To PCT mile 1027.3 (stats here).
I got up at 5am and was underway 6am. This seems have to become my standard rhythm. It is okaye for the current mileage. Guess I could wake up a little earlier, but starting in darkness is not that appealing.
It was only about 10 miles until to Kennedy Meadows North, where you could get rid of your bear canister. This gave me extra energy. I was not expecting Sonora Pass to be hard and I was moving fast. The rocky switchbacks were long and there was lot of elevation to be gained, but I had good spirits. Behind me in the distance there was a lone hiker approaching which kind of pushed me a bit also. I wanted to keep ahead of him. Eventually he overtook me after 3 hours of hiking, when we were almost at the highest point of the mountain.
Sonora Pass turned out to be much harder and the views more arid than I had expected. At the end, when going down, there were a couple that went past me without paying that much attention to the views. I was taking pictures, and taking it slowly after coming up fast. Just from a random thought, I decided to increase my speed and see if I can overtake them. This happened soon and I went down really quick. I also went past Coyote, who seems to be very carefull with snow. There was not much of hit, but he is uncomfortable with it anyway.
At the highway there were already two hikers trying to hitch to town. The other was the guy who overtook me earlier, a danish young fellow named Bandit, the other an older japanese called Ikea. Soon 4 other joined, and getting a hitch seemed hard. It still did not take more than 15 minutes before a trail angel appearead with his van and we all were able to fit in.
For once, resupplying at town went really well. All in all it took about 2 hours. Kennedy Meadows North is small and the store not that well equipped. I ordered the days soup and salad from the restaurant, only to realise that the soup had turkey in it. I had mentioned that I was vegetarian, so the waitress apogolised and made a sandwich for me instead. After that, I mailed the bear can with the microspikes in it to Susanna and did a small resupply. I bought only few bars, a bag of instant smashed potatoes and hot choco. It is 3 days at max to South Lake Tahoe and I have still food left, so for once I wanted to have only the exact amount of food needed. By luck, we had the same trail angel showing up after everything was done to take us back to the trailhead.
Once back at the trailhead, I pleasently noticed how light my pack was. I needed to check if I really had all my stuff in it. Other hikers also commented on this, and on the lightness of my food bag. I started to worry if I really had enough. It seemed that I would need to ration my food and eat less than actually you need. Well, an interesting expirement.
I spent some half an hour at the trailhead talking to other hikers before starting the ascend away from Sonora Pass. It was 2pm and making 20 miles would be easy, so I wanted to give the town food time to be digested a bit. Once I started hiking again, lots of dark clouds appeared. So far on the hike there has been almost no clouds at all. Now it seemed that there might even be a storm. On my next break, I went through all my stuff and made them protected from possible rain. I wrapped the sleeping bag inside the tarp, and put all the electronics inside ziplocks or dry sacks. Eventually, the trail steered away from the course of the clouds.
The day ended on a long nice descend. I saw Chris and Jess around 6pm on their camp site and had a nice chat with them. They had skipped the town and still had their bear cans. We talked about South Lake Tahoe, where they were about to have their very first zero to celebrate the U.S. independence day. It would be very hard to find a place to stay there. They gave me a name of a trail angel who might be able to offer a piece of lawn to camp on. I ended up hiking late, until 8pm.
I got up at 5am and was underway 6am. This seems have to become my standard rhythm. It is okaye for the current mileage. Guess I could wake up a little earlier, but starting in darkness is not that appealing.
It was only about 10 miles until to Kennedy Meadows North, where you could get rid of your bear canister. This gave me extra energy. I was not expecting Sonora Pass to be hard and I was moving fast. The rocky switchbacks were long and there was lot of elevation to be gained, but I had good spirits. Behind me in the distance there was a lone hiker approaching which kind of pushed me a bit also. I wanted to keep ahead of him. Eventually he overtook me after 3 hours of hiking, when we were almost at the highest point of the mountain.
 |
| Long switchbacks. It is mentally hard when you can see ahead a long distance and it is uphill. |
Sonora Pass turned out to be much harder and the views more arid than I had expected. At the end, when going down, there were a couple that went past me without paying that much attention to the views. I was taking pictures, and taking it slowly after coming up fast. Just from a random thought, I decided to increase my speed and see if I can overtake them. This happened soon and I went down really quick. I also went past Coyote, who seems to be very carefull with snow. There was not much of hit, but he is uncomfortable with it anyway.
 |
| Gorgeous views near Sonoro Pass, above 10 000 feet. |
At the highway there were already two hikers trying to hitch to town. The other was the guy who overtook me earlier, a danish young fellow named Bandit, the other an older japanese called Ikea. Soon 4 other joined, and getting a hitch seemed hard. It still did not take more than 15 minutes before a trail angel appearead with his van and we all were able to fit in.
For once, resupplying at town went really well. All in all it took about 2 hours. Kennedy Meadows North is small and the store not that well equipped. I ordered the days soup and salad from the restaurant, only to realise that the soup had turkey in it. I had mentioned that I was vegetarian, so the waitress apogolised and made a sandwich for me instead. After that, I mailed the bear can with the microspikes in it to Susanna and did a small resupply. I bought only few bars, a bag of instant smashed potatoes and hot choco. It is 3 days at max to South Lake Tahoe and I have still food left, so for once I wanted to have only the exact amount of food needed. By luck, we had the same trail angel showing up after everything was done to take us back to the trailhead.
Once back at the trailhead, I pleasently noticed how light my pack was. I needed to check if I really had all my stuff in it. Other hikers also commented on this, and on the lightness of my food bag. I started to worry if I really had enough. It seemed that I would need to ration my food and eat less than actually you need. Well, an interesting expirement.
I spent some half an hour at the trailhead talking to other hikers before starting the ascend away from Sonora Pass. It was 2pm and making 20 miles would be easy, so I wanted to give the town food time to be digested a bit. Once I started hiking again, lots of dark clouds appeared. So far on the hike there has been almost no clouds at all. Now it seemed that there might even be a storm. On my next break, I went through all my stuff and made them protected from possible rain. I wrapped the sleeping bag inside the tarp, and put all the electronics inside ziplocks or dry sacks. Eventually, the trail steered away from the course of the clouds.
 |
| No rain today either. |
The day ended on a long nice descend. I saw Chris and Jess around 6pm on their camp site and had a nice chat with them. They had skipped the town and still had their bear cans. We talked about South Lake Tahoe, where they were about to have their very first zero to celebrate the U.S. independence day. It would be very hard to find a place to stay there. They gave me a name of a trail angel who might be able to offer a piece of lawn to camp on. I ended up hiking late, until 8pm.
Comments
Post a Comment