps into my dusty shoes, aching with heat and … Continue reading Day 6: would you rather
Day 5: sun, sand and stabby plants
April 29 Mileage 25 (24 + 1 mile to the post office) mile 91 to mile 115 It was warm last night at the third gate cache and I slept with my sleeping bag over me like a quilt, the little night creatures doing their things all around me, the stars dull from light pollution … Continue reading Day 5: sun, sand and stabby plants
Day 4: wherein the desert becomes desert-like again
April 28 Mileage 24 (23 plus 1 for water) Mile 68 to mile 91 I can't believe that I forgot that the first part of the trail is hard. I seem to have had total amnesia about that. This shit is HARD. In the first part of the trail you're transitioning from fluffy city person … Continue reading Day 4: wherein the desert becomes desert-like again
anatomy of a resupply box
Clockwise from jerky: flattened dried bananas, tea/emergen-c/electrolytes, fish oil, multivitamin, rice krispie treat, cocaine (jk it's magnesium powder), chocolate protein powder, gf oreos, chia seeds, banana chips, prunes, bars, nutz, dried peas, dried spinach, raisins, granola #1, granola #2, dried split pea soup (alternates with dried refried beans and dried curried lentil soup), more bars, … Continue reading anatomy of a resupply box
wherein the convoluted tornado of chaos resolves itself into something resembling a shape
I've been carrying around this wild tornado of space-time all hacked up into bits, organized on to-do lists but not existing, yet, the future a mighty weight dependent on my own minute-by-minute choices and the organizational capabilities of my own damn brain. Now the future has a shape, it fills out space-time in a voluminous … Continue reading wherein the convoluted tornado of chaos resolves itself into something resembling a shape
procrastination/anticipation
Anxiety on top of anxiety. I fly south to San Diego from Portland in three weeks, and all of my irrational fears about the trail (something is going to go horribly wrong, the trail is going to turn into a wall of fire, western civilization is going to collapse into a police state RIGHT when … Continue reading procrastination/anticipation
CARROT QUINN 
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