The morning started with me nearly rolling off my inflatable sleeping pad. I’d been half-dreaming I was lying in my bed back home, which is considerably wider than my pad. I turned over and started slowly slipping off the side. Not painful at those few centimetres, but startling enough to wake me up confused. Funny in context: a few days ago a hiker had mentioned she wanted to get rid of her inflatable pad because she kept rolling off it. At the time I thought “huh, interesting — that’s never happened to me”. And then promptly, it did.
On the subject of practical matters: yesterday I destroyed my last pair of socks. They were toe socks I’d bought in Big Bear to try out, on the recommendation of other hikers. Until then I’d worn them under my regular socks. Yesterday was the first day I had only the toe socks on, which was apparently enough to finish them off. All the holes in the same spot — at the front, at the toes, where my feet rub against the shoes. Because I need bigger shoes, which I can’t find anywhere. Genuinely frustrating. I’m a size 48. Probably less the length and more the width.
With only torn socks left, I taped my feet with Leukotape today — a brown athletic tape that every hiker on the PCT seems to use to prevent blisters from rubbing. It worked surprisingly well. By the end of the day the tape was half worn through, but not all the way. The actual problem: as long as I can’t find new shoes, this will keep happening to the socks. They wear through that fast. Frustrating enough that I actually considered going from Agua Dulce via Acton to Los Angeles just to get a new pair. But I really don’t feel like it. And I hate online ordering just as much. Internally I think I’ve long since decided not to go to Los Angeles for just one pair of shoes and a pair of trousers. I urgently need both and can find neither.
Set off fairly late in the afternoon. The plan was about 15 miles to town. In the end I didn’t even make that — and it didn’t really make sense to.
After about four miles I reached a campground with a small store. The prices were completely over the top. I’d had a second portion of pasta for breakfast and was otherwise out of food, so I had to buy both food and water here — no source nearby. A one-litre bottle of water — just water — cost an incredible $5. Those are prices you’d expect at a very expensive spot in Switzerland, not here. But there it is. Supplies sorted for about another day, so on I went.
Walked in the dark again. Through a tunnel at one point, with a motorway running overhead across an artificial hill. A bit further on I reached a really cool spot — a park, or canyon, the Vasquez Rocks. Unfortunately it was dark and I couldn’t see much. By the outlines alone, it would have been worth seeing properly. I didn’t walk through the whole park; about a mile short of Agua Dulce, still inside the park, I came across a table with a bench and decided to spend the night there. If I’d kept going into Agua Dulce now, nothing would have been open anyway. Staying meant I could look at the rest of the park in the morning, then head straight into town for breakfast.
So I set up my cowboy camp on a picnic table. The table is roughly the width of my pad. I hope this morning’s slipping was a one-off, because here it would definitely hurt more. It’s not the first time I’m sleeping somewhere elevated — but it’s the first time I’m actively thinking about falling off.
