- 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
