Author: gadget

zero day

also shoutout to this cow that i shared a moment with

i spent time on this zero with a couple of section hikers who had the same tent that i did on the at. i also met a fellow with a wild exotic instrument that defies description i took a shower with a garden hose and bucket as well. this is the caliber of the zero day. now shoutouts are to all the small moments of this day lost to time

I stayed in Warner Springs last night after a solid 19 mile day. Crossed the 100 mile mark so that was fun. It’s cool if you can’t tell from that video, some doofus was holding his finger over the camera when he was filming. Yesterday was a delight.

I started up on a point overlooking the valley we had just come through. Third Gate water cache was cool, but i forgot to take a picture even though i was there while i ate two bagels. There were stacks and stacks of Costco water jugs, about as much as would be on a shelf at any given time at Costco. From there it was 10 to the next water source (which had a problem with mice dying in it so i waited a few more miles until the next one.)

I really appreciate on the PCT how often you can see the trail ahead and also see how much progress you’ve made. It’s cool rounding a corner and seeing the next half hour of your future drawn into the mountainsides before you.

While i was resting at dead mouse water a hiker i met back at Mount Laguna rolled by and gave me a beer. He was hanging out with his girlfriend and giving out healing cans of mana.

A few miles up i hit Warner Springs Meadows and everything was perfect. I threw on the new Decemberists and it was pretty great. There’s something about meadows though, they make my soul feel big. I was on top of the world rolling through those fields only not literally rolling because there was poo everywhere.

Warner Springs has a golf restaurant that i’m sitting in now. I dunno, i’m short of words today. My body and my brain are idling, and my spirit is still reeling from that meadow surprise yesterday.

surprisingly enough it smells fine here

meadow day still lives fresh in the mind

an entire day spent with trail in sight, cutting serpentine paths into my past and future, conjured so easily still

pct with big idyllic nature energy confirmed. another past gadget, but future gadget from these words, has words for it on the ridgeline outside of wrightwood -every mile of this trail is a postcard-

past gadget and present gadget have this in common: we both spent way to much money on bloody marys that we drank while typing these words

Yeah thru hiking fit right back on like a fitted glove, or like a better simile that encapsulates something coming easily.

The first day was a bit iffy getting the feel for it all. Turns out my Sawyer filter is a reject since i used it last, i have to backwash it very often and forcefully to get a solid flow off of it. Also i didn’t pack a brush, so i’ve been doing a hand comb through it to fight off the dreadlock menace. I hit the trail kind of late that first day, at around noon, so i did about 8 miles before finding a lovely spot overlooking the direction the trail came from. Met Weatherman, a guy who did the AT last year and had horrible weather whenever someone came to visit him. Also a girl from Alabama who doesn’t have a trail name yet.

That first day i only saw a handful of hikers, but i’ve been churning through so many this week. What sticks out the most is how much i suck at remembering the normal human names, people who don’t have fun more abstract trail names yet. I feel like a jerk because of that but also we’re all friends out here already, and i’m pretty okay at remembering stuff about them so it’s whatever.

The second day i did a bit less than 15 and had the phrase “hot toddie” stuck in my head. I spent a couple few hours at a deli where i ate too much and saw a handful more of hiker trash.

The third day was a lonely one. The climb up to Mount Laguna was a slow and steady one that i didn’t complete. I spend the whole day listening to podcasts. Shoutout to Paul F Tompkins who is one of the funniest dudes for his podcast Spontaneanation also his silly laugh. I also got real close to the finale of the first season of The Adventure Zone which is super legit unless you’re one of my boys then don’t listen to it cuz i’ll probably steal some ideas from it for our D&D group.

At around the 50 mile mark on the 4th day the wind got angry. It ranged from blustery day, to “oop i gotta catch my footing,” to “okay i have to stop walking and brace myself so i don’t get blown off trail.” It stuck around for a couple miles and i had a grand ol time.

Camping that night was difficult. I cowboyed just in my quilt cocoon in a dip behind a hill hoping for some wind breakage. Sleep left a lot of room for Jesus that night, i don’t even remember ever falling asleep. Eventually the sun started to rise and i resigned myself to “waking up” and hiking.

Turns out i hadn’t seen the full fury of those mountains yet. For the next 10 miles i was getting bullied all over the place by that wind. I was even on the finale of The Adventure Zone and i had to keep pausing it until i found occasional breaks in the wind. After those 10 miles the trail made its way off the ridgeline and i could stop and eat the grapefruit trail magic i found during my skirmish with a wind titan.

The wind was not done yet though. On the next set of mountains it returned with all its malice and assassinated my handkerchief. Poor baby blue did nothing wrong, he was just a snot rag in the wrong place at the wrong time. Somewhere on that mountain he was blown off of my backpack, and now he lives up there i guess. For the remainder of the day my sleeves were coated in the constant drips that used to rest in his domain.

I crashed out at around 20 miles. I still had a couple hours of daylight left but boyo i was beat. I found a set of rocks that did a decent job fighting the wind, which thankfully threw in the towel at around 10pm and let me get some sleep.

I set out bright and early for the hitch into Julian the next day. I got to the road crossing and found Ghost waiting there to give people a lift the 12 miles up to there. Julian is so great i’m not sure that i didn’t die in those winds. Mom’s Pies gives a free slice and some ice cream to thru hikers, and the cider mill gives some cider and candy. The highlight is Carmen’s though.

Carmen’s is a super hiker friendly restaurant. Their burger was massive, but anyone can get that. Hikers get one free beer, unlimited free pop and coffee, a discount on beer, access to a washer and dryer, and we can sleep here for free. Out of fear of the Law of Snoring, i crashed out on the porch. I’m writing all this up inside actually, drinking some of that free coffee and thinking about what i’m going to do for breakfast. There are 6 other hikers here, we’re all getting our new media time in now just staring at our glowy rectangles.

Shoutout to the crazy sassy waitress who was here yesterday, i’m really sad i didn’t get a picture. She was giving us sass all day, telling us all kinds of jokes, sometimes recruiting us for some task around the restaurant. She told us about how she used to sleep under the deck when she got too drunk, and how great it was finally having grandkids. When i was passing out my Reese’s Cups (they weren’t doing it for me) she came by, grabbed one, and told us about the one correct way to eat a Reese’s. She then surgically ate only the chocolate, and threw the peanut butter center off into the bushes and walked away. I love that woman she was great.

That’s it i guess, morale is high. There’s only 3 water sources in the next 24 miles so i’ve got some work ahead of me but after my nero into town i’m feline groovy. Shoutouts to the really chatty cat who was hanging out by the hiker box behind Carmen’s. I’ll see if he’s there and i can get a picture.

update: oh man he’s back

oofda he’s pearly white in socal i bet he’s gonna have to pay way too much for sunscreen in a day or two

i returned to the laguna section in january 2020 and wow that was a whole time again. something about me and that ridgeline and howling winds K I S S I N G

carmens was gone from julien then. who can say what is gone from the pct now?

well the internet surely can quantify the changes but i don’t care to look because man current year sure is something

-hiker new media time-

The reality of this hike is starting to set in now that i’m doing the rounds and seeing everyone off. Saturday i said goodbye to a handful of friends, Sunday was Easter so i said goodbye to my uncle, grandma, and her ancient dog, and today and tomorrow i’m seeing some friends who live here in MI.

here’s my grandma’s ancient dog, since we were all leaving he didn’t want to stand still for a good picture and I didn’t want him to lecture me about kids these days and their smartphones

The sentiment is usually the same. Please don’t die, this is a life changing adventure, how do you eat, will you post pictures, or a combination of all of these. Shoutouts to the guy who got coffee right as i was leaving work for the last time who told me that this will make me into a man before backtracking a lot with “not to say you aren’t a man now” over and over again.

I got presents from some of my regulars. Money from one and a bindle. Not too sure how that made me feel though, i don’t exactly like getting presents from friends and family, let alone people that i give drugs too. I do see some of them more than friends and family, but like who the hell am i? That’s a sentiment I regularly feel, especially when i’m writing. There are so many people all over the world all doing so many things, living so many different lives. I get how that means that i have a special perspective and interpretation of the world that is all my own, but like who even cares?

also my sister got me a silly walk in a video game. shoutout to moons-over-my-hammy, the fated hero of tamriel who was suffering from crippling depression but now is really coming out of his shell

Of course i was writing that before having finished doing all my rounds. Between then and now my work wife planned a surprise going away party for me. I got cards, cupcakes, food, gift cards, and my boss paid for everyone’s dinner. I’ve gotten a lot of love in the past week, more than i’ve gotten in the past when i left jobs or when i went out on the AT. It feels nice and weird. I’m not a fan of how much stuff i had in my possession at the end of that night though, i have enough stuff as it is. I was gifted a solid couple days of food though so that’s not too bad.

hi biggby crew also a customer is it okay if i use real human names on here

Now i’m sitting in the airport waiting for my flight to my 3 hour layover to my following flight. I’ve got that good nervous feeling going in my chest, the same thing i get every time i’m shipping out to some change in lifestyle. I don’t exactly recall how i was feeling when i was on the bus going to Georgia for the AT, i think i was more in shock, like i had no idea what to expect or if i could pull it off. I still feel that way now even though i do kind of know what to expect. Not in a “i’m gonna bail” sort of way, i’m definitely doing this. But when i was looking ahead in my AT guidebook at the final slope up Katahdin, or at how imposing the climbs in the Whites were, it never felt like i was going to get there until one day eventually i was there. It was hard physically, but ultimately i had to just keep existing out there and eventually i made it.

Rereading that sure looks like i’m all set to pound out another long trail but boy i still got that little bit of shake hanging out in my chest. Thinking about all the humans i told about doing this puts the pressure on for sure, i felt that on the AT. What will have to happen to me to make me need to stop a thru hike? Hopefully not something fatal, i’ve got too many people who said they’d kick my ass if i die out here.

shout into that void, past gadget. future gadget here again from 2022 making sure these earliest fields i sowed still provide nourishment. first time being back in these moments with these words so i started where a proper story should.

luv u miss u biggby crew

-keep existing and eventually i made it- -have to happen to me to need to stop a thru hike- spoilers i hopped off trail to pursue a more personal caliber of adventure, free of the shackles of the thru-hiker brand of freedom. tunnel vison perhaps? standing at a tale’s terminus sure sets the mind alight