Day 56: the vaccine strikes

Complete utter exhaustion. I felt fine until we broke for lunch 11 miles in to dry out our bags. Something about the long break triggered the sickness in me to rear it’s ugly head. There is now no doubt I am either still experiencing side effects from the vaccine or I am otherwise sick. I felt nauseous, sick to my stomach, had a numbing headache, and experienced shortness of breath. The remaining 16 miles I covered the day can be characterized as: 

• Mile 14: I began to only see the world in a bubble 10 feet in front of me. My gaze softened so that only the trail in front of me was in focus. 

• Mile 17: Autopilot engaged. My legs shut down communication with my brain so that’d I’d keep moving. My legs felt like they were moving on their own accord.

• Mile 20: We began a massive descent and I put on an Odezsa setlist to power me through it. I hit a flow state for 2 miles where everything was in focus, clear, and I was zooming. 

• Mile 22: Brick. Wall. I stopped to make my first dinner; what a mistake. My legs didn’t want to move anymore and I damn near crawled to camp 3 miles down trail. 

I am spent. At camp, it took so much effort to get water less than .1 away. This will be the first night in since joining the PCT I am camping solo, unless someone shows up later in the night. Sandman pushed on. 

I am 11.5 miles from Sierra City, where I’ll judge if I should take a zero to recover. This was the hardest day on trail.

Miles: too many (28)

Total Miles: 1,413