“Any chance you guys are going north from here?” I asked as many people around the Lassen National Park Visitor’s Center as I could. The only people who seemed to be going the right way didn’t have room to give me a ride, so I made my way back to the road itself to stick out my thumb for a little while longer on my quest to get up to Mt. Shasta.

“You’re welcome to camp with us tonight, and we’ve got food and beer to share,” Chris told me from the window of his Subaru Station wagon. “We’re going to coast down to Chester tomorrow, but tonight we’re camping up here at site 19. You’re welcome to join us if it gets too late and you don’t get a ride, just look for the bright green tent.” Chris and Nikki had been among the many who couldn’t give me a ride because they were going the wrong way. In their case they were in fact so low on gas that trying to drive me farther north would have just stranded us all.

I thanked Chris for his offer and told myself I’d stay out there by the road for another hour and then head over to site 19 if I hadn’t found anything by then. Twenty minutes later I came to the conclusion that there was no chance of getting north and out of the park that night, and if I was going to camp in Lassen anyways I might as well stay with some cool peeps in an actual campsite where I could drink beer and eat hot food and have access to flush toilets (still a huge luxury even though I haven’t had to dig a cat-hole in 2 weeks now).

I felt so lucky to have met these cool new friends, and though the gas concerns seemed to indicate bad luck on their part, they’d already brought good luck to others that same day and been called the Luck Dragons. After eating enough of their food and drinking their beer, I officially bestowed upon them the title of trail angels and gave these luck dragons their own trail names – Nikki is now Falcor the Dragon (named after the Luck dragon from Neverending Story) and Chris is Luckle – taken from the saying “Luck’ll do.”

Back when Falcor was Nikki she studied Environmental Science in San Diego, while Luckle (known then as Chris) repaired air conditioners. Now that she has her Bachelors Degree they’re spending some time road tripping through National Parks as they decide next steps in life, and I’m so glad they happened to be in Lassen National Park yesterday.

Later yesterday evening we were all invited over to the Wilcox’s campsite, where there was a campfire and even more beer (super delicious beer that I’ll have to find again). This morning Todd and Terri Wilcox, who were driving farther north in the park anyways, took me as far as Manzanita Lake, giving me the grand tour of Lassen National Park along the way. The sprained ankle is a bump in the road, but the world is full of Trail Angels and new friends, and I’m so incredibly grateful to all who have helped make this trip possible for me.

And for that I was rewarded with fantastic new friends, ice for my ankle, and Lord of the Rings.

I wanted to hike on, but I listened to my ankle and took the time off it. Ice is good for the ankle, and Lord of the Rings is good for my happiness.

On the Trail Again … Or Not

I thought I was ready to hike again, but my ankle thinks differently. Listen to your body they say, so I’m looking for odd jobs in Northern California while I wait for the ankle to be ready.

A fire started near Red’s Meadows mere days before I got there. It was under control, and it was far enough away from the trail that it posed no serious threat to any of us PCT hikers, but it did make for a couple of days walking through smoke, which wasn’t super fun. On the plus side, the smoke was nowhere near as bad as it got in Portland during the Eagle Creek fire last year.

For more information about the fire click here.

“When do you get your trail-runners back?” Enterprise asked me as we hiked down from Mather Pass in mid-June.

“Mammoth, why?”

“Promise me you’ll be more careful then, those ankles will be unprotected.”

I’d just tripped on the steep rocky downhill and scraped up my knee, so my friend’s caution and concern were entirely justified. I’ve never been great at the whole sustained attention thing, so even at the best of times I’m a bit of a klutz. Out here I’ve tripped so many times that I suppose I’m lucky it took 947.5 miles before one of the times I went down resulted in an actual injury.

As Saturday, June 30 began, I found that the most remarkable part of the day was merely the number of hikers we ran into who weren’t thru-hikers. We were in Yosemite after all, and it was essentially a holiday weekend, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise to run into so many people with “normal” lives, but it was weird not running into any PCT hikers aside from Enterprise.

We got to Tuolumne Meadows in the late morning and, hungry hikers that we were, made a beeline for the food in the General Store, gorging ourselves on bagel, avocado, cheese, and bologna sandwiches (cheaper than the burgers next door). Then once our hiker hunger had been momentarily sated it was safe to shop for the resupply. Between this all-important food business and some socializing with other thru-hikers, it was afternoon by the time we hit the trail again. We planned to hike a little over 8 miles to put us at 15 total for that day. There were some rocky bits, but overall the terrain was the flattest, easiest, and safest we’ve walked in hundreds of miles.

I’d promised to be more careful, but with such easy terrain, it was easy to let my attention wander a bit. I took a step, and then next thing I knew I was down, having felt a crack and sharp sudden pain as I fell.

“No! It can’t end right here, right now, like this!” I was terrified.

Luckily Enterprise was right there, and he helped me off the trail and out of my pack. My ankle hurt, and it hurt bad. I was crying because of the pain and because of the fear, but luckily when we checked we found that nothing was broken. I was in too much pain to hike any further, so Enterprise found the closest possible campsite and then came back to walk me to it, even giving me a piggy-back ride up the hill from the trail to the spot he’d chosen and then going back for my pack.

I felt so useless as I watched him set up camp for both of us, but I was in too much pain to try and do anything but watch. That night it was bad enough Enterprise wondered aloud if he’d have to carry me the 5.5 miles back to Tuolumne Meadows.

Luckily with the help of some ibuprofen, I was able to hike out the following morning. It was slow going at first, even with Enterprise carrying my pack for me, but by the time we got back to the road I was hiking faster than some of the non-thru-hiking backpackers. I hiked 5.5 miles in 6 hours, which is one of my slowest days yet, but I suppose it’s not too bad considering the circumstances.

Oh and don’t worry, I’ve made sure to stay off of the ankle since Sunday. It’s healing, and I hope to be back on trail sometime in the coming week.