Nicholas Tierney

• Date: 2023-06-30
• Pct day: 56
• Start: Mile 778
• End: Mile 788
• Distance: 10 miles
• Ascent: 1443 feet
• Descent: 3835 feet
• Start name: camp near Forester Pass Approach
• End name: Videttes meadow
• Wake up: 03:00
• Start hiking: 04:00
• At camp: 15:30
• In bed: 20:30
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no
• Best thing: Getting to a beautiful camp, seeing some “normal” parts of the Sierra pct trail and seeing what it would look like on a normal year, Forester pass being totally fine and straightforward.
• Worst thing: Feeling physically wrecked, stressing out about exposed sections of walking, sloshing around and falling over on sloppy snow

Key moments

• Early start to knock out forester pass
• I was a bit stressed out about us finding the right boot pack to make the ascent easier - as we were basically making our own new path. I thought there would be boot pack somewhere.
• It was exciting but nervewracking on the approach. It was just quite steep. Glad to have an ice axe, a slide from here would be probably fine but not fun. Also it’d be a time.
• But I’d be stressed and then I would look out and we could see the first rays of the sunrise shooting out over the Sierras. That was something. Reminded me of the times where you’re a bit wigged out on a rock climb and then you take a moment to appreciate where you are, and what the view is. It’s calming, and centering.
• I asked Granite Man if he could be my Hype Man. I wasn’t feeling so crash hot, and he was a very encouraging dude.
• So sporadically he’d call out: “Friend, you are so awesome man. You’re crushing it. You’re looking solid”. And that felt nice. He’s a good dude.
• Forester pass was actually quite straightforward - like you need to take it seriously but I wasn’t worried I was doing anything particularly sketchy.
• We each crossed it one by one. It was basically a snow covered steep crossing that had a really well worn wide enough section of boot pack. Like at its narrowest a little wider than a foot.
• Plus there were really well formed ice axe holes in the snow that had frozen up. You could slide your ice axe in there and it wasn’t coming out. That felt good and secure.
• It was a bit nerve wracking. Looking down it would be Not A Great Time And Probably A Bad Time if you slide down. But there were heaps of sections of Mt Whitney that were more sketch and had higher consequence.
• Franck crossed ahead of me, I think.
• I had a bit of a cry when I got over the ice chute, it was so good to be done with this part of the hike that has had us all stressed out for days.
• Franck and I had a hug and a bit of a cry. Far out.
• It felt like such an achievement. We felt like a team. For all the stress and bickering of the past week or so. I think in a normal hiking situation we’d all get along. It just turns out that facing really high consequence decisions day after day with people you’ve just met is, well, a bit stressful.
• We all took some time at the top to take photos and enjoy the moment.
• In a normal year there’s be heaps of hikers up here but it was just 8 of us
• Had quite a steep descent down after that on snow that got kinda slushy after 7am
• Pulse had to self arrest - she was fine but it was a bit exciting.
• Spent a long time tromping around in sloshy snow to try and find the track
• The path is just super slow going at the moment, there’s navigation and so much snow - like you’ll walk up to a section of the trail and then there’s like 1-3 metres of snow blocking the path
• We had a proper river crossing of Bubbs creek - I decided to wade the creek instead of take a log crossing as I felt the log crossing had very high consequences if you fell off.
• Wading the stream was fine but Granite Man did it first to show how low it was, only came up to the calves, even though it looks really intense. He did it in crocs.
• It was intense. By the end of a short 3-4m crossing I absolutely could not feel my toes at all.
• We all had a nice nap at the stream and I cooked my first hot lunch on trail. It was kind of amazing.
• Getting up reminded me how sore all of my body and my toes were.
• We had to cross through a lot of avalanche debris from wet slides. This was intense. Big trees snapped in half like match sticks. The debris fields were metres tall, and full of hunks of tree and wet hard snow. You had to be careful because there were a bunch of potential holes near the trees, and it wouldn’t be a great time falling in those.
• We hit the first sections of continuous path for more than 5 metres. We could see the trail winding through the forest. We could SEE THE TRAIL. It was amazing.
• We all were so stoked by such a minor thing. We started singing. It was surreal.
• We made pretty good time through the forest and snow and avalanche damaged forest, getting to a nice campsite with shade, I rolled out my ground sheet and piled some clothes into a pillow (instead of inflating my pillow I slept on it deflated - look, I was tired), and promptly passed out for I don’t know how long.
• I could see how magical the sierras would be - seeing deer roam around the forest and these huge streams, it’s really something. It’s just really really hard going at the moment.
• The stream next to us was very swollen but if you followed it up a little bit there was a swollen tributary that formed a beautiful plunge pool. I skinny dipped in there and washed off the sweat and grime, quickly. It was very cold.
• We were all in a pretty great mood at camp and I just continued to eat all the leftover snacks and other food I had. I just basically couldn’t stop myself. I think I’m also back on team stove again, cold soaking just isn’t as good. Hot cous cous with refried beans and olive oil - so much better than the cold soak.
• Cukes called this process of working out that you can eat an extra day of food a “Gala Dinner”. It was joyous to know that I had an extra day and a half of food that I could just pick through all the good snacks I wanted.
• Granite Man appeared and gave us all bars of chocolate. There was a bear canister - like a big metal locker that they provide at official camp sites that is bear…resistant. And it had heaps of snacks. What angels left this here?
• My friend Allison that I know from the R programming world lives just outside Bishop, I’d messaged her about staying for a couple of days. She replied saying absolutely, what are my dietaries? I started to cry reading that message. Such a thoughtful person. I knew that I would have a friend who I knew, who really knew me, who would meet me and pick me up and take me to her home and feed me. I am so lucky.

Plan from here

• Hike out of Kearsage pass via bullfrog lake to Onion Valley Trailhead

Animals sighted

• Deer

Gear thoughts

Physical condition

• feet hurt everywhere and my legs are totally juiced

Thoughts and Observations

• All your gear gets soaked in the snow.
• Starting early sucks, but a saving grace of this is that you get plenty of time to dry out all your gear in the sun. Having a dry tent and dry hiking clothes feels so much better. I’d still end up sleeping with my hiking socks and other bits of clothes on my body as I slept to help dry them out overnight. It’s a bit gross, but it’s a somewhat normal thing to do in the mountains.
• We had brief sections of stony trail at the back of Forester Pass. Man. The Sierras really would be just so much more straightforward in a non insane snow year. Far out.
• Franck made a good point that we shouldn’t guess the path of the person who is leading the trail. I was probably being a bit of a pain when Tomas The Austrian was leading as I felt we were taking a long route over very bad snow. I guess I was just so tired and exhausted, I was getting antsy. Franck was right, though.

Some of the bad things

• buying gear like crampons and realising they probably weren’t the fight ones to get and feeling annoyed you spent so much on them

Quotes of the day

• make a decision based on what you can see

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-29
• Pct day: 55
• Start: Mile 767
• End: Mile 778
• Distance: 11 miles
• Ascent:
• Descent:
• Start name: Mt Whitney turnoff
• End name: camp near Forester Pass Approach
• Wake up: 02:00
• Start hiking: 03:00
• At camp:
• In bed:
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no
• Best thing:
• Worst thing: Ranger Michael scaring the shit out of us; walking over a collapsed snow bridge

Key moments

• I actually accidentally deleted this post when I was out in the Sierras. It wasn’t backed up so there was no hope of retrieving. What follows are what I remember as of 15th April 2024.
• This was a very hard day
• We had a bunch of stream crossings that involved us walking up and down the streams trying to find a good place to cross
• We had been doing team debriefs every night, calling them “pulse checks”, where we would discuss where we were at mentally, physically, and spiritually.
• It was a good thing to go through, but I was also feeling myself getting to the end of my tether. We were having fundamentally different ideas about pace, about moving quickly. Fancy Pants didn’t seem to realise that I thought we should all have vito power over a crossing. These sort of fundamental disagreements were really something that I thought we had discussed before we formed up.
• We would take turns leading the group in the morning as we headed off.
• Leading is actually a huge job in the Sierras. You simply don’t have a trail out here.
• Like the most trail we saw was in the first two days. But once we got up into the snow line, the most continuous trail I would see at once was like 5 metres of the actually PCT. Then there would be a snow wall about 3 metres tall. And you’d need to look at where you think the trail would go, and then check your phone to see what FarOut would say - this would drain your batter and also your phone wasn’t always accurate.
• What this did mean was that we could take shortcuts across the snow, since if there wasn’t a trail, you may as well take the most efficient route
• So as the leader you’ve got to make sure you’re taking everyone on the right track, and occasionally there would be a bit of discussion that would descent into somehwat bickering “Are we on the trail?” “Can we cut across this section?”.
• I was usually tailing at the back, with Franck being my buddy.
• My feet were just in agony. My knees hurt. By back. Just like, fucking everything. Jesus christ everything hurt. I would find myself hanging at the back, with Pulse and Franck, as everyone else would slowly pull away out of line of sight.
• I’d feel tears come up and I’d feel like I was back in primary or high school, like I was being left out. I hated this.
• This wasn’t how I ever imagined being in such dangerous conditions.
• We eventually all stopped for a break.
• Pulse and I were having a hard time keeping up.
• I think Pulse started to talk about possibly taking more breaks.
• Fancy Pants was getting really frustrated by this - he didn’t like that if we took longer, we would have worse conditions later in the day and we’d be even more destroyed.
• He totally made sense, and I wish I could have gone faster. But man.
• I cracked and told everyone I was tired of being constantly in a rush. I went on a rant about how I was in absolute agony. I was sick of crying every night. Of crying while hiking at the back.
• I was having the worst time, in the most beautiful place.
• I don’t think anyone knew I was having such a time. I guess you get good at hiding things as you get older. Or something.
• We agreed to take more breaks. We’d take a 2 minute break every 15 minutes. I think?
• Fancy Pants didn’t like this, but we all agreed to it.
• We changed leaders, and eventually it was my turn.
• Something funny happened when I changed into leader - I started to move quickly surely, and had some magic pace on me.
• I started to wonder, maybe, if Id' just been by myself, or with a smaller group, I wouldn’t be feeling quite so bad.
• I began to wonder just how different things would have been if I was hiking with Alex and Luxury and Arjen.
• But you can’t change the past.
• At some point I slipped over and solidly bent one of my poles. That’s the last time I’d slip my hands through the loops of my poles - my wrist got caught as I fell, and I didn’t like how that could have ended up with me doing something really weird to my wrist.
• Fancy Pants realised that he had lost his phone.
• As far as things go, losing your phone is pretty bad.
• We went back through our memories and worked out he had it out not too far back, and we agreed on meeting up slightly ahead.
• He managed to catch up to us, phone in hand. Whew.
• We had a chat about crossing the creeks as a group, and decided that we would have a chat before we crossed to see how everyone was feeling. This was good.
• We would spend 45 minutes or so walking up and down a stream, checking FarOut comments, trying to find a decent place to cross.
• These crossings were pretty intense though. Like, water rushing up my thighs over my hips. Powerful water.
• You sure felt alive, though.
• We ended up making I think a bad decision crossing over a partially collapsed snow bridge, just before the ascent up to Forester Pass.
• There was another crossing we could ahve taken earlier, but it was honestly just kind of hard to know how high the water would have gone.
• But seriously though, the collapsed snow bridge was such a bad idea. If it collapsed and one of us went through it would have been a bad time.
• Like maybe Game Over Man, Game Over. It was swift rushing water that went down to rocks underneath that.
• We each crossed cautiously. I was so conflcited. On one hand, my feet weren’t getting so cold I couldn’t feel them for 20 minutes. On the other hand if it collapsed. Well.
• Ut didn’t collapse. Francy Pants was camped out watching the bridge as each of us went over to watch for any sign. It felt like a decent solution.
• Pulse was filming as she crossed and stopped in the middle of the snow bridge to turn and look up and down the stream with her action camera.
• Everyone all at once started yelling - “KEEP MOVING” “WHAT ARE YOU DOING”, “PULSE!”
• We were taking forever to cross over the snow. The suncups were just the worst. Imagine knee to thigh to hip height troughs in the snow that undulate like a chaotic 2d sine wave as far as you can see into the distance.
• You can either choose to stand on the high edges, and risk slipping down into the tough and jarring your knee, your hip, rolling an ankle.
• Or you can lift your feet up high and step to the troughs.
• Walking on the edges is easy when it’s cold.
• But it was warm, and the snow was melting. So you’d slide around on this suncup hellscape.
• We saw a ranger, and he told us we made a really terribly decision about crossing that collapsed snow bridge. He said he didn’t want to give us a lecture, but would just briefly say that we made bad bet on a high risk situation. He also told us that Forester Pass was going to be pretty intense, and that he didn’t cross it 5 days ago. He couldn’t even get his ice axe into the crossing. And he couldn’t get a good grip on his feet. He said he’d suggest crossing in the afternoon. Which is totally different to what we’d heard from others, who said to cross early morning to get good snow conditions.
• We were all pretty shook by this. It was 2 days out from here, or maybe 5 days back. What were we doing here.
• We sat down and had a brief debrief on the bad snow bridge crossing. I felt so out of my comfort zone thinking about the risks we’d taken.
• Then we proceeded to have quite a long debate/argument about where to camp from here.
• We could see that there was maybe a rocky patch up ahead, but it wasn’t clear if there was another patch before forester pass. Fancy Pants wanted to keep going. We said we should go just to where we could see, and camp there. It went back and forth. Eventually Fancy Pants was out voted.
• It took us about 1 hour to maybe half a mile through to that patch. The snow was just so very very slow.
• We all fell over multiple times.
• I sunk down to my hips more than once in some giant suncups.
• Pulse fell over and just lay there for a little while again.
• But man, you’d look around, and it was just so stunning.
• It was a lot.
• A lot of bad feelings. A storm brewing in my head.
• But a lot of amazing beauty.
• The conflict was enough to scramble my brain into an even finer mush than it was
• I got a text on my InReach from Alex. They’d made it through Forester Pass with no problems. He said it was serious, but that there was very good boot pack and well developed slots for your ice axe. He said cross early morning. Totally different to what the ranger said. What the hell.
• This was a relief.
• We weren’t sure which patch to camp at and we found a bigger patch, but had to communicate to the others that we needed water. We also yelled out to Granite Man that we’d be leaving at 3am.
• We had a debrief before we headed off to bed before the Forester Pass ascent. We agreed that if one of us wasn’t sure if we could do it, then at least one of us would go back with them. I agreed I’d go back with anyone. Pulse had had some potential family news that maybe sounded serious.
• I remember looking at her and telling her I’d go back with her if she was at all concerned about the pass. I remember this moment, making eye contact, making a sincere promise. I would walk back through that 5 days of hell with her. Even though there was not much more that I wanted but to call Katie. To hear her voice.
• There was a bunch of conflict in the group, but Pulse and I had gotten along well in the back of the pack. And you just make a bond with some people.
• We ended up at some point saying some positive things about the day and Franck said something really sweet that I still think about. He said he was really grateful that I always checked in with everyone. I wanted to make sure people were OK. I wanted to make sure that the decisions we were making sounded good to them. I cared.
• It is an intense moment writing this all out again. Man. This was a fucking time.
• Dusk settled in, and we looked out over the most ridiculous site. Forester Pass, the tallest pass of the whole sierras on the PCT lay ahead of us. The only other person we’d seen that day was the ranger. This place would normally have at least 50 people here. But instead it was about 9 of us. All to ourselves. Our friends were 15 miles ahead.
• I remembered something Granite Man Tom said: “Make a decision based on what you can see”. Solid advice. You can spend too long in life thinking about what could be.
• We looked out as dusk was settling in.
• My everything hurt.
• But man, it was beautiful.
• This place is so ridiculous.

Plan from here

• Attempt Forester Pass tomorrow

Animals sighted

Gear thoughts

• Fucking crampons on fucking trail runners my god.
• The arms broke on the the glacier glasses my friend Alana gave me. Losing sunglasses is pretty bad news. But I fixed them in like 5 minutes by taking my repair kit - scissors and some elastic, and turning them into goggles by breaking the other arm off and threading the elastic through the holes where the arms were. Felt like fucking PCT MccGyver. These were even better because I couldn’t lose them. A small win for the day.

Physical condition

• Everything hurts.

Thoughts and Observations

• I cannot wait to call Katie.

Some of the bad things

• i think I’ve said enough.

Quotes of the day

• Make a decision based on what you can see

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-28
• Pct day: 54
• Start: Mile 767
• End: Mile 767
• Distance: 15 miles
• Ascent: feet
• Descent: feet
• Start name: Campsite near Mt Whitney turnoff
• End name: Campsite near Mt Whitney turnoff
• Wake up: 10:15pm
• Start hiking: 10:45pm
• At camp: 13:00
• In bed: 19:00
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no
• Best thing: Mt Whitney Summit
• Worst thing: Sierra blues

Key moments

• Couldn’t get much sleep - it was bright outside as we were going to bed at 4 to wake up in about 6 hours, and I actually felt quite nervous about the summit.
• 2 people in the group have never used an ice axe before and I feel like if I’d known that before maybe I would have made a different decision about the Sierras altogether.
• We all left pretty much on time 10:50pm and headed out for a summit of the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states of America.
• There was almost an electric sense of energy in the air - excitement, fear, nervousness.
• I had a great moment where we were hiking out and walking over suncups - these cool snow formations that are basically large dish like dimples in the snow with troughs and peaks, they are a bit tricky to walk on, but under the moonlight and my headlamp I felt free and flowing across the tops. Every step felt right.
• Navigation was a bit an issue in the dark, but we eventually made our way to the switchbacks, which were half covered in snow.
• There was the occasional exciting moment where we realised we were walking over a snow bridge - basically we were walking over a stream. These can be dangerous because if they collapse you can fall into running water that may or may not be deep and/or swiftly moving.
• Things got a bit intense here, and we tried to cut up to a switchback by ascending the snow by kicking in our crampons and using the ice axe - a move called “north walling”. It was probably good that we were in the dark and couldn’t see how high we were and what the exposure was. You feel secure with your ice axe. And I was finally glad to have my fancy crampons. But it was also a good idea to not look down. Also a good moment to not trip.
• A fall from here would maybe send you off, and home in a box.
• We ended up having a slight epic and north walled up about 10 metres and traversing right before realising we couldn’t make it onto the switchback and then we descended.
• Getting through these switchbacks was really tiring and I was wishing that I had boots rather than trail runners with my crampons.
• Traversing the snow covered switchbacks on crampons was tough going
• We made it past the switchbacks and then there was a really fun walk up and along up to the summit of Mt Whitney.
• There was a very funny moment where Fancypants said “I need to take a meeting” once we got to the tip. Always a tough moment, when there isn’t any visible dirt to dig up.
• I was feeling very emotional going up to the top of the mountain. It was exhausting heading up, and my spirits were low.
• I had hoped I could get phone service and call Katie and my parents. Alex said he talked to his Dad at the top. I was holding on to the idea of calling Katie to tell her how much I missed her and how much I wished she was there. The thought of hearing her voice on the other end of the line had me sobbing as I slowly made my way up to the top of what felt like the top of the world.
• We do not remember days, we remember moments. And this was a moment.
• It is hard to put into words, so some poetic descriptions are what will follow.
• I got to the top and it was simply the most beautiful summit I have ever been to.
• It was the single purest moment of my entire life.
• Like a bright bell ringing in your heart, running through your body, through your mind, into your soul, into my past self, standing at the southern terminus, wondering if I’d ever make it here.
• The enormity of this journey, this quest to go to Canada on the PCT, the years of planning, thinking about these moments and imagining what they might feel like.
• The realisation of the dangers we had been through to get up here in the dark.
• It all came together in a moment, a feeling, a sound, running through me like the purest light, the clearest note, the softest touch.
• I cried and sobbed, loudly. I still get emotional thinking about the summit now.
• Fancy pants was crying too. We hugged. It was a great moment. We were alive.
• It was also super cold up there - my water bottle froze.
• It was a bittersweet thing, it was nice to enjoy the summit but it was so cold it was hard to take good photos and I wish I’d taken some cooler ones of me, but I was just so emotional and it was quite overwhelming and also SO cold.
• We hunkered down beside a shelter that was full of snow for about half an hour, taking out our sleeping bags, we all cooked a bit of food and tried to warm up but it wasn’t an ideal situation.
• Franck (Owl) stood in the shelter, there was barely enough space for him to stand there. He made himself some hot tea. He was very very cold, it was almost a worry.
• We saw a couple of other folks make their way up. It was pretty special to see the sunrise at the top, all to ourselves.
• We descended and realised the epic we had been on during the early hours of the dark in the morning. It kind of spooked me and the future snow traverses that were quite steep were a bit scary, so I had to take my time to do them safely.
• It was a much quicker descent down once we could see the switchbacks and also optional rock scrambles, which was nice.
• Although there were some quite sketchy rock scrambles on the scree. Think fridge sized boulders that seemed to move more than a little when you put weight on them. Not ideal.
• The snow on the valley floor was mushy and it made slow going to get back to camp. It felt like it was taking forever.
• Hiking down the suncups towards guitar lake was funny - people were glissading down to save time. I was fairly sure if I did that I’d tear my pants and might snag my ankles. The ice is actually quite rough. But they were having fun.
• I started to sing songs and ramble on while chatting to Pulse. She fell over at one point and just lay there, wanting to have a snooze.
• My brain felt scrambled and I was mildly freaking out about the future days in the Sierra. I miss Katie, I miss having people around who know me. It’s a nice bunch of people on the trail at the moment but I’m still getting to know everyone and doing these alpine starts has been grinding me down.
• While the trail is beautiful, I feel like maybe I’m not seeing the Sierras at ideal time as a PCT hiker and I’m not sure this pace is working for me. It’s tricky because in the desert you could just say goodbye to the people you’re hiking with and take a shorter day, but in the Sierras everything is more intense - you want to stay together to be safe, and everyone’s pace is kind of changing up and everyone’s working out how to be around a new group of people
• My crampons are made of aluminium and they had been blunted a lot from walking on so much rock.
• We came back to the campsite we were at to see a bunch of other hikers who were all psyched to see Mt Whitney. It was some of the most people I’ve seen on the PCT.
• The ranger had a chat to us, she seemed really cool. Not nearly as many hikers this time of year as normal.
• Talking to a bunch of other hikers at our campsite about Forester pass it sounds like some of the challenges with it are a bit of fear mongering, a bunch of the hikers have chatted to people who’ve done it recently and it sounds like the ice chute is fine and has good boot steps put into it, I just hope my slightly blunted crampons go alright.

Plan from here

• Do another alpine start in the morning get close to Forester Pass

Animals sighted

Gear thoughts

• my xtherm sleeping pad had a leak. Goddamn it
• I hope my crampons aren’t too blunted

Physical condition

• Sore legs
• Sore feet
• No bad blisters?
• 2nd toe has a black nail and I think it might fall off
• Weird slightly open blister on the arch of my foot - taping in the morning seems to help slightly. Also pain killers. And Caffeine.
• Every step hurts.

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

• Honestly I was just really struggling today. I sobbed for a while in my tent and I’ve cried writing this. I want to get out of the Sierras, but I also want to push myself within my boundaries of safety . I also don’t want to hike 3 days back to get out to the previous pass.
• I really miss being around people who know me, who get me, it’s not that the PCT hikers don’t gel with me, it’s just that sense of being with people who know you. It’s lonely. The people I’m hiking with are great but I think if I can’t hike the same pace as them then I’m missing out on some of the things that I really want out of the PCT.

Quotes of the day

• The trail is the family

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-27
• Pct day: 53
• Start: Mile 756
• End: Mile 767
• Distance: 11 miles
• Ascent: feet
• Descent: feet
• Start name:
• End name: Near turnoff for Mt Whitney summit
• Wake up: 02:10
• Start hiking: 03:15
• At camp: 14:00
• In bed: 17:00
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no
• Best thing: Seeing Alex and co who just did Mt Whitney
• Worst thing: Feet pain and not being able to hike fast

Key moments

• Woke up super duper early to do an alpine start and get the snow while it is cold and firm
• It was quite magical to be out under the stars and having the snow sparkle back at you under your headlamp and the starlight.
• Was quite a challenge navigating in the snow, there was a bit of a rush in the team to keep moving but I was finding it hard to get food into me to keep my energy up. It was exhausting.
• I could feel myself becoming frustrated at rushing and felt like people wanted to keep hiking and not wait - which I took issue with as we were night hiking in the snow and trying to find the track as well, so it seemed quite important to make sure we could always see everyone
• We were all tired from the days prior and from the hiking we were doing, it wasn’t a great mood.
• My bag is still so overladen with food and I my whole bag was just feeling heavy, even though it was light by comparison from the start.
• We did a log crossing at rock creek and it felt quite sketchy - in hindsight I would have wished we had done an earlier one , but we didn’t know about it.
• It was a frustrating moment because before we started the hike we said that everyone could vito a crossing and we would discuss them before we did them. This is what Scout and Frodo advised us all the way back before the start of the PCT, and this is what I had discussed with Cukes and co.
• But when we went to the crossing over a log with very high consequence (serious injury from a fall into rapidly flowing 10C water), I asked Cukes if she wanted to discuss it, and she said “I don’t see what there is to discuss”, and started crossing the log.
• At this point I started to feel like a drag for being concerned about safety things, and suddenly it felt like the energy moved from “Let’s all do this safely and together”, to “We are in a rush for some reason”, and I didn’t understand it. And it felt bad. And I was frustrated, and sad.
• The log crossing was a scary moment, definitely something that might have had dire consequences if I slipped off. Fancy Pants was kind enough to walk across the log with my bag for me, to help me, which was so nice.
• After a few scary steps across a log with lots of small branches sticking out that felt like they could snag your feet or points of your crampons, facing straight down into the roaring cold water. I made it across.
• After making it across the log I needed to immediately go to the bathroom, or as Pulse had been saying, “Take a meeting”.
• It was an urgent meeting.
• I honestly felt like I wanted nothing more than to be home and to be with my girlfriend Katie, I was having new pains in my foot - potentially from small stones getting in my shoe, and potentially from my crampons. I felt like if I was with Katie I’d feel safe.
• Once we had done most of the miles for the day we had a nice long break at Whitney creek which had a very calm creek crossing In mountain stream water - this prompted us to have a rest and dry out things out
• We got to camp near the Whitney track and saw three of our friends there, Luxury, Arjen and Alex. It was great to catch up and talk about the coming days and the Whitney summit.
• I was quite excited to hear that it was relatively straightforward and that forester pass was also looking fine. They had happened to meet someone who was coming south along it today and said that it was quite straightforward. So hopefully this means we can make it to Kearsage pass potentially a bit sooner than expected.
• We also picked up a new hiker friend on the trail - Tom “The Austrian”. From Austria. A very nice man who is very strong, and was very excited to see some other people on the trail. We gladly welcomed him into the group.

Plan from here

• Wake up at 10pm for a 10:45pm departure to Whitney

Animals sighted

Gear thoughts

• Wish I brought micro spikes instead of just crampons

Physical condition

• Feet hurt - probably from wearing trail runners and crampons and a heavy bag

Thoughts and Observations

• I really really wanted to quit today, I didn’t feel like myself and was finding everything hard to adjust to hiking in a group that appeared to have different values to me.
• But after seeing some friends my energy is renewed and I think it’s possible to do the Sierras - it might not be the entire or the true PCT proper and we might need to take some diversions but I think I can get there.
• I wish somehow that I could have joined Alex and Luxury and Arjen. A single day would have made a huge difference to my mood in being with a crew of people I better align with. I think being in a big group is also a bit of a challenge. The bigger group to more likely you are to have people moving at different speeds, and the group feels like it wants to naturally break up into groups of 3-4.
• I’m glad I’m with Franck. He’s a really good due, and someone I really value having in the team.
• In the slush of the snow you move pretty slow. About a mile an hour. Every step you slide around a little, your feet sink down. It’s like walking in the sand. But your feet just get wet, and you have to think about whats under the snow, and if you’re going to step into a hole or slip and fall into a rock or a tree.
• It is exhausting.

Some of the bad things

• It’s a hard feeling being in a group, but feeling alone.
• The Sierras are so goddamn beautiful. It’s hard to put into words. But I think it’s been overshadowed by the pain I’m in physically and mentally. Every step hurts. I’m not sleeping enough. I can feel myself not being able to emotionally regulate myself.

Quotes of the day

• The trail is the family

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-26
• Pct day: 52
• Start: Mile 743
• End: Mile 756
• Distance: 13 miles
• Ascent: 2736 feet
• Descent: 1614 feet
• Start name:
• End name:
• Wake up: 04:55
• Start hiking: 05:45
• At camp: 19:00
• In bed: 20:30
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no
• Best thing: the sierras are gorgeous
• Worst thing: it’s cold and it’s hard to hike in the snow

Key moments

• Woke up to my alarm and promptly went back to sleep, oops. Woke up again at 455 and rushed to get my stuff together by 0530 so we could leave
• We saw two folks we met at Grumpy’s on the way out in the morning. They were cowboy camping and woke up totally covered in frost. They were bailing out of cottonwood pass. They were cool folks, and it felt nice to see some familiar faces.
• The snow was beautiful but I really regret not taking my micro spikes - I took crampons instead, and didn’t think I’d be needing the micro spikes. Crampons are really good traction on snow and ice but they aren’t great on rock and dirt - just a bit unwieldy. Basically it’s like walking with a bunch of small poke knives on your feet that snag on things, including yourself. There’s a lot of track that is going from snow to dirt and rock and that’s much better to travel on for micro spikes. Wearing my canvas gaiters with my crampons was basically my insurance policy against stabbing myself in the leg. Definitely wish I had proper boots.
• The snow turns quite mushy by 10am so it was just very slow going past this time. It’s hard to describe but basically constantly sliding around on a slippery surface and being tensed up so you don’t slip into a tree or onto a rock or whatever is both mentally and physically exhausting.
• However the views were spectacular.
• Bumped into granite man, Tom, a hiker I had met many weeks ago at Nitsy’s back in Cabazon around mile 200, and then again later at Walkers Pass, where he was wearing crocs.
• Granite man hiked from Kennedy Meadows South to Cottonwood Pass, then back through cottonwood pass and was going for a Mt Whitney summit and push to Kearsage pass. He came in by himself, which was a bit of a worry as the mountains are an isolated place. Plus this year on the PCT with 90% of people skipping the Sierras you might see 1-2 other people a day, compared to a typical year you’d see 40-80 people.
• But Granite Man is made of tough stuff, he is (I think?) 66, and he seemed to know his way around the mountains.
• We sort of hiked together until a spot called chicken spring lake - the first alpine lake of the trip, very nice spot for lunch. We all had a bit of a snooze. We hung out in a tree well, which was a nice source of dryness in the snow.
• I had some snow cone syrup my friend Flora gave me, dug out some clean snow and had a snow cone. Was delicious. Can recommend.
• I went to chicken spring lake, which is the first of the alpine lakes in the Sierras. It wasn’t quite all frozen over. A swim was out of the question though.
• later in the day we came across some other hikers who were turned back at Forester pass, which is the way out - apparent the ranger said it wasn’t ok to cross it at the moment. In retrospect I think it’s possible that a friend of mine, Alex, could have been in that group but we shall see - I’ll get in touch once I’m back in reception.
• The trail fades away in the snow super easily, and you have to find ways around - this turns the whole track into a bit of a route finding adventure in the snow. It’s kind of fun but it’s also tiring. Like really tiring.
• I found myself getting a bit frustrated that the group was splitting up a bit as we went off trail in the snow to camp. I was going slow with my crampons on my trail runners plus I seemed to wearing a small hole through the ball of my foot because of some gravel finding its way there.
• It felt frustrating to be the person nagging everyone to stick together, but all it takes is for someone to be out of line of site and they slip down a hole in the snow and you will have a very, very, very hard time finding them again.
• Holes in the snow occur above trees or rocks/boulders. They are basically where the snow melts out faster there because the rock/tree melts the snow out from under it. You can think of it like swiss cheese, where the holes occur where there are rocks and cheese. You walk above the holes and then you can collapse through.
• They’re dangerous because you don’t know how big the hole could be - or what is under it. You could fall through and land chest deep in snow with your feet dangling into a space, or you could sink a little bit. Or you could pop down and roll or break an ankle.
• When I did a little mountaineering course in NZ the guide told me to walk a certain way to avoid the boulders as someone in front of us landed up to their chest. But he was slightly off, and I fell straight through also chest deep, my arms holding myself up.
• So I was a bit cautious with travelling with the group that we stick together, but there seemed to be this strong energy/focus on moving quickly and fast, which was starting to grind against my values of, well, surviving. And having fun.
• Franck stuck with me when I voiced this concern. And later on he fell through a hole. Franck is a great dude.
• We found a beautiful new PCT blaze and took a group photo together, we decided the trail family would be called “the glissades”, said with a posh accent.
• The team is Owl, Fancy Pants, Cukes, and Pulse.
• Getting into camp I bumped into Trainwreck, who was headed back out to Cottonwood pass, he said that the ranger said there was a literal wall of ice on forester pass that the ranger couldn’t even get his ice axe to bite into, so it’s kind of not passable right now. Good god. It could all change in a couple of days, but there’s a lot of hikers turned around at the moment.
• I felt kind of sad about this and just generally felt kind of tired and exhausted and wanted nothing more than to be at home with Katie, curled up watching a movie. Or parks and rec. The last few weeks there hasn’t been much phone reception and it’s been hard to stay in touch. I was really missing her. I felt like if she was here we’d have a really good plan and I’d feel safe.
• It was nice to get a campsite that wasn’t in the snow. I was worried that I’d be camping on snow, but there was enough dry spots around.
• It’s ok to want things like that and for the trail to be hard. I came here for adventure. But boy, this is hard.

Plan from here

• Wake up at 2am to get out by 3am. We need to get moving on the hard snow otherwise it’s a nightmare during the day. Hopefully this means most of our hiking will be done by midday. Hopefully.

Animals sighted

Gear thoughts

• I may have packed too much food
• Crampons are great when it’s continuous travel on hard snow, and also really good for going up steep slopes.

Physical condition

• Right blister seems to have gone away, well the pain was just replaced boy other random pains form the crampons. I’m fairly sure the clamps on the front of the shoe are crushing my toes. It hurts. A lot.
• Lots of the random niggles I had in the desert seem to be gone now. Replaced by new pains between the shoulders and new emerging pains from carrying so much stuff and hiking through the snow.

Thoughts and Observations

• I hope Alex is going OK.

Some of the bad things

• I’m a bit scared, and worried that my group doesn’t have the same safety values as me.

Quotes of the day

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-25
• Pct day: 51
• Start: Mile 720
• End: Mile 743
• Distance: 24 miles
• Ascent: 4445 feet
• Descent: 3316 feet
• Start name:
• End name:
• Wake up: 04:15
• Start hiking: 05:15
• At camp: 17:15
• In bed: 21:00
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no
• Best thing: just being in the Sierras
• Worst thing: heavy bag and right foot blister pain

Key moments

• Woke up super early with Frank
• Had a nice time talking on hard crispy snow fields before getting to only really minor patches of snow
• Had a nice soak of the feet in a stream
• Caught up with the rest of the team - Fancy Pants, Serena, and Cukes
• Cukes reminded me we have snow cone syrup and we made snow cones after lunch
• Foot blisters on right side are a bit red - hopefully not infected. They are a bit tender at night but I feel like this makes sense - they might be a bit raw after a whole day walking on them
• Franck got an unexpected nosebleed - it was intense! It kept bleeding for a while. He’s never had one before, it felt a bit scary. But he was OK.
• Had a lovely family dinner of the hiking group, we discussed the possibility of maybe being able to make it all the way through the Sierras, but fancy pants said he’s just going to focus on getting through each day. It’s a good reminder that that is a healthy habit

Plan from here

• Hike until we are 10 miles out from the camping spot just before Mt Whitney

Animals sighted

• Chipmunks
• Chickadees

Gear thoughts

• Haven’t used my new Ice axe or crampons yet
• Thinking I should have kept my dirty girl gaiters for this trip. Lots of gravel getting in my shoes.
• Also micro spikes would haves been handy. Crampons are a massive pain.

Physical condition

• Mildly worried about the blister on my right foot - hopefully it isn’t infected

Thoughts and Observations

• It’s really nice to hike with a friend (Frank) and to hike with a trail family
• I had several moments today where I cried a little because I was so excited about the sierras

Some of the bad things

• Right blister foot pain

Quotes of the day

• Guys how good is this

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-24
• Pct day: 50
• Start: Mile 703
• End: Mile 720
• Distance: 17 miles
• Ascent: 3017 feet
• Descent: 1069 feet
• Start name: Kennedy Meadows South
• End name: Cow Creek and Tentsite
• Wake up: 0530
• Start hiking: 1230
• At camp: 20:00
• In bed: 21:15
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no
• Best thing: entering the Sierras
• Worst thing: mosquitoes and negative vortex time

Key moments

• woke up and packed up my stuff - it always feels a bit strange packing up hiking gear at a more official campsite / town-type place
• Packing up the winter kit - my -12C bag and a couple of other small bits of gear, takes a bit longer at the moment as I’m still trying to work out where everything goes, and in an ideal world I would have a bag that was a bit bigger, but here we are.
• Sorted out an insurance detail for the sierras - one of those things in life where you read and deliberate and then a 5 minute phone call has it solved
• It was all a bit of chaos, I think so many hikers have been feeling the same. Resupplying and buying new gear is always a bit stressful and for many of us this is the first time we’ve done a large, 9 day food carry. I did one in Tasmania back in 2019, but I wasn’t carrying a bunch of winter stuff like ice axes and crampons and yeah, I think I’ve packed too much food…we will see.
• Thought I lost my trekking poles for a moment after I packed my bag - first time that’s happened
• This happened right as our shuttle was due to leave so that bit of stress really added to it all
• We made it to the shuttle and I found my hiking poles. Cukes, Owl, and I were quite relieved to get to the trail
• It felt SO good to be on the trail, the anxiety of the town funk and resupply slowly melted away as we climbed higher into more verdant hills.
• Cukes got a bit further ahead of us and a few hours later we came across some hikers heading the other direction and they had a note from Cukes with her Inreach phone details, so we could communicate with each other while we are out in the sierras. Smart!
• This was a funny moment because these hikers saw us and said, “Are you ‘friend’ and ‘Owl’ ? This is for you”. My first trail name mention in a note!
• The desert was green this year from the rain, and it was beautiful in its own way, but there is something just so goddamn magical about hiking yourself from the Sandy desert into a piney forest and seeing snowy mountains in the distance.
• The fear and concern of the mountains ahead all continued to melt away as we realised we were all here and we made it and it was exciting.
• Owl and I busted out 17 miles from 1230 until 8, felt great. No snow travel yet, but this reminded me that when we get to less snowy ground, say in Northern California, we should be easily do 25 mile days
• It was really special to hike with Owl, he and I met on the first day of the PCT and have seen each other in towns over the course of our hike but haven’t really hiked with each other yet. And here we are, tackling the coolest section yet.
• Saw a black bear running away into the woods. It must have been some trick of the sound of a nearby stream but I couldn’t hear it move and man did it move fast.
• We got to camp 3 miles from our friends and decided it would be good to camp earlier while it was still light out .

Plan from here

• Catch up to some other friends who we are hiking with and form a party to venture into the Sierras

Animals sighted

• Bear (!)

Gear thoughts

• my 10f FF raven is the freaking best sleeping bag

Physical condition

• Feet are a bit sore after a long day with a 50lb (22.5Kg) pack

Thoughts and observations

Some of the bad things

Quotes of the day

• The mountains are calling so I must go

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-22 - 2023-06-23
• Pct day: 49
• Start: Mile 703
• End: Mile 703
• Distance: 0 miles
• Ascent: NA
• Descent: NA
• Start name: NA
• End name: Kennedy Meadows South
• Wake up: NA
• Start hiking: NA
• At camp: NA
• In bed: NA
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: yes
• Best thing: Finding a crew for the Sierras
• Worst thing: stress about the sierras; frosted over tent;

Key moments

• The next few days were a bit of an anxious time, trying to work out how to tackle the sierras - trying to find a group of people who want to go in, and who I think I’ll gel with, buying 10 days of food and working out how to pack 10 days of food into a special bear proof canister.
• Basically you can either not pack enough food and be malnourished. Or, you can pack 10 actual days of food and hang the extra food in a bag.
• Ugh anyway just writing this down now is taking me back to the anxiety of working all this out
• On the upside, there was heaps of cool hikers at Grumpys, and there were also “bottomless” pancakes- but each one was about 2Kg and the size of a (very) large steering wheel. I had half for breakfast and half for dinner.
• Somehow my friend Alex finished two. The dude must be seriously under-calouried. I wanted to give him the trail name “Bottomless”, but it didn’t stick.
• Every night at Grumpys there was karaoke, so I enjoyed singing a rendition of the monster mash, among other songs. It was great to see hikers let their hair down a bit.
• There was also one guy (Full House) who literally let his hair down and shaved his head into a bin.
• It was very stressful trying to work out an itinerary for the trip, trying to work out how much food to carry and if my food could even fit in my bag. I have a small 44L internal bag, plus all my warm hiking gear.
• Honestly it was awesome to be among awesome hikers but it was also very stressful just waiting there and spending money on breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
• On the upside I got to tick off “hitching in a cattle trailer” off of my PCT bingo list, hitching from the general store to Grumpy’s. We got about 12 hikers in there, and then another two hikers ran over to get in, and the driver jokingly got out and chased them with an electric cattle prod.

Plan from here

• We had a party of psyched hikers: Serena, Outlaw, Flora, Franck (Owl), Fiona (Cukes), Fancy Pants. We are going to head 20 miles out at meet up together the following day.
• I was not sure at first with the group, but Outlaw, Flora, and Owl were people I had hiked with before, so I felt good about hiking with them. Outlaw also hiked the PCT in years previous so that felt really good to have him along.
• I’m nervous, but so excited to be going into one of the most intense sections of the PCT

Animals sighted

Gear thoughts

• Got some grivel crampons - was very excited by these. No other hikers were going for these intense crampons, but I decided I’d go for crampons over microspikes. My bag was incredibly heavy and ditching weight/space was becoming important.
• I felt really excited about my fancy shmancy crampons, they have wicked front spikes that I think will be really important for any steep traversing.
• Yogi said that you can wear crampons with Topo Ultraventure Pros - they have a rock/boot plate in them. Hopefully that is true.

Physical condition

• Blisters healing up OK

Thoughts and Observations

• There was a lot of things that happened here and I’m writing this after the fact. But some funny/notable memories and moments.
• I got to hang out with Graham for a bit, it was so nice to see him. I borrowed Harry’s ukulele and we played “Follow The Sun”, one of Graham’s favourite songs.
• Most people were skipping the Sierras entirely, working out a way to get from Kennedy Meadows South (KMS), or walking out of the first part of the Sierras into Cottonwood Pass, 3 days out from KMS, then flipping up to Truckee or Chester.
• The closest thing I’ve seen to a fight, and my first negative interaction I witnessed on the trail: an annoying loud drunk American dude was talking loudly and telling everyone random stories and interrupting conversations. He ended up leaning on a German dude talking to everyone and the german dude said: “Hey, please don’t touch me”, and the American dude, (Stumbles, we named him), ignored him, so the German dude started speaking german at him. This seemed to trigger something in the American, and he slapped down his hat on the table and started some rant about “you think I don’t know German, I served in the military” and I forget the rest. He wanted to start a fight. Graham calmed the whole thing down and calmly walked him off, saying: “Of course, you’re absolutely right, yes, yes…” while this dude kept rambling on.
• The weirdest/coolest part of this was that the German dude didn’t flinch /seem bothered during this whole situation. He kept his cool and ignored the dude and wasn’t bothered at all. He sang some great karaoke later.
• Alex’s bag was like 70lbs and we played a fun game of getting other lightweight hikers to try and put his bag on. I was rounding people up like they were at a carnival doing a strongman test.
• I heard a loud banging at one point and looked outside to see a hiker smashing up a bag of fritos (like corn chips but better) with the handle of his ice axe. It looked like the this might have been the first thing this ice axe was used for.
• The washing machine at Grumpy’s has been through a lot. I feel for that machine. So much hiker stank.
• It was really fun to see so many hiker friends appearing out of the woodwork. Like Double Check - he had to bail at Tehacapi and go to hospital for strepthroat. He said he got an injection into his ass and then he felt like a new man after a few hours. What a time.
• It was a bit sad to see Alex and Harry head off into the Sierras, I was just still quite tired and recovering from the desert, they would have been a cool group to go through the Sierras with I reckon.

Some of the bad things

• The sheer stress of trying to organise a crew, the anxiety of not having hiked that much with them, the pain of trying to work out 10 days of food, and worrying about insurance.
• I spent a lot of time not hiking and worrying about hiking, and also the strange lack of internet and phone service meant I didn’t get to talk to Katie much, which sucked, considering I hadn’t spoken to her much before this because weirdly phone reception was super spotty and trying to line up sporadic phone reception with a good time to call Katie is just, well, hard.

Quotes of the day

• The trail is the family

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-21
• Pct day: 47
• Start: Mile 695
• End: Mile 703
• Distance: 8 miles
• Ascent: NA
• Descent: NA
• Start name: NA
• End name: Kennedy Meadows South
• Wake up: 06:30
• Start hiking: 07:30
• At camp: 11:00
• In bed: 20:00
• Where I slept: cowboy/tent
• Shower: yes
• Best thing: making it to Kennedy Meadows South!
• Worst thing: stress about the sierras; frost over me

Key moments

• Woke up covered in frost
• We ignored one of Larry’s rules: “don’t cowboy camp next to a stream”
• My entire sleeping bag was covered in a layer of frost and I just found myself giggling away at this
• I look over and noticed that Mariah’s quilt was also entirely covered in frost
• It was all quite ridiculous and I had a good chuckle about it
• Graham arrived at the campsite, hadn’t seen the guy for about 500 miles, it was really nice to see him!
• Beth and I headed off to make it to Kennedy Meadows, we’d heard that you get a round of applause when you make it there, so we were quite excited about that!
• Sure enough we made it to the general store and a bunch of hikers gave us a round of applause!
• I bought everyone a round of beers and enjoyed chatting to a bunch of the hikers there, it was weird to see so many pct hikers together in one spot. The most hikers I’d seen together was about 20, and there were probably 60 hikers.
• We got a ride to Grumpys. Basically there are two main places people stay: Grumpys is free camping, showers, and laundry, but you need to buy most of your food from the kitchen and also pay for wifi. The general store has general store food you can buy, as well as a restaurant, and free wifi but you need to pay for showers and laundry and camping.
• Felt really nice to walk into Grumpys and have a bunch of friends I haven’t seen in ages all hanging out there. A nice little cheer and moment of “Heeyyyyy! How ARE YOU?! WHERE have you been?”. It was cool.
• I got to meet the somewhat famous “Yogi”, who runs an awesome outfitter store in a shipping container just near Grumpy’s, called “Triple Crown Outfitters”. There are two outfitters in KMS (Kennedy Meadows South), “Triple Crown Outfitters” at Grumpy’s, and the silver trailer of “2 Foot Adventures” at the General Store.
• There is apparently some rivalry between the two stores, but I think that might be one particular dude who works for 2 Foot, the dude who was working there when I was there was an incredibly chilled out PCT Alumni who did stuff like let people return a brand new Leukotape if they found half a roll in a hiker box. He was just a chill dude.
• Yogi, who wrote a very popular guide to the PCT, was incredibly friendly and helpful, and had some really great infographics on resupply for the Sierras, and guides showing you how to efficiently pack a bear canister.

Plan from here

• I’ve decided I am going to go into the Sierras. Not a decision to be taken lightly - people have died crossing streams by themselves in high snow years. I want to be with a group of people I know and trust…
• And most people I know and trust are skipping the Sierras
• So I need to find a group of people to hike with in the Sierras.
• I want to take at least 1 or 2 more zero days
• I’ve got to sort out food for 10 days, an itinerary for 10 days, and also sort out some other random bits of gear. Like Crampons, Ice axes.

Animals Sighted

Gear thoughts

• I am about to spend more money on gear. That’s exciting. But also…I literally don’t know how I’m going to fit 10 days of food into a 44L pack that is already kind of full?
• Looking forward to swapping out my sleeping bag and sleeping pad to something warmer for the Sierras

Physical condition

• Some blisters on my feet. Got new shoes, felt like a sort of a new man.

Thoughts and Observations

• I heard a banging sound at the porch of Grumpies. It was a dude using the handle of his ice axe to crush up a bunch of fritos so they could be more compact in his bag.
• Most people were skipping the Sierras entirely, working out a way to get from Kennedy Meadows South (KMS), or walking out of the first part of the Sierras into Cottonwood Pass, 3 days out from KMS, then flipping up to Truckee or Chester.

Some of the bad things

• Stress of working out what to do for the next few days

Quotes of the day

• the trail is the family

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-20
• Pct day: 46
• Start: Mile 669
• End: Mile 694
• Distance: 25 miles
• Ascent: 5167 feet
• Descent: 4471 feet
• Start name: Spanish Needle Creek
• End name: Manter Creek and Tentsites
• Wake up: 05:15
• Start hiking: 06:20
• At camp: 19:20
• In bed: 21:90
• Where I slept: cowboy camp
• Shower: no
• Best thing: great conversation with a new hiker, the feeling that I’m pretty sure I’ll make it to Kennedy Meadows
• Worst thing: right foot blister

Key moments

• got up and out and moving - unfortunately embraced the quote from Clouds: “every shit on trail feels like an emergency shit”
• Ok so maybe this is gross but this is standard hiking talk - when you’ve got to go you’ve got to go and sometimes the body feels a bit ahead of the mind and you just might not be ready, so like one of the Benegeserit from the Dune franchise I found myself chanting: “I must not fear, fear is the mind killer” while I focus on finding an appropriate toilet spot
• Found a pretty good spot to get phone reception and was able to send off a few messages to Katie and catch up on messages, it’s been not a great patch of reception so far
• Had lunch on a picnic table, which is always a novelty, with Dale and Mariah, and a new hiker I hadn’t met yet, Flora
• Flora and I ended up hiking for a while, and had a really nice chat about the trail and it’s physical and mental parts. We were both very excited to get to Kennedy Meadows.
• Kennedy Meadows marks the end of the desert, and is at about mile 702. It’s a big milestone for hikers as the next section is the Sierras in the mountains, which this year are all up in the air as there’s so much snow.
• Anyway, it was a big mileage day today as we wanted to have a shorter day into Kennedy Meadows tomorrow - followed by at least two zero days (a zero is a rest day where you cover zero hiking distance)
• Mariah and I haven’t really cowboy camped much in the desert - cowboy camping is very popular in the desert, it is where you don’t camp in a tent and sleep outside under the stars.
• A hiker named Larry asked if I wanted any advice for cowboy camping for the first time - I said yes and he said “step one: check for ants, step two: check for mozzies”
• We thought we were in the clear but it seems there are mosquitoes about. Oh well, can’t win them all I guess

Plan from here

• hike to a Kennedy Meadows and hatch a plan and a crew to hike the Sierras

Animals sighted

• rabbit
• Grey squirrels

Gear thoughts

Physical condition

• right foot blister is a bit tender - what I really want to know is how I can prevent this, I guess it has come from doing long days with large weight carries, but I just hope my feet can recover and I’ll be in good shape from here

Thoughts and Observations

• the desert has truly been a gift. I can feel how I have changed through this hike - being more comfortable by myself, and in my own skin, and the friends I’ve made
• It’s hard to believe I will be in Kennedy Meadows soon, I got emotional a couple of times thinking about it today, it’s going to be so great to see a bunch of friends at Kennedy Meadows - so many people hang out there for at least 2 days, it’s going to be great to see the friends ahead and behind me.

Some of the bad things

• right foot blister
• Missing Katie, missing family

Quotes of the day

• the trail is the family

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-19
• Pct day: 45
• Start: Mile 652
• End: Mile 669
• Distance: 17 miles
• Ascent: 4317 feet
• Descent: 4192 feet
• Start name: walker pass campground
• End name: Spanish Needle Creek
• Wake up: 07:00
• Start hiking: 08:10
• At camp: 17:30
• In bed: 20:30
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no
• Best thing: seeing Beth and Mariah
• Worst thing: blisters man. And the wind.

Key moments

• I turned off my alarm at 430 and put my buff over my eyes and shoved my earplugs back into my ears.
• Woke up at 7am feeling good, packed up to see that Brian and Andrew had packed up and headed off to get a bus into Lake Isabella - they were ending this part of their PCT journey
• Came across some more hikers from the large trail family, it seemed like the wind was driving them insane too.
• while I really thought I’d want to soak up the awesomeness of the desert before Kennedy Meadows, up ahead at mile 702, this didn’t quite happen
• sure, it’s been great, but I haven’t exactly slowed down to appreciate the section, mostly because the wind has been howling so hard it has at times felt like it could throw me off the mountain.
• it didn’t take long for me to go “fuck this” and just start doing bigger days to get this all over sooner.
• anyway, the hike started going steeply up the mountain and I saw from above the bus drop off a bunch of hikers - I thought I could see my friend Beth’s outfit, and sure enough we caught up to each other on the trail.
• It’s always so nice to see hiker friends after a bit of time - such a nice surprise!
• We leapfrogged past each other a few times as we were taking breaks at different times, eventually arriving at the same camp together.
• Also saw Granite Man Tom, hiking in crocs because his boots were messing his feet up. He said he’s done about 80 miles in crocs so far. Dang man.
• It was nice to have dinner together and catch up on stories, Beth had met some locals who gave her beers and then asked if it would be ok to shoot some rounds at targets and produced a few hand guns to shoot at some target somewhere.
• one of my stake out pints on my tent broke as I was tightening it - time to bust out the sewing kit again. It seemed to hold quite well, although I’ll need to fix it again at Kennedy Meadows as I sewed the loop around the wrong section- it’s hard to explain but basically the moral is that you should be very careful when sewing things and make sure to compare it against an existing part first if you can. Felt good to repair the tent out in the field. Thanks Tiptoe for teaching me on the trail.

Plan from here

• hike 24 miles to make a short day to Kennedy Meadows South

Animals sighted

• nearly stepped on a snake
• Grey squirrels

Gear thoughts

• the Uber light therm a rest isn’t something I could recommend - I’ve had 3 baffles break at my feet. Which is almost kind of nice as it slightly elevates my feet. But still bad.

Physical condition

• the only thing holding me back at the moment is blisters on my feet. My right foot slightly resembles the busted baffles, this blister deep on the ball of my right foot has moved up to my toes, honestly it feels much better this way. Hopefully a bit of rest tonight will help it tomorrow - at least I’m not carrying as much stuff now because we’re nearly at the end of this food carry

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

• honestly blisters just like really suck. I thought my feet would toughen up enough to avoid them forever but apparently not. I think it might be due to my shoe signing running out - I think 400 miles is about the limit of these shoes.

Quotes of the day

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-17
• Pct day: 44
• Start: Mile 624
• End: Mile 652
• Distance: 28 miles
• Ascent: 5751 feet
• Descent: 6102 feet
• Start name: Tentsite (1)
• End name: Walkers Pass
• Wake up: 05:15
• Start hiking: 06:10
• At camp: 18:50
• In bed: 21:00
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no
• Best thing: hiking with a new friend, Andrew
• Worst thing: blisters on my right foot

Key moments

• had an awful night of sleep, I was so thirsty, but only had about 700ml of water to see me through the 7.5 miles in the morning to the next water cache
• This water cache was pretty neat - it had heaps of water cooler bottles and also a stack of battery packs you could use to top up your electronics
• My tent zipper broke during the night but this meant one of my tent doors had to stay up, which actually helped me get to sleep
• got moving early to avoid the heat.
• There was some really crazy wind, super blustery
• Got to a water cache and had a nice conversation with a local who was driving past - he was flying model planes in the area, and said that on the high wind days the record is 570 miles per hour
• Met up with some other hikers at the water cache, and ended up hiking with a guy named Andrew for most of the day - he’s a particularly fast hiker and it felt good to be able to keep up with him
• We stopped in a hut near the trail and had a bit of a nap
• He’d just done something I’d dreamed about- doing the Te Araroa then the larapinta trail then the pct. Such a cool idea

Plan from here

• take it a bit easier tomorrow - maybe. 14 mile day?

Animals sighted

Gear thoughts

Physical condition

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

Quotes of the day

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-17
• Pct day: 43
• Start: Mile 603
• End: Mile 624
• Distance: 22 miles
• Ascent: 2964 feet
• Descent: 3858 feet
• Start name: Robin Bird Spring
• End name: Tentsite (1)
• Wake up: 05:45
• Start hiking: 06:50
• At camp: 18:30
• In bed: 20:00
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no
• Best thing: trail magic
• Worst thing: the insufferable heat of the desert

Key moments

• got up and packed up a bit earlier than I have for the past few weeks
• Had a chat to some of the Australians in the group - he is a doctor who lives in Adelaide and I thought I’d ask if he knows my friend from high school, who is also a doctor in Adelaide. Long shot, but it turns out they are neighbours. There you go.
• Set off and had a great chat with a hiker named Sunshine, her name truly representing her, a very positive person
• Had an interesting chat about the idea of a “bonus dad” instead of “step dad” - such a cool way to phrase things
• had trail magic from a fellow named “old yeller “, he had hot coffee, little packs of snack muffins, soft drink, and beer and almond biscotti and cut up fruit. It was simply amazing. Oh and chairs.
• It’s hard to explain but hikers find chairs very exciting
• I headed out ahead of the large trail family group - I actually found it a bit overwhelming to be amongst so many hikers. I think it’s a tough thing to be in a big group, it’s hard as an outsider not to feel, well, outside this big group, who have all known each other for the past 5 weeks hiking every day. Great people, just sometimes it’s harder as a solo person to break into an established group
• There was a water cache set up to help avoid an epic water carry of over 28 miles. It was water filled up with those water tanks you put in a water cooler, at least 20 of them. I had a slightly hurried lunch there, as there was no shelter from the sun and there were fire ants on the ground.
• Heading out from here felt like the hottest and most exposed section of the PCT I’ve been on since Scissors crossing, at mile 77.
• I felt like I was losing my mind in some kind of a desert montage in a movie. I had to stop every 20 minutes to find shade for about 2 hours until it started to cool down on the later afternoon. I’ll need to get started earlier tomorrow morning I think.
• Campsites were a bit spread out in this section, but I managed to snag a great site under a huge Joshua tree
• I’m looking forward to making it to the next water source tomorrow morning in

Plan from here

Animals sighted

Gear thoughts

Physical condition

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

Quotes of the day

• the trail is the family

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-16
• Pct day: 42
• Start: Mile 583
• End: Mile 603
• Distance: 20 miles
• Ascent: 4012 feet
• Descent: 2969 feet
• Start name: Golden Oak Spring
• End name: Robin Bird Spring
• Wake up: 06:30
• Start hiking: 08:00
• At camp: 1830
• In bed: 2100
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no
• Bugs swallowed: 3

Key moments

• had an alright sleep after a very windy night
• Had a chat to a new Aussie hiker friend, Grace about their plans - it looked like it would be a 20 mile water carry. Oh dear.
• I said goodbye to Nubs and went back to the water source to get more water for the day.
• Saw Marcela, one of my favourite hikers on trail. She calls me “her rainbow” and is always a delight.
• It was a pretty normal day of hiking - not a whole lot happened but I caught up to the group of 5 Aussie hikers - a few friends were visiting Grace and Michael, joining them for a week or so on trail, which is super cool
• so nice to be amongst a group of aussies - I’ve missed being immersed in the accent
• Made it to the 600 mile marker!
• Got to camp to realise I’m now in a hiker bubble - about 15 people at this camp, where have all these people sprung out from? It was a bit of a culture shock to see all these people - while there was a somewhat clique vibe, everyone was nice and there were some good larrikins in there
• but it did make me appreciate the quieter time I’ve had in the trail, it’s funny how suddenly bam, there’s all these people.

Plan from here

• get some morning miles on tomorrow - get out on the trail by 6 and make it to a water cache at mile 14, and then make a decision from there to go a bit further

Animals sighted

Gear thoughts

Physical condition

• pretty good - right foot blister is a bit annoying but otherwise good. Like, it’s kind of crazy, I did a 25 mile day yesterday and at the start of the hike that had me aching all over, not now. Just the blister on my right foot being annoying.
• I was very tired during the day so I’m looking forward to a reasonable sleep tonight and hopefully a shorter day tomorrow

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

• I inhaled like 3 flies, it was awful
• The flies try and go for your eyes and mouth because it’s cool and moist or whatever but that’s like so rude of them
• Man blisters just like don’t stop?
• People snoring at a campsite is a pain, and crowded campsites are a pain

Quotes of the day

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-15
• Pct day: 41
• Start: Mile 558
• End: Mile 583
• Distance: 25 miles
• Ascent: 5422 feet
• Descent: 4186 feet
• Start name: Tehachapi / Willow Springs Road
• End name: unmarked campsite in a windy area next to a loud wind turbine
• Wake up: 06:00
• Start hiking: 08:30
• At camp: 21:30
• In bed: 10:30
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no

Key moments

• woke up in the hotel room we were staying at - headed down to get hotel breakfast
• Sorted out a ride to the trailhead with a trail Angel
• Shared the ride with James and Stitch, a young woman from the south and a retired man from Canada - turns out they met at the southern terminus (the very start of the hike) and both had the goal of doing the whole PCT in less than 100 days, so they’ve just been hiking together the whole time.
• I asked them how they do 30 mile days back to back, they said that the key is in the morning miles, and in your breaks not being too long, and snacking every hour
• I told them I did a 37 mile day and didn’t understand how they could do 30 mile day
• They said 37 miles is too long, and I believed them, my feet still felt tender
• our trail Angel dropped us off and we tried to give her a donation but she said she didn’t want one, just to pay it forward
• there are some very generous people on the trail
• I saw magic man at the trailhead - he’s a trail Angel who gives trail magic to hikers, cold soft drink, snacks, and chairs. He was near Paradise Valley Cafe a few weeks ago, he’ll spend another week here before going further up the trail to independence, in the Sierras. What a cool dude.
• I started out, having a great morning hiking in the morning sun, amongst these enormous wind turbines, walking through an area with small old ones with just two blades, to brand new freaking enormous ones. Super cool things
• Tiptoe caught up to me later down the track, he and clouds and nubs hitched in a little while after me
• We all caught up at the highway, where there was thankfully a large water cache.
• Also a whole tub of biscoff cookie butter, which I helped myself to a few tablespoons
• The trail walked beside the highway for a few miles, I made the “honk the horn” motion to a few trucks and had success, even got a local county ranger to briefly blare his buzzer.
• I felt like a child and it felt great.
• I was sticking to taking a break every hour and taking my pack off for 5 minutes, eating a snack. It seemed to help!
• This felt especially important to do as my bag ended up having about 7 days of food and o was carrying nearly 4 litres of water
• I came across the most glorious siesta spot ever, it looked like a cave carved into a tree, I couldn’t not rest there
• Nubs and I ended up sleeping there for at least 30 minutes. It put us a bit behind on the day but it was a really nice sleep
• Nubs and I had a good chat about music and tv shows we watched growing up, he’s one of the few people who has also seen the Samurai Pizza Cats.
• We spent a bit of time reminiscing over the power rangers as well. Turns out he’s also a fan of one of my favourite bands, Seoul, a band I saw when they first formed in Montreal, back then were called Cherry Chapstick
• We made it to the next water source, which was a 25 mile day - unfortunately the campsite was pretty full and it was late - about 9:20pm so we didn’t want to bother anyone else and headed off to walk another half mile to some less good campsites that were under a large loud wind turbine and were windy. Oh well.

Plan from here

• wake up early and get some morning likes in - which is to say walk back to the water source and then leave from there. Aiming for about 20 miles tomorrow

Animals sighted

• either a bobcat or a small mountain lion or a coyote - we saw it at night, maybe eating another animal. It looked creepy
• So many grasshoppers - they’ve been on the trail since almost the start, but this time they were jumping especially erratically and I had three collide with my face, it was quite funny
• Small bunny rabbit

Gear thoughts

Physical condition

• my feet are just sore - it feels like the balls of my feet are very thin, got a small reappearing blister on my right foot, hopefully should go away with a smaller day tomorrow

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

• my feet are sore, in a very deep way
• I’m camped basically under a loud wind turbine
• long water carries are really annoying
• It’s windy in my tent and I’m getting dust in my face

Quotes of the day

• 37 miles is too many miles

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-14
• Pct day: 40
• Start: Mile 558
• End: Mile 558
• Distance: 0 miles
• Ascent: feet
• Descent: feet
• Start name:
• End name:
• Wake up:
• Start hiking:
• At camp:
• In bed:
• Where I slept: bed
• Shower: yes

Key moments

• Tehachapi zero day
• resupply chores
• Having burgers with friends
• Double check getting his sore throat inspected
• Dinner with the cowboys
• getting a haircut
• Saying goodbye to Amelia and Adam as they head off to Chester

Plan from here

Animals sighted

Gear thoughts

Physical condition

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

Quotes of the day

• the trail is the family

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-13
• Pct day: 39
• Start: Mile 541
• End: Mile 558
• Distance: 17 miles
• Ascent: feet
• Descent: feet
• Start name:
• End name: Tehachapi
• Wake up:
• Start hiking:
• At camp:
• In bed:
• Where I slept: bed
• Shower: yes

Key moments

• oooft I’m coming back to this day nearly 50 days later and having a hard time remembering exact details
• I left kind of early, still feeling sluggish after the accidental aqueduct adventure, and Nubs had already left well before me
• Again super impressed at Nubs pulling through after feeling so terrible and being sick
• I hiked for a bit with a nice dude named James, had a nice chat to him as we managed to scrounge a bit of water from a small pool upstream
• stopped a hiker water cache, which was the most impressive one I’ve seen so far - deck chairs, a couple of tables, a shade umbrella, a pantry cupboard, a cooler (nothing there but reports were a day earlier there was fresh oranges and Soda), and fresh spring water that you don’t need to filter
• In short, quite incredible, there is an access road just next to it and it must require a lot of work to keep going.
• They had a donation jar, and I put money in there - thank you kind folks for putting such a wonderful spot together
• I remember the road to the highway where you hitch into Tehachapi being a long one - a long slow descent over hills in the heat and so many wind turbines. It was a beautiful sight to see, the soft light from the clouds over the hills of the wind turbines
• But also it felt like it just kept going on and on…my feet were sore and I just wanted to be in town where my friends the cowboys had kindly organised a hotel room and were chilling out at that moment in a hot tub with beers
• I made it to the road and there was a really cool PCT log book in a metal box, which had post cards with nice quotes about hiking, like: “And I remember why I’m here…to lose my mind and find my soul” - a quote from Crumbs, a PCT hiker in 2018

Plan from here

• take a zero in Tahachapi

Animals sighted

Gear thoughts

Physical condition

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

Quotes of the day

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-12
• Pct day: 38
• Start: Mile 535
• End: Mile 541
• Distance: 6 miles
• Ascent: 2070 feet
• Descent: 344 feet
• Start name: Cottonwood creek & Faucet
• End name: Tylerhorse Canyon & Tentsite
• Wake up: 08:00
• Start hiking: 12:00
• At camp: 16:30
• In bed: 19:00
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no

Key moments

• woke up to the sun blaring in my tent, and the sounds of the creek right next to me, and the sounds of the wind turbines
• I surprisingly didn’t feel super stiff or have really strong pains as much as I felt like I was moving through molasses. Everything felt slow, and an effort.
• I really do need to stretch
• we all started packing up very slowly. Very slowly.
• I wasn’t going to feel ready to start hiking for a little while, so I decided I was just going to take however long I would need to take to get moving.
• I was reminded of my friend Clouds’s quote: every shit on trail feels like an emergency.
• Perhaps too much detail but it was a surreal moment taking a dump amongst a grove of Joshua trees surrounded by the loud sounds of wind turbines. The things you don’t hear about on the PCT
• I said goodbye to the cowboys (Clouds, Tiptoe, and Double Check) as they packed up and left
• I retreated my bag to the shade of a bridge next to the creek and lay down, eating a second and then a third breakfast. I was definitely in need of more calories and sleep.
• A few more hikers appeared, Dragon, and James. We were all pretty stoked about completing the aqueduct, it’s a milestone of the desert. Only 167 miles of the desert to go. That’s still a lot of miles but I want to savour these ones.
• I spent some time watching the water of the creek flow by and reflected on my journey so far. I’ve been rushing, getting caught up in the energy of the trail, and the people I’ve met.
• I value connection with people so highly, but also my connection with myself, and my sense of independence. These things can be in opposition to each other - wanting to be with others and sharing experiences also means you can lose some independence
• But I think I can still honour my values, but what this means is that I don’t need to feel some great strong need to stick with a hiking group the entire time on the trail, or rather I don’t need to feel anxious about finding the right group of people.
• It’s like trying to find the right partner in a relationship, sometimes it feels like you’re searching so hard, to try and find the right person, and then just when you relax and stop trying so hard, you bump into the right person. Sometimes i feel I’ve been looking so hard I have lost sight of what the trail is, and what I can learn.
• I’m surrounded by great people on the trail, and it’s been an enormous gift to get to know them, and to see them ahead of me, behind me, in a town.
• The trail is the family. I’ll relish the opportunities to connect with people but I won’t make connecting with a group for the whole trail an expectation I want to put on myself.
• These thoughts all came to me as I zoned out looking at the creek for 2 hours
• I set out walking at midday and walked through a forest of Joshua Trees- very cool trees. And also enormous wind turbines. I believe the PCT predated the wind farm, and it felt so bizarre to be walking around these enormous pieces of engineering . Also they are loud, but so beautiful to see spinning in the distance.
• The walking felt super hard, I was going slow.
• I resigned myself to just making it to the next campsite with water in 6 miles. An earlier version of me on the trail would have wanted to make more miles, getting caught up in the energy of wanting to get into town early the next day, but I can start to feel the growth. Why not savour a bit more time in the desert?
• The campsite was great, beautiful flowing water and very windy. It was still sunny so I lay down in the shade of a tree and had a chat to another hiker about upcoming water sources.
• Once the sun started to dip behind a hill I could set up my tent in the shade. I passed out for half an hour or more on a 1/8 inch foam mat in my tent. It felt good.
• Nubs appeared, still feeling a bit unwell but in good spirits. We will both get into Tehachapi tomorrow, which is exciting.
• just before I got into my tent I saw two fighter jets fly above, doing some kind of training exercise, breaking the sound barrier it sounded like. If my friend Alana was with me I reckon she could have identified them.

Plan from here

• walk 17 miles to Tehachapi

Animals sighted

• lizards

Gear thoughts

• my Durston tent has some zippers that are getting a bit beaten up and don’t quite work properly - the company said they can repair or swap the tent for me, which is very nice
• A bandana is a nice thing to use to clean all the dirt and grime off my legs
• I really love my feathered friends flicker wide sleeping bag/quilt . It’s nice to have so much room

Physical condition

• slow, but good. Need to stretch and eat more

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

• I get so very slow today, I’m hoping some good sleep and a lot of food will help me recover for tomorrow

Quotes of the day

• the trail is the family

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-11
• Pct day: 37
• Start: Mile 498
• End: Mile 535
• Distance: 37 miles
• Ascent: 3585 feet
• Descent: 5593 feet
• Start name: sawmill campground
• End name: Cottonwood Creek and Faucet
• Wake up: 06:00
• Start hiking: 08:20
• At camp: 02:15
• In bed: 03:00
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no

Key moments

• clouds rolled in overnight and as I went to the bathroom at the campsite I could barely see through the thick fog/clouds. Quite surreal feeling.
• had another lazy morning, felt really nice to take my time
• Nubs, who was feeling unwell after having a stomach bug on trail, was in much better spirits this morning, we hiked together to the 500 mile marker, it was quite dramatic as we walked through mist and clouds
• I played the proclaimers “I would walk 500 miles” on my phone and stopped at the first time they said “and I would walk 500 miles” - because although I want to walk 500 more I’m not there yet, mate.
• came across these cool sections of lush woods that were green and had misty clouds rolling through them, but only in sections - you could see where there was mist and trees, the grass was so green, and otherwise it was dry and brown
• Heaps of chipmunks and squirrels kept scampering out of logs and other hiding spots along the trail. they are very cute, and it felt like a scene out of a movie, or something
• It was a much gentler day, slowly descending into a place called “hiker town”
• Hiker town is a little hiker oasis that is right next to the trail, apparently has been here for 20 years
• It has little themed small rooms (bank, saloon, jail, other western themes) with beds, and the owner of the property, Richard, was apparently in the film industry for some years
• these spots are really cool as hikers all come together and hang out, charging their devices and chilling out in the shade
• I put some battery banks on charge and then got a ride to the local market, downing a Gatorade and a Dr Pepper before realising that Dr Pepper has caffeine in it.
• It’s a cute little market that is expensive but is stocked full of hiker food, and also a kitchen doing Mexican food and burgers. It’s also part of this two building plaza that is the library, community centre, and real estate.
• I got a burrito and hung out with two other hikers, Lost Keys and Cliff Bar.
• Cliff Bar hiked another hike called the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) last year and apparently had budgeted to have about 80% of his calories from cliff bars. He bought 1300 cliff bars
• He ended up not loving them much so would leave like 50/60 bars in biker boxes along the trail. Imagine coming across a box full of hiker stuff and 50 cliff bars. Would be cool.
• We headed back to Hikertown, and my friends the Cowboys (Tiptoe, Double Check, and Clouds) were going to head off to hike the aqueduct at night in about 20 minutes
• Buzzed from the caffeine and snacks and burrito I felt I could do this. I felt like I was in “ultra marathon mode” and could feel the excitement of pushing through the night to do big distances.
• About the aqueduct: it’s a 16ish mile long stretch of very flat trail that follows the LA aqueduct, carrying water to Los Angeles. It’s a very sun exposed section of trail that is normally hiked at night or in the early morning to avoid the heat.
• We’ve been having cooler weather so it could probably be done during the day, but the tradition is to hike this thing at night
• I had just done a 20 mile day and was somehow just feeling like I could tackle the aqueduct.
• Sometimes you can’t question these feelings too much and you’ve got to go for it
• Unfortunately Nubs couldn’t join as he was still not feeling super great after his stomach bug, but would hopefully have a good night of sleep in a bed.
• Double Check, Tiptoe, and Clouds and I got our stuff together and marched out onto the trail
• we were going to do a aqueduct disco, and Tiptoe had put together a collaborative playlist on Spotify, which meant we could all listen to the same music together on our own headphones, like a silent disco, which is super cool, and we could all add songs as we went
• I had brought some glow bracelets, so we could have some glow stick fun while walking
• The aqueduct was, perhaps unsurprisingly, rather large - it starts as an open body of water flowing down to some pipes, then the PCT follows a large pipe for about 5 miles
• We started the silent disco as we walked on the pipe and my song “Dreams” by Timecop1983 started playing - it was just let dusk and we all set out together. It was a very special moment. A good moment to share.
• The PCT literally walks along the pipe for the trail - you can walk alongside it on a road if you want, but it’s pretty rad that the designated track is the pipe. It’s half buried in the ground and about 1 or 2 metre across or so it’s quite large
• It’s actually kinda hard to walk on the pipe - it’s covered is large rivets and occasionally there’s a maintenance access port and also sometimes random rebar sticking out
• So like, don’t fall over or you might impale yourself.
• Also at one point we went over a higher maintenance point that you had to climb over and the ground fell away from the pipe so you were suddenly a few metres above the ground, which felt a little spooky, but that section is only about 20 metres long
• But also, don’t fall over there
• the PCT turned into a dirt road and then a concrete road and we had basically a road walk for the next 10 miles. You could turn off your headlamp and pretty much walk by starlight
• I was still feeling good but I could start to feel the beginnings of my body protesting “what the hell why are we still walking “
• Walking on the road is surprisingly tiring, the repetitive moments hurting your feet and knees and hips
• I’d recommend doing it at night in a group - we came across a few cars driving on the road, including police, I never felt unsafe but I just reckon it would have been spooky to do it alone
• I kept a steady stream of snacks - peanut butter m&ms, belvita breakfast biscuits, and candy, keeping an ultra mindset of “an eating competition with some hiking”
• Soon we all started to feel quite tired and had a second dinner at midnight. I was close to my first 30 mile day and had already passed my biggest ever walk, 44km, about 28 miles
• We all started spreading out and walking ahead, I could see everyone’s headlamps bobbing in the distance at times
• We were approaching a large windfarm, and it felt surreal to see these enormous blades of the wind turbines turning in the distance over a small hill. As we got closer you could hear them - the gears turning, the wind moving over them. They sounded like small jet engines
• We finally made it to a campsite, under a bridge, Tiptoe came up to meet me at the campsite junction and showed me the way to the campsite
• It was 2:15am and we were all stoked at a big day, but also worried for how we’d pull up the next day
• Going to bed I could feel how sore my feet were. I don’t want to do big days like this I think, it just opens you up to getting strange injuries
• but It was really fun though

Plan from here

• sleep in, have a short day the next day

Animals sighted

Gear thoughts

Physical condition

• so very very tired

Thoughts and Observations

• it’s nice to share moments together with people on trail, but I’m also figuring out that for me, I don’t need to be with a group the whole time, but I really enjoy meeting so many new and interesting people

Some of the bad things

• my god my feet and everything felt stiff and sore

Quotes of the day

• the trail is the family

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-10
• Pct day: 36
• Start: Mile 480
• End: Mile 498
• Distance: 16 miles
• Ascent: feet
• Descent: feet
• Start name:
• End name: sawmill Canpground
• Wake up: 06:00
• Start hiking: 08:00
• At camp: 20:00
• In bed: 21:30
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no

Key moments

• a big day and a small day - I just felt really flat and wanted to sleep in
• My body isn’t used to these big miles consistently yet so I really needed some extra time to sleep
• but also I just needed time mentally - I felt like I Wanted to be hiking with a group this whole time, but this isn’t exactly a group holiday. I see idyllic movies and stories of people having a trail family the entire way through the PCT and so I expected the same
• I have been hanging out with great people on the trail but I guess I’ve been wanting to have the same group who had the same plans the entire time
• I guess this extends from the idea of “happiness is better when it is shared”
• But I think that like my brother Luke says, when you expect things , you can set yourself up for disappointment
• I was thinking I’d be able to keep up with these new guys for the whole ride and be
• super foggy on the trail, which was quite atmospheric
• saw Jeremy and Kristi and Hannes and Meike again, so I guess it wasn’t goodbye!
• I had a good chat with Nubs on trail about the idea of how the trail is hard, and while there’s like a few days where it’s like “wow this is just amazing “ - it’s still hard work
• there was a huge field of poodle dog bush that we had to navigate around - if you touch this plant your skin blisters up and it takes a few weeks to heal. No thanks.
• poor nubs has been unwell, throwing up the other night, I’m impressed he stayed on trail and is still slowly doing the miles. Very strong dude.

Plan from here

Animals sighted

Gear thoughts

Physical condition

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

Quotes of the day

• the trail is the family

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-09
• Pct day: 35
• Start: Mile 454
• End: Mile 480
• Distance: 26 Miles
• Ascent: 5200 feet
• Descent: 3536 feet
• Start name: Serenity’s Oasis
• End name: Grass Mountain Road
• Wake up: 04:45
• Start hiking: 06:30
• At camp: 06:45
• In bed: 20:00
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no

Key moments

• had my first early morning in a while - always hard to get up in the cold!
• A few of us hikers were milling about the campsite this morning - Diamond Dave was up, he said he wanted to make sure he got to say goodbye to us. He was heading off trail, said he’s got some things to deal with back home, and that he might see us in Oregon. Diamond Dave is 72 years old and a former NFL player. Super nice dude. He has lost 30 pounds so far on the trip, said he was back to his NFL weight. He said it’s been great hiking and seeing us about town and on the trail, and I gave him a hug. I hope he is going ok, he’s a pretty amazing dude. It was very sweet that he got up to say goodbye to us, I could tell it was an emotional moment for him, and it was for me too.
• I am going to hike with the cowboys - a trail family I met in Aqua Dulce, a bunch of really nice guys
• However I couldn’t quite keep up with their pace - they are fast movers,
• Had a nice chat to Clouds about music and he showed me an amazing piece performed by a cellist who later developed MS and couldn’t play anymore, very haunting
• Came across Jeremy and Kristi and Meike and Hannes out on the trail - it was good to see familiar faces. Sometimes you don’t know if that will be the last time you see those people, so every goodbye to me feels a bit like this could be it.
• I did about 16 miles by 1pm and then it was just 8 miles to camp - but I found these last miles a bit rough - hot spots on my feet were turning into blisters and the day was just dragging out
• I made it up to camp just past the fire station up the hill, to a very windy campsite, my friends had actually moved down the road around the corner to get away from the wind but they said that perhaps this wasn’t an ideal spot as it was still windy - so I went back to where we planned to camp and set up in a very windy spot, but it felt nice to be in a sheltered tent
• The cowboys are doing a 28 mile day tomorrow - I’m not sure my blisters are cut out for this kind of mileage. I want to be that good but I also need to listen to my feet
• I even had phone reception! Which was great as I could catch up on posting this blog a bit, and even managed to have a phone call with Katie and do the trivia together.
• My friend Max suggested I take a short day tomorrow and head to the Ostrich Farm - I’m kind of tempted to be honest!
• But also the phone is it’s own vortex, and now it’s late
• Also throughout the day I spent a lot of time wandering on the ways I could cut weight from my bag

Plan from here

• I’m not sure - I’m keen to see if I could pull of a 28 mile day but I think my feet are in a bit of a state so I might need to see how I go.

Animals sighted

Gear thoughts

• I love my FF flicker wide

Physical condition

• left foot inside of foot,
• Left ball of my foot feels like a hotspot is forming
• A bit hungry?

Thoughts and Observations

• it’s hard to stay on top of all this blogging and stuff!
• I think I need to focus on being more present - I spend a bit of time while hiking thinking through my pack weight and ways to cut weight and where to do that and what the trade offs would be
• I also spend a lot of time trying to do the calculus of hiking the sierras - where to maybe skip up to, how long the next sections will take
• I think ultimately it’s about taking things day by day. I want to take more breaks tomorrow, get in tune with my body, do some stretching, meditate. I was expecting the hard part of this hike would be the blisters and the physical pain. Sometimes it feels like I’m just out here surviving. But it is very pretty here, and i think this anguish and these challenges are kind of what make this an adventure. Working through adversity promotes growth, I just hope I can learn from it as I go, and take some of those learnings back with me when I come home.

Some of the bad things

• honestly it’s really exciting to be hiking with a group, but it wasn’t as fun to not be able to keep up. It’s funny, I feel like I have a reasonable pace back home but by PCT standards I am firmly in the middle of the pack here. I guess I am with a relatively elite bunch of hikers who are all keen to crush big distances
• everyone is really nice - which in some ways makes it harder to meet and say goodbye to these awesome people.

Quotes of the day

• every trail shit is an emergency shit

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-08
• Pct day: 34
• Start: Mile 454
• End: Mile 454
• Distance: 0 Miles
• Ascent: 0 feet
• Descent: 0 feet
• Start name: Serenity’s oasis
• End name: Serenity’s oasis
• Wake up: 06:10
• Start hiking: NA
• At camp: NA
• In bed: 20:45
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: yes

Key moments

• woke up and put on a load of washing and had a shower
• A relatively normal sentence but unusual in that back at home I don’t think I would have started a day like that and it wouldn’t be a big deal if I did.
• had a nice chilled out morning, saying goodbye to a few hiker friends who were heading out that day, I was going to take a zero and mayyybe hike on a bit
• Headed off to eat breakfast out
• Bumped into my hiker friends, Clouds, Double check, tiptoe, and Nubs,
• had a nice breakfast- breakfast burrito with Chorizo
• Hatched a plan with these new hiker friends - the cowboys - about joining them in their schedule for the next section up to Tehachapi
• Went to a hiker store called “2 foot adventures”, which was a silver trailer parked on a farm field. Super cool, it was run by someone who did the pct in 2021, and had only high quality gear and food that hikers would actually use, things like the type of gaiters we use, zinc, sun gloves, lightweight backpacks, trail runners, Leukotape
• I should mention that I was in my rain pants and rain jacket this whole morning as all my other clothes were in the wash. I was not going to love wearing swampy rain clothes for 30 minutes, but I ended up being in them for 4 hours
• Came back to the oasis and chilled out, before eating an(other) enormous burrito at the Mexican place
• Made some phone calls to Katie and my family
• had discussion with hikers about plans for the Sierras - I think we’re all planning on going to Kennedy Meadows and then maybe hiking to Lone Pine to see what it feels like

Plan from here

• hike 24 miles to the fire station.

Animals sighted

• rabbit
• Dog

Gear thoughts

• it’s be interesting to try out a Katabatic or an Enlightened equipment quilt one day
• My uberlite pad seemed to lose air between last night and today - I guess that makes sense but I hope I don’t have a slow leak

Physical condition

• pretty great - left knee bothering me slightly

Thoughts and Observations

• I might have packed too much food. Might be an idea to pack a bit less for the next section

Some of the bad things

• saying goodbye to friends, I hope I see them back on the trail
• I probably could have avoided carrying 5 days of food if I just came straight to Agua Dulce, and could have maybe just hiked a little ways each day before resupplying. That being said then I couldn’t have been able to hike with this new trail family I’ve joined, so perhaps it really all did work out?
• getting reception to make a proper phone call is hard, and frustrating when you just want to have a normal conversation with your girlfriend

Quotes of the day

• every shit on trail feels like an emergency shit — Clouds

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-07
• Pct day: 33
• Start: Mile 440
• End: Mile 454
• Distance: 15 Miles
• Ascent: 2365 feet
• Descent: 2545 feet
• Start name: Mattox Canyon Creek
• End name: Serenity Oasis
• Wake up: 06:15
• Start hiking: 07:30
• At camp: 20:30
• In bed: 21:00
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no

Key moments

• longer wake up in the morning
• Talking to other hikers it seems like a resupply in Acton was the most reliable idea
• After a brief pit stop in an RV park off trail, where I had a surprisingly chill time to myself, I got a ride into town with a lady from the RV park
• I did my most expensive resupply yet in Acton, would highly recommend checking out all grocery store options before committing to one - I didn’t follow my normal rule of eating food before shopping. So we learn
• I had a nice meal at the saloon in town and charged my devices and relaxed
• I hitched back to the RV park with Jean Claude , my new French friend. We had a very wholesome lady pick us up, she said she used to give 20 hikers a ride a day a few years ago, she was really excited to pick up some hikers. Very wholesome.
• Met up with some really cool hikers at the RV park, Clouds, Tiptoe, Whoops, and Double Check. Had a good discussion about skipping the Sierras. I’m going to try and hike with them, I liked their vibe.
• I hiked the 10 miles to Agua Dulce from the RV park and man I forgot how hard it is to hike with a full resupply for food. No wonder Baden Powell felt hard, I did that the first day out of Wrightwood.
• Everything felt slow and I could feel the weight on my feet
• I did what I think is a normal hiker thing to do in this situation: mentally calculate all the ways to ditch weight from my bag. In reality the simplest answer is to carry less food.
• the hike suddenly appeared over highway 14, an 8 lane highway. The hike goes under the highway through a tunnel and through some amazing rock formations where they have filmed a bunch of movies - Taquez rocks.
• I eventually made it into town - Agua Dulce is one of a few towns where the PCT goes through the town itself.
• I wandered into a Mexican restaurant and got an enormous meal that I managed to finish.
• My friend Amelia got the largest salad I have ever seen.
• Beth had saved me a spot at the hiker oasis, I pitched my tent there and it is already quite late. I’m tired.

Plan from here

• probably take a zero or a Nero tomorrow and wait to catch up with Tiptoe and co

Animals sighted

Gear thoughts

• need to get a cut up sponge to clean my cooking gear
• Need to get another hiker to give my bag a shakedown

Physical condition

• good - just the soles of my feet are sore

Thoughts and Observations

• it’s better to carry less food and do more resupplying than to carry a huge load of food

Some of the bad things

• look I thought I was getting stronger and then bam, I’ve got a heavy bag full of food and I’m feeling bad again.

Quotes of the day

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-06
• Pct day: 33
• Start: Mile 415
• End: Mile 440
• Distance: 25 Miles
• Ascent: 3143 feet
• Descent: 6676 feet
• Start name: unnamed
• End name: Mattox Canyon Creek
• Wake up: 06:00
• Start hiking: 08:25
• At camp: 19:25
• In bed: 20:30
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no

Key moments

• the wind was howling last night and my tent was flapping about wildly, sounding like a plastic bag in a fight with another angry plastic bag
• so just before I went to sleep I tightened up the tent tie point again and got it super taught. The wind didn’t flap about so much now and it was so much quieter
• At some point during the night the wind just stopped. Brilliant.
• I took my sweet time waking up.
• I slept the best I’ve slept on trail - a wide sleeping mat really makes all the difference it seems.
• i woke up at about 6am and then enjoyed breakfast on a rock in the sun
• Adam and Amelia headed off about 645 or so and I didn’t feel a need to rush, I just took my sweet time. I think it helped that there was a nice view
• Once I got moving for the day I felt amazing. Turns out sleeping is important!
• I extended my poles to 130cm and could feel quite the difference in pace. I really enjoyed stretching out and striding out and going fast
• 3 miles in I got to a picnic area with a toilet and tap water. It’s the little things
• A bit later in the morning I came across a family hiking the other way - they offered some trail magic! A cold coke and some m&ms. Delightful. I slammed back the coke on the uphill and noticed that there were “only” 170 calories in a can. Dang man. Never thought I’d be disappointed to see the calories in a coke can and think it was too little
• the trail magic gave me an even bigger boost on my morning and I felt like I was flying. Listening to podcasts and music, everything felt awesome.
• I didn’t come across another person on trail except for Adam and Amelia later on
• I was making sure when I stopped for more than 5 minutes I’d take off my shoes and socks and let my feet air out - if there was a running stream then my feet would go in there as well, to cool down.
• I caught up with Adam and Amelia at a ranger station and had dinner huddled away away from the wind, before taking off to do 4 more miles to the creek
• Overall an amazing day - who would have thought all you need sometimes is a good sleep
• The creek I am camping at had a bunch of hikers I hadn’t seen before, always interesting to meet new people. I think I could see Beth and Mariah’s tents as well.

Plan from here

• head to Acton tomorrow and get resupply and some good food
• Check out Vasquez rocks - a natural rock formation that has had a bunch of movies filmed there
• Hike through Agua Dulce, probably get dinner there and do laundry etc at the Hiker Oasis

Animals sighted

• whip snake
• Squirrels
• Lizards
• Hummingbirds

Gear thoughts

• a tiny towel to wipe down the dirt off of my legs at the end of the day would be good
• Backpack going great
• Wide sleeping pad is so awesome
• Big pillow (by trekology ) is awesome
• wide sleeping bag is great

Physical condition

• a bit sore, but honestly pretty good
• A bit of butt chafe - something that can be a serious concern
• feet a bit stiff and sore

Thoughts and Observations

• sleep is so important
• I think that there is an element of faith in the trail that you have to have - you have faith that there will be water, there will be enough tent spots. Admittedly you can get that information from The Far Out app, but I also think there’s a real element of faith, trust, in the trail, that things will work out.

Some of the bad things

• I still haven’t arrived at this “trail family “ that I do often see shown online. I’ve got a group of friends I see most days on trail but we aren’t this tight knit crack team of hikers planning on how they’re going to take on the trail for the next few weeks.

Quotes of the day

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-05
• Pct day: 31
• Start: Mile 395
• End: Mile 415
• Distance: 20 Miles
• Ascent: 3000 feet
• Descent: 3000 feet
• Start name: Cooper Canyon Creek
• End name: NA
• Wake up: 06:00
• Start hiking: 07:45
• At camp: 17:55
• In bed: 19:15
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no

Key moments

• slept in until about 6 this morning
• Had a slow lazy start to the day
• Today was just hard, you know? Like sure, the PCT is a holiday and stuff, but man, today just felt like everything was a bit hard. I guess I felt fatigued
• had some conversations about bears and Adam and Amelia shared a story of how they saw a bear pop the trunk of a car open in Yosemite Valley while people kind of yelled at it and it just ignores them and rifled through the boot
• we came across a couple of nice spots with picnic tables again
• Saw Trevor on trail - he took a couple of days off to see his family and his dog, sounded like he had a great time
• Got into camp and it seemed like it would be the best spot in the area - alas super windy, I’m hoping my spot in the bushes works. I keep finding fine dust in the tent that is getting blown in. Maybe the wind will die down at night. Definitely time for some ear plugs

Plan from here

• need to do about 20 miles tomorrow to get to Acton the following day. I will probably take a rest there overnight, I’m keen to check out the 49er saloon
• over halfway to Kennedy Meadows!

Animals sighted

• whip snake
• Squirrels

Gear thoughts

• wide sleeping mats are much better
• Thin possum and wool gloves would be a good idea for sleeping gloves
• Once I pitched my tent super tight it didn’t make nearly as much noise - it probably is my favourite piece of gear
• Not sure I’m sold on my Mayfly sandals, my feet end up getting dirty. But they’re better than nothing
• my flicker wide is nice, but I’m not sure if it would be better if I just had the regular flicker, you know?
• I should cut up a sponge to take to clean my cold soak jar
• I wonder if using polycryo will be better than tyvek

Physical condition

• pretty good, my feet seem to be much preferring the new shoes, which could also be that they have laces rather than elastic quick laces
• Left knee sometimes a bit of pain, but probably just a niggle

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

• sometimes you just had bad days that seem really hard. Today wasn’t exactly anything special in terms of mileage or elevation gain/loss, but it just all seemed hard. I think it’s a fatigue thing.
• One thing that really helped was my friend Dan sent me a playlist from he and Liz’s wedding. The Canapé playlist. Man hearing some music that wasn’t from my regular playlist really was a massive mood lifter and really made a difference
• I got into camp because Amelia shouted out to me from some bushes, this was definitely a better camp than the one ahead, and she also gave me a couple of pieces of candy and a oat bar. She said something like “today was hard, here you go”. That meant so much to me.
• The FarOut app keeps losing the maps - and so does the Gaia app

Quotes of the day

• “at least it’s not windy” — me, moments before a large cloud rolled through and the wind picked up.

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023