My plan was to wake up early before the sunrise and try to get 15 miles in before the days heat hit. I wake up at 5:30 and spend an hour fixing my backpack. This is not how I wanted to start my morning, the carbon fiber frame stay which runs horizontal across my bag fell out overnight. It took me a little while to figure out how it was supposed to go, but there was definitely an added complexity because it was still dark out. Poor design Z Packs. A notch in that frame and a sewn closed spot would make that more secure.
After fixing my bag, I walk like a mile from camp to dig a cat hole. Everything goes swell and I head back to finish packing up camp. Today is a 21 mile water carry day, I am bringing 4.5L which is probably too much to carry with how much vertical I’m doing.
It’s looking like roughly 4400’ vertical with 4000’ down as well. A long day to gain almost no upward ground. As I start off up the trail it’s still gorgeous mountain sides, mixed in with just seas and seas of windmills. Today it is not too windy so the windmills are not moving that fast. Even the ones that are moving the sound as they whip by is extremely loud.
I look at my watch after a handful of miles and it is 10 AM. I’m just starting to climb some actual elevation gain and decide to take a break. As I’m enjoying my second breakfast, I see the German couple Fearless and Wigand begin to pass me. I crack a joke about how I saw him smoking cigs earlier and he can still breathe great. Seeing that gives me no more excuses on why I cannot breathe I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life.
After we exchange more pleasantries and tell each other that we’ll see each other in a couple more miles. A couple of miles go by and I run into them again. We leap frog each other for the next 5 miles and I decide to take a lunch time nap. I lay out my tyvek and find a good spot, I set my alarm for 40 minutes and force my self to relax and rest.
After lunch I get moving again, I run into a SOBO section hiker Kitchen Sink at mile 598. He tells me I’m in for a treat, mile 599 is a mess. Blowdown city, he tells me I’ll have to crawl, climb and work around the huge trees. As I get to mile 599 he was 100% correct. That mile sucked, climbing, crawling and walking around trees.
I hit 600 and am underwhelmed at the stick numbers. 100-500 were more well organized. But I do get it, no one really cares after 250. As I push on to the water source Seven texts me, he’s at mile 605 and says he has a nice campsite. I text back “I’m here tonight man.” I’m staying at mile 603 by the water. I’ll get an early start tomorrow.
I make dinner and hang out alone, I expect Tardy and Greenhorn here around sunset. At least I won’t be camping alone tonight. Greenhorn and I have plans to discuss, we might grab his truck and hit the Grand Canyon when we get to Kennedy meadows. We’re both going to take a week off before entering the sierras but there’s more hiking to do.
After eating I retire to my tent still in daylight to charge my devices and ultimately get out of the sun. After about an hour I hear someone screaming. I can’t really hear them too well but they’re screaming.
I make the decision to pack my stuff up and leave. As I’m doing that Greenhorn and Tardy walk in. I tell them what happened and I’m outta here. Greenhorn tells me there’s a FarOut comment from Stickers about the same thing. Man I wish I saw that I would’ve just kept walking. It’s 2.3 miles to the next camp site it’s 7PM. Sun sets in a half hour we better get moving.
We start off up the trail and Greennhorn sees a spot that’s flat and says guys I’ll see ya tomorrow. Tardy and I push on. We make it a mile and he looks at me as says I’ll see you tomorrow and grabs a flat spot . Ok, I push on and get to the next camp site. The Germans are here, and the frogs are making their noises. What I don’t hear is anyone screaming. Nice. Tonight is also peak meteor shower.
Off to bed.
The Pacific Crest Trail 