Bugs and Blisters

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

19 miles

Today sucked. Every step was a new nightmare (Tyler and Ike should get that reference).

The flies and gnats were relentless all morning and we had 19 miles to make today, all on the banks of the canyon formed by Deep Creek. It was so hot. I’ll let videos do most of the talking.

We made it to the hot springs where I had to sit in the shade and eat to get some calories so I could keep going. The hot springs were…underwhelming.

Lots of naked locals and not in a good way. Apparently we just caught it on a bad day, as other hikers would later tell us they had a great time and were surrounded by mostly other PCT hikers, but for us it was just sketchy and weird. Homeless people, lots of fat, old white guys, and just generally a methy vibe. Oh well.

So we skipped the soak, refueled and hiked on. We crossed the rainbow bridge (another PCT landmark I had been wanting to see).

Six hard miles later, made it to the highway where we called Alan, a trail angel who shuttles hikers to the Joshua Inn.

The Joshua Inn is really just a bar that lets hikers camp out in their huge dirt side lot, but it was a good hang out and they had beers and good food, which is what we hikers care about.

We paid $5 to camp and another $5 for a cold shower. My feet were absolutely fried and I had a lot of thinking to do this night.