- 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
