Today was the day y’all! I crushed my first 30+ mile day!! This is the longest I’ve ever hiked in one day, and I’m so super pumped and stoked on the accomplishment! I figured I’d try to start doing 25+ milers out of Tahoe, but today went for gold!
I woke up at 5 this morning to avoid some of the mosquitos, and I hit the trail by 5:40am! That’s the earliest I’ve started since before Lone Pine! It felt great to be hiking in the early morning once again! The miles flew by, and in my effort to make 10 by 10, I ended up doing 12 miles by 10am!
Aloha Lake!! So pretty!
Of course my phone camera is once again not working, wasting my time restarting my phone and trying to tinker with the camera app every time I stop to take a picture. This really sucks because I bought a new phone JUST to be able to take nice pictures on the PCT for my blog! It’s like, this is the one aspect that I really want to document properly, and it’s not happening... :(
Little morning stream
Morning lakes for days
Crazy roots!
And the trees making them...
Sorry about the lines.. ugh!
It was a gorgeous morning. I only saw one other backpacker, and not another PCT hiker until almost 11am! In fact the first two PCT’ers I saw were two familiar faces!
It was Amy and Jamie!
I met these two back in Warner Springs, and I haven’t seen them since Hiker Heaven back at mile ~500! We caught up for a bit and then I headed on ahead to continue crushing the morning! By this point I had already decided to go for the 30! Right after leaving them, I ran into 3 or 4 smaller backpacking groups that all had at least 1 dog! I definitely got to see my share of trail-dogs today! :)
Noon rolled around and I had already done over 17 miles! I had been eating all day but I still pulled over to a nice mosquito free boulder for a mandatory lunch break.
The trail is still so beautiful!
So many beautiful wildflowers!
The moss starts about 6ft up all the trees!!
A sweet view of Lake Tahoe near where I ended up camping tonight
Wow, it’s been such a long day! And I wouldn’t even consider it too “easy”... over 4,200 ft climbed and over 4,500 ft descended! As I said before, I’ve been thinking about ramping up my daily mileage. I got a little lazy in the Sierra since the mornings were colder and the days didn’t get as hot. Now that I’m headed back into the heat, I figured I’d push a 30 today, sleep early, and hopefully get back on to the waking-up-early schedule!
I got to camp today by 5:15pm! That’s 30 miles in less than 12 hours! My feet feel great and so do my leg muscles. My left Achilles’ tendon started hurting about a mile before camp, and normally I’d stop right away, but there was no way I was going to do a 29 mile day instead! I think it’ll feel better in the morning. I don’t necessarily want to do 30 again tomorrow, that might be a little overkill. I just wanted to see if I could today, and start making my average 25+, with 30’s every once in a while if I feel like it.
I haven’t seen Trout or Happy all day as I left them snoozing in their tents this morning. Maybe I’ll see them tomorrow. For now, I’m flying towards Sierra City! I’m stoked on my new sleeping bag and the food my mom sent me there, and maybe a package from Julian as well! Well, it’s past 7:30pm, time to sleep!
Thanks for reading!!
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