- 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
