Day 110 : A mental challenge

7th August 2013
Mile 1522 to mile 1552 : Castle Crags wilderness to Chilcoot creek
Mileage : 30
Average mileage since day 101 : 21.7

Rocky and T-Rex are definitely more disciplined than me in the morning. I am not a morning person, I never have been and never will be, but on the trail morning miles are easy miles, and so it is always best to get up early and take advantage of the cool morning air. My morning routine starts with me hitting the snooze button whenever the alarm goes off, which is around 5:30. I postpone getting up and out of my sleeping bag until I hear the other two emerge from their tent which is when I reluctantly start packing up. The othersdo most of their routine in their tent which means i continually play catch-up as they finish off. Invariably they get going about 15 minutes before me, and I spend the first hour or so trying to catch them. I like hiking at the back in the morning as it motivates me to hike fast and warm up. Today was no different as we started our hiking day. For most of the morning their were fantastic views of the Castle Craggs to be had, which are unbelievably aptly named. From both sides they look like th crenelated walls and turrets of a medieval castle, Conway in particular sprang to mind that morning as I looked across the valley across the trail twisting and turning its way along the ridge tops. Additonally, the craggs, and a large part of the upcoming 2 sections, are gthe wonderfully picturesque granite to which i had become so accustomed in the Sierra Nevada, as opposed to the dull volcanic brown of the cascades. Dr Slosh, who seems to have almost encyclopaedic knowledge of all things pertaining to the outdoors on the west coast of the US, told me that geologically speaking, the granite outcrops through which the trail is currently meandering are part of the Sierra Nevada which got separated through plate tectonic movements. Regardless of their geological origins, I was pleased to be walking through granite once again, even if it is only for a few miles. I was less pleased however, with the trail today as infuriatingly we mostly traveled west and south. I keep reminding myself that I am on the Pacific Crest Trail and should not be disheartened when the trail stubbornly refuses to take me more directly towards Canada, and that each mile is ultimately taking me there just at its own leisure and not mine. that being said it was hard looking back north at the end of the day being able to see the circuitous trail carved into the mountainside and knowning how little linear distance had been achieved, and knowing that i was farther away from Canada than I was that morning. After lunch I did a straight 13 miles to the designated campsite, and was shattered by the time I got there. I sat by the trail and waited for the other two to join me, and was treated to an encounter with a pair of does that came to within 2 or 3 meters of me as they too used the trail to commute down to the spring. It was spell binding to watch them cautiously approach both me and the water  one step at a time. I sat there quietly without trying to get out my camera as I knew I would spook them and send them disappearing into the forest. The spell was broken by the arrival of Rocky and T-Rex, who were listening to something aloud with some mini speaker that they carry and who thus announced their imminent arrival to the deer long before I was aware of their approach. As I had, Rocky and T-Rex had noticed the trail's meandering behaviour today and had harboured feelings towards it not too dissimilar to my own. We hoped that tomorrow would be a better day, but upon inspection of the maps discovered we were in for another west-bound day. I can't speak for the other two but that knowledge sapped the last of my energy for the day and I retired to my sleeping bag for deep restorative sleep before another tough day on the PCT.