Miles Hiked 92.8
PCT Mile 123.3
Elevation 5,860 feet
Miles Hiked Today 11.2
I left my campsite under the bridge from the night before, and started hiking around 6:45 a.m. The projected elevation gain for the day is about 3,600 ft. There are also a lot of blowdowns (trees that fell over) on this part of the trail.
I still don’t have my trail legs and I haven’t fully recovered from the 3,900 ft climb of a few days ago. Coupled with the ascent, my pace was very slow. As mentioned before, this section of the trail has a lot of blowdowns. Many of them could just be stepped over, but there were also some huge trees blocking the trail. Some of the blowdowns could be passed by climbing up the side of the mountain to get around the tree, and others had to be climbed over.
Two blowdowns in particular, I was able to climb up the side of the mountain and reach the next switchback. Yeah, that’s cheating but so is having blowdowns every hundred feet on the trail.
Towards the end of the day I met a hiker that had started in Campo on the Mexican border. His trail name is Punisher. He told me he started the trail on April 29th, which is 82 days ago. He is the first northbound through hiker that I have met this hike. Punisher said that there were four others ahead of him. By the way, Punisher said that he was attempting a triple crown hike this year. A triple crown hike is the Pacific Crest Trail, the Appalachian Trail and the Continental Divide Trail – all hiked within twelve months.
I reached tonight’s campsite about 4:30. Ben was already there when I arrived. I set up my tent, ate dinner and relaxed. Tomorrow’s plan is another 15-mile hike. We’re getting close to Steven’s Pass, which will link me with a section of the trail that I did last year.
