Day 56

Mile 937.3 to mile 964.0

PCT Miles: 26.7 (42.7km)

Total Miles: 964.0 (1542.4km)

My body really seems to understand when it has the time to rest properly. This wasn’t the first time during the PCT that after finishing the day early, I just fall completely asleep. I don’t even remember, but I probably fell asleep around 6:30-7:00pm and had an uninterrupted and deep sleep until 6am. I woke up feeling refreshed!

During the day I met a few day hikers. The Yosemite National Park is very inviting for all types of hikers and the hiking season has just started. One lady came to me and randomly asked: how many blisters did you have already? I replied “three”. She mumbled “good for you” and walked away. Go figure… but at least this made me realize that my right knee and achilles aren’t hurting anymore. After my good night of sleep, I feel like I am 100%!

The first half of the day was a walk in the park. Besides the fact that the trail was very wet (I’m used to wet feet already), it was flat and chill. I was happily enjoying my lunch at noon after having hiked 12 miles already.

The afternoon was a little bit more demanding, but not too much. There was some elevation, but the snow was very scarce. It seems that the snow has been melting for a while here in Yosemite. This is good because it’s much easier (and faster) to hike without snow (as opposed as slushy snow) and the level of the water crossings are not so strong as they were one week ago (by reading the reports of other hikers on the app we use during the PCT). This is good, because today I had two mid-thigh high crossings. Not necessarily scary, but very wet and cold. I wouldn’t want these crossings to be waist or chest high.

The bad thing about the snow melting are the mosquitos 🦟. Today was the first time that I had to: 1) hike wearing my rain pants and wind jacket to protect me from the mosquitos (it was 30°C); 2) wore my head net for hiking and for setting camp; 3) ate dinner inside my tent (which is not recommended 🐻), because it’s just impossible to eat outside. I wonder how I am going to do number two with all these mosquitos lurking around 🍑🦟!

At the end of the day I managed to hike a marathon — it had been a while since the last time! Tomorrow I’ll try again to do two passes in one day and advance 20+ miles.