I made it to big bear and am officially 10% done with the trail!
- I have a brief interlude for the next 30 miles before plunging back into the desert
- I’ve made new trail friends and lost old ones
- I’m taking a proper zero in big bear
- If you’re ever near cabazon, check out the white water preserve! Fricken Narnia!- SoCal mountains are pretty cool!
More detailed updates: The PCT can be pretty rough at times. I had a less-than-great Wednesday despite scoring over 1000 extra calories in trail magic. Coming into idyllwild I ended up having a painful heel bruise that I decided to treat with some shoe inserts and a nearo (near zero).
Due to some poor trail description and mileage indications across the maps I had, I ended up doing a 14 mile nearo with over 4k of ascent and 6 miles of road walking. Not what I wanted.
The next day I did a 24 mile day with over 6k descent which my body did not seem to respond well to. I figured a decent sleep would repair most body aches, and I was optimistic that the heel inserts we’re working.
Good news: the heel inserts worked!? Bad news: the heel inserts created a bunch of new problems.
On Wednesday I was still riding out the heel inserts, and noticed that my knee was really starting to be stressed in ways that are pretty atypical for my usual hiking. When I got to the white water preserve (Narnia) I figured I’d break for an hour and then hit another 10 miles. Over the course of the hour my knee started getting worse, and I started noticing weird shin soreness that I thought might be early indications of shin splints. I decided to camp for the night in Narnia and see how the morning would be. Long story short, I got rid of the heel inserts, all knee and shin woes cleared up, and I’ve been cushioning my heel with my ace bandage to great success.
The past 2 days have been pretty good! I’m hanging out in big bear (which is no idyllwild — the place we all want to move to), and I am trying to figure out some shoe logistics.
Fun fact: I thought my feet were done growing during thru-hikes after the Colorado trail. In the past 266 miles I’ve gained a size, and my shoes aren’t going to be happy enough to get me to Kennedy Meadows (I got my first blister today from my toes rubbing the front of the shoe).
I just Amazon primed some new shoes to wrightwood, which should hopefully arrive the same day I do. This might force me to take a half day or do some lower milage… I really hope Amazon doesn’t mess this one up!
May your feet be happy,
Jeff (feasting at a trail magic dumpster)