- 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
