Jammin' with Jameson

23.9 miles. I woke up at 8:20 only to see that no one had gone into the markets to get me coffee yet like I had asked!!! Grrr. I spent a lazy morning hanging out with Swell, Flo, and Josh as many of our friends started rolling in who would join us for the night hiked: Rachel (now magma), Ronnie (now Kaboom), Hailey (no longer Clippy Clop), Maddie, Riddles, Pantry, Bizzy (now tapdance). A girl that Flo had briefly met, Katherine (now Slay – what a slay), had a friend, Weatherman, that was picking up him for the day and drove us into Wee Ville market. After watching everyone eat the PCT Burger, a fatty filled with two paddies and topped with pastrami, I decided to eat my first burger in around 2 years and was not disappointed. I tried hitching out and had no luck for a solid 30 minutes and eventually got picked up by someone that ended up being the first truly disgusting human I’ve met so far on the trail which was really upsetting. Once I got back, the rest of the group got back almost immediately after and said they found a hitch immediately wtf. Clippy Clop, Maddie, Madeline, Katherine, and I all tried napping for a bit but after all it was clear I couldn’t fall asleep so I hung out with Katherine, Verizon, and Kidney once they arrived. The time for the night hike had come so we did a quick yoga and filled up water and left Hikertown at 4:30. 12 of us started hiking it together so we hiked that we were the dirty dozen. We quickly got to the open water aqueduct and had a great time chatting to pass the time. Once we finally got to the covered aqueduct that we’d be following for miles we all erupted in cheers. The 17 miles to the first water cache were passing by really quickly with all the great company. There was also a sick cloud in the sky that looked exactly like a thumb! Eventually it started getting dark and we busted out the glowsticks to adorn them on shoes and bodies. They ended up looking way better than I expected and was really entertained watching everyone walk with just glowsticks floating in the darkness. We got to the water in the midst gusting winds and turbines at 10:30 thanks to the DJing from Flo (now Rogue Wave), cartwheels, dancing, and lots of screaming. We couldn’t find the water cache in the dark but all of us had plenty of water so we kept pushing ahead 7 more miles to our intended campsite and the next spring. Katherine ended up catching up with us at the water cache so we hiked together for the first 4 miles or so and turned off our headlamps for a section to enjoy the night sky. I finished the final 3 miles chasing Rogue who shot pass me while I was peeing and got to the campsite at 12:45 am. We all grabbed water, set up camp quickly, and went to sleep for an early morning wake up to escape the heat.