Day 20 (122)

Miles: 26.6

Mileage: 2,541.9

The rain stopped by morning, but everything was still wet and cold. But “not currently raining” is my favorite weather, so it was not a bad way to start the day.

We had a short up, long down, long up, long down for our terrain today. Despite covering 26 miles, as the crow flies we only traveled six miles. So many switchbacks.

My feet still hurt for the second half of every day. But thruhiking is a lot of ignoring the annoying, so once I determine that the pain is just more of the same, I ignore it and keep hiking. I’ve done enough endurance exercise to know when an injury is occurring instead of just discomfort.

The second long down hill was mainly blow downs and overgrown brush. A lot of the PCT is not well maintained. It’s a long trail that goes through some of the most remote parts of the western states. Sometimes it takes trail crews years to find a tree that has fallen across the trail or a section taken out by an avalanche or landslide.

In the meantime, hikers find a way around, over or through whatever is between them and the trail. That usually leads to lots of extra erosion but, at least on the PCT, we’ve come to expect it.