Day 40

Mile 750.7 to mile 772.2

PCT Miles: 21.5 (34.4km)

Total Miles: 772.2 (1235.5km)

It was a cold night but gladly I had a good night of sleep. Sleeping socks and sleeping pants make all the difference 😴!

There was some frost on my backpack and tent and also my shoes were frozen. It’s really not the best feeling to wear frozen shoes (and socks) on a cold morning.

The morning was tough, but great! Most of the trail was covered in snow, but since it freezes during the night, it’s hard snow in the morning. It’s so much easier to hike in hard snow instead of soft, icy or slushy snow!


Even though I camped alone (and so far I’m camping alone again tonight) I saw a lot of people on trail today. My goal today was to reach the base of the Forester Pass, arguably the most challenging part of the whole PCT. For that, I had to hike 25 miles with a lot of ups and downs.

The problem with that math that used to work in the desert is that there are some parts in the Sierra that you just cannot (or shouldn’t) do at certain times. For example, to go over a high pass (like Forester Pass), you should do it early in the morning, while the snow is still hard. Or if you’re going to cross a river or creek with a strong current, you should also do in the mornings, because the flow will be much calmer since the water freezes overnight.

That was I learned today. After hiking 21.5km, I arrived at a river crossing around 4:30pm. It’s the first time that I face a river crossing that is just too strong to move on, specially alone. Even if there would be more people, I wouldn’t cross it today.

It was the earlier finish of a hiking day so far and also the first time that I don’t reach the goal that I set for the day. I confess that I was a bit disappointed, but now that I cooked, stretched, reorganize my backpack and had time to listen to music and podcasts and it’s not even 19:00, I feel completely fine 🙃.