The next day, we passed Butt Mountain, a disappointingly normal-shaped mountain from our standpoint. Earlier, there was a mountain called “The Nipple,” which was very aptly named. More significantly, we hit the halfway point soon after! I repeat, HALFWAY. It was mile 1,325, which meant that we had 1,325 to go. No matter how you say it, it’s a long. ass. way. The first half of the trail, all in California, had taken one day shy of three months. I didn’t have three more months to finish the trail, so this is where the time crunch started to weigh heavily on me. However, we took time to celebrate, take pictures, read the log book, and talk to the other hikers. We started the second half strong, hiking a little under ten miles in a little under three hours. Tinkle was noticeably becoming faster than me and I was challenged to keep up a lot of the time.

This is Butt Mountain

We reached the road just ahead of Piglet and Alex, and were all picked up by the second vehicle that passed us. We threw our packs in the boat it was towing and jumped in. I shared the passenger seat with a rifle and two dogs. Our ride (in typical “me” fashion, I wrote down the dogs’ names, but not their owner’s) was a gruff guy who said “Kya is a cattle dog and Lizzie is my friend.” He kindly drove us to the post office, where I picked up the new ends to my trekking poles! The first two days of the Sierra Nevada, the tips of both my poles had broken and the plastic ends had been slowly ground down to flat nubs. I was more excited for another package I was expecting, containing my new sleeping pad. Unfortunately it wasn’t there. As the post office was closed the next two days, I asked the postal worker about what options I had. According to the tracking, it should arrive that day, so I decided to check back before closing. As Tinkle and I left, an elderly lady stopped us and apologized because she wanted to offer us a place to stay and dinner, but she already had dinner plans. I was so taken aback at her kindness and we thanked her profusely for the thought.

Tinkle and I ate lunch with Piglet and Alex, enjoying the air conditioning, WiFi, and delicious food. Afterwards, we reunited with Daisy at a motel. As we walked up to his room, the lady outside the office yelled for us to stop and asked us where we were going. She said there was a two person limit on each room and an extra charge for every additional person. It seemed she had had troubles with hikers sleeping lots of extra people in each room. It was kind of sad and frustrating to see how bad trail ambassadorship had made this woman suspicious of us. We paid what she asked and entered Daisy’s room with no more incident. Tinkle and I started laundry and by that time, the post office was minutes from closing. I hadn’t realized it was so late and ran there in Daisy’s shirt and my cold weather leggings, as the rest of my clothes were in the wash. I got a couple of catcalls, which did more to make me run faster with rage than anything else. At the end of it all, my package still wasn’t there. I think the amazing worker there took pity on me, dripping with sweat and breathing heavily. She said that she would actually be working the next day, sorting mail and would give me my package if I knocked on the window the next morning. I sent my old shoes and sleeping pad away.

I knocked on the window at the agreed upon time and received my new sleeping pad. I was never more excited for a package. Tinkle, Daisy, and I got breakfast together and then parted ways. Daisy was to stay a while longer to get over his cold. It was sad to say goodbye, but I felt pretty confident he could catch up soon. Tinkle and I got a hitch pretty quickly and got going on trail. Walking so long together, it’s easy and relaxing to just hike in silence, but today, we had a great talk about what our expectations were going into the trail and what we hoped to gain from the hike. We had a lot of similar views about gaining confidence and overcoming fears. As she pulled ahead, I kept thinking about where I was in achieving those goals. I had been walking and living in my own thoughts for three months, most of the time just allowing my mind to wander as it would. That day, I reflected with a bit more intention. I realized that every day, on trail and in life in general, I overcame barriers, fears, and anxieties. Looking at what I’d done to get through the Sierras, I realized that with each obstacle, I had only one way to go- forward. It’s obvious, logically, that the trail was a metaphor for my life and that all the physical obstacles had real-world equivalents. However, this was the first time that I really felt that the trail had shown me that my mental and physical capabilities were beyond what I was giving myself credit for. Even reading my journal now, the impact of that realization hits me again. I learned so much of myself, my limits, and my potential over the first half of the trail and three months of walking and I had many more miles to keep learning. On the trail and in life.