My Hike has come to an end...

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time.

I have been home now for a month. I left the trail on 7/28. There was a lot leading up to that point. I wanted to finish posting everyday. But it makes me sad when I think about being back on the trail. I didn't see the point to continue posting. But I guess I need to finish this.

I left off from the day we went into Truckee. Only two days from Sierra city. Heres some things that happened a long the way.

Saw this little hut along the way. I remember seeing a video Muk Muk had on her blog about this place. It looked really creepy in her video. It's pretty neat actually.

Oh the characters I hike with.

On the day we walked into Sierra city steal Toe and I where super motivated. Instead of our normal 5 miles and take a break we went 10 and then pushed 14 miles to get into town around 4pm Steal Toe was motivated by half gallon of chocolate milk he was going to drink when we get into town. I just wanted to be in town again. We got to where the trail meets the road. There were other hikers just leaving town. It was Hugs, Pockets, and Karaoke. They told us about all the drama that went down at the Red Moose last night. I guess Bob the owner kicked everyone off the property and no one was aloud to camp there anymore. So that's going to be awkward since I had to go there and get a package.

It was awesome at the little general store. Everyone was there eating free Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I guess power went out and they had to throw out the ice cream so they gave it to us!

So the church lets us camp in their yard so I went there to set up camp before it was to crowded. I got set up just in time.


Tent city.

Back at the store siting on the front porch.



Heres what Jordan got me for my birthday. Envelopes to open in every town with surprises inside. She is so amazing. What a good idea.


There was $15 inside for me to use at the store.



Below is a picture of all the food I got for $15. A huge amazing veggie burrito some everything bagels, Roman, cliff bars and some hot sauce.



The next morning. I went to the red moose and had breakfast. The owner Bob was not friendly. I didn't like him at all. His wife was super sweet though. I got my boxes and paid $5 for a shower. I washed my clothes at the store and hung out for a bit. We got everything all packed up and left at 4pm.

We are 4 days from Belden.

Skip ahead a little. I was 2 days from Belden and right away in the morning I was not having a good day. My left knee and shine splints was hurting. I kept trying to stretch it out. I took vitamin I. Didn't help. I was hiking slow. I came to a road crossing where I could hitch into Quincy. I told my friends I would meet them in Belden in a couple days I waited 3 hours till I was finally picked up by this really nice lady who had passed by over an hour ago and she felt bad for me since I was still there. Haha. The Quincy Laport road just has no traffic. There was tons of logger trucks. But only one car every half hour it seems.

She dropped me at the grocery store. I picked up a few things, went to subway for dinner and got a hotel room and had a nice night in the room resting and watching movies. I had planned to skip a head to Belden. I couldn't really afford to get further behind schedule. Plus I was enjoying hiking with Steal Toe and Lowlander.

The next day I caught a ride to Belden instantly. Actually before I even started to hitch. I met a guy in the gas station who offered to give me a ride. So I planned to take 2 more days off and hopefully my knee and shine splints would be better. Or at least manageable.

Arriving in Belden was cool there was a huge party about to go down that weekend. I ran into some more friends



Danger spoon, Cracker Jack, Dust Bunny and Cheese Burger. Some of us called the Braatens and Brenda came to pick a few of us up. I really liked her. She has a great since of humor. Her little haven was sweet to. It's like a little apartment off their house all set up for us hikers.


I had a box waiting with a note from Jordan.

I did my laundry again and spent the night in a nice little bed. Blister was also there so that was cool getting to see him again. He left early the next day.

Packed up my stuff and back to Belden. To check out this party/rave.






Some more Friends. Doc, karaoke, Pockets, Hugs and Didgeridoo.



That night was awesome. The music started at 7pm and went until 7am. The people that was putting on the rave let the PCT hikers in for free and let us go back into their campsite and gave us food and beers! It was sweet.


video is short and  you can't really see anything. I should have taken another one but I didn't think it was going to turn out.

Crazy party everyone dressed all crazy too. It was fun to people watch.

There was a bunch of us who slept just across the river from town and up above the rest stop there was a nice big flat area for us to camp. The music was so loud even with ear plugs in it didn't seem to help much. I was able to sleep pretty decent actually. I only woke up twice. The music was playing in my dreams haha.

The next day was shitty...




Look at all those tents!

So I was only 3 miles in and my knee started hurting pretty bad. I should have turned around and went back to Belden. But I would stop and rest and I would feel better for a little bit. I only went 18 miles. I left before Steal Toe and Lowlander. I expected they would catch me since I was going so slow. But they didn't.

The next day I went another 18 very painful miles. My knee is killing me. It's my IT band. I must have inflamed my bursa cause it keeps hurting after 3 days rest, vitamin I , ice and stretching. By far this was the worst most painful day on the trail. I walked sun up to sun down and barley got 18 miles. Every step is pain. So terrible I feel sick even thinking about it a month later. Nothing I could do but just keep hiking. I was a little sad to, I got to the midpoint monument and I was by myself. No one to celebrate with. It was bitter sweet. I was so happy to make it halfway...






but also sad cause I knew this was going to be the end when I get to Chester. I'm not going to be able to take a zero or two to feel better. This is going to take a week or more.

At this point it's harder to quit then it is to keep going...

Mentally I feel good and I'm happy. I want to keep hiking. Physically I'm breaking down. Even when I didn't hurt the miles where harder and harder to do. Instead of getting stronger I'm getting weaker. I don't know what going on. My body is calling it quits. I guess I better listen.

I camped a mile from the mid point monument.

The craziest/freakiest thing ever happen that night...

- Posted from my iPhone