Mile 1416 to 1440
The crew is (mostly) back together again! Dayhike strode in yesterday evening after a long day on trail and received a hearty greeting after being separated from the group for the past couple weeks while he has been hiking with some friends from Texas. The morning came too soon, and we got an early start to in the first chilly morning in a couple weeks.
We hiked across a huge dam where an enormous amount of water was rushing out of a six-foot diameter pipe. I stood and watched the force of the water for a while in the early light. Jetpack is all about goals, and today's was to do 10 miles before breaking for lunch, 8 miles for a break, and 6 miles for dinner and camp. The group embraced the idea and we hiked quickly, making time for about an hour break at each stop.
I spent a good time honking with Maverick, a third grade teacher who wears tiger print short shorts, has a base weight of 7 pounds (he sent his puffy home at the last stop, leaving him with literally only the clothes on his body (a shirt and short shorts) to his name, and lives in a storage unit in Salt Lake City. He is awesome.
He’s a huge sports fan and dyes his beard blue while going to every Arizona football game, a true super fan. He knew every mascot of EVERY college in Ohio. He likes to think I am the biggest fan of OSU football and teases me about Urban Myer. He rocks out to heavy metal while he hikes and flips his hiking poles upside down to use as an air guitar at least 4 times a day. He’s another fun, quirky and gentle human hiking the PCT.
To keep our “Animal losing something and having it returned to him” theme, he dropped his PCT bandana on the way out of camp, and quite distraught he laid down across the trail to take a nap and consider hiking back for it. He was woken by Patch, who happened to find it and pick it up, returning it to its rightful owner. 3 for 3!
