Scarecrow

I was given a Haypuke trail name last month and it is “Scarecrow.” At first I had no idea why a stranger would greet me, “Good morning, Scarecrow!” I thought it was some sort of slang I’d never heard before, and thought of calling her a name. But really, looking at myself and my hiking getup, I now find it hilarious.

Later on trail I found an antique Old Crow liquor bottle with its cap intact near what appeared to be an old boys’ shooting range. It had a crow cast in the glass. I carried it for about 40 miles until I met Gary and Jeanine from Teasdale who admitted they were in the process of getting rid of things but knew someone who would love it. They agreed it was special, and said they’d donate $100 to my charity of choice for it. They’ve been using their Trump bucks to donate to environmental and social causes – Trump offsets, if you will. Maybe $100 went to the Sierra Club. Because of a bottle.

And a few days ago when I was dead-ending in canyon after canyon and running out of water, I found a dead crow, one who had seemingly flown into a canyon wall. That spooked me a little; I always take raven and crow calls as warnings, call me superstitious. But a dead crow?

I see the name as meaning something more about how I lack the brains to not do something crazy as hike a bonkers route TWICE.

Anywho, my main (PCT 2013) trail name is Puppy. Lighthouse named me “Pineapple Express” on the L2H route in 2015, because pineapples, yeah. I ate a bunch of dry pineapple this morning and when I go out to Thai later, I expect everything will be sloppy with pineapple. Big time eating commences tonight, and until I got my booty back.

Photo taken 2:05pm 11/16/2017 at the official northeast Hayduke terminus, where I finished. Yes, I wore the same hiking clothes last year.