Miles hiked: 25.3
Mile marker: 619.5
I wake before my alarm and don’t want to get up.
Bumper groans! “I don’t wanna.” Like a teenager. I feel the same way.
I sit up and begin putting my electronics away into their ziploc bags. I have 45 minutes to get repacked, so I change my clothes, put my sleeping bag away, lay on my mat with the valve open to release air, and begin the frustrating process of trying to get the air out of my stuff.
I’m ready a few minutes before six. Go me!
The sun is already up and I’m walking through a golden field. The hills open up, and there are layers upon layers of green laid out before me. The white horizon fades into a bright blue.
600 miles! We reach some sticks, then pinecones spell out “600!”
Every hundred miles I complete feels so big. I wonder if it will ever stop feeling big. Every hundred miles is another week of surprises, determination, and learning.
“I’m going to find a cistern. I’ve been here five times and only found it once!” Dad says and disappears.
I continue walking, running into Poppy and Seaby. We chat a while about New Zealand, the opportunities there. I learn about what they studied in college and talk about where we may want to go in the future. We all just want to travel at this point in life. They will be moving to Canada after they complete the PCT.
I see a red shirt and cowboy hat. “Hey Rafiki!” I say.
“Hello,” he says. A few moments later and he passes us. I think he may be going solo today.
We come to the creek. I fill my bottles and hang out for a few minutes while the others catch up. The creek doesn’t have a great flow, so I squish my bottle against the rock to let more water in before grabbing another bottle and using that to transfer water to the first one. I only need a liter and change anyways.
We chat with a guy named Leap Frog, who is from the same area as Savannah.
We continue walking. 4.7 miles to our lunch spot. I plug in some music.
The ground is covered in pine straw. The sweet scene of pine fills my nose, but it burns as well. The pine trees stand carefully around me, as if I’m a foreigner who’s just walked through their village gates and they are quietly greeting me.
The villagers are welcoming me into their home as I walk to the pearly gates of the Sierras.
Pine trees = Sierras are near.
I run into Savannah. She finds a box and opens it to find a bunch of papers. I nearly miss our turn as we walk.
“The spring is off trail,” Savannah says.
“Oh yeah!” I say. I knew that. I looked at the map previously to see them at but wasn’t paying attention as we were talking.
Soon we’re at the spring! It’s basically a tin bathtub with a hose pouring water into it. I wash my filthy legs and rinse out my socks and shirt. I hang them carefully on the clothes line — a barbed wire fence and sit down for lunch.
“I waited at the cistern for 45 minutes!” Dad says.
“Oh! We hung out at the creek for a bit,” I say. I do wish I’d seen the secret cistern.
I decide to have a ram bomb for lunch. I add the white chicken.
It is gross.
Darn it.
I choke it down, chase it with a snickers bar, then lay down for a little nap.
Meanwhile, Luxie Lucy is enjoying a nice hot bubble with a glass of red wine and a good book in the trough. What a life.
Next thing I know and I’m the last one ready. We continue walking. It’s uphill and I’m already sweating after having gotten all that salt off of my face!
I’m a bit tired and slow, so Dad and Savannah get ahead. Bumper left before we did and Luxie Lucie is behind me.
I hang back a bit. The pines turn back to shrubs. I walk a while in the heat. A mud colored snake with a yellow stripe the width of a pencil zooms in front of me and up a tree. Wow! I didn’t know snakes could climb trees. Except for the one in The Jungle Book.
Dad is sitting on some rocks. I join him and empty the debris out of my shoes. My gator has a hole in it, so my shoes have been filled with sand!
We keep going and walk for a couple more miles. Everyone is ahead.
We reach the water cache! It looked like a plate of bubbles in the distance. A guy is here with trail magic. I snag a fizzy water and some energy gels. Thank you! We dump our trash.
The cool thing about this place is that my grandfather, G-pa, was here five years ago when my dad last hiked the trail.
G-pa came out to visit Dad on trail and brought trail magic — donuts and coffee! Dad’s friend, Kale, was vegan. G-pa brought a vegan donut for Kale, but she wasn’t there. Dad was happy to eat the vegan donut.
Dad and I grab a photo, a memory of where G-pa and Dad stood five years ago. Where Dad and I stand together today.
We’re close to the end of the day now.
“There’s a campsite 50 meters back,” Lucie says.
“I don’t go back!” Dad says. I agree. Forward only!
“I don’t feel well. My throat has hurt since this morning,” Lucie says.
Uh oh.
We decide to keep moving. Here, there are mice. We come to a dirt road. Mice are here too. Lucie is feeling feverish now. We offer to call the trail angel who gave us his phone number. She decides to press on.
We go uphill a few minutes. Dad gets a great spot! I think he wanted to put his tent where I’m laying, but I laid down my tarp and Savannah and Bumper followed suit.
He moves his tent to another spot. I feel bad that he has to move locations. We all offer to move, but so many of us are already set up for bed.
I eat way too much ramen and pack all my food away. Hopefully no mice find their way here.
The sky is swirled with white clouds and turns pink and yellow at the horizon.
We hiked way more than I planned today. I hope tomorrow is easier because we have a lot of uphill! I hope Lucie doesn’t get sick. I hope no mice eat my things tonight.
Hope, hope, hope.
The Wonderland Journal 
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