• 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

• Date: 2023-06-04
• Pct day: 30
• Start: Mile 380
• End: Mile 395
• Distance: 16 Miles
• Ascent: 2538 feet
• Descent: 5104 feet
• Start name: NA
• End name: Cooper Canyon Camp
• Wake up: 06:00
• Start hiking: 07:45
• At camp: 18:00
• In bed: 20:15
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no

Key moments

• had a nice sleep in
• Saw some friends from the last couple of days pass us about 7am: Red, Justin, and Chris
• There was a lot of up and down today, I guess we were still tired from hiking up Baden Powell the day before but it really felt like everything was hard
• I had a really nice moment in the morning which I have been calling my “PCT moments”, where I look at something beautiful and go, “wow, this is it, I’m hiking the PCT!”
• saw Jeremy and Kristi when we came down the back of Baden Powell - they had done the road walk option where you avoid Baden Powell and walk the highway 2 around it.
• our party today was mostly Adam and Amelia and Jeremy and Kristi, it felt nice to reunite
• Had a nice lunch at Eagles Roost - this section so far from Wrightwood has involved a lot of nice picnic areas, with drop toilets and picnic tables. Luxury!
• It was a pretty cool day really, lots of nice views, and also another road walk to avoid some special frog habitat
• Had a chat to Katie in a spot with good reception, I was missing her as we talked earlier about popcorn and I remembered Katie’s really nice popcorn she makes.
• Ended up in a nice place called the Buckhart Track
• Had a really fun stream crossing
• Ended up at Cooper Canyon Creek campsite, which also has two streams running through it and toilets

Plan from here

• I’ve got to get 20 miles in tomorrow as I’m running a bit behind schedule

Animals sighted -crows, lizards, squirrels, chipmunks

Gear thoughts

• I’m really liking my bag - it hurt a bit when I was doing the road walk (just in the middle of my back)
• Loving my wide sleeping mat and pillow
• Unsure of the state of my flicker sleeping bag - not sure if I’ve just be better with a proper quilt
• Mayfly sandals are fun but now my feet get dirty - I think I prefer to wear them for 10 minutes once I get to camp but would prefer to wear my shoes just loosened up a lot

Physical condition

• good, I think? Just tired, need to focus more on sleep!

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

• today just felt like really hard. I found myself going through calculations in my head of how I could save 2-500g if I did some adjustments or changed gear around or over. It is kind of fun but it’s a bit stressful at times
• missing your partner is hard - while it isn’t that long until I’m back, it is also at the same time a long time!

Quotes of the day

• I just wanted to work out which face this rock should be facing down on. It’s going to be here for a while so I want it to be comfortable — Jeremy.

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-03
• Pct day: 29
• Start: Mile 369
• End: Mile 380
• Distance: 11 Miles
• Ascent: 3914 feet
• Descent: 2424 feet
• Start name: Highway 2
• End name: NA
• Wake up: 07:00
• Start hiking: 12:02
• At camp: 19:00
• In bed: 20:00
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: yes

Key moments

• Woke up at 7am, ear plugs in, feeling good. Had to pee a lot during the night. I swear sometimes I need to pee so much when I’m hiking
• too much detail? Probably
• One of the other hikers staying at the trail angels place, Chris, asked if anyone had a can opener - I felt very good being able to produce one in my little slim Victorinox Alox. Chris cooked some baked beans and sausages - looked like a great meal.
• I packed my new Durston bag and was very excited to use it. It felt so good. It was heavy, but it didn’t feel heavy carrying it. More to come on this later
• Adam and Amelia and I walked into town and I felt so good about my bag
• We went into Village grind and I ended up ordering two breakfast burritos because they were so good. And a bit small, perhaps.
• I wrote some postcards While we waited to meet some friends, and for me to retrieve my lightweight trowel from my friend Jeremy. Long story.
• I returned the other trowel I bought from the hardware store, or rather I exchanged it for a Gatorade. Got to stay hydrated while in town - I had a lot of coffee and sometimes I feel like town days you can get a bit dehydrated if you aren’t careful
• While I was downing this Gatorade waiting for Adam and Amelia to come back from an errand, a friendly guy doing some renovations on his home had a chat to me about the trail, telling me a story about a New Zealander he picked up a few years ago. Man the people in this town are so friendly.
• A big Ram brand truck pulled up and asked if I wanted a lift to trail, turns out it was a PCT hiker who was taking a break after hiking from Campo to Kennedy Meadows.
• Adam and Amelia and I got a ride to the trail, and we started off, quickly running into some trail magic from a crew of friendly people doing PCT trail maintenance.
• It was a bit of a slog up and down some elevation to get to the base of the approach to Baden Powell, our mission for the day. A significant part of the trail, at about 9383 feet tall.
• We stopped at the road next to the car park to climb up to Baden Powell - interestingly the road was closed due to snow so you could kind of hang out on the road.
• If you didn’t want to climb up Baden Powell, you could take this closed road around mountain and avoid a lot of elevation gain.
• There was a pretty good amount of snow on the way up, not nearly as much as there was on San Jacinto, and definitely felt very secure
• The day was running away from us and we summited at 5pm, it was just a lot of elevation gain and it was hard work
• We found a little campsite on a ridge, and camped there

Plan from here

• head about 20 miles or so down towards Sulphur Siena’s campsite if possible

Animals sighted

• squirrels

Gear thoughts

• man the Durston bag is just so great. It Carries so well, it has minimal fuss, has well thought out designs, and just enough of what I need to make it work

Physical condition

• good! Right foot blister appears to be gone - new shoes and using laces not elastic seems to have helped that

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

• man slogging it up hill in snow is like really hard work, is this what the Sierras are going to be? Should I delay striving th Sierras?
• I realised I have sent a few things to Kennedy Mesdows. Which makes the end of the desert, however a lot of hikers are skipping out from Kennedy meadows and going from Tehacapi to Northern California or Oregon, as it’s a lot easier to get from Tehacapi than it is from Kennedy mesdows - I hope I don’t make an annoying situation

Quotes of the day

• I know when this gets hard and steep I can get through this because I have a pickle

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-02
• Pct day: 28
• Start: Mile 266
• End: Mile 269
• Distance: 3 Miles
• Ascent: feet
• Descent: feet
• Start name: Blue Ridge Camp
• End name: Wrightwood
• Wake up: 07:45
• Start hiking: 08:20
• At camp: 09:25
• In bed: 10:46
• Where I slept: bed
• Shower: yes

Key moments

• had a luxurious sleep in
• I have now gotten faster at packing up - I forgot a trick I learned hiking the alpine walking track. You just have to take your sleeping bag off of you and pack that away first. Then by the time you do that you take off your camp clothes and shove them in your bed - then you’re in your hiking clothes and before you know if your sleeping mat and things are shoved in your bag.
• I was able to have everything except my tent packed up by about 755. So took about 15 minutes to pack up this way
• But then theres breakfast and packing up the tent - normally packing up a tent can be a bit of a wet / damp experience but it’s been so dry here that isn’t a problem
• the campground had a picnic table - always a really nice luxury. Really though, a level surface to sit on and put your things on, and to be sitting at a table at an even height with others is great
• Adam and Amelia had already headed off to town but I saw a new hiker friend, Kristen, and was able to have her witness me finishing the McDonalds challenge; an Apple fritter (not really a fritter, Maccas) and a McMuffin of some kind. It was very smushed.
• Honestly I’ve come out of this challenge liking Maccas even more than before. Thought I’d hate it but the food was a Real treat on trail
• It was a short walk to the trailhead on the highway - strange walking along ski lifts with no people on them. Felt like some kind of abandoned mall or something
• if arranged to stay with a trail Angel in town who could give me a ride from the freeway where the trail meets the road. Unfortunately I didn’t have any reception there - but annoying as I’m paying all this money for ATT
• Anyway it was only 6 miles to town so I started walking as some other hikers who walked up to the trail told me there wasn’t much traffic on this road anyway as it had only just recently openened due to snow cover.
• After about 10 minutes of walking a nice lady picked me up and dropped me off. She was very kind and told me a story of how she picked up a hiker a few years ago with blisters so bad he ended up drying at her house for a week
• People are so kind
• I met up with Chopper and Snaps at Grizzly cafe and had a nice breakfast with them before heading out and seeing other hiker friends about town
• It was a nice reunion of sorts
• The hardware store in town also had “hiker bag parking “ where they let you park your bag next to some cctv cameras and walk around town.
• I picked up all my things from The post office - so much new gear!
  • Wide sleeping mat
  • wide pillow
  • New backpack
  • New camp shoes
  • New thinpad to sleep under my sleeping pad
  • Compression bag for my sleeping bag
• Adam and Amelia and I went up to our trail angels place, got the tour, and got loaner clothes and got our washing all done while we showered. The trail angels were Mamacita Mama bear and Kittyhawk. They were super nice. And very kind.
• after a bunch of planning and sorting through my bounce box, a quick beard trim from my beard trimmers I put in the bounce box, I wa already to go back into town and mail some more things and do a resupply
• Had an another hiker reunion with Jeremy and Kristi, it turns out Jeremy found my Toilet trowel i lost! The trail provides.
• The local supermarket in town was so well set up for hikers - they rearranged the store so hiker food was at the front of every aisle pretty much.
• Everyone in town was very friendly, it was quite humbling

Plan from here

• hike up Baden Powell tomorrow!

Animals sighted

• bird
• lizards

Gear thoughts

• new pack feels good! A compression bag is key to getting everything low in the pack I think

Physical condition

• better after some rest, my knees still feel a bit tight. Need to stretch

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

• towns can draw you in and make you get all excited to see friends and they honestly feel so very busy

Quotes of the day

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-06-01
• Pct day: 27
• Start: Mile 347
• End: Mile 367
• Distance: 20 Miles
• Ascent: 5757 feet
• Descent: 1269 feet
• Start name: Swarthout Canyon
• End name: Blue Ridge Campground
• Wake up: 06:00
• Start hiking: 07:20
• At camp: 18:00
• In bed: 19:30
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: no

Key moments

• woke up and ate some McDonald’s apple pie and strawberry pie for breakfast. Tasted pretty good actually. Maybe this McDonald’s challenge won’t be so bad. Had a cookie as well for good measure.
• We filled up water from a water cache that is replenished daily - thankful to the people who do this, otherwise this section would be that much more challenging - a 22 mile water carry.
• We crossed a dirt road and got some trail magic from some people hiking another section up ahead of us - they offered us a can of coke but I declined - too early for that. I got their photo - Altitution, Stats, and Groundhog. Turns out they gave some trail magic to some Australians who made a PCT movie last year, Courtney and Jack.
• From here it was pretty much a slow and steady climb for the entire day, with amazing scenery - I thought I’d be in a cloud all day but I hiked above it and it was quite sunny out!
• bumped into Snaps ahead taking a siesta during the day, I carried on, with the idea of hiking all the way through to the highway to get into town before the post office shut
• I started to arrange for a trail angel to host me, hopefully that works out
• I got a text from Amelia saying that she and Adam were just a bit further ahead and were going to camp just a bit before the highway and have an easy day tomorrow and hang out at the trail angels place - this sounded like a good option to me!
• I had two McDoubles for lunch, along with some more cookies. Honestly it went down really well, just needed to add a bit more ketchup to the burgers
• Caught up with Amelia and Adam at a campground before the one we’d hike to, it was nice to see them again!
• I got into Blue Ridge campground and had a Big Mac, but poured my cold fries into the middle of it and smothered the fries in Ranch dressing for the extra calories. It was actually delicious, but that could be the trail spice talking.

Plan from here

• hike 2.5 miles into town tomorrow for a “Nero” and hang out at town, pick up my new gear from the post office, get some vegetables into me, celebrate completing the McDonald’s challenge
• Stay at the trail angels place

Animals sighted

• two whip snakes
• Lizards
• Birds

Gear thoughts

• I’d like to carve a longer wooden spoon and maybe start selling them

Physical condition

• right knee a bit sore randomly today, just some more niggles
• Ankles a bit sore when I lie down
• Left wrist a bit sore I think from having a hiking pole strap too tight on it
• right foot blister seems to have calmed down. I taped moleskin and Fixomul tape onto it today, felt like I was smothering it with a pillow and saying “sleeeeep”. But it seems to work - the blister wasn’t giving me too much strife. Also changed socks during the day, I think that helps

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

• sleeping in is really nice but in the hot weather it can mean your day is really limited. Got lucky today with cooler weather but as we drop in elevation that could change
• it really sucks when I try to call Katie to chat and reception cuts out. It’s understandable - I’m out in the wilderness - but it’s annoying
• Trying to get packages sent to places in time can be a bit of a challenge sometimes

Quotes of the day

• why is trail culture better than regular culture

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-05-31
• Pct day: 26
• Start: Mile 329
• End: Mile 347
• Distance: 18 Miles
• Ascent: 3730 feet
• Descent: 3546 feet
• Start name: picnic area below trail
• End name: Swarthout Canyon
• Wake up: 05:15
• Start hiking: 06:15
• At camp: 18:00
• In bed: 20:20
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: yes

Key moments

• woke up early - there was some reasonably hectic snoring while we were cowboy camping. One of my earplugs fell out and rolled somewhere into the darkness while I was asleep and I was left vulnerable to a sonic snoring assault.

• Somehow I found that hilarious rather than depressing and managed to have a pretty good sleep I think

• At least the person snoring slept well? That’s good for them

• We all packed up and got moving by 6 or so

• I saw Juley - my Korean friend, he started the day with a lollipop after breakfast, and we took some photos together, I took the first photo of him on trail that wasn’t a selfie of himself. After a little while he zoomed off as unstoppable as the wind.

• the light in the morning was glorious - lots of cloud cover and sunbeams shining through onto Silverwood lake, as we climbed higher to a ridge line walk, the wind buffeting us, and my right foot letting me know that there definitely was a blister there. Owie

• Owie, man blisters suck

• Chopper had arranged with a local trail angel (to remain anonymous) to pick us up and give us a shower and laundry and take us to in n out. I finally would get another in n out burger

• This meant I would forgo the walk on trail to the McDonalds on trail in exchange for any favourite burger and a shower and laundry

• Pretty easy trade

• Our Trail angel gave us loaner clothes and we changed into them and put on a load of washing

• While our washing was on we each took turns having a shower and then our angel fed us some leftover pizza and gave us cold sodas, and helped us clean our water filters, and replaced some gear for us - snaps was the same size shoe as them and the angel was injured so just gave Snaps a nearly brand new pair of Altra Lone Peaks, and wouldn’t take any money. Amazingly kind.

• our Angel drove us to the in n out.

• I got a 3x3 animal style with fries well done and also animal style. That’s a triple cheeseburger with special sauce basically and loaded fries. And a vanilla shake. And a Dr Pepper.

• I felt very very full

• Our angel drove us back to their place, we repacked our bags and they took us back to the trail.

• Well, to the McDonald’s

• I tried to work out the best resupply strategy before settling on a potentially horrifying order of about $44 of McDonald’s. this place isn’t cheap anymore

• Why would I do this? It’s called the McDonald’s resupply challenge. You each only food from McDonald’s from Cajon Pass to Wrightwood, about 30 miles.

• I ordered the following:

  • 13 cookies
  • 2 quarter pounders
  • 2 fries
  • 20 McNuggets
  • 2 McDoubles
  • An apple pie
  • A strawberry cream pie
  • An apple frotter
  • A cinnamon roll
  • A blueberry muffin

• That’s going to be all I eat, alongside a bunch of ketchup and Mexican style salsa (from McDonald’s) until I get to Wrightwood.

• Ugh. I’m not sure why I’m really doing it except to say that I did it.

• we met up with some other hikers at the McDonald’s, Diamond Dave, Lucky Marcela, and Jodi and Jonathan. As well as two other hikers we hadn’t met before - Switchback and Android

• lucky Marcela is a bit older and reminds me of an auntie, if I had an Eastern European auntie. She calls me “her rainbow”, as I’m wearing a lot of colours.

• She gave me a hug the other day when we saw each other at camp after a few days of narrowly avoiding seeing each other. In trail time that’s like just missing out on seeing friends over the course of a few months

• Anyway the point is that Marcela gave me a hug and it reminded me of a hug from Mum and that felt pretty special

• It’s the people on trail, man.

• So we set off from McDonald’s back on trail for about 6 miles, walking under an underpass and a tunnel and a train track. Actually two tunnels.

• I was hiking with Chopper and Snaps, and having a great time

• As a train got closer to us, Snaps made the “honk the horn” motion and the train replied. Man does that ever not feel good

• The trains here were enormous, carrying shipping containers 53 feet long (an unusual size), stacked two high, with 5 engines at the front, and 3 in the middle. These trains wound through a section of the pass that was flattened and carved out through mountains. And also right next to the trail. Quite the sight!

• I got to chat to my partner while explaining the wonder of this train to her, it’s hard to explain but I just got really excited by the train

• Chopper and Snaps give the people they meet trail names that they refer to them as privately, apparently mine was “friend”, because I was their friend straightaway. A potential trail name, they quite like it on me.

• I’ll see how it goes!

• We got into camp and here they have a water cache that is topped up by locals very regularly, at Swarthout Canyon. We are lucky to have it - without it, it would be a 22 mile water carry. Now it’s about 16 miles. Thank you, fine folks.

• it ended up being just me and Chopper and Snaps at this campsite, our friends must have hiked on a bit further

• We had a really nice chat over dinner together, while I ate 20 McNuggets and some fries and a couple of cookies for dinner.

• we talked about all the other hikers we’ve met and traded stories. Hopefully we can cowboy camp another time soon - it was cloudy tonight and the threat of rain seemed real.

Plan from here

• an apple pie and a strawberry and cream pie for breakfast . Ugh.
• About a 17 mile water carry to just outside Wrightwood

Animals sighted

• lizards

Gear thoughts

• I really should contact therm a rest or REI to see if they can help me patch my current mat or get a store credit - it lasted about 10 days on trail before getting a hole. I guess you really do need to be careful
• my sleeping bag is great - it is the “feathered friends flicker long wide 20F”, so it’s super comfy, and one day I will find the right sleeping bag for me that’s super light while also being warm and roomy. Or I just take it and know that 800g is still plenty light
• my shoes have big old holes in them, I’m looking forward to new ones, that have about 450 miles on them

Physical condition

• ankles feel a bit stiff, which is new for me
• Right blister on the hall of my foot - potentially reappearing with a mild vengeance

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

• getting blisters bloody sucks. They zap your energy and you want to pop them but you need to be careful they don’t get infected
• I think I’ve found a great group of folks to hike with but my blister might put me off trail for a day back in Wrightwood, in order for it to heal up properly. But it’s encouraging to meet so many cool people.
• While you’ve got time to think during the day as you hike, doing this hike is work. It’s fun, a lot of the time, but it is also something that takes up a lot of time, and I hurt in some random places, like my ankles, me knees, my feet, my hips. My abs. My neck. my left wrist?
• Not all at once, it’s like they are all collectively on a schedule of being niggles for an hour or so each
• My tent smells like McDonald’s, not in a good way.

Quotes of the day

• I don’t think my feet should be allowed out in public. They are disgusting. — Chopper

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-05-30
• Pct day: 25
• Start: Mile 307
• End: Mile 329
• Distance: 22 Miles
• Ascent: 3037feet
• Descent: 3185 feet
• Start name: Hot Springs
• End name: picnic area below trail
• Wake up: 06:00
• Start hiking: 07:15
• At camp: 19:15
• In bed: 21:00
• Where I slept: next to a picnic table
• Shower: no

Key moments

• I woke up about 6am, with my buff over my eyes and my ear plugs in, such a nice way to sleep
• I packed up quickly, unfortunately the day before my cheap knock off dry compression bag had broken so I just shoved my sleeping bag into my pack Liner in my pack. It seemed to work well enough. So much loft in this feathered friends flicker sleeping bag. So good
• I shoveled my overnight oats into my mouth so I could rest and digest in the hot spring before heading back on trail.
• overnight oats: breakfast essentials (a strange milk powdery sachet they sell here) and two sachets of maple sugar oats, a sachet of instant coffee and some peanut butter all shaken up. Leave that to soak overnight and boom, breakfast that gets you moving in multiple ways
• I soaked in the hot spring before hiking - a bunch of other hikers were up for a morning soak before hiking too, Dimond Dave, Lucky Marcela, Goldilocks Beth, and Mariah. Later Julay joined us, eating a hotdog bun with almonds and peanut butter for breakfast. I need to find out exactly what was in it. It was interesting
• There’s only so much hot soaking you can do, and after 20 minutes I was ready to get back hiking
• It was a glorious morning walking out - the mountain, San Antonio, was visible down the gulley/ravine we were walking down
• I had a couple of real moments walking down with this stunning view. Tears were shed as I was listening to Jacob Collier’s live cover of “how deep is your love “
• Walked to a cool dam, I’m not sure what sort of water spillage they are expecting given that it was a weir type thing about 60m above the current river that was already quite full, but I’m no hydro engineer (I later found out this was a backup dam in case another one broke because this is near the San Andreas fault. How crazy)
• The concrete walls were so flat and exactly parallel that they had the most incredible echo I’ve ever heard. I’ll try and attach a video.
• We crossed “deep creek” - true to its name I was up to my butt in the water - another guy somehow dropped his phone while crossing. Thankfully the water wasn’t even really moving so he was able to find it, and these days new phones are pretty waterproof so he was all good!
• Shortly after this crossing there was a trail angel set up at a road crossing with a very comprehensive setup!
• Coke, Dr Pepper, root beer, Gatorade, chips, candy, ice cream, trash bags, a charging station, chairs!
• His name is “corgi legs” - he was on the trail earlier this year but has come off the trail with an injury, so decided to do trail magic
• When we approached him with a donation he said “nah I’m doing this for the Karma, I’m actually a terrible person”, very funny guy!
• I had a good laugh at this
• I tried heaps of American chips - Fritos are the clear winner, they are kind of like corn chips but curly and not triangles
• I spent ages soaking up the god vibes and the great energy from all the hikers in this oasis.
• I hiked out of there eventually with two other hikers, a husband and wife combo, named Rev and Strider. Named so because they hike fast! Haven’t hiked that fast yet on trail, it was great, they are very cool people
• Bumped into my friends from yesterday, chopper and snaps, and I was feeling like it really such such a special day to have so many great things happen and be with cool people to share it with
• hiked around a beautiful lake, which Snaps used to help him find the Leak in his sleeping pad - very cool!
• Eventually made it to the picnic campsite at mile 329. We “cowboy camped”, which is just sleeping in the floor not in a tent. Everyone was saying the insects aren’t too much of an issue but I found a large (for Americans) spider - everyone immediately said that they have ear plugs. I doubt a spider would crawl in your ear but I didn’t wan to risk it - in the earplugs went
• The campsite had flushing toilets and soap and trash bins. So good
• i noticed rhat my right foot now has another beginning of a blister on it again. Hard to catch a break.

Plan from here

• tomorrow is the legendary McDonald’s part of the hike! And my “McDonald’s resupply “ Where all I buy for the next 24-36 hours to Wrightwood at mile 370, is from fromMcdonalds

Animals sighted

• garter snakes
• Birds
• Lizards

Gear thoughts

• I might keep my ccf - it is handy for stretching!

Physical condition

• right foot has a blister on the ball of the foot

Thoughts and Observations

• I just need to go at my own pace - I’ll find people who’re like me that way

Some of the bad things

• blisters really suck
• It’s exciting to have people become “your people, your friends” on the trail, but they can appear anywhere on trail. I need to have faith that sticking my plan for hiking will land me with the right crowd of people

Quotes of the day

• there’s toilet here. Not a pit toilet, a toilet (we all gasped at this information)

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-05-29
• Pct day: 24
• Start: Mile 285
• End: Mile 307
• Distance: 22 Miles
• Ascent: 1669 feet
• Descent: 4619 feet
• Start name: Little Bear Springs
• End name: Hot Springs
• Wake up: 04:30
• Start hiking: 05:45
• At camp: 17:15
• In bed: 21:00
• Where I slept: bed
• Shower: no? Hot spring

Key moments

• early morning because of high (for me) mileage day
• It was cold! Hard to get moving when it’s cold!
• Plenty of water and some water crossings
• Met some South bound (sobo) hikers, and I decided that I’m not sold on my trail name, electro. Back to Nick for the time being
• Met a nice lady who was hiking in the area and had a bag of chocolate, and was handing them to PCT hikers - she said there weren’t as many PCT hikers now
• I got thinking that maybe I’m outside the bubble of PCT hikers, this has its trade offs - fewer people, but fewer people, you know? As an extrovert I like people around.
• had a nice rest under a bridge that had a small waterfall going under it. Saw Beth there, she was there for a while before me, she left after a bit and I was hanging out by myself for a bit - this is an important detail for later
• Reasonably easy hiking from here, I was keen to get a bit of a move on because I wanted to get to this fabled hot springs early
• I heard from a friend I made at Scout and Frodos, Max. He has bad blisters and needs to take a few days off in a town to heal up - hoping that maybe we can hike for a bit around Wrightwood maybe
• the trail followed a creek called Deep Creek for the day, it was mostly downhill, and was nice walking, although my left shin and knee kept hurting randomly
• Eventually made it to the hot springs! A haven for hikers and people from LA - there are natural geothermal springs here that people have turned into pools with the help of concrete and sandbags
• Also a lot of naked people. I opted for clothes.
• I had a nice dip in the cold section of the river, then moved into the various different pools to try the different temperatures
• It’s hard to put into words how weird and wonderful it is to soak in a hot spring after a big day hiking
• A helicopter kept circling shoe where we were hanging out, and a dude was leaning out the door of the helicopter looking down at us. Looking for someone? Practicing?
• I was worried someone had hit their SOS button - turns out there was a kid earlier who had an allergic reaction to a bee sting.
• The short version is that the kid thankfully reacted super well to Benadryl, and so his family was able to take him home - which is a two mile walk back to a car park and then a 2 hour drive to LA
• However an SOS call had been activated from a hiker, as the bee sting initially looked really dangerous and the parents were keen to hit the SOS button
• The hiker canceled their SOS once it became apparent the kid would be fine
• However, they missed an extra text to respond to that was basically like “you sure you want to cancel” - and so because they didn’t see this, because they thought the had canceled it and subsequently turned off their Inreach, the helicopter still came
• And that’s how Chopper got her trail name
• After I had a nice swim in various hot springs I had dinner with Chopper and her friend Snaps, it was a nice evening
• Saw Lucky Marcela and a few other hikers later in the afternoon, I think the vibe tomorrow is to have a bit of a sleep in and maybe a soak in the morning in the hot spring before heading out.
• I also saw Mariah and she said “hey did you see the bear!?” And I was like, no, where? And she said “like 15 feet from where you were hanging out under the bridge - it was just up from you frolicking in the water. You were really close to it”.
• Oh god, somehow I missed seeing a bear very close to me, and also somehow it was all fine. I’m fairly sure I would have shat a brick if I’d turned and saw it. But hey maybe the bear just felt really comfortable in my presence?

Plan from here

• hike about 19 miles to nearby a picnic site

Animals sighted

• bear?
• 3 California racer snakes
• Squirrels
• Chipmunks
• Lizards
• Dogs

Gear thoughts

• keen to go cowboy camping soon

Physical condition

• left knee and shin sometimes hurt while hiking

Thoughts and Observations

• maybe the Sierras will need to be flipped, where I skip them and do them later, this season

Some of the bad things

• my left knee and shin were really uncomfortable today, rest is really important in hiking
• I’ve seen and heard of a lot of hikers having their solid “trail family “ by now, but I still haven’t had that happen yet - it makes me want to make sure happens, but it’s hard.

Quotes of the day

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-05-28
• Pct day: 23
• Start: Mile 266
• End: Mile 285
• Distance: 19 Miles
• Ascent: 2135 feet
• Descent: 2506 feet
• Start name: Big Bear Lake
• End name: Little Bear Springs Camp
• Wake up: 06:30
• Start hiking: 08:30
• At camp: 17:15
• In bed: 20:30
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: yes

Key moments

• it was a bit of a flurry as we all packed up our bags and packed up the house to head out on the trail
• Our trail angel was a bit early and I realised I left a drink bottle somewhere and needed to buy another one at the 711 down the road
• So a mildly stressful morning before getting out to the trail
• It felt good to be back on the trail
• I saw some friends arriving to be picked up on the trail so I told Jeremy, Kristi and Nicole I’d catch up with them
• It was good to see CJ and Frank and some other trail friends. Frank had some new shorts from a thrift store that had chillies on them.
• We saw our first Joshua tree! Sort of reminded me of a pandanas tree but if it was covered in leaves the whole way down.
• Lots of lovely wild flowers growing in little clumps that made it look like they were planted there
• Small fields of sparsely growing violet flowers, the photos don’t do them justice
• Sections of track were just rubble stones that sounded like cracking porcelain as you walked over them
• Saw Beth out on the trail again, haven’t seen her for about a week, always nice to see a familiar face, we hiked the rest of the day together
• Had a patch of good reception so I was able to call Katie, which was really lovely
• Saw heaps of day hikers out, it’s Memorial Day long weekend here and only about 2 hours from LA so people come out here
• Lots of questions from people about if we were doing the PCT - where were we going, when did we start, etc. this is always nice but when it’s like 5 people in a row in 30 minutes it starts to be hard to keep talking, we’ve got some walking to do!
• There’s heaps of 4 wheel drive tracks about - I think they call it Jeep Tracks here. Loads of cars out.
• Saw a nice big rattlesnake in some bushes, just chilling out
• got into camp by a nice stream by 5:15, so good! 19 miles by that time considering we started about 3 hours after I’d normally start, I was really happy with that.
• Had a nice foot soak in the cold creek
• Some friendly jeep drivers came over and gave us a beer and a kombucha and had a nice chat. One of the guys was from New Zealand, so nice to hear a familiar accent
• That’s some good trail magic there - you’re not expecting it!
• Heard fireworks at night, I guess to celebrate Memorial Day?

Plan from here

• hike 23 miles tomorrow to get to the hot springs. That’s right, there are hot springs right on the trail.

Animals sighted

• rattle snake
• Chipmunks
• Lizards

Gear thoughts

• need a way to attach my new sleeping bag/quilt to my sleeping pad
• Really love the new sleeping bag from Feathered Friends
• might not need ice axe for Baden Powell, apparently it’s fine.

Physical condition

• good - feet hurt a bit, right foot blisters might be reappearing. I really need to try replacing the elastic laces with the shoe laces…

Thoughts and Observations

• the good cool weather we are having this week means we can cover more distance

Some of the bad things

• man blisters really can slow you down
• I feel refreshed but I really need to stretch more

Quotes of the day

• Drinking wine in the evenings, classical French coming on the daytime

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-05-26
• Pct day: 21
• Start: Mile 259
• End: Mile 266
• Distance: 6 Miles
• Ascent: 541 feet
• Descent: 892 feet
• Start name: Tentsite (3)
• End name: HWY 18 access to Big Bear
• Wake up: 06:00
• Start hiking: 07:30
• At camp: 10:40
• In bed: 11:45pm
• Where I slept: bed
• Shower: yes

Key moments

• had a luxurious sleep in until 6am today. Words that I thought I’d never say outside of when I was doing rowing in high school.
• It’s hard to take things slow on the PCT, there’s an energy on the trail that moves you forward and wants you to keep going as far as you can in a day
• But a good reminder that being slow and consistent often trumps going fast and having a big rest. To that point I saw a hiker “snickers” this morning after I was outside my tent slowly packing up. I hadn’t seen him for a couple of days and he was for sure going to beat me into town. He stopped about 6 miles before me one day, and probably woke up early to get out quickly today. Consistency I think is key.
• Nicole had made it into camp late at night last night and me and her and another hiker Nathan enjoyed that we could take it a bit slower this morning, since we were heading into town
• Nathan was meeting up with a hiker physio (or physical therapist, as they call them here…I’m not sure if they are different to physiotherapists in Australia) - definitely a cool service. You can find the numbers for people like a physical therapist or a person who gives rides at certain caches on the trail, or on the “far out” app, which is a really awesome map app with comments on water sources and other points of interest and so much more. At times it feels like cheating compared to a map and a guide book
• after packing way too much food my bag was finally starting to feel lighter and I was enjoying that immensely
• A quick descent down 6ish miles you could see pockets of civilisation, including one rather large house just off trail - looked like a retreat centre, or maybe a cult? Who knows.
• as I got to where the trail met the road I heard a hiker yell “yiii-yo”, which I responded “coo-eee” - it was Nathan, and we met up at the road and had a discussion on bush calls - the cooeee is such a good one
• Nathan and I stood hitching for a ride for about 5-10 minutes before a friendly guy pulled over, hikers are very common here and the town is very much full of outdoors people so most of them know what’s up
• This guy, Richard, was super nice and offered us bottles of water an a fresh packet of chips. We chatted about the snow and the rain and he gave us a tour of the local geography as we got into town. The lake in the area that “big bear lake” is named after was nearly totally dry this year. Big rains eh.
• Turns out there are two towns here - big bear lake and big beer city. Big bear lake is the bigger one, go figure
• Nathan got dropped off at a spot to meet his physical therapist, and I got dropped just around the corner from where some hiking friends, Kristi and co, had organised a cabin.
• I did try to pay for gas for the ride but Richard just said he was going that way anyway. I swear the people are the best part of this trip.
• The cabin was a nice 70s vibe and included carpet in the bathroom (and toilet). Just like some places in Hobart!
• Showering after a hike is always funny, so much dirt comes off of you, just rinsing, and then even more comes off when you use soap. And then you wash some random part of your back and black water runs off into the sink.
• I put on my rain clothes and put my clothes into the washing machine
• Nicole and I waited in the living room, for our wash to be done, sort of in a slight stupor trying to work out what the order of operations is after washing.
• We got take out and I finally ate some vegetables. Gotta eat vegetables. Good old pad see ew
• Putting on fresh clean clothes is an amazing feeling
• I was on a mission to go into town to get my new sleeping bag I ordered and to also return my current one, as well as to mail my ice axe and micro spikes and stove and pot ahead
• Yup, I’m going stoveless for the next 80 miles. You just cold soak your food ahead of time in a jar, I do it for lunch and breakfast and dinner, it’s great.
• a bit of schenanigans at the post office - basically my parcel was supposed to get there the day before, but it didn’t, and looking into things, the kind postal service guy found out the the postal truck my sleeping bag was on was in an accident. I think everyone was ok, he didn’t say.
• So if my parcel didn’t get there today, then I’d have to wait until Tuesday to get it, since Monday is a public holiday.
• Not a huge deal, but in the PCT world, hanging out in town waiting for post is kind of a nightmare scenario where the town vortex can take all your money and keep you from doing your job - which is to hike to Canada.
• there was a chance my parcel would arrive by closing time
• I’ll take a chance
• Packing away an ice axe is always funny - you’ve got to basically wrap and tape a bunch of boxes around it and hope it holds together and doesn’t bust out. The staff at the post office again, were really helpful and provided tape and boxes.
• While I waited for my parcel to hopefully arrive, I went to a Mexican place and got a burrito so large I couldn’t finish it.
• I need you to understand that the fact I couldn’t finish a meal and a coke is a big deal.
• The burrito was fine, but I felt slightly defeated
• My new sleeping bag arrived! I could then use the box it came in to send my old sleeping bag off for returns, and the post office folks kindly let me send it off stating slightly past closing to get it off.
• came back to the cabin to explore where my sleeping mat was having its leak, a procees that seems part luck and sort science, wiping soapy water on it to see if it bubbles up anywhere
• Or Jeremy would put his lips close to the net to feel any air blowing on them, because your lips are really sensitive
• I caught him putting his lips near to the mat sort of gently listening / feeing for air from the mat and lost it and had a great old laugh, the big ones that make you cry a little. It was a good moment.
• Went to the local gas station and I got some taquitas - sort of like a a Mexican mini burrito thing that is on those weird heated rollers that hot dogs are on
• They also had sachets of mayo and hot sauce - best garnishes for my cold soak meals, so I loaded up on them
• The clerk said he was about to throw out the food so I could have it for free
• Yay? Hope I’m still saying yay tomorrow and not clutching on to a toilet wondering when it will all end
• I also caught up on a huge backlog of blog posts, it felt good but I need to stay on top of it a bit more, there just isn’t as much reception as I thought they’d be

Plan from here

• take a zero (rest day) tomorrow and resupply at the luxury of a real super market
• Pack my bag, visit a gear store to investigate a new pillow

Animals sighted

• some sort of blue bird?

Gear thoughts

• a great pillow could be a game changer
• A wide sleeping mat could also be a great replacement for my leaky one

Physical condition

• goood! Blisters seem to be turning into leather
• Right and left knee and hip randomly hurt when not carrying a backpack?

Thoughts and Observations

• doing a “Nero” (low mileage) then a zero really gives you a lot of time to sort things out

Some of the bad things

• I can feel the toll on my body slightly - on one hand I feel great, on the other hand I can see how some of the small niggles I have could add up to something more annoying
• Sometimes you aren’t always in sync with people on the trail - I think this is something that I need to embrace rather than resist. Not trying to be discordant, but rather that going at my pace in my time, is a good way to do things, and it doesn’t need to be always in sync with others. I’ll see these people again.

Quotes of the day

• “oh you can have those, I was just about to throw them out” — 7/11 clerk to me about my dinner choices

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-05-25
• Pct day: 20
• Start: Mile 240
• End: Mile 259
• Distance: 19 Miles
• Ascent: 2785 ft
• Descent: 2523 ft
• Start name: Mission Camp Spring
• End name: Tentsite (3)
• Wake up: 04:45
• Start hiking: 06:20
• At camp: 16:30
• In bed: ?

Key moments

• bit of a slow morning, I need to focus on getting a bit of an earlier bed time
• I did however take a good moment when waking up, there were birds singing, I was amongst pine trees, i am finally here, hiking the PCT. Sometimes I get caught up in the work of it all, I forget about how long I’ve been dreaming and planning on doing this, and I know that this time is going to fly by.
• Also it was cold and it’s hard to get out of bed when it’s cold and you’re really comfortable and warm
• had a caffeine electrolyte drink that another hiker, “snickers” gave me - that definitely gave me a boost
• It was definitely cool and I kept my fleece on for a few hours, i was up high - about 8000ft (about 2400m) and walking past small snow drifts
• Mostly a downhill day, thankfully! But the day stretched out a little bit longer that’s I thought it would - downhill doesn’t always mean easy
• Found a water cache with a lawn chair, definitely a novelty to sit down on a chair on the trail.
• Got into camp with two other friends, Nathan and Arthur, we enjoyed the sunset together - getting in at 430pm means you can have a nice relaxing afternoon, I need to do that more often

Plan from here

• have a nice relaxing morning , no need for an alarm , and head down to Big Bear

Animals sighted

• blue jays
• Lizards
• No snakes

Gear thoughts

• I cracked the shits with my bag, I found it too painful on my shoulders with a heavier load of food and decided to buy the Durston Kakwa 40, picking it up in Wrightwood, about mile 370
• Also ordered a pair of mayfly sandals - basically some cord tied to corflute, just to have a nice camp shoe moment but they aren’t anything substantial, and weight about 40 grams.
• Try out dance pants for wind pants?
• Get a really nice pillow
• Get nicer reusable earplugs?

Physical condition

• good enough! My left knee hurts occasionally but I think taking it easy tomorrow and a rest in Big Bear Lake will be good for me

Thoughts and Observations

• getting in at 430pm is awesome
• We have nearly 100 miles of downhill from here

Some of the bad things

• we did about 20 miles today and it just felt like a lot of work - when does this get easy?
• I can feel the toll on my body. Another key to doing this hike is having good sleep. I might change out some sleep things, potentially.

Quotes of the day

• sunset is always better 10 minutes after the sun sets

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-05-24
• Pct day: 19
• Start: Mile 220
• End: Mile 240
• Distance: 19 Miles
• Ascent: 6702 feet
• Descent: 1456 feet
• Start name: whitewater river
• End name: mission camp spring
• Wake up: 04:45
• Start hiking: 05:45
• At camp: 18:00
• In bed: 21:00

Key moments

• woke up early, had a bit of a late night catching up on photo admin and blog posts, but should be caught up now. But feeling tired.
• Bag felt extra heavy on the ascent - really keen to work on cutting some weight in the bag. Also carrying less food
• Bumped into some other hikers at the 6 mile mark in the morning - all of us working on getting up early to beat the heat
• Met an Australian guy named Shane - we’ve been keeping an eye out for each other, we have a mutual friend in Perth. Well we finally bumped into each other! He is doing a big 30 mile day so we probably won’t be hiking together exactly
• There were about 10 or 12 river crossings of mission creek - all small crossings but with really fast flowing water, you really needed to be careful that you didn’t roll an ankle or something. I reminded myself to use a climbing technique that I remember my friend James teaching me: “look, place, weight, move “
• there’s no point trying to take off your shoes as you’ve got multiple Crossings over the next 7 miles, so it would be a bit of a waste of time
• Bumped into Shane again at a nice shady spot after most of the crossings - good spot to air out your feet and dry your shoes and wait out the worst of the heat of the day.
• Managed to get 12 miles before 12 - the goal is to get 10 miles before 10, I got 10 miles by 1030. Goals for tomorrow!
• Had another rattle snake encounter near a rock - it politely moved along once I gave it space
• found a beautiful section of the trail where there was a wall of these beautiful violet flowers
• We went to a campsite at mission spring, really nice spot! A bunch of people joined later in the day, including Arthur!
• there were fire rings and fire pits at the campsite so we lit a small fire, which was a really nice time in the group - it was cold up there!

Plan from here

• hike 16 miles tomorrow in a long waterless stretch to a large nice camp ground with picnic tables, to make a nice easy 10 miles to Big Bear City the next morning.

Animals sighted

• rattle snake - while peeing, not a good time
• Rattle snake - one foot away on a rock
• Other cream coloured small snake
• Small birds
• So many lizards

Gear thoughts

• I need to pack less food
• I need a new bag
• I might get a different ice axe (lighter)

Physical condition

• good! Need to get a bit more sleep

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

• you get to know people but then you’ve got to get going hiking with your mission to get to Canada. There is sometimes somehow all the time in the world, yet also not enough al all

Quotes of the day

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-05-23
• Pct day: 18
• Start: Mile 209
• End: Mile 220
• Distance: 12 Miles
• Start name: Interstate 10
• End name: whitewater river
• Ascent: 2942 Feet
• Descent: 1679 feet
• Wake up: 06:30
• Start hiking: 08:30
• At camp: 1800
• In bed: 20:38
• where I slept: in a tent
• shower: no

Key moments

• woke up at trail Angel Nitzys place, took and out my ear plugs and realised everyone was up talking - man earplugs are great.
• Had a great breakfast of steak and eggs and potato hash, with coffee
• Nitzy drove Dovetail and me out to the trailhead, giving us various advice about the conditions of the trail coming up - sounds like a good section!
• nitzy was an absolute legend. I would highly recommend other hikers come and stay with her if they are looking for a rest near Cabazon
• Dovetail and I grabbed a photo and then he zoomed off on a 30 mile day, I saw him in the distance a couple of times , and some other hikers I met came across him running down the downhills. Dude is fast.
• It was heating up but it was bearable, came across another rattle snake, it was polite really, just crossing the path and rattling while it did so “back off, man” is what I was hearing from the snake. I waited until it went far into the bushes and I couldn’t hear it stopped rattling
• came across some other hikers from Canada and the USA and Denmark, nice folks: Arthur. And Veev, Camilla and Sophie. - all three are accountants, how funny. I’m now in a new bubble of people.
• Arthur and I went down to the whitewater preserve for lunch, we crossed the river together, it being the first substantial river crossing of the trip.
• It was fine, but the water was running fast and up to our knees. The power of the water means that when you put your foot in it moves from where you want it, so you need to be very careful that you don’t land awkwardly on a rock and roll your ankle. The water was definitely moving fast enough that you could have your feet swept out if you weren’t careful - that wouldn’t be bad but landing awkwardly on your knee or ankle would stink.
• We weren’t sure what to expect with the whitewater preserve - but place was basically a lovely park with picnic benches and flushing toilets, palm trees and drinkable water. The ranger was super nice and had a little area for pct hikers to camp, and even said that we could put our trash in their dumpster if we waited until most of the day use hikers to leave. There were also palm trees and a wading pool - great spot to rest your feet. I would have stayed there for the night if I hadn’t already had a nice rest at Nitzys.
• There was a couple from the Netherlands there who I chatted with in Idyllwild before I saw a movie, good to see them again. Neil and Isabell.
• They were mildly shook up as isabell had taken a fall off of the path head first, and has luckily come out completely unscathed.
• We talked about how so many people are going so fast. Neil made a good point that you’ll always notice the fast people as they are ones, well, passing you. And that we might feel unfit but the people on the pct aren’t exactly a normal selection of people from real life. These are fit people.
• After waiting out the heat of the day there I decided to push on a little bit, asking Neil if he could come along for the river crossing, just to be on the safe side in case I slipped. Good dude. I hope I see them again.
• I hiked along to the next river crossing, and met a dude from Palm Springs on the way, he said he was in awe of the PCT hikers. He comes out here and plays around having fun crossing the river a couple of times before hiking back. He gave me some watermelon. What a champion.
• Came across another group of PCT hikers, we all did another a river crossing section together,
• after crossing the river I saw Camilla and Soph and Veev, they waved and it looked like there were heaps of campsites on the other side of the river. It was 6pm, and I decided that I should call it a night here and have a chilled out night before an early morning.
• We had a good chat about all things PCT, they were cowboy camping - camping with no tent - I haven’t been able to try this yet but I’d love to give it a go, the stars would be amazing.

Plan from here

• hike to mile 139 or so, getting to the top of a nearby mountain at nearly 8000ft. Massive day of climbing ahead, which will require an early morning.

Animals sighted

• rattlesnake
• Some kind of Jay bird
• So many lizards

Gear thoughts

• take a pair of Goodr brand sunglasses and break the arms off of them and put in some elastic shock cord - you’ve got yourself some cheap Ombraz brand sunnies
• 1/8 inch gossamer gear mat might be more utility than my accordion style mat , especially for the weight and the length
• I should try out getting a different camping pillow - maybe something bigger or higher
• Could consider getting my Uber lite wide mat sent here, I miss having a wider mat

Physical condition

• pretty dang good - my right ankle seems to be a little bit tired lately, but that’s to be expected given the effort it’s been out under
• Blisters appear to be abating?

Thoughts and Observations

• the PCT is really fun when you allow yourself to deviate from your original plans
• I enjoy being by myself and having my own plan but I also want to be part of a larger group.
• I think making the hike about my own pace, and focussing on finding that internal feeling, rather than focussing outwards on others pace and who is ahead, I will have a better time, as my expectations will be more aligned with myself rather than others

Some of the bad things

• I wish I could know what condition the Sierras will be in and if I should be trying to get there earlier or later in the season

Quotes of the day

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023 A

• Date: 22nd May 2023
• Pct day: 17
• Start: Mile 205
• End: Mile 209
• Distance: 5 Miles
• Start name: water faucet
• End name: Nitzys place
• Wake up: 05:45
• Start hiking: 06:45
• At camp: 16:00
• In bed: 22:00
• Shower: yes
• where I slept: bed

Key moments

• woke up to hikers walking past my tent - a reminder to set up camp away from the trail and to wear earplugs
• I accidentally tried out sleeping on a closed cell foam mat - because I passed out for a couple of hours just “resting”. I don’t think I can do sleeping on a closed cell foam mat, turning on my side my head was way too kinked down to the pillow. So perhaps if I get a really nice pillow?
• It was a sweaty night of sleep, it’s hot down at 2000ft. My sleeping bag, while so light, doesn’t give me an easy way to vent, as it doesn’t have a zipper, so is just a big down filled tube that doesn’t quite reach high enough up my face
• so for the couple of hours that it was cold in the morning I was a bit cold and also too warm in my legs.
• So I think I need a new sleeping bag, unfortunately.
• druggist getting up, we moseyed our way to the interstate 10 oasis, apparently just missing some trail magic!
• Somehow I hiked past my friend Alex over the course of the past few days without seeing him - he had been solo hiking and hadn’t been with other hikes all through fullers ridge, which is the section just after San Jacinto. This is a place many hikers have found a bit spooky as the track has been disappearing under the snow. I am agin so glad to have been hiking with Adam and Amelia there.
• It’s so nice to bump into old hiking friends already
• Caught an Uber with my friends Nicole, Jeremy and Kristi, to the “dollar general” store, which I assumed would be a discount / 99c store. A bleak and grim resupply if it is like the good old “crazy Clark’s” or “red dot” of Australia
• It is nothing like the crazy Clark’s of Australia
• It is a pretty large grocery store, which was perfect for resupply.
• We put our backpacks into a shopping trolley like a large child, and meandered around yet another new layout of a grocery store while I started to feel again just how dehydrated I am
• I shopped while hungry and thirsty, which I would later recognise was a mistake
• After hastily packing all this food into my backpack and barely managing to close it (how do people do a 10 day food carrrg, starve!? Look I may have bought too much food yet again), I was able to get a lift to the legendary “in n out” restaurant, which I had been dreaming about for the past 6 days
• We got there just as the store opened, and I was expecting something like a McDonald’s, but it was just this glorious clean store with a team of motivated people who were working in sync.
• I got in and ordered “a double double animal style with animal style fries” - I told the clerk it was my first time here and he said “well you ordered right”.
• The menu here is super simple, with essentially a burger, a cheeseburger and a double cheeseburger. But there’s a “secret menu” you can order from that you just need to know about from other people/the internet.
• I’d been asking people on the trail and my brother james about what my order should be, and that’s how I arrived my order
• boy did I eat some food and have a real moment with this burger. This burger was not just perfect, it was a thing of beauty. All the staff there felt like a cut above the rest of your regular McDonalds, they all wanted to be there, they were all just getting it done, and they were all so kind. I ordered another fries and another burger and then a shake. Then had a lot more Soda and a coffee before I strayed to feel somewhat normal and hydrated again
• Gotta keep on top of that hydration - not just the electrolytes but the constant sipping of water
• More of us hikers surged piling in to the burger place and I felt bad for the people around. We stunk. I saw multiple people get up and move one more set of tables down. Oh dear.
• The in n out burger place is in a large concrete gas station sorta place next to the Indian reservation of Morengo, which also has a casino. It’s like a somewhat post apocalyptic version of an Australian road house stop, but with an 8 lane highway next to it and snow covered mountains and a wind farm and a freight train line.
• There is a place here called “cold stone ice cream “, which is the same as “cold rock” in Australia
• I described the burger I ate at In n Out to some hiker friends, Jeremy and Kristi and Nicole, and I got emotional. I wasn’t just happy for the burger I was happy that the people there were so good at their job - apparently they earn above minimum wage as well, and have good benefits.
• Anyway I think I’ll be dreaming about this burger for a while.
• I showed my hiking friends the random electrolyte mixes I got from the dollar store and they said my trail name should be “electrolyte”, since I’ve been swapping and dealing electrolytes to people the whole trail. I wasn’t loving it at first but I thought maybe “electro” or “elo” could stick. We shall see.
• I decided to stay at a trail angels place, “Nitzys” - a few other hikers were also coming along - Granite Man and Dovetail- a stay at Nitzys includes a car trip to and from the trail and to a wal mart, as well as food and a bed and shakers and clean clothes to change into. An incredibly generous person. It is honestly so humbling to meet someone so kind, and so wise. I’ll be sure to give a good donation of money to her, and to other hikers I say remember to be generous, this is this persons home.
• Dovetail is a real ultralight hiker and I sat down and chatted about gear to him
• He showed me this ultralight inflated for a sleeping pad - I’d seen these ones that were 99g, but he showed me his which was 8g. Eight grams. There’s a dude on reddit making open source ultralight gear - so it’s all 3d printed and stuff. Here’s a link to the “pad pal” version 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/ULgeartrade/comments/vz4q0n/wts_myog_padpal_an_115_gram_electric_sleeping_pad/

Plan from here

• hike out tomorrow with Dovetail and do the water crossing at mile 15 or so
• Dream of in n our burgers
• Pick up my new sleeping bag from Fearhered Friends in Big Bear City (they are very kindly letting me return my previous bag as it just hasn’t been working for me on trail)

Animals sighted

• random dog on trail - maybe a coyote or a wolf
• Friendly trail angel dog - Abigail

Gear thoughts

• getting some foam Birkenstocks or foam Tevas would be nice just for those precious moments of getting into camp and going “ahhhh my feet aren’t in my shoes now “

Physical condition

• pretty not great this morning -
• dehydration and aches, but this all melted away after a shower and some relaxing chilling time at Nitzy’s
• Somehow my right blister seems to not be giving me issues.

Thoughts and Observations

• people are so damn kind
• a good shower and a wash of clothes really boosts the mood
• Need to be consistently drinking water all day
• The in n out burger really lived up to the hype

Some of the bad things

• dehydration sucks. I felt awful this morning.
• Packing too much food is annoying - I think I might need to maybe carry a bit less food next food carry. It happens to everyone but I will get better at it
• My iPhone apparently wants me to reinsert the Australian SIM card that I don’t have to ensure it still works or it rejects it!? Wtf mate.

Quotes of the day

• “You do have the true expression of joy” — Kartri, describing me eating my burger

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

On the PCT, and many long thru hikes, people get “trail names”, which are given to them by people on the trail. The etiquette is usually that the hiker has to accept the name, but in some cases the name just sticks. For example, when we stayed at the trail angels, Scout and Frodo’s place (aside: a trail angel is someone who helps hikers out - sometimes they give rides to and from places, other times they open up their houses for accommodation, and sometimes they distribute “trail magic”, and sometimes all of those things) - now Scout and Frodo aren’t their real names, those are their trail names, the stories for theirs I won’t tell now.

But Scout told us a story about a fellow who got his trail name, by starting a sentence with “wouldn’t a terrible trail name be ‘cuddles’” - so you can guess what his trail name became, “cuddles”

Anyway, I’ve had a few trail names that have been thrown my way over the past few weeks. But they haven’t really stuck, so here are the proposed ones so far:

• Patches (because a lot of my clothing has different colours)
• Blaze (because my bag at the start of the trail was a bright orange colour)
• Taste the rainbow (again because I wear many colours)
• Skittles (because taste the rainbow is the slogan of skittles)
• Orange (some random dude tried to give this to me)
• Ranga (some random dude tried to give this to me)
• Parachute (because I am wearing lots of bright colours and the 90s had lots of bright colours and parachutes are often bright colours and the 90s had parachute pants)

So far nothing has stuck but people are trying hard to pin one one me. We shall see.

• Date: 2023-05-27
• Pct day: 16
• Start: Mile 186
• End: Mile 205
• Distance: 19 Miles
• Start name:
• End name: Water Faucet
• Wake up: 06:00
• Start hiking: 07:30
• At camp: 20:45
• In bed: 21:30

Key moments

• had a lazy morning start and just lay in bed until about 630, which was really nice
• my Seattle friends, Amelia and Adam, were also down for a late start, and we set of together into the mild madness of finding the PCT in the patchy snow - the trail would reappear more frequently as we got lower in elevation, but it was a bit of route finding again, which was a bit of a mental exercise and I was glad to be with some experienced mountaineers, hopefully I’ve absorbed some of their know how.
• Travelling through snow takes longer and zaps me of mental energy
• We eventually popped out at a nice flat campsite that about 3 weeks ago was nearly entirely covered in snow, but now just had a couple of small snow banks.
• These snow banks provided a small but nice snow melt stream
• We continued to make the large descent off of the shoulder of San Jacinto down. The PCT is graded to have horses on the entire track, and so as a result there are a lot of switchbacks to ascend or descend
• While this is a bit better on the joints, as it is a gentler decline, it also means that it take much much longer to descend as it happens over a longer distance.
• Our descents seemed to magically take much longer than usual - and so began what felt like a descent into madness
• Came across a rattle snake rattling away at me - scared the absolute shot out of me but their rattle is a pretty cool sound. We waited for it to get off trail but it didn’t so we (that is to say, Adam, the fearless), extended a trekking pole the whole way out and gently tapped near the snake and it moves off of the track, rattling away.
• We managed to dodge a storm - getting minor hail and rain, but our friend, Trevor, was about 15 minutes behind us and got completely drenched
• I did a cold soak for my lunch and dinner today - and I gotta say, I think this might win me over as a fun thing to do instead of use gas fuel. It just tasted really good! And it was fast!
• After some sugar and chicken rice, I felt ready to take on an extra 6 miles down to the final campsite before Cabazon. Where we can get in and out burgers
• we all walked down into the night to get down to camp, with about an hourn of total night hiking

Plan from here

• get in and out burger
• Get chipotle
• Resupply
• Plan out camps for the next sections

Animals sighted

• rattle snake!
• Some weird coral banded snake
• Chipmunks’
• honey toad lizards

Gear thoughts

• sleeping on a closed cell foam mat might not be amazing
• I think I would really enjoy some nice camp shoes, perhaps some the foam Birkenstocks

Physical condition

• right foot blisters are worse than left
• Right ankle a bit sore after all the snow and descending
• I really do need to stretch

Thoughts and Observations

Some of the bad things

• getting started in the morning can sometimes be slow, everything aches, new places also hurt.

Quotes of the day

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-05-20
• Pct day: 15
• Start: Mile 176
• End: Mile 187
• Distance: 11 Miles
• Start name: campsite 176.4
• End name: campsite 187.5
• Wake up: 04:15
• Start hiking: 05:20
• At camp: 16:55
• In bed: 19:40

Key moments

• woke up early to get a move on to push for summiting San Jacinto - the first big mountain on trail at 10,800 feet - about 3300m or so
• We ended up getting into another track and then navigating back onto the trail by heading towards a landmark - my friends from Seattle are experienced mountaineers and were very happy to be navigating on the snow. I felt very happy to be with them!
• travelling in the snow is taxing and takes much longer, we were putting on our micro spikes, which are nifty rubber straps that have chains and spikes attached to them that you put on your show to give you better traction on the snow and ice
• you’ve got to watch out for holes in the snow - which form next to rocks and trees, since these get heated up by the sun and transfer heat springs the rock/tree creating a hole that you can accidentally plunge into
• There are also snow bridges, which are when snow packs over streams and creeks, and while they can help save you a stream crossing as you can walk over them, they can break when you walk over them, if they have already started to melt, which can be very dangerous.
• Snow is cool, but it really requires you to be on the ball, and that’s awesome but taxing
• Some random dude on the trail tried to give me a trail name but it didn’t take : “orange” or “ranga” (my pack is orange, really original mate)
• The trail would have these large blow outs of snow on the trail so the trail would sometimes disappear and toy would walk over the snow
• after a lot of steep walking up snow, We made it to the top of San Jacinto! So many views I haven’t seen before, it was just gorgeous
• As it was a weekend, there were a lot of people on trail, and there was a very amusing conversation of some people I think from LA taking photos “stick your butt out girl, turn to the side just a bit, turn your chin over to the right, that’s it, it’s all about angles” and so on for 20 minutes as they took photos. It was all gold.
• The descent was faster but also taxing in a different way to ascent - I also had to adjust to the snow giving way as I stepped on it and you kind of plunge down the slope - thanks to the help of my Seattle friends they said that sometimes it is was easier to just go a bit faster. So i pretended it was a sand dune I was going down and then I started moving a lot faster. Obviously you can’t run down an entire snow slope, as there are tricky navigation point but it was really fun
• The ice axe came out and was a very useful tool to help descend slopes. Such a neat thing.
• the snow made our descent a bit trickier to find, and we ended up back on the PCT with a crossing over a large stream. The best way over was via a log, which was honestly a bit spooky at first but it was the path. One of my Seattle friends might be an elf and happily trotted across the log, even taking my bag over to make it easier for me, for which I was very grateful. It was a scary moment crossing the log - but it turns out micro spikes make walking on wood very secure, so I took a deep breath, and knew that if I let this wait any longer it’s build up too big in my mind. I know I can do this. I know that I’ve done longer log crossings, it’s just that this one might have had slightly higher consequences. A few sure steps and I was over. Relief. My god. Haven’t felt that kind of rush since some of the good old rock climbing days. I saw another hiking friend I met on the 2nd day appear after I did the log crossing, it’s so fun to bump into hiking friends out here, sometimes you don’t see each other for days or weeks and then you see them again, it’s great.
• We had another short mile to camp from here, and filling up water at another water crossing (no log of doom) we were surprised to find that this snow fed stream was full of random bits and pieces of leaf and soil. This makes using the filters we use hiking a bit tricky as too many bit chunky things clog the filter , which you can fix, it’s just a bit of admin
• We got to camp just before 5pm and we were quite exhausted. We had done a bit over 11 miles, not exactly a huge day distance wise. But it had been an epic day.
• I kept thinking through the day how the Sierras will probably be a bit similar to this (they have had an all time high snow year) - all the extra snow making the rest of the trail really slow. This was a bit disheartening at first, but now after a meal and being in my sleeping bag, I think I could handle this for a few weeks. But we shall see what the people ahead of us are going through. Not much point making plans now - if I can make it to Mike 700, to Kennedy Meadows, where the Sierras start, that is a huge victory. And maybe I decide to skip some sections if the trail conditions are good.
• But right now we are all really keen to get back to the desert

Plan from here

• hike maybe 14 miles or so, the next stop is Cabazon, which has apparently both a Chipotle and an “in and out” burger place. Very exciting! I plan on eating a large amount of fast food there before resupplying and heading back out on trail. So the more miles we do tomorrow the faster I can have my first in and out burger

Animals sighted

• ravens
• Chickadees?
• Squirrels

Gear thoughts

• need to investigate snow baskets for my hiking poles
• A better leash for my ice axe
• My ice axe is now called Sting

Physical condition

• good - one thing about a day in the cold snow is that your feet get a chance to get iced for a whole day.
• My right blister seems to have settled down

Thoughts and Observations

• we are fifteen days into the PCT, there is so much ahead of us

Quotes of the day

• “oh we didn’t have our oatmeal today! Oh wait we ate it this morning”

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 19th May 2023
• Pct day: 14
• Start: Mile 162
• End: Mile 176
• Distance: 14 Miles
• Start name: Cedar Spring
• End name: camp at mile 176
• Wake up: 04:30
• Start hiking: 05:20
• At camp: 16:55
• In bed: 20:15

Key moments

• woke up early to get a good start on the day - Beth was packed up super fast, we bumped into Adam and Amelia as we hiked out of cedar spring and we hiked together with them.
• It’s been really nice to hike with some other folks.
• lots of elevation today!
• The heat wasn’t so bad, we were able to get some good distance in, although I am used to having a big siesta in the middle of the day, so that was an adjustment
• This is the first alpine hiking of the trip, and we got some amazing scenery out of it! Simply stunning. I wonder if the Sierras will be similar to this?
• learnt some good tips for treating blisters in the back country (i.e., while out hiking) - namely, to try and keep your feet clean, and to swap socks out during the day, letting some other ones dry out and cool down. Also “flossing” your feet with a clean part of your socks, and if you need to drain a blister, to try and go from the side, and to use this stuff called “tincture of Benzoine”, which is antibiotic, but also sticky, so it helps tape stick to your foot
• Lots of fallen trees on the trail - so for once the trail wasn’t perfectly groomed, this reminded me of the Australian alpine walking track, which had heaps of tree fall and slower navigation around those parts. We were able to navigate fine but it is just different to how the trail normally is. A lot of people skip over this section, and while it was challenging, it was also the most beautiful for sure.
• we saw two rattlesnakes mating in the hiking path, they eventually kind of tumbled off of the path into a bush, entwined in each other. We waited until they got off track, and then hiked as far away as we could while passing them. They looked right at us as we did, it was a bizarre experience.
• The last two miles were in snow and we were already quite tired, snow travel really takes it out of you
• Coming across beautiful snow melt streams was just stunning
• Came to a nice camp site and decided to stop a bit earlier for the day, we were all pooped
• I didn’t think I’d be keen to do San Jacinto tomorrow, I was just knackered, but after some food and a bit of rest, my psych returned.
• It’s going to be a really busy couple of days, and I can already start o see myself looking forward to a rest day in Big Bear City, I’m also really excited about the possibility of a burger in the next town, Cabezon

Plan from here

• climb up San Jacinto tomorrow morning then hike another 12 miles out of the park to get to a good place to camp, and start making headway on he trip to Cabezon

Animals sighted

• hummingbirds
• Chickadees
• Squirrels
• Rattlesnakes (having sex)

Gear thoughts

• might need to swap out my elastic quick laces for real laces

Physical condition

• right blister returned with a slight vengeance , but I think it’ll heal up fine
• Got a bit of thigh chafe, not a huge fan of that, need to buy some body glide

Thoughts and Observations

• Id like to get faster at tent pack up and set up
• The dust in the desert is very mineral rich, so when your feet are dirty, they are also sparkling with trace elements of metals. Sparkle dust
• I briefly considered doing a resupply in a nearby city, Palm Springs, as Roy can take a Gondola from the top of Dan Jacinto into Palm Springs. But it was going to be $30 each way plus tax. And I’d have o share a gondola ride with a bunch of clean folks…which would probably hate that I sank so bad…also then you’ve got to try and go in and ou in a day, which could be really hard, srolll, it was fun to consider

Quotes of the day

• “oh that’s a nice Chafey bit, I haven’t chafed there yet” — Beth

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 18th May 2023
• Pct day: 13
• Start: Mile 152
• End: Mile 163
• Distance: 11 Miles
• Start name: Highway 74 trailhead
• End name: Cedar Spring
• Wake up: 08:00
• Start hiking: 13:30
• At camp: 19:15
• In bed: 20:30

Key moments

• woke up at a reasonable hour and realised I still had a few more town errands to run - namely sorting through my bounce box (effectively a little resupply box that I mail to myself that also contains odds and ends of medical resupply and bits of gear I thought I might want or need), mailing some things to my friend in the USA to hang onto for a little while, and also mailing some extra food ahead to myself on the trail.
• my friends in the house we were staying in were going to be leaving a bit earlier in the day, Beth and I wanted to get a later start to the day to let some of the heat pass
• Heading into town you bump into other hikers - a couple of people were a bit spooked after a hiker hurt themselves night hiking - lost a couple of teeth and had a concussion after falling. Although I heard a few variants of this story so I’m not sure on the details exactly. But it caused some people to skip a section. Everyone said that the hiker was in good spirits and was doing fine so that is good news!
• I think these kinds of things can happen - especially night hiking through a section that has been toted as one of the tougher sections earlier on in the trail with lots of fallen trees and our first patches of snow, but it did make me think that in this first alpine section it would be safest to make sure we are hiking in a group within a short distance of another.
• After a bit of packing, sorting, a breakfast burrito, a coffee, and some admin at the post office, we were just about ready to head out on trail
• Bumped into Alex from Wisconsin at the post office, he said this section was the toughest so far- lots of elevation and steepness, but also it is the most scenic and beautiful. I say bring it it on, I love steep hiking and beauty!
• we managed to get out of town hitching with three different ladies to different points along the highway, they were all really lovely and all of them knew about the PCT, either having done some sections or having friends or family done it, and they wanted to help. It’s got to be said that while this hike is scenic, I think that the people along the way are easily the most beautiful thing, there is so much kindness along the way, and these people are all so interesting.
• Beth and I hiked out and I had great signal so I gave my partner a video wake up call while walking along at the start.
• Clouds started getting darker in the distance and thunder was rumbling - might be in for a storm!
• It started to rain up ahead and then we got caught in a small storm - first rain then heavier rain then some hail, then some more lightning that got progressively closer - we made it to a grove of pine trees and sheltered under some lower scrub and waited out the storm. I popped open my umbrella and fished out some cold pizza I had from town. That’s a sentence I didn’t think I’d write down but here we are. The pizza was delicious, for those wondering.
• Beth works as a hiking guide and so I felt safe in her hands in a mountain storm,
• once the lightning had died down and we hadn’t heard it for about 15-20 minutes and the rain slowed down we kept hiking, but not before we grabbed a bit of water from a stream that formed form the rain, makes me understand how a flash flood can appear in the desert. It was delicious fresh rain water.
• we met a nice couple from Seattle, and we hiked with them for the rest of the day
• It was nice to hike in a little group, that hasn’t happened as much on this hike as people have been moving at different places, so that was really nice.
• We headed down to Ceder Spring, where there were about 8 other tents all with signs of people asleep in them already at about 7pm.
• We had a chat to our friend Mariah who was staying with us in Idyllwild, discusssing a plan for the next day
• I realised I had set up my tent on an ants nest. I focussed on exuding peaceful waves of friendly ant energy and we appear to have a truce.
• You can see the lights of palm spring in the distance from the campsite, it’s pretty cool.

Plan from here

• hike about 14 miles through to mile 175 or so, so we can have an early morning the next day down into Idyllwild again

Animals sighted

• beetles
• Tiny horny toads
• Crows
• Green lizard

Gear thoughts

• I’m getting my Tanager returned to Feathered Friends, they have been really helpful. Unfortunately my sleeping bag just hasn’t been quite right for me - I think if I could get it a bit longer it would be perfect, but they don’t make them like that unfortunately.

Physical condition

• good! Blisters feel comfortable

Thoughts and Observations

• my tent site is at quite an angle. I am sleeping with my feet propped up on my backpack to try and be a bit more level
• I wrapped my buff around my pillow and stuffed my down jacket between my pillow and the buff, it is now much larger and I think that’ll be awesome
• Carrying an ice axe and micro spikes adds a bit of extra weight to the bag
• So far my bag seems to be performing well - I think it’s important to try and pack any extra water I’m carrying a bit lower in the bag otherwise it gets too uncomfortable
• It’s worth taking a bit of extra time to make sure your ice axe is properly attached to your bag. Mine pinged off and swung down into my leg when I walked under a tree. I was fine but I could see how that could be an unfortunate injury
• Rain can really bring down a mood - all my gear was dry but I’m intrigued how some of the rainy days on the PCT will go

Quotes of the day

• “at 75 years old, I tell you that you can still feel the same heartbreak, lust, and deep love you can feel at 25 years old. It’s even more intense, perhaps, you’re not so worried about things later in life” — an anonymous, kind and beautiful lady who gave us a ride

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 17th May 2023
• Pct day: 11
• Start: Mile 152
• End: Mile 152
• Distance: 0 Miles
• Start name: Idyllwild
• End name: Idyllwild
• Wake up: 08:30
• Start hiking: NA
• At camp: 21:00
• In bed: 2130

Key moments

• it’s a town zero day, so a sleep in!
• Wearing earplugs are so good for sleeping - I slept so well.
• had a real person breakfast - pancakes
• got a bit sucked into the town vortex and didn’t quite get all my errands done of sending things back up the trail or whatnot
• It was really fun seeing other hiker friends in town! Like a little reunion
• Met the mayor of Idyllwild, Max III, a dog. Seriously, the dog is the mayor.
• Ate some donuts, had some vegetables, played a guitar in a store
• Was chatting to some other hikers and said “I’m a bit behind everyone”, and they were like “no you are not behind, you are just making a good decision to rest and go slow at the start”
• Did a resupply in a store - good god it is a bit taxing to orient yourself in a foreign store and find all the foods you need for a few days
• Decided to just resupply for 3 days of food back from paradise valley cafe (mile 152) to Idyllwild (mile 177). Then I’ll resupply in Idyllwild to Cabezon (Mile 209), where you can get an in and out burger, and then resupply to Big Bear city (mile 266), which should break up the food carry
• Watched a movie at the cinema! This weirdly made me homesick. I miss watching movies with my partner and doing normal life things with her. Maybe I cried.

Plan from here

• sleep in
• Send mail boxes
• hike 10 miles along the pct tomorrow from the afternoon

Animals sighted

• squirrels
• Max III, the mayor of Idyllwild

Gear thoughts

• got a pillow from Beth that she isn’t using anymore
• Going to try out closed cell foam pad I got in a hiker box before trying it out on trail

Physical condition

• good - but my left hip randomly hurt a bit.
• Right blister pretty much fine now, should be good to walk on tomorrow, and I’ll be taking some easy days over the next week so I should have a good amount of time for my foot to heal

Thoughts and Observations

• town days are expensive
• Pct hikers are so wonderful and nice, you get to know people so well, in such a different way
• This hike is going to be very long and I am excited, but I can see how missing family and friends is going to be a part of the journey

Quotes of the day

• “I’ve got to leave, I need to meet the Mayor” (the mayor is a dog)

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2024-05-16
• Pct day: 11
• Start: Mile 144
• End: Mile 152
• Distance: 8 Miles
• Start name: camp at mile 144
• End name: Paradise Valley Cafe
• Wake up: 06:30
• Start hiking: 07:40
• At camp: 12:00
• In bed: 22:00

Key moments

• Alex and I decided to have a later start to the day - although this meant it was hotter when we started, it was definitely worth the extra rest we gained
• It was a hot night and I slept in my sleeping bag liner, I also think my sleeping mat has a small hole in it, as it is slowly leaking air over night. And my pillow doesn’t hold air anymore - this ain’t too bad, as it has lasted me since 2019, so I think 4 years of heavy hiking use is pretty good.
• I had a sweet breakfast: 2 packets of Quaker maple sugar oats with two sachets of Swiss miss chocolate powder. It was syrupy! Followed by some strong instant coffee
• I think the combination of sweet and caffeine made me have a really good morning! Also the extra sleep in. My right foot blister felt much better and after Alex and I started to walk at different speeds I turned on “cheat mode” and started listening to music
• I started to move much faster and had one of my best mornings on the PCT
• I also bumped into another PCT hiker who had the same shorts as me, a Korean hiker with the trail name “Iron Legs”
• We stopped at mile 145 for water at “Mary’s” - a trail Angel who has provided water and a shade my area and seats in a “hiker oasis”. Unfortunately this is the last year she is doing it, we managed to even see her, she was very humble.
• I bumped into some other hikers at Mary’s oasis and had a flip through the log book and saw some of my friends names who are a few days ahead.
• Everyone is pretty psyched for the “José burger” at Paradise Valley Cafe - reportedly the best burger on trail
• I was feeling great and pushed on at quite a pace for the remaining 6 miles. I haven’t felt this good since the start of the hike. I think I might be starting to get stronger
• as I finished the hiking trail to the main road I saw some other hikers on the side of the road in chairs - some trail magic! From a guy named “Magic Man”, a very nice gentleman who was offering super cold coke and orange crush and Mountain Dew and Twinkies. In exchange for some conversation and signing his guest book, he’s just happy to see hikers from all around the world and chat to him. I asked him where I could leave a donation but he just said not to worry about it, he loves doing this. I’m so thankful for him, it is so very kind, and I’m starting to see why people say the PCT isn’t just about the hike, but the people on it.
• I hiked the one mile up to Paradise Valley Cafe and found some hiking friends there, and I ordered my Jose burger and some quesadilla. And a Dr Pepper. I had been craving it, ever since Alex gave me a cherry flavoured electrolyte powder.
• they kept refilling our soft drinks and I think I drank about 2L of fluids
• a random dude came up and started chatting about the PCT then pivoted to libertarian anarchy, then crypto currency and trying to get some guy named Ron Paul to speak at an event before finishing on some crypto currency earrings, which he wanted to give us. I declined.
• We hatched a plan to organise a house to stay in town and Beth was on the phone sorting out options - 5 of us then made our way into town.
• We got a ride with a guy doing a section of the PCT, a dad with a few kids and a full time job taking some time off during the week to get another section of the hike done. He does trail Angel work during hiker season - he said he just goes to where some hikers appear from the trail and organises some sandwiches and cold drinks. These people are amazing.
• once we got into our house We all changed into our rain clothes and put a load of wash on. I called Katie and when I came back there were two super options, one was hot with low pressure, the other was lukewarm with high pressure. A really conundrum! What would you pick? Honestly I was just happy to get clean. But next time I’d go for pressure over heat.
• We were all so happy to just hang out at home and give our feet a rest.
• I went into town to see Graham and Jeremy, and get some pizza, and managed to see a friend, Max, who I hadn’t seen since before I started the PCT.
• Graham might be heading ahead for a short while
• Jeremy was heading out again, potentially in flip flops
• Max is about 2 days ahead of me, but due to the way this sort of the PCT works we were both taking rests in this town so it was nice to hang out again
• Apparently this next trail section, from Paradise valley cafe to Idyllwild is some of the most stunning - I am looking forward to it.
• there is a cinema here in Idyllwild, I’m hoping I can see a movie tomorrow!

Plan from here

• resupply in town
• Rest feet
• Drink coffee
• See a movie
• Make a plan for the next two days

Animals sighted

• horny toad lizard

Gear thoughts

• need a new pillow
• Will buy a foam pad to experiment lying on for rests and for sleeping, instead of my inflatable one
• I picked up my ice axe!
• Camp shoes are handy for town but I don’t think I need them for hiking anymore
• AirPods trump wired headphones

Physical condition

• much better
• Blisters healing up
• Still some blister under my right foot, but it’s healing up

Thoughts and Observations

• it is better the get up every and get moving before the heat of the day sets in but it is also hard if it means you don’t sleep as much

Quotes of the day

• it was so hot there, I thought I was actually going to die, there weren’t even goats there man — Graham (not talking about the PCT, but another hike in Europe)

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023keptnrrfilling out started cha

• Date: 2024-05-15
• Pct day: 10
• Start: Mile 127
• End: Mile 144
• Distance: 17 Miles
• Start name: Mikes place
• End name: camp at mile 144
• Wake up: 04:30
• Start hiking: 05:15
• At camp: 06:15
• In bed: 08:30

Key moments

• super early morning - my new hiking friend Alex had said he would do a wake up call for us if we didn’t get up in time. The mere threat of that had me super organised in the evening before and pack up was super fast for me. Not as fast as I’ve been before, but I’m working up to that.

• I felt tired this morning, but it was good to get up before it got too hot, even if it is a bit cold.

• While it might seem from the outside that hiking the PCT is a dream and everything is great, I want to remind people that it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows :

  • my feet hurt
  • I am tired
  • I have blisters because I went too far
  • 2650 miles is a long way away

• Watching the sunrise is nice

• the name of the game is sleeping during the hottest part of the day - this means hiking from 5am - 10/11am, then resting until about 3 or 4 - when it isn’t so hot. It’s still hot. But not as hot

• Had some good chars to Alex about life and travel and languages

• rested at a nice stream that was very small and smelt a little of sulphur. Water tasted a bit like bore water.

• I carried on to another water source, a cistern that has a hole in the top - apparently people were saying that there were dead animals in it - it just looked a bit green like a pond/ rainwater tank. After some work scooping the water out and filtering it and treating it, it tastes fine. Better than the other water. Lizard cistern water, 8/10 would drink again.

• It was really hot

• I had a nap under a shady tree with my umbrella up and I snored so loud I woke myself up

• I met a bunch of other hikers passing through

• Camped at a nice spot nestled amongst trees and boulders with a bunch of other hikers I met

• You can hear coyotes howling at night - sort of neat!

• First sunset at camp of the trail where you. Could see the sun setting.

Plan from here

• head into Paradise Valley Cafe tomorrow, which is 10 miles ahead and then 1 mile off trail, and apparently has the best burgers on the trail.
• Then head into Idyllwild and have a rest day (called a “zero day” in the hiking world)

Animals sighted

• California racer snake (apparently that’s what it is called!)
• Some cool shiny scarlet blue and green skink lizards
• Californian Condor/Turkey vulture?
• Hummingbirds
• Chipmunk/mouse?

Gear thoughts

• my sleeping bag is too hot and it’s hard to vent it out, glad I have my liner

Physical condition

• right foot blister on the ball of foot is staying steady - looking forward to sorting that out in Idyllwild
• Left knee pain gone

Thoughts and Observations

• so many hikers are going so fast - everyone is still finding their pace, I wonder when I’ll settle into a rhythm and stay with a consistent group of hikers
• Rattle snacks are really being very fair with how they warn you

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• Date: 2023-05-12
• Pct day: 9
• Start: Mile 112
• End: Mile 127
• Distance: 15 Miles
• Start name: none - just a little spot on an old river stream
• End name: Mikes Place
• Wake up: 06:30
• Start hiking: 07:20
• At camp: 17:45
• In bed: 20:15

Key moments

• Slept in a bit - was feeling so comfy in my sleeping bag. Heard Graham call out to me as he walked past, he was already up and hiking from 530.
• I have been feeling a bit burnt out - this blister on the ball of my right foot isn’t getting worse but it’s just something annoying and I feel a bit worn out. so sleeping in felt good
• I headed out and the track crosses the same creek 6 times over a mile, that was fun, but a bit of problem solving. I was thinking of my new hiking friend, Nicole, who slipped and fell into a small creek yesterday. She took it like a champ, it was really impressive. I was thinking of something a friend said, which was to try not to aim for the big rocks when crossing a creek “aim small miss small”, good advice I think. It went without a hitch.
• Even by 8am the sun is warm, so might need to be getting out earlier again tomorrow
• hiked for a few hours before making it to a water source, but not before I saw a big old rattle snake in the middle of the path in the shade of all places. I maybe made a bunch of yelping sounds as I turned and ran away from the danger noodle. I should probably work on freezing and then backing off calmly. It moved off the path and was chill, we were all good.
• I saw Graham and Jeremy at the water source, Graham has been calling Jeremy “Baywatch” on account of his good looks, and Jeremy has been calling Graham “Sage”, as he is always dispensing sage advice
• We all lay down in the shade at the water source and chilled out for about 3 or 4 hours while other hikers came and went. It felt good to wait out the heat of the day.
• Like really great
• We discussed the zany hiker again and Nicole realised that she had also met her.
• Alex from Wisconsin appeared again from yesterday, and me and Nicole and him formed a trio and hiked to the next water source about 230pm, heading to a place called “Mikes place”. Mike owns a property just off of the trail, and has welcomed hikers there for years. He has a big water tank he fills up and has campsites around his property. Very generous man.
• Made it to 200km!
• Graham and Jeremy were heading off and we got a group photo and took some funny photos - i put my arm around Graham and forgot how bad I smelt and the height difference- I’m about 6’2 and Graham is about 5’7 so my armpit is about head height and Graham said something like “Gosh you smell fucking horrible - like it’s really fucking bad mate my god” - I laughed so hard I cracked my lip open - the dry heat gets you. It was one of those really good laughs where you’re not sure when you’ll stop laughing- I guess you might have had to be there for it to have the full potency but it was a great time
• Alex and I discovered the joys of trading electrolyte powder sachets - they are popular in the USA! I traded some of my grape “sqwinchers” for white cherry and blue Gatorade. It’s a great bartering time.
• Mike wasn’t around this day but he had some hikers there yesterday and they left some food for us, and we donated money to a little box they have.

Plan from here

• wake up at sparrows fart - which is in this case 430, for a 5am start, and head out about 17 miles. Aiming to get 10 or so miles done before 10/11am and then rest for while before heading out to get the rest of the day done. Then a short day to Paradise Valley Cafe tomorrow

Animals sighted

• so many lizards - including a “horny toad”, which looks a bit like the Australian thorny devil, and also shoots blood from its eye apparently
• That big old rattle snake

Gear thoughts

• I’m keep to get a closed cell mat ao I can have better siestas in the shade

Physical condition

• overall great, a bit worn out, and my left knee stopped hurting, but my right blister under the ball of my foot is a bit annoying. Looking forward to some rest time in Idyllwild.

Thoughts and Observations

• Gosh, 630 is a sleep in now
• It turns out a lot of hikers have this feeling at the start of the PCT where they meet cool hikers at the start and want to keep up with them but get a bit burnt out. I’m starting to feel like I’m burning out a bit, and I’m also starting to not worry about finding a group of people to hike with the entire way of the PCT - this will come with time and I keep meeting great people on the PCT.
• But I will say that I think this hike is hard going - the track conditions are great, but it’s a lot of distance for me to be consistently covering everyday.

Quotes of the day

• “this place is so bloody random “ — me talking about Mikes place

• Date: 13th May
• Pct day: 8
• Start: Mile 101
• End: Mile 113
• Distance: 12 Miles
• Start name: barrel springs
• End name: just past Warner springs
• Wake up: 06:30
• Start hiking: 07:15
• At camp: 19:50
• In bed: 20:45

Key moments

• Felt super sore after a long day and night hiking the day before
• Crawled out of my tent to have a bunch of people say “woh Nick, when did your get here!?” At 930 last night!
• I got into my hiking gear and had a nice hike with three new hikers, Caleb, Lauren, and Max.
• It was gorgeous light in the morning through easy prairie walking, as well as nice streams to soak our feet in. We were all sore
• it started to heat up as we made it to Eagle Rock, a local rock formation that really does look like an eagle, and is a sacred site for the First Nations people here
• we shlepped it to Warner Springs gas station and post office, where I realised that indeed did not send anything to myself at a Warner Springs! Ugh. Thankfully I had taken a photo of all my parcels, so I could confirm for real that I hadn’t sent anything there.
• A lesson learnt, to check that info before I rush out on a postal mission. But honesty it was good to get in early and beat the heat.
• All the hikers had been talking about these sausages at the gas station and I was like “yeah how good can they be”. Well they were so good it like didn’t make sense. Like, hands down the best sausages I’ve ever had. Wow. It didn’t make sense how a sausage could taste so good - apparently it is from a local pig farmer next door.
• Did a resupply at the Gas station
• Got a ride into the community Center from a local trail angle - “Off Track”, who was super cool.
• We all just hung out at the community centre, washing our clothes in the large sinks they had put out back, and having bucket showers in these stalls they had made. It didn’t sound great at first but I tell you, those were good bucket showers.
• Lounged around in the shade talking to other hikers about what’s coming up and other random topics. It was a really cool vibe.
• Everyone traded stories about a zany hiker they had met on the PCT before everyone realised it was the same person
• Everyone was also talking about how they started a bit too fast to try and stay with their friends they just met, and there was a sense of rushing. It was nice to hear as I feel like I’m also feeling a sense of trying to rush and stay with people I’ve met. But there are just as many cool people behind me as there are ahead
• slowly everyone got up and left to get out in the cool of the afternoon, and I hiked on with a new friend just a few miles to a small stream

Plan from here

• hike about 16 miles tomorrow, doing a split day, hiking until 10am, then taking a big break during the day.

Animals sighted

• Californian Condor (or maybe turkey vulture?)
• rabbits
• Cows
• Ants, which incidentally got into my pants

Gear thoughts

• I would prefer if my bag had an internal frame, I think
• Cold soaked food isn’t as good as hot food, but it will do
• I’m keen to try out a closed cell foam mat

Physical condition

• blisters on the outside ankle of both left and right foot
• Blister on the ball of my right foot

Thoughts and Observations

• this afternoon I felt totally zonked and quite mentally exhausted
• While it is beautiful to be here, and there’s a mental challenge that I expected, it seemed like a few of us hikers were realising we needed to slow down a bit and take it easier
• Blisters really take the zing out of the day
• Sometimes you end up ona campsite where every way you lie down seems to be slanting downwards

Date: 12th May 2023 Pct day: 6 Start: Mile 77 End: Mile 101 Distance: 24.2 Miles Start name: Scissors Crossing End name: Barrel Springs - Mile 101 Wake up: 07:30 Start hiking: 09:45 At camp: 9:30pm In bed: 10:30pm

Key moments

• Have a two course breakfast at the hotel I stayed at (one course cold one course hot)
• some Hiking friends are taking 0 days at Julian - I’ll see them down the track, but it’s sad to see them go. But it’s part of the trail, people drift back and forth and you see them later
• Got a ride with a trail Angel to the start of the trail - starting late at 930 wasn’t ideal as it was very hot! But so many beautiful flowers and cactuses on this side of the highway.
• like the flowers and cactuses etc literally looked like some kind of botanical exhibit. Stunning. Also really really hot.
• Loads of contouring - where you stay at a similar elevation but go around a mountainside.
• Had to take lots of breaks in the shade to escape the sun. There was a lot of leapfrogging past other hikers and then they’d pass you as you took a break
• Was on a mission today to get to mile 101 to make it easier to get to Warner Springs post office before it shuts at 1pm on Saturday.
• Saw my friend Graham on the trail at the water cache - he’d apparently spent some time trying to help a hiker who was not enjoying the heat and was having a bit of a day - I hope that hiker has a better day soon and we get to see them later.
• did I mention it was hot? It was hot. It was a 14 mile water carry to the next water point.
• Hiking in the late afternoon is great
• Pushed on into the evening - a much better time to hike! Bumped into another hiker who was keen to hike into the night with me to get to mile 101
• Passed mile 100! Milestone!
• I feel so grateful and lucky to make it on this trip.
• Also my legs are sore
• Also I totally have blisters because I did a bigger day than I had planned
• Did I mention my legs are sore? So is my back.

Plan from here

• see the eagle rock formation tomorrow, very exciting
• Have a town day at Warner Springs
• Hike a couple miles on

Animals sighted

• 2 snakes
• Crows
• Lizards

Gear thoughts

• would be keen to try out a closed cell foam mat instead of my inflatable one

Physical condition

• sore feet
• Left foot small blister on heel
• Right foot blister under ball of foot
• Sore legs, sore quads, sore calves
• Sore legs and feet

Thoughts and Observations

• thru hiking means that you’ll be drifting past other hikers back and forth all the time, no point in stressing in trying to stay with a certain group

Quotes of the day -That’s why we are here it’s walking intermingled with mild discomfort, consistent niggily aches and pains , and intermittent joys and pleasure — Graham

Date: 2023-05-11 Pct day: 6 Start: Mile 63.7 End: Mile 77.3 Distance: 16.68 Miles Start name: mile 63.7 End name: Julian Wake up: 05:15 Start hiking: 06:30 At camp: 13:00 In bed: 21:48

Key moments

• nice early morning
• bit slow packing up
• so many beautiful desert flowers
• Took a couple of wrong turns into dirt roads
• Trail angle, “Professor” gave us a ride into town
• Julian the town is very quaint and nice, but expensive
• PCT hikers get free pie, ice cream and a drink at a place called “Mom’s”. The staff were so kind.
• Having dinner with hiking friends is fun

Plan from here

• make it to Warner Springs by Saturday 1pm so I can pick up some food I sent there

Animals sighted

• so many skinks and lizards
• Crows, Californian Condors!

Gear thoughts

• my sleeping bag is great up until my shoulder - the top of it doesn’t seem to have as much down, but a down jacket solves this issue

Physical condition

• good! Got a mark from a tick on my left calf the other day, and a small blister on my left foot I am keeping an eye on

Thoughts and Observations

• I need to stretch more
• Town days are fun, but expensive
• a single 20,000mAh batter would be better than two 10k ones, for charging purposes
• An 18 inch pizza is too much pizza for one person
• It’s fun to see other hikers about in town, like “hey, I don’t know you but we are on the same quest. Isn’t that fun?”
• The movie “TRON legacy” is honestly one of my favourite movies

Quotes of the day

• Who is the hamburgler, did he steal a pig? — Graham

It was a cold day this morning, I decided after waking up at 3am that I would book a room in Julian as a little treat and a little mission.

I put on my rain pants and rain jacket to cut the wind and hiked out at 9am - the weather forecast was for a cooler day so there wasn’t a big need to hike early in the day to beat the heat.

It was super windy and cloudy to start - after a few hours the sun burned off the fog/clouds and it turned into an absolutely stunning day, and off came the rain jacket and pants and back into normal shorts and sun shirt.

The day was spent walking along spectacular mountainside, looking over at Granite mountain and seeing the slopes go down to the desert floor, and large expansive views that reminded me of the ancient glacier carved mountains of the ranges on the Larapinta trail in Australia. With the occasional sign reminding us again how far we are from Canada and other landmarks. Also a memorial site, I’m not sure why it was there for all these people, but it was on the side of the mountain and was rather striking.

Oh, and absolutely gorgeous flowers. We are so lucky at the moment - normally by this time of year the flowers are all gone but we’ve still got so many, and also so much water. This is because of the record snow and rainfall in these areas. Just a month or two earlier and these were snow covered. Imagine that!

I came across some other hikers eventually - one of them hiking with his dog. Very cute dog. After filling up water at a slightly questionable looking water source (ended up being totally fine!), I hiked on through windy weather until I bumped into Graham and JJ. We spent the night at a nice campsite at mile 63. We had a lovely evening and headed to bed to set out early to make it to Scissor Crossing, Mike 77, before the heat got too strong.

Woke up a bit earlier this morning - 615am. Everyone was up and moving and getting out of camp. I did a quick pack, and discussed the plan for the day - I got some numbers confused and I thought we only had 5 miles to Mt Laguna - turns out it is 10! Oops. Not quite a “Nero”.

Somehow despite camping next to a stream in a lower lying area, we didn’t get any dew or condensation on any tents. Definitely a plus, but also, mysterious.

It was an exciting day as Mt Laguna is a small town of 60 people. But, it is a “town day”: there’s a well stocked cafe and a general store and post office, and it’s pretty much next to the trail. What this means is that we can eat town food - and that’s exciting for PCT hikers.

I ate some bars for breakfast on the move, got out by about 7. Need to work on packing my bag tighter, my sleeping bag has so much loft it pushed everything up.

Despite thinking the early morning sun wouldn’t hurt me, I managed to get a bit sunburnt. I kept a closer eye on my hydration and electrolyte intake today and felt much better for it.

In the final 3 miles of the hike into town it changed from sandy scrub to pine trees and the weather cooled right down and a nice breeze came by. It felt simply glorious.

I came across some familiar faces at the trailhead to town, and while we had discussed the option of staying at Mt Laguna, I was feeling like pushing 6 more miles to a caravan park off trail. So definitely not a “Nero” day anymore. We started getting excited for town food and this one place quoted on a review as saying “this is the best burger on trail, not hyperbole” - alas the blue Jay lodge is shut on Monday and Tuesday. Bonus distance then. So we walked back to the cafe - which was playing some strange polka type music loudly with no one in sight. It felt like we were in a movie or something.

Anyway we got good food and the restaurant owner was super nice, had plenty of charging ports and let us pay the bill individually. I ended up hanging around town for a few hours to wait the heat of the day out, and got sucked into the “town vortex” - a phenomenon where hikers end up spending loads of time in town - buying food, eating food, going to the post office, etc.

Eventually I set off in the afternoon and it was just glorious weather, nice and cool, so nice for this time of year, which should be so much hotter. Was met with some stunning views and could see San Jacinto in the distance - this is a mountain we will climb in about 100 miles.

After some pleasant walking the wind really picked up and was a nice change to yesterday. I made it up to the turn off for the caravan park and walked onto the highway for 500m until I came to the turn off - I eventually found some other hikers friends and were really stoked to learn that a nice guy in his RV at this caravan park had gifted us our tent sites as he has capacity for 8 people - handy to not need to pay, although I did try to offer him money.

The wind really picked up and I tried to nestle my tent between some trees to avoid some of the wind. It was looking like it would be cold with the wind only getting stronger and the campsite being in a valley - overnight the cold air would settle down into where we were.

I was hoping my friends were ok, one of their tents was looking like it might struggle staying up in the wind.

I cooked up some “cheddar broccoli” packet mix with some 4 cheese Idaho instant mash potatoes - it was glorious, although a really trick to get the stove to work in the wind.

My tent held up well in the wind, but my feet started to get a bit cold from the wind blowing through, was an interesting night!

Tomorrow will be a push halfway to the town of Julian, the somewhat legendary mile marker 77 marking a place to stop under the highway and either push on for a waterless stretch or head into Julian to relax and rebound. I’ll head into Julian, PCT hikers get a free slice of pie at a place called “moms”.

The night was definitely interesting, it snowed, but it wasn’t cold enough for it to stick.

Started off the day slowly - I had a bit of a headache from the day before and just wanted to keep sleeping. But I carried on and was out by about 550. Was a nice slog up the mountain, I met two sisters going SOBO from Northern California (skipping the Sierras), Emily and Caitlin, I believe. They were very friendly.

I went past a few more people’s tents set up along the way - no sign of Richard, he must have powered on to Lake Morena. Lake Morena had a large mist over it - looked quite cold!

Made it down to Lake Morena and wasn’t sure how to get to the malt shop for a breakfast burrito. A friendly hiker told me it was down the street - turns out he is an army medic.

I saw Grahams bag outside the shop and I had my first glimpse into trail town logistics - you put your bag down outside before heading inside, and you make sure to tip 20%. A nice lady made a breakfast burrito and we had stock standard drip coffee. A great success! I did my first resupply in a store; taco rice and Idaho four cheese instant potatoes. I really appreciate the food science that went into these things.

We powered on after this to the Lake Morena campsite and onto a water crossing at mile 24. I decided to wait out the heat of the day under the bridge and got chatting to several people and they came and went. I had a bit of heat stroke from the day before - minor, just had a bit of a headache, so I made sure to cool off and keep my electrolytes and water up. Gotta stay on top of that!

I missed getting my plastic PCT permit - a nice chunk of plastic that you zip tie to your bag, it has the cool PCT emblem - I missed it because we started later in the day and the people who hand them out had left by then . Fortunately, my friend Alex gave me one as a little present - he was just going to throw it out. Because every gram counts! But I’ll take that.

I also got to try on some other people’s backpacks - an interesting experience! The ULA packs definitely distribute the weight really nicely!

After a nice 3 hour break at the bridge, I powered on to the next campsite, at Boulder Oaks, before deciding to go the extra 6 miles to the next campsite. On the way over I met up with Frank, who also stayed at Scout and Frodos. He has a few blisters and is just doing 10 mile days. But he told me he has a trail name now - rockstar! Rockstar told me to check out this waterfall and I wasn’t too sure but decided to give it a go, and I am so glad I did! It was really nice swimming and really lifted the morale for the day.

I was feeling a bit anxious about trying to catch up with people - I’ve met some really cool people on the trail, and I didn’t want to lose touch with them. So far on the trail you tend to start and end the day together and then walk separately, sometimes linking up, but for the most part it is can be a solitary experience if you want it to be. I think I’ll need to get used to taking it easy by myself, and trying to to worry about catching up with people/losing people.

I made it into the campsite that said it would hold 5 tents to see at least 12 tents set up! Heaps of room.

Managed to meet another hiker who said he has the same camera as me, Woohoo! Fuji X100V buddies! I loaned him my Allen key so he could open his camera battery door, which is blocked by a peak designs clip we use to attach it to our backpacks.

I felt like I was on top of the world. Having a long day, but satisfying, meeting new people, swimming in a waterfall and finding friends who share hobbies.

Tomorrow the plan is to have a short day (sometimes called a “nero “ - a day near zero miles) to My Laguna, to hang out there, since it seems the campsites past there are closed due for preservation.

Left the bog campsite at 5am to find that Rob (r-o-b Rob) had popped his sleeping mat and was cold, but was going to recoup and relax while he waited for his Amazon packages to arrive. I’m not sure how he was collecting them. I had a bit of a chat to him about gear - he was asking which brands of sleeping mat are good - it seemed like he didn’t have much experience. I wish him well and I hope he is safe. Not sure we will see him again.

I was a bit cold last night and woke up with frost on my tent, which explains why I got so cold. We all left at different times and Harry had to jet off to Lake Morena as he left his ID and a few things at Scout and Frodos - they were sending it with the shuttle company.

Graham and I carried on and I really enjoyed that we all started hiking at different times and kind of saw each other here and there throughout the day - but we didn’t need to leave together etc. hike your own hike! It’s great.

I had a nice 2 hour break at the campsite at mile 11, then carried on in the heat of the day to see what that was like: spoiler, not super fun, but the umbrella made it manageable.

Got to Hauser creek and found Graham there - my plan was to wait until the afternoon to power through to a high camp but Graham convinced me to hang out here and chill out. It was great. We washed our clothes, soaked our feet, and set up out tents. I got lucky and my site was fine but Grahams tent site smelt like urine and he moved again and got attacked by fire ants so he moved again but to a larger fire ants nest.

He had a hilarious way about him and I’m having a good time laughing with him.

Then loads of other people arrived and two of them seem like my kind of people - Taylor and Miguel. Very switched on young kids who stayed at Frodo and Sam’s last night. The other folks I didn’t really get to chat to.

Keen to hike through to Lake Morena tomorrow and get some food, and to stay out of the sun as long as I can.

Would be really good to catch up to Max if I can.

Also saw a dude with a carbon fibre guitar - I was like “nice uke”, and he said , in such a California way, “naw dude, 4 strings don’t cut it for me” . I wonder what his plane is for the rain. His name is Ben. I reckon his trail name will be Bard.

Today is the day. It’s been a long time coming. But today I started the pacific crest trail. A 4260 kilometre (2650 mile) hike from the border of Mexico, to the border of Canada. Across the desert, through the sierras, and the mountains of Oregon and Washington.

It’s been a dream of mine to be here, doing this, and it was an emotional journey to get here.

I thought I would cry when I made it here but all I wanted to do was to smile and get started.

Thank you to my family, my friends, and my partner Katie for getting me here. You’ve all played an important role in planting the seed for the trip, inspiring me to go adventuring, and helping me believe that I could make it here, when I wasn’t sure if I would.

#pctclassof2023 #pct #pct2023