PCT journal entry: Lane was the only hiker we met collecting water at the creek to camp in the bottom of the Canyon that evening. The rest of the hikers walked in pairs up the switchbacks you can surely see from space. From the opposite ridge it looked like a thru-hiking ant farm. I watched Rabbit take a running start and jump onto the incline and proceed to run up it. I couldn't keep up and lagged behind. The wind at the end of the switchbacks was ridiculous, causing me to crab walk. After two false summits and an epic wind battle I finally made the summit where Canyon and Rabbit were sheltering from the wind, drinking water, eating a bar and thinking about bedtime. From the top the lights of Lancaster were beautiful with tiny red beacons of flashing light from the wind farm blinking in the mid ground. We decided to push off the summit and hike to the less windy water cache. Rabbit was done in from the long day climbing and stalked the darkness with a fury that spoke of a need for dinner and sleep. In the semi darkness we suddenly came upon the unimaginable sight of a solid tree burnt black and weathered white completely upended by the ferocious winds. Spectral branches skewered the trail causing us to contort around the sharpened wood while gazing towards roots held high in the starry sky.
Sleeping that night in the Super-Mid felt novel. We hadn't put it up for for at least a week. Rabbit burrowed into her sleeping bag, cried a little and fell asleep without dinner. Canyon and I also skipped dinner, instead drinking protein powder mixed with oats and seeds from a long ago visited hiker box. It's not a fun filled family vacation if you're not cold, hungry and tired. We were two of those things.