Miles Hiked 355.0
PCT Mile 860.6
Elevation feet 6,588
Miles Hiked Today 12.2
Calling today “a tough day” is being civil. I’d really like to call it something else. It started out okay. I woke up a little later than usual, but the extra sleep was helpful. Yesterday’s hike was strenuous.
So, off I went at 6:45 a.m. . The trail wasn’t all that bad to start with. Then about mid morning everything changed. It started going up and down adding to elevation gain. Then later in the morning the trail began a steady ascent.
The trail ascent was made that much more difficult by the many dead trees lying on the trail. Add to that rocks and exposure to the sun in the burned out forest, and my pace slowed.
The climb lasted all morning and into the afternoon. In fact the trail continued to go up almost all day. There were a few stretches where the trail went down, but that lasted a short time.
I loaded up with water a few miles into the day. Once again, my water load was four liters. There wasn’t a lot of water ahead and I was concerned about running out. As a matter of fact, because of the slow pace and little cover during the heat of the day, I consumed three liters of water by 3:00 p.m. . In that time I had only hiked eight miles. Fortunately, there was a small pond just off the trail. I went down to the pond and filled up with another two liters of water.
After the water resupply, I got back on the PCT and continued my upward climb. The plan now was to find the first tentsite available and call it a day. The trail decided to have one last go at me. My pace was slow because of all the rocks, but even that careful pace was not enough. I hit an unseen rock and went down. Up to this point, my pants had done a superb job of maintaining during the climbs over all the down tree. This time, I was not so lucky as I tore the pant’s knee during the fall. A few minutes later while trying to get around a downed tree, I hit a limb on the dead tree and went down on my back. Fortunately, my backpack absorbed all the shock.
And that’s pretty much how the day went. A lot of rocks, a lot of down trees, several thousand feet of elevation gain, burned out forest, little water and the trail knocking me down. A tough day.
I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings. The dead trees are still there and there are plenty of rocks when I start hiking in the morning. YUCK!
