New Valley Hills

A few words on thruhiker nomenclature-

• Trail name – your name on trail. You may choose it, or be offered one and then accept it. Mine is Cheddar as I’ve been introducing myself as Patrick from Cheddar cheese land. Selvi is Joan Collins, as she’s not herself when she’s hungry (referring to Snickers TV adverts). Daniela is holding out for the best one offered to her.
• mn. We’re going north, so 151mn means 151 miles north up the trail from the southern terminus
• Zero, nero and hero. All are linked to visiting a town either on trail or a hitch or walk off trail, for resupply of food and gear, shower, laundry. Zero is 1 day and 2 nights in town equalling zero hiking ( town miles don’t count). Nearo is 1 night in town. Hero is getting in and out of town in same day – this needs a tent site just before and after.
• We have decided the collective noun for PCT thruhikers is a groaning.

The desert has very low humidity, regularly below 30%. This is very different from SW England. I’ve had split skin on hands and thumbs, and a perpetually blocked nose with nosebleeds. after two weeks my body is adjusting.

Sweat – evaporates before you know it. My clothes are stiff from salt. Even a daily dunk in water isn’t helping. You get used to being dirty, sticky day after day with a week between showers.

Dehydration and electrolytes. On first day it has 26C during the day and cold enough for frozen condensation on inside and outside of tent overnight. I experienced heat exhaustion as I hadn’t worked out how much to drink and how much electrolytes to drink to replace lost salts. An unpleasant lesson but much needed – I’ve been better since then. Temperatures in a few weeks expected to hit mid 30C. We’ve been getting up at 4am, hiking by 5am to avoid heat at lunchtime. We’ll be doing night hiking at some point. We’re told it could be 20C at night and 40C during the day in July!

People

• Kayleigh and Greg. US
• James Logan. UK
• BB from Thailand
• K. Japan
• Maddie Bad Apple US
• Evan. Arson US 18 3 days before she started!