Sleepless Nights On The PCT
Reading Time: 2 minutes I thought sleep would come easily on the Pacific Crest Trail, but once again I was wrong.
It is only night six, and I have yet to enjoy a full night’s sleep.
Night one it was aches, then the wind, then cottonmouth, then cars, then coyotes, and now, as I am writing this, a symphony of frogs is echoing through my campsite (and their music is far from soothing). When sleep does finally come, it is accompanied by bizarre and vivid dreams (mostly PCT related), and constant interruption.
Only now I can appreciate why some people end up spending a significant amount of money on lodging whilst hiking the trail. For being out in the middle of nowhere, there certainly are a lot of things to keep you up at night.
Oh yes, I almost forgot. In addition to horrible, horrible cottonmouth on night three, I was also plagued by a giant Mexican Jesus party. Now this is not to say that there was a party with a giant Mexican Jesus in attendance, but rather that there was a giant party of Mexicans (a women’s church retreat) all celebrating Hay-Zeus at the campground until the wee hours of the morning (complete with amplified music and chanting).
If the elusive full night’s sleep is out there somewhere along the trail, I would sure like to happen upon it soon. I do not know how I have survived hiking twenty miles a day (twenty-one today) on such terrible sleep. But alas, when sleep is in short supply, there is but one thing we can do to ward off our demons: write haikus.
PCSleep
You torment me, why?
I dream of you all day long
But then no dreams come
I’m curious… Did you ever locate that elusive good night’s sleep on the trail? She’s a rare beast, but I hope by… halfway through she was more easy to slay.
Still on the hunt.
I am curious – did you blog on a laptop while you were out on the PCT, or use a mobile device for the sake of carrying light? Also, awful question, but did you get wi-fi or something, or did you basically wait until you reached a town?
I did not have a laptop except twice when people visited me along the way. Usually you can get to public computers in libraries if you need one. No wi-fi on the trail if you’re not at a resort/town/etc. Cell signal is hit and miss (but mostly miss).
I noticed where you set up camp and it is dangerous to set up camp there. The reason for that is because you are in a valley where water flows. Assuming you are in the desert, this means that even if a storm far away is happening, a flash flood may occur. This is something that happened to chris mccandless from into the wild (sp?) when he drove his car into the desert. You can look it up. Bear Grylls also mentioned that in one of his man vs wild episodes.
Perhaps this is why camping is not permitted within one mile of this creek.
I spent my trip on the AT with only a handful of well rest nights. Either I had to roll over or my stomach was turning inside out because I hadn’t eaten in 5 hours. I also used a Z-lite and pitched it after a few weeks b/c it wasn’t enough padding. The trip sounds great so far.
i’ll bring ear plugs for ya. also i think staying at a hotel more than once a week is cheating. cheating what? you might ask….yourself.
If only you had brought those ear plugs.