Monday, September 3rd.

Monday,  September 3rd: PCT mile 1,924.3.

I woke up to Baboon saying my name. I don't know how he felt well enough to get up and start packing by 6:45am but I knew I sure as hell wasn't going to get up. I responded with a simple "I'm not getting up". He let it alone and finished packing up his things and headed to the cafe for breakfast. I took some pain killers and fell back asleep until I heard Navi rustling her gear around; no doubtfully uncovering herself of her tarp. I was packing up by 8am just as Baboon made his way back to the camp spot behind the bar with a belly full of breakfast and coffee. I then headed to the cafe as well. Two breakfast sandwiches later I finally started feeling a tad better. Next was a trip across the street to the little store. We bummed outside there for quite a while before gaining the energy to hitch back to the trail. It took a while to get a ride but once we did we were gifted fresh veggies to take on the trail with us.

I'm camped with Baboon tonight by a pond. It was the first night in a long time that we have made a camp fire. I had forgotten just how wonderful they are out here. I was all ready to go to sleep when I heard Baboon scream at something in the forest around where we are camped. I inquired as to what he was screaming at. He replied 'A coyote ...or a mountain lion...ughhh....I'm not really sure but its pretty big." Thats when I heard a loud crash behind my tent. Whatever it was it didn't seem to be too scared of us, which is unnerving. It ended up circling our camp for a while just letting its beady little eyes reflect from Baboons headlamp lights. We concluded that it was just interested in getting a drink from the pond. These are the things I tell myself so that I can have a chance at getting some sleep. We armed ourselves with our canister stoves in case the animal became aggressive. The idea being that we could light the stoves and turn them up all the way. This would create a small blow torch-like weapon if we held it outward.

I'm laying in my tent at the moment desperately having to pee but not wanting to get out of my tent to do so. For some reason your tent always feels safer than being outside of it in such a situation.