To PCT mile 134.8 (stats here).
The alarm went off 4:30am. The night was surprisingly cold, eventhough it was very warm during the evening. Quilt is not working that well for me. The cold air gets in to my neck, and I turn frequently from side to side as it is not warm enought to sleep on my back. This causes in turn that the quilt leaves gaping holes to my sides. I've started to think if I should buy a mummy style sleeping bag from somewhere. My quilt with its sack weights more than 1kg so it might save weight also.
Soon after leaving camp we filtered water from a stream for the first time. A somewhat exciting experience as the bank to the stream was steep and a bit troublesome to get to. Went great but from that point on, the day was hard. My feet had felt great with the new shoes, but maybe I was paying now the price for the big effort last night. The bottom of my left foot started to hurt. The Altras do not have that much cushioning, and the muscles of my left foot were aching and hurting. My pace reduced to a crawl, and the miles went past very slowly. I really felt that I was holding Mikko back.
We arrived at Mike's Water Tank sometime at noon. It is a strange, fun place with water for hikers. Mike was not there, and a guy called Offtrail was caretaking the place. He offered a bowl of potato stew which was delicious. The place had shade, hammocks and lots of other hikers to chat with. There was an oddly charming outhouse, that I utilised two times. Yesterdays cold soaked mush with too much spice made my digestion strange and I could not totally unload. My farts where especially effective the whole day, on which Mikko commented frequently.
Arriving to Mike's we missed two rattle snakes that the other hilkers saw just before. One was right on the ranch. It would be cool to see those creatures. We have only seen few garden snakes so far.
At Mike's, people we're talking about that Paradise Valley Cafe was not that far away. I did not know this, but we made plans to visit it. It is a famous place among PCT hikers, especially for its breakfast. The distance was still too great to reach it before noon, so it would be lunch for us. People were also talking about routes to take to Idyllwild after that. This is an issue because of the fire closures. Me and Mikko were not aware of this and it caused a bit of a hassle. Guthook behaves funnily in my phone and I could not get this closure and the alternative routes to show up consistently. Finally we devised a plan that would minimise the highway walking and covering as much as the PCT as possible.
After leaving Mike's my pace was still slow. I did not want to irritate my feet more, and the ascent was steep. When the day started to cool down, and I managed to pay more attention to my stride, shortening it quite a lot, I was able to speed up and we made relatively good mileage before setting up the camp at 7pm. I felt good about the day, and I ate my peanutbutter tortillas with good humour.
The alarm went off 4:30am. The night was surprisingly cold, eventhough it was very warm during the evening. Quilt is not working that well for me. The cold air gets in to my neck, and I turn frequently from side to side as it is not warm enought to sleep on my back. This causes in turn that the quilt leaves gaping holes to my sides. I've started to think if I should buy a mummy style sleeping bag from somewhere. My quilt with its sack weights more than 1kg so it might save weight also.
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| U.S. tap water usually does not taste that good. Stream water is pure gold. |
Soon after leaving camp we filtered water from a stream for the first time. A somewhat exciting experience as the bank to the stream was steep and a bit troublesome to get to. Went great but from that point on, the day was hard. My feet had felt great with the new shoes, but maybe I was paying now the price for the big effort last night. The bottom of my left foot started to hurt. The Altras do not have that much cushioning, and the muscles of my left foot were aching and hurting. My pace reduced to a crawl, and the miles went past very slowly. I really felt that I was holding Mikko back.
We arrived at Mike's Water Tank sometime at noon. It is a strange, fun place with water for hikers. Mike was not there, and a guy called Offtrail was caretaking the place. He offered a bowl of potato stew which was delicious. The place had shade, hammocks and lots of other hikers to chat with. There was an oddly charming outhouse, that I utilised two times. Yesterdays cold soaked mush with too much spice made my digestion strange and I could not totally unload. My farts where especially effective the whole day, on which Mikko commented frequently.
 |
| Water tank at Mike's. |
Arriving to Mike's we missed two rattle snakes that the other hilkers saw just before. One was right on the ranch. It would be cool to see those creatures. We have only seen few garden snakes so far.
At Mike's, people we're talking about that Paradise Valley Cafe was not that far away. I did not know this, but we made plans to visit it. It is a famous place among PCT hikers, especially for its breakfast. The distance was still too great to reach it before noon, so it would be lunch for us. People were also talking about routes to take to Idyllwild after that. This is an issue because of the fire closures. Me and Mikko were not aware of this and it caused a bit of a hassle. Guthook behaves funnily in my phone and I could not get this closure and the alternative routes to show up consistently. Finally we devised a plan that would minimise the highway walking and covering as much as the PCT as possible.
 |
| I haven't been posting here that many scenary pics as I am not much of a photographer and can not do them justice. Some shots can't go wrong as the subject is so magnificent. |
After leaving Mike's my pace was still slow. I did not want to irritate my feet more, and the ascent was steep. When the day started to cool down, and I managed to pay more attention to my stride, shortening it quite a lot, I was able to speed up and we made relatively good mileage before setting up the camp at 7pm. I felt good about the day, and I ate my peanutbutter tortillas with good humour.
Way to go! Jee.
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