Day 98: Saturday, August 10

Tenting in a very flat forest (PCT mi 1818.3), walked 26.0 miles today

A thunderstorm rolled through at about 10:30 last night, but I stayed dry despite alarmingly intense rain and the fact that I wasn't sheltered by trees at all. HB left at 7 and I around 7:15, but I never saw him again the rest of the day, including now. The morning was gray and still, not much happening but the rent, but then at 11 things did start to happen! More thunderstorms! And they lasted for way too long and were way too wet and cold to be the enjoyable kind of thunderstorm. Kind of charged through this whole time because there wasn't much point in stopping, but by 2 the rain had let up and there was even direct sunlight after a time, so I took a big break (1 1/2 hours) to relax, warm back up and dry everything out. After that, I had something like 8 more easy miles to get to this area, which was my minimum goal for today. Made it by about 7 and immediately set up my tent (HB and I were talking last night during the storm about how we'll never feel safe cowboy camping again ... When we set up last night there hadn't been a cloud in the sky or a breath of breeze for hours, then three hours later the heavens were falling on us) and assumed a supine position.

Had I been feeling normal I could've blown past here for at least another hour and 3 more miles, but my body crapped out again in the afternoon. In the morning I was feeling almost 100%, the aches and stomach problems nowhere in sight, but on my first break in the morning I ate a bunch of Skippy and Nutella (which has been a reliable trail snack for, oh, the last 3500 miles of hiking for me) and within half an hour the malaise had returned. It hadn't shown up after dinner last night, nor breakfast this morning, only after my beloved peanut butter and chocolate hazelnut snack later on. I also ate a bunch of PB&N the evening before I threw up, so I'm wondering if it's the culprit. For now I'm not touching that stuff. Skippy, I don't know when I did you wrong--I've always enthusiastically preferred you to Jif and inveighed in the harshest terms against anyone who wanted to argue otherwise--but hopefully you'll be nicer to me somewhere down the line.

Tomorrow is Crater Lake Day, which I am genuinely excited about. The last time I was there I was snowshoeing in January and it looked quite different (see picture). May be camping somewhere on the Rim tomorrow night, which HB indicated yesterday was also his plan.