Bad Day for the Bubbies 6/26

The blustery, pushy wind of yesterday turned into rain, mist, and pushier wind. TC and FC were startled awake by the gusts through-out the night. When they awoke things were quite wet. They were dry, the tent was beginning to drip, their sleeping bags were damp, but they were dry. No choice but to continue on. At first it was refreshingly beautiful. The plants were happy to be wet and showed it by displaying more of their colors. They were bobbing up and down as the raindrops fell. Perfect globes of water rested on leaves and petals and reflected the world around them. FC was lost in the beauty and then she was lost on a trail. TC, the navigTor who had gotten them this far, began to quickly unravel. Her GPS showed they were not on the PCT. Neither of the hikers had seen a junction or different trail. They did not believe the machine. FC had just questioned why they were going uphill when they were supposed to be going downhill. That was about the time TC checked the GPS. If any of you have ever gotten off track and you're sure you haven't missed anything you'll understand the denial and subsequent chaos that ensues. FC was still letting TC take the lead, not really worried. They hiked down a bit and the GPS said they were getting closer to the PCT then it said they weren't. This was confusing only because they were still stuck in an erroneous belief- they had not fucked up. Up they went again. Higher and higher into the storm. TC Lost it. Her ability to reAson took a quick exit. Babbling to herself, tears began to roll down her already wet cheeks, whimpering  inchoherently about how she had messed up. Probably no one out there has seen Tidy Camper in this state. Not to worry, you never will. Firecracker has access to TC's innermost heart; her injured heart parts and vicia versa. Those places where we suffer because we are still believing something that is not really true. Something we believed as a child without the wisdom to know better.. It does surprise FC when it happens but she thinks she understands it more and more. It was time for FC to take charge. The GPS said they were getting farther away from the trail. "What direction are we supposed to be going according to the map?" FC asked. TC peered at the wet map getting wetter with her tears and the rain and said, "Northwest". FC told her to get the compass function on the iPhone and read it. Not only were they not going down they were going east. FC told TC what they would do. They would return to a place lower down where they had been closer to the PCT and go from there. Both hikers had soaked feet and were getting colder. They descended. Once they had reached a point that said they were three tenths of a mile away from the PCT FC told TC to get a compass reading and they left the erroneous trail and went straight down. They were going cross country now. If the GPS turned out to be wrong (which is what they had been thinking...maybe the signals in a storm went crazy), then they might get lost. They descended over iced over rocks slipping and sliding their way down. Fortunately there were no precipitous I drop offs or cliffs. Guided by the GPS and the iPhone  compass they reached a trail and  decided it had to be the PCT. They walked for a few minutes and decided to eat. This indicated that the adrenaline predominant state was waning. FC bent down and took a pee. She was 2 ft away from the trail. Three twenty year olds walked by and to their credit kept their eyes straight ahead. They were called "the Fellowship".A fourth rolled by afte FC managed to pull up her undies. His name was Cacti and be belonged to the Fellowship. He did ask if he was on the PCT because he said there were many unmarked junction points and he was winging it. Having seen The rest of his group and now trusting our GPS we said we were pretty sure he was on the correct trail. 

    The cold continued most of the day. FC and TC were dressed in layers until late afternoon. The sun came out intermittently. After lunch FC put her head on her knees while sitting up and fell asleep immediately. She was too tired to get to Canada. She realized that she had a large sleep deficit and unless she could get more sleep she would not make it happily. She got more sleep in Santa Cruz. Being tired affected her mental state. When she was tired she thought she hated hiking and that was scary coz she had a long way to go. TC was also exhausted. It was time to sleep. They set up camp at 5:00pm. Other hikers passed them. There was still daylight. The Bubs were asleep by 6:50. They awoke next morning at 6:00am. After 11 hours of sleep they liked hiking again. It appears they had recovered mentally. They did 20 miles that day without fatigue.