Day 13: Water
Less than twenty kilometers to Highway 74, that is, the return to something we can call civilization. The knee remains in bad shape after a morning of ups and downs; without an ibuprofen, I wouldn't have made it to the camp without pain tonight. However, tomorrow, despite a cumulative positive elevation gain of almost 700 meters (provided that the app I use does the calculations correctly, and I don't trust it too much), we will arrive at the long-awaited Paradise Valley Cafe. We will then have to find a place to sleep before moving towards Idyllwild, but we will think about that tomorrow evening.
Today was the most difficult day on the water resources front. Zero reliable sources except for a tiny muddy trickle – the water had a ferrous aftertaste – about halfway through the stage. In this first part of the PCT, which will last a long time (more difficult desert sections await us further on), the key to every day is water. Not the place where you will pitch your tent or where you will eat, but how long you will have to walk before finding more water. And it’s absurd to think that, when (and if) I arrive in the Sierra Nevada, water will instead become an obstacle: the alpine style creeks we’ll have to ford several times will be our worst enemies, objectively among the most dangerous obstacles on trail.
These days I am walking with a group of five people: besides Fabio – who now walks much faster than me with my aching knee – there are Judith, a Danish woman who interrupted her thru-hike in 2022 due to an injury; Tina, a German who loves spicy noodles with peanut butter for dinner; Jerky, trail name1 of Lena, a Franco-Belgian girl, also very fast at walking despite her quite large backpack (a sixty-liter full to the brim). I can't say how long the group will last, but I've realized that these kinds of questions have a short life on the trail: you think about water, food, and how to ration resources to face the kilometers that await us. Everything else is a bonus.
A trail name is a nickname that you can’t choose for yourself, but will be assigned to you by someone else. It’s easier to recognize and remember people thanks to these nicknames.↩