Day 43, 24.18 miles!

I woke up at the beautiful riverside campsite. I should’ve taken a picture of the actual tent set up but I didn’t think about that in time, so here’s a picture from the nearby bridge:

Ahhhhh...

I was on my way by 6am. The first few miles were uneventful but beautiful. When I got to the first water source of the day, I stopped to filter a couple liters for the long climb ahead. Some of you must be like, what does he mean when he filters? So I took some pics today :)

Filling the dirty water bag with a nice flowing creek

The Sawyer Squeeze filter. It’s good for 100,000 gallons and weighs only 2 ounces! By far the most popular filter out here on trail. Filter on dirty water bag, clean water into water bottles!

Before I left the tent in the morning, I had soaked some oatmeal that Julian gave me in my plastic jar. I’m getting a stove soon, just for the Sierra, but for these last 700 miles I’ve been stoveless. When I finished filtering my water, the oatmeal was ready! I added peanut butter and coconut shreds and it was delicious!

Almost better cold than hot!!

After breakfast, I started the dreaded climb. This next area is where I first felt the effects of the Noro virus in 2016. It’s not even too hard of a section, but since the trauma faced two years ago, this old burn area has been haunting my dreams..

Where it all began

If felt great to walk through this burn feeling 100%! After the climb, the trail winds down through some beautiful meadows. It was in this area that Claire had ran ahead to the river to drop her pack and come back for mine, since I was too walk I go on. It’s also where I started throwing up, and didn’t stop for two days...

Right next to that boulder, in 2016, I was lying directly in the sun, with my puffy jacket and beanie on, still freezing cold with the shivers. Last time I was here by body was on shut-down!

Anyways, enough with the doom and gloom. That’s over now, and it felt sooooo good to stroll by all these places in the morning with my head up high, a full stomach, and energy to get me through! 

What a meadow!!

The bridge where we took a zero last time

There were lots of mud-sparrows flying all over!

I took about a half hour here, watching the birds fly back and forth, and rinsing my dirty socks. Also, eating a LOT of food! I think today I ate around 6,000 calories! I need to be doing that more often, because In long stretches, your body runs on a deficit of calories. If you’re not eating as much or close to as much as you’re burning, you’re gonna feel it a few days in.

Climbing out of the meadow and into more trees!

My second lunch view

Front camera working again! (For now?) 

The trail was following a pleasant little creek called Cow Creek as it climbed and climbed and climbed out of the meadows and valleys and into the mountains. This was great because Since you cross the creek more than once a mile, you don’t have to carry any water! At the top of the climb I perched up on a great rock with a great view and had lunch #2.

At Kennedy Meadows, Julian had accidentally received a box for an 8-day stretch instead of 3. Since KM doesn’t have a post office, he gave away a lot of the extra food, (Like the oatmeal from earlier), including these yummy noodles that I started cold soaking at the bridge! Thanks Julian!

The scenery just got better and better as I climbed up and up. The sun was out but so was a nice breeze, so I was able to cover up my arms and not feel to hot!

See the snow capped peaks in the back?

I’m not sure which is which, but we’ll be going over these guys pretty soon!

I think I left KM at an odd time, as I only saw a few other PCT hikers on the trail today. I want to say less than 8, which is rare! It felt good to hike solo. I had a great pace and basically went all day aside from the breakfast stop, lunch #1 stop, and lunch #2 stop! I had my eyes out for bears but didn’t see any today. After the long up was a long down. I didn’t stop to take many pictures, but man is it beautiful up here! 

When I stopped at another water source, I was standing there trying to avoid mosquitos, when I felt a considerable bite on my ankle. I figured it was just a mosquito and finished filtering. About 5 mins later, as I was leaving, I felt irritation in the area. I pulled over to check it out:

5 mins after the bite. (A spider?)

It didn’t hurt too bad, so I kept going. The trail got flatter and crossed through super beautiful boulder fields. I knew I only had a couple more mile to go until my last water source and campsite for the night. I felt pretty good!

Very Yosemite-esque

High meadows!

Finally, I had arrived at Death Canyon Creek. It’s a fitting name seeing as last time this is where my sickness relapsed, and also, Claire and I were getting eaten ALIVE by mosquitos! There were some this time, but not nearly as many. Also, my blister was growing, and had morphed into one big area!

An hour after the bite.

It was huge, but it was now big enough to pop, and the surrounding area didn’t hurt at all, so I went for it. It kept making more liquid for me to drain, and it wasnnt until after another hour had passed that it finally stopped. I’m not sure what it was that bit me, but my body didn’t like it one bit! Yay for a strong immune system! 

I gotta say I’m pretty amazed guys.. Just today, I did what took me 3 days two years ago! I woke up at the river 5 miles out of KM, took a break where I spent a whole day and a half recovering last time, and made it to where the same spot where we camped the day I could (sort of) walk again. I was and still and so grateful to Claire for being there for me while I got sick. And I know it couldn’t be avoided, but I feel bad that I gave her the sickness right after and that she didn’t get to summit Whitney. I was looking back at the blogs, and she really saved me. And then when she was sick, she was really a trooper about it. I love you Claire! 

Well, that’s it for today. It’s been a loooooong day with over 5,300 ft of climbing and over 2,600 feet dropping. I didn’t expect to go this many miles today, but it actually works out great! I’m going to pick up a bunch of packages on Monday in Lone Pine, and I’m less than 15 miles away from Trail Pass, where I’ll be hitching in from Horseshoe Meadows. I’ll be able to spend tomorrow night and Sunday night in the hostel to prepare for the Sierra, take my 3rd zero, and wait for Julian and Keglegs to catch up!

Thanks for reading!