Miles: 1510.3 to 1532 Mileage: 21.7, plus 0.6 to water Day: 77 On being woken by the alarm, I already wanted the day to be done. Ahead of us was a big water carry, a big climb and a hot weather forecast. We had a couple of miles to cover before the final reliable water […]
Miles: 1489.8 to 1510.3 Mileage: 20.5, plus 2.6 to Castella for resupply and 0.1 from camp Day: 76 We woke up with the alarm today. The goal was to make it to the store in Castella and the post office before it closed at 3 p.m. The end result was that we made it just […]
Miles: 1462.9 to 1489.8 Mileage: 26.9, plus 0.1 to camp Day: 75 I’ve seen five bears on the PCT so far. Richard has seen 1.5 of those. The first, I’ve mentioned before. We were getting water near mile 500. The bear joined us for a brief moment; so brief, in fact, that Richard only saw […]
Miles: 1437.4 to 1462.9 Mileage: 25.5 Day: 74 We cannot seem to get the hang of waking up with the alarm(s). The first one goes off at 6 a.m.; an arguably late start for thru hikers as it is. The second goes off at 6:30. I would postulate that I hear one of them about […]
Miles: 1412.8 to 1437.4 Mileage: 24.6, plus .4 to get resupply from camp store Day: 73 Before we even got out of the tent, it was hot. Early in the day, we got some hazy, lazy clouds that did little to shade us from the sun. We passed a day hiker who told us today […]
Miles: 1381.8 to 1412.8 Mileage: 31, plus 0.6 to water Day: 72 Today it was partly cloudy; sometimes we even had clouds covering the direct sunlight for an hour or so. It’s the most clouds I’ve seen in weeks. Big, vanilla scoops of ice cream in the sky. Today we hiked the Hat Creek Rim. […]
Miles: 1356.9 to 1381.8 Mileage: 24.9, plus 1 mile to water Day: 71 After camping with ants, we spent the morning hiking to Lower Twin Lake. It would be our next water source and, to our pleasant surprise, it was beautiful. We got water and then stripped off our gross, salty clothes and went swimming. […]
Miles: 1335.4 to 1356.9 Mileage: 21.5 Day: 70 I woke up early to get started on the laundry. I wanted so very much to stay in bed. It was so soft and clean and comfortable. But if we wanted to get back on the trail (or have enough clothing to go get breakfast) somebody had […]
Miles: 1305.3 to 1335.4 Mileage: 30.1, plus 0.6 to water Day: 69 We finally got up with the first alarm at 6 a.m. We haven’t done that in weeks. I ate my last pop tart as we started walking. We spent most of the morning quiet, in our own heads. It’s not always the most […]
Miles: 1278.8 to 1305.3 Mileage: 26.5 Day: 68 Today was the hottest day I can remember on the trail so far. It is certainly summer now. I can tell because my face is caked in salt at the end of the day and my clothes are pounds heavier from the sweat that’s soaked into them. […]