The advantages of a trail family are numerous: cheap accomodation, mental boosts when you need it, always someone to talk to. And yes, I realize I have been critical of trail families as well. But hey, Coyote and I tried to overtake my current family and we failed, so yeah, not much to be done about it. A disadvantage is that you can get isolated from the people around you. One only has so much energy for social activity after all. So I made a conscious effort to talk to others today.
First up was Sheets, someone who had optimized the trail completely, down to mileage and gear swaps along the way. To him the trail seemed another challenge to be conquered, something that has to be completed efficiently and timely.
Second was Half ‘n Half. She is part of our group, but since I haven’t spoken to her much I still count her as new. Canadian and newly graduated software engineer, she is also the youngest of the group and therefore closest in age to me. This is her first long hike, although it seems she has done a couple solo hikes in Canada. When I asked her about the Canadian village that suddenly went up in flames some time ago during wildfire season, she started laughing uncontrollably. She’s very sweet otherwise.
Last was Beetle. Resident of Memphis, Tennessee, he has a dream of becoming an artist or doing tattoos, even though he has a degree in biology. I quite liked his attitude towards work and life in general, not being afraid to have a dream.
I had a brief conversation with Disaster. Apparently he’d been to the Budpharm in Wrightwood as well and even knew Sappy and Dirty Water, two people who’d been there for months. It felt good to talk to someone who understood the batshit insanity that went on there.
The water source today was the best we’d had so far: a clear, large stream coming from the ground, surrounded by lush grass and even a reclining chair. Big Oil described it as the place where Fiji gets their water and he was not wrong.
We did 26 miles again, another marathon!
