Jammin' with Jameson

26.4 miles. My sleep was just alright because my right hip was hurting me all night. I couldn’t get myself up early so I slept in until 7:30 and left camp at 8. I started off slow but I enjoyed the barren, but robust mountains and was ecstatic to see large, dense forest. The day reminded me of the landscape of Middleearth and it was a morning where I felt like I was on an epic quest and journey. I met Recall who was part of the trail family with Squeeks, Vogue, Taco, and Minivan right at mile 600 and walked to the next water source together. He got his name because he was eating the Jif peanut butter at the beginning of the trail unaware of the recall that they just had. At the water source again we met with everyone and there was bunches of people. I caught up to Swell, Rogue Wave, Cowabunga, and Veto after starting later than them the day before. As we were getting water, we started seeing comments at the next water sources (that were both caches maintained by trail angels due to the next spring being over 50 miles away) that said many people were getting off trail sick. Thus the biggest fear mongering of the trail to date began. We all talked about what we were gonna do and another girl got a text from a friend ahead that they were sick and confirmed that around half of the people in the bubbles one and two days ahead of us that were now off trail. We all were in it now and just had to push on and hope all was alright. We decided to try to get to the first water cache that night so we hiked lots in the afternoon to get there. Somehow, there was an 3.5 magnitude earthquake at Lake Isabella nearby that Cowabunga and I didn’t feel at all but all the Californians felt. I caught up to Tapdance and Riddles and hiked with them for a few miles to the campsite before the final descent to the water source. After the campsite, I somehow decided to stop and have dinner. This was a huge mistake. I always wait to eat until I get to where I want as a motivation to keep hiking and be extra happy that I finally made it. After I ate, my body hurt all over and it was the worst I had felt in a long time. I kept trying to push the 4 miles downhill but was worried I would’nt find camping as I was just heading to a dirt road and kept passing by nice camping spots on the side of the trail. Finally I broke down and decided to stop at the next spot I found and got a little slanted spot tucked in by a boulder. I made camp as fast as I could and went to sleep at 8 feeling like complete ass. I needed a good night’s sleep.