Today's Miles: 18
Trip Mileage: 31
PCT Mile 729
Today was more like I expected the PCT to be. Long miles, breath-taking vistas and time spent with new friends. The only thing unexpected was the lack of water. Shaggy is surprised by how unusually dry things are this year. Our sources since the South Kern River have been a little wimpier than I's hoped. There was a dead fish in one little pool, but the fact that he died in his natural environment oddly made me feel better. It was also several miles to water in either direction, so I drank of the dead fish water. I'm sure the hardy souls who have hike from Campo through the desert will scoff at my water pickiness, but htere is a very good reason I chose not to hike Southern Cali: I like water, It should get better as we get higher in the Sierras, and eventually we'll hit my favorite kind of water: alpine lakes. Swimming, woohoo!!
Today's scenery was suitably epic, like a sneak preview of the Sierras to come. We had a mile-high view of the surround towns and Hwy 395 where we hitched in. Every vista was framed by towers of rock and gnarled everygreens. Tomorrow morning I'll get more pictures; today I was just too exhausted. Tomorrow I'll also take it easier on my poor flat feet. They were complaing pretty loudly today, even with Andrew taking a big chunk of my load.
All griping aside, this is AMAZING! It still doesn't feel real, like I'm just on a long weekend outing. But we won't be coming down from the mountains until next Friday, if we stay on schedule. Then maybe it will sink in that I'm doing something more epic than anything I've ever tried.
Shaggy says:
Slept so well in the tent. Nice and warm with a cool breeze blowing all night. It feels good to be out again. Woke up early and enjoyed listening to the birds sing around the tent. At six, I finally woke up Lauren, and we were hiking by seven AM.
Nice and cool morning as we worked our way up into the mountains. We walked past several hikers camped out. Actually felt like we got an early start. We passed a spot that I remembered being snow packed in 2006, nothing but dust now. This is going to be a totally different experience than 2006. Will our feet ever get wet I wonder?
We took a nice break at a creek with Chameleon and Gut Feeling. Then on to Death Canyon and some nasty water.
We ended up hiking another 6 miles after that for a total of 18 today. It honestly wore me out. I must be carrying 60 pounds now. I am a bit worried about Laurens feet, hope they continue to be ok.. We are camped with a big group, probably 12 of us. Good to be with hikers.
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| Zero guarding my pack. The metal flashing is my potstand, called a caldera cone. Great for efficiently boiling water to cook my delicious trail meals! |
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| These roots looked like they were trying to reach toward the sky...very cool. |
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| Our humble campsite. |
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| From our campsite we could see hikers traveling north on the PCT, right along the top of that ridge. |
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