PCT 2007 Day 48 – Big Bear City – Holcomb Creek

PCT 2007 Day 48

Day 48 / 5-12-07 Cowboy Camp
Big Bear City – Holcomb Creek
19.6 miles; 284.9 (11) total miles; 2120.5 trip miles

Today has been a total wash so far. I had my dad order me bigger shoes on Thursday night and they are supposed to be delivered here today but they haven’t showed up yet and it’s already 11 AM.

I am bored as hell and wish I was hiking. One zero day is fine but too much time sitting around makes me crazy. I need to be moving. I can only hope UPS shows up soon.
UB already left over 1.5 hours ago. I will have to catch up if I want to hike with her.
UPS finally came at 11:30 AM. I raced up to the front desk and was shocked by the size of the box the company used. You could have fit 3 shoe boxes in it.

I quickly put on my shoes and called the taxi. As I was doing so Tikki came by and I gave him my last two beers and UB’s orange she left. He was super excited about the bounty he got for stopping by.

I had to wait 45 minutes for the taxi but it gave me time to eat lunch and get money. It cost me $17.50 to get to the trail. I got started just before 1 PM. I quickly passed Doble Trail Camp and then 6 miles later at the next water source, Van Dusen Canyon Road, at Caribou Creek, I caught a bunch of hikers who had stayed with me at the Motel 6. I got water and put a bandage on my one blister that was still bugging me, then I got going.
Just 5 or so minutes later I saw UB. She had stopped and got bored waiting for me so she made dinner. She was just getting ready to go when I showed up. We then hiked on and caught the group from Caribou Creek. At that point we all hiked on together. At one of the many dirt roads we crossed, we ran into Monty and his partner. He had left a bag of gear back at the creek so he was super excited to find out we had it with us.

It was only 3 miles or so to Holcomb Creek so we pushed on to there. It seemed to take forever. I was super hungry at this point so that probably didn’t help the time go by. Once there I got water and UB had seen a sweet camp site just back up the trail a ways. We set up and she got right in her tent, while I started my dinner of 3 cheese tortellini, a tomato, garlic, and summer sausage. I had a Twix for desert. Its off to bed after a long day. UB asked if I wanted to do a 30 miler tomorrow….?

Scatman 2011- Days like today were always tough.  You wouldn’t think it would be hard to get out of a town if you wanted too.  Sometimes things just kept you there and always longer than you wanted.  In this case it was technology in the form of transportation, the late UPS truck with my shoes and the taxi that took forever.  Other times it might be a store or post office that didn’t open until 10 am or you might forget something and have to make another run to the grocery store.  If it wasn’t one thing it was another.

Most people and even me today relish in the fact that we’re surrounded by technology and other conveniences.  Though when you remove yourself from these things long enough you realize you can do with out and want to do with out.  As much as advanced society has to offer us, it does so with equal amounts of stress, obligations, responsibility and worrying.   When you thru-hike you can leave most of that behind and life becomes simple.

No, I don’t hike to escape these things but to find my center and remember what is truly important to me.

———-

Scatman

Get out there!

You can check out my Appalachian Trail or Continental Divide Trail journals too!