Start:  0630 - Upper Shake Campground
End:  1830 - Hikertown
Miles (today): 25.5 (24 PCT, 1.5 off)
Miles (cumulative): 534.5 (433.5 PCT, 89.5 alternate, 11.5 off) 

Oh how I wish I wouldn't have chosen to stop hiking at the first campground yesterday!  We should have hiked the additional 5 miles to the second campground (with water) as we originally planned.  For some reason I thought we only had to hike 17 miles to Hikertown - silly me, the reason I had 17 in my mind is because Hikertown is at PCT mile 417.5 ish - 24 miles away from the Upper Shake Campground.  Add in the off-trail miles we hiked to get water and you have a very long day.  

We didn't have enough water for breakfast this morning so we did what I've always wanted to do - we hiked for a few hours and then ate breakfast.  The only thing wrong with this scenario was that we had to hike quite a bit off the trail to get to the water so we could eat breakfast.  

Admittedly, I was a bit put out that we were going off trail for water. I wanted to walk a few more hours to a water source right on the trail because I didn't think it was wise to add unnecessary miles to an already high-mileage day.  Plus, the "guzzler" (aka a cistern) was supposedly tricky to find.  It all seemed like a bad idea to me.  However, as we followed the directions given to us by TW Horsewater (trail names are weird!) I started to look around and realized how beautiful it was there.  It truly is about the journey and not the destination - suddenly, I was ok with having to walk the off-trail miles.   

The trail was very beautiful today and I really enjoyed the hike.  Listening to music while hiking can be dangerous, though - I was listening to a sad song when I came upon this memorial for Karen and burst into tears.  How sweet of her friends/coworkers.  Karen was on my mind for a while.  

The tears turned into laughter when I saw these rocks for mile 499.6:

And then, wouldn't you know it, we hit PCT mile 500!  It seems like the miles are just flying by!!

Around mile 24 my right ankle/shin started to protest and all I could think was that it would have been fine if we hadn't hiked the extra 1.5 miles to water.  The last mile was pretty tough for me, particularly because I was in pain and the road was long and straight and endless.  I compare everything to how I felt while running the Boston Marathon and this time the pain was almost as bad - it took a lot of inward focus for me to get through it.

Hiker town is pretty interesting - we are staying inside what looks like a movie set.  Despite my ankle/shin (it's going to be fine, it just needs a little rest) I was happy to shower and to chat with other hikers.  Special K is here (surprisingly) - he's leaving at 2100 to night-hike the next section with Star. :)

Another message from a friend/ex coworker came through tonight - Jane, thank you for being so awesome, your words mean more than you know. :)

we stayed inside the hotel - of course!

Along the trail: