29th June: Day 70 – Mile 1,097
Back to South Lake Tahoe to resupply and restart.
This is a bad day.
I won’t dwell on the details but for context, my long term relationship ends in a phone call here.
I walk to the highway and put my thumb out, and the global hiker fraternity takes me in a relay back up to the trail (though questions me more intricately about snow conditions than I was quite ready to engage with).
Back on trail, I think my leg / groin strain is better from the time off – but about 7 miles in I slip in the snow, and feel something go again. It’s not like it’s particularly steep – I slide very slowly down into a meltwater puddle at the bottom.
I sit there for a while then put my tent up. Lying on my back I can’t lift my right leg off the ground.
And then I realise I have the wrong permit.
So ends a very painful day, and so begins phase 3: the heart break and groin ache section of the trail. To everyone else this area is called The Desolation Wilderness – which sounds like much the same thing… 
30th June: Day 71 – Mile 1,120
Another bad day. I decide to quit at Truckee in 30 miles.
When I first heard of the PCT I read stories of thru-hikers and the things they went through, especially in 2017, and I loved the idea of having such determination that you could fight through any obstacle.
But I feel that the combination of mental and physical pain has defeated me.
Today my left leg goes through a snow bridge over what should have been an easily crossable creek, but haven’t got the strength in my right leg to get out, so am stuck with one leg dangling into the icy meltwater. I get out eventually by breaking the bridge apart, dropping into the creek, and wading out, with somewhat less dignity than what I went in with.
I realise my leg won’t heal until after the snow, but I’ve no idea how long that will be, it could be hundreds more miles (it isn’t! 
)
)
1st July: Day 72 – Mile 1,143
I meet Seth Rogen here. Someone told me he was on the trail 700 miles ago. That is, a guy who apparently looked just like
Seth Rogen but only when he wore a particular hat – so, with that watertight case, was given this as a trail name. Doesn’t work any more – he’s lost too much weight going through the Sierra, and now he’s just another skinny stoner.
I also meet Weatherman – he will end up keeping me company for the next 250 miles or so. A man of strong views, instant recall of all episodes of Community, and an aspiring vegan (it might be easy in Hoxton, but try it on trail).
I don’t know all that yet though, I’m still in pain, and I don’t know that there are only a few more days of snow. However, tomorrow I’ll cross the highway that goes to Truckee and I will not quit.
Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe continues. It’s famous for being big.
I felt mocked by this sign
As if cycling was otherwise an obvious option right now
2nd July: Day 73 – Mile 1,167
I meet Max today. He’s lost his girlfriend. He had gone ahead and told her to meet him at the summit, but she never arrived.
He has applied everything that a privileged home counties education has taught him – he has satellite messaged his dad to ask him what to do. (I know, because this is exactly what I do in a few days when I get bitten by a tick – and I’m probably 10 years older).
He decides to wait at the summit while I go ahead and will message him if I find her. It seems likely she has gone ahead – she sounds pretty tough and unlikely to hang about, and in reality the only other option is that she’s fallen off the side of this icy traverse.
I do find her a bit later, and she seems pretty pissed about having to go back to get him.
3rd July: Day 74 – Mile 1,191
I meet Max today. He’s lost his girlfriend. He had gone ahead and told her to meet him at the summit, but she never arrived.
He has applied everything that a privileged home counties education has taught him – he has satellite messaged his dad to ask him what to do. (I know, because this is exactly what I do in a few days when I get bitten by a tick – and I’m probably 10 years older).
He decides to wait at the summit while I go ahead and will message him if I find her. It seems likely she has gone ahead – she sounds pretty tough and unlikely to hang about, and in reality the only other option is that she’s fallen off the side of this icy traverse.
I do find her a bit later, and she seems pretty pissed about having to go back to get him.
4th July: Day 75 – Mile 1,207
Short version: a fantastic day celebrating the throwing off of our British oppressors (its Independence Day!)
Long version:
I walk down the highway to Sierra City and order a cup a tea. Weatherman said it was my British accent that caused panic in the young waiter:
Waiter: I’m afraid we don’t really, it’s just, I’m not sure, I think the best I can do is, I can get you.. a cup of hot water.. and.. a tea bag?
Me: and some milk?
Waiter: yes, we have milk!
Me: … ok… great… I mean, together those things do constitute a cup of tea..
Waiter: right! <runs away>
(Of course, in Britain, we’re used to digging the cups of tea fresh out of the ground, but I’d appreciate anything that even vaguely resembles a cup of tea at this point)
The general store has a place for thru-hikers to sit and charge phones around the back and we sit there for hours eating burgers and fries and soda etc
.
Lots of fun people here, including:
– Weatherman, who heads off early.
– Eleven, who dressed my knee wound after Bear Creek 300 miles ago (and who tells me that Coach and Lefty skipped the rest of the Sierra after that incident – in which they sustained guilt but no actual injury; and also tells us about living in a commune of 7 people who pool their salaries)
– Renaissance – renamed ‘Grizzz’ by his new group (I later work out this is a splinter of the ‘Track Team’ / ‘Group of 15’ last seen 400 miles ago at Glen pass) who he now decides to hitch back 50 miles to rejoin
– Alexia! (Tippy toes) making rapid progress since I last saw her in the Sierrra, despite frost bitten toes, she’s currently southbound, and gives me news of 13 who she saw hundreds of miles ahead going at a sickening pace
Leave at 3pm, walk 12 miles back up into the mountains, reach a real campground. In the growing dark someone shouts out ‘we’re giving beer to random thru-hikers!’… to which I shout back ‘I’m a random thru-hiker!’
Turns out the campground requires payment and pre-booking, and is full for 4th July, but weatherman who arrived earlier has talked his (and then my) way into a family barbecue (another test for an aspiring vegan) and they are very pleased with us and give us beers and fresh fruit and let us camp in their plot. Tomorrow I will feel a bit worse for wear – but that’s another story.
The general store of Sierra City (just a name – population 225)
A photo of grasshopper’s from when he was here with 13 a couple of weeks before me
It’s not a trick.
The snow is gone.
5th July: Day 76 – Mile 1,232
Last night I put my tent up drunk and in the dark. I wake up this morning in a slightly confused state, with my ribs feeling bruised as if I’ve been beaten up.
After about an hour of walking I get around to investigating it and find a tick has buried itself halfway into my rib cage – it looks very sci-fi horror.
I’ve removed ticks before but this was so deep we couldn’t do it properly and it’s head was left embedded.
The trail, like the internet, contains every possible opinion on every subject, so I had:
– there’s no real danger from this
– It might be dangerous but you will work that out later when you get sick
– It’s very dangerous and you need to get to a hospital within 48 hours
To get to a hospital within 48 hours I need to go back the way I came. Going forward, the next stop is in 130 miles at Chester.
Weatherman thinks the science-led decision would be to go back. But in reality ‘the science’ seems to contain a spectrum of opinion. And going back would definitely be unpopular with my brain. Therefore, I take the political decision to continue to Chester, and just cross my fingers this doesn’t lead to contracting a horrible disease. (Postscript, February 2021: I think I was mocking Boris Johnson’s approach to early COVID lockdown when I wrote this. Much like Brexit, feel like COVID jokes have worn thin now.)
6th to 8th July: Day 76 to 79 – Mile 1,307
Day 77 – mile 1,259 – 6th July 2019
Day 78 – mile 1,282 – 7th July 2019
Day 79 – mile 1,307 – 8th July 2019
Day 78 – mile 1,282 – 7th July 2019
Day 79 – mile 1,307 – 8th July 2019
At the road to Quincey there are a couple of older ladies in an RV who come out every year because one of their sons thru-hiked and people gave him food, so they wanted to do the same.
They’re cooking eggs and I arrive to find Weatherman’s explanation of veganism in full swing. The broad concept is confusing to many out here and he has overshot into a potentially bewildering commentary of vegan attitudes to honey – but notes that he doesn’t count honey in his thing so don’t worry. They look worried.
We talk about tick bites and Lyme disease and whether I should hitch down to Quincey. They tell us about the year a German got airlifted out to Quincey from here. And about a Russian who ran out of food and was on the point of collapsing when she reached their RV.
Later I meet Oberon. He says ‘hello, I’m Oberon’. I say ‘you’re from Leeds’, which impresses him, but it’s just because over the last few hundred miles people have heard my accent and said ‘have you met Oberon, I couldn’t understand a word he said – he’s from Leeds’
We reach Belden, which is a general store/bar and RV park, where they host events. Last night the event was a big staff party to celebrate getting through a series of festivals. Everything is looking a bit post apocalyptic – especially the staff. Some are still going – someone offers Weatherman a beer (it’s 8am – weatherman pours it into his hydration bladder). We order breakfast. Weatherman explains veganism. The waitress looks like she’s going to be sick on him.
9th & 10th July: Day 80 & 81 – Mile 1,331
I pass the half way point and then hitch into Chester to resupply.
The NHS has a completely defensible position on not hosing down the general population with antibiotics, and would not give me treatment for my tick bite at this stage.
Luckily I’m in the US now and they take very seriously the 2% chance the tick bite is infected (and, rightly or wrongly, so do I after meeting someone with long term Lyme disease in Scotland) – the standard procedure here is to treat first, ask questions later.
The question asked later is did I actually have Lyme disease – to which the answer will turn out to be (almost certainly) no, based on the blood test results I get in a few weeks.
But the treatment first is to take a few weeks of doxycycline.
As I understand it, I paid extra for an ironic treatment – the drugs come in a container totally covered with a bright red label with the words ‘Avoid direct sunlight while taking this medication’ printed in large friendly letters.
This will be a challenge while walking 25 miles a day in Northern California in Summer.
This fairly uninspiring sight/site is the half way point of the PCT – mile 1,325.
Some people reach here and feel a great sense of achievement. If I’m honest it makes me think more like a maths puzzle: if after 50% of the PCT, Nick is 75% dead – at what mile of the PCT will he be 100% dead?
More nice people willing to help hikers at the highway crossing to get into Chester.
I greatly appreciate the lift I get from a friendly guy who is passing. The footwell is a bit over ankle deep in fast food containers and my main thought is, I wish I had this much fast food right now.