PCT Day 16: Storms a Comin

Day 16  6-3-2015   Sleep 2130-330
Miles 718 – 763

Good Morning!
            There was fog all around and I was cold.  I started moving fast and the uphill got my body warm in no time.  As I cruised along a ridge, the sun started to rise and the moon set.  There was a fog settled in the valley’s.   Surely, I have died and gone to heaven.  I have thought this numerous times now.  Does heaven have days? Some better and some worse? No way.  Can’t wait to meet God.  No wait, Joey, you are a Buddhist.  At best you have been reincarnated into a hiking machine with a super sense for beauty.  Okay, I’ll accept that too.  So the machine was doing all the work and I was enjoying the ride.  Until the sun got higher in the sky.  I entered a fog, my mind was just a haze.  Could I still be sleep deprived?  I had two good nights of sleep though.  I trudged on for a bit but my pace was slowing.  Finally I remembered, “when you are slowing down and things are speeding round, you must first stop and regain the ground, then and only then will stability be found”  -Me.  Yup, I am making up rhyming quotes, to quote to myself to not lose it.  That is how you know it is good.  So I nap for 30 minutes. 
Wish I had a real camera.  Doesn't even begin to portray

What wonders the nap did.  I was feeling good, happy and moving well.  This continued on for quite awhile.  Until I talked to a south bound JMTer.  He asked me, “how far to the lake” and in return I asked “how exposed is the ridge you just crossed” as there were some darker looking clouds in the air.  He told me I would be fine, it is the storm on Saturday that I have to worry about.  What storm? “there is a big storm coming, Saturday, at least that is what the guy at camp with a satellite radio said.” Oh geez.  Not this again.  I totally freaked out on the AT when the rumors of flash flood were flying.  So my mission is to not freak out, but come up with a plan.  Okay, after thirty minutes I come up with this.  If it is truly a big storm; I am guessing three feet of snow.  I can find a shelter or build one, have a fire and wait it out.  I can ration food, no problem.  When the storm clears I can get lost in the three feet of snow not being able to follow the trail.  Okay, I got this, not a worry.  I started day dreaming of how emaciated I would look after stretching two days worth of food out over five or six days.  Awesome.  But that is two days away and then the storm survival.  So why don’t you just focus and hike.  After making it into the dark I settled down under a perfect “tree shelter” and decided I was impressed with my handling the news about a “big” storm.  It was probably nothing and the weathermen are always wrong.  Admittedly though, I was starting to worry.  I know how serious a storm at 11,000 feet can be.  
That is about how far I have to hike

"Sittin' around, waiting for an airplane,
Don't know how to fly, but that's okay"
Airplane - Widespread Panic

Darkness coming

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