Day 59

Mile 1005.6 to Kennedy Meadows North

PCT Miles: 12.5 (20km)

Total Miles: 1018.1 (1629.0km)

Today I had one of the worst mornings since I started the PCT. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but not too good either.

Almost everything was wet. Me and my sleeping system were dry, that was it. It was chilly and windy and it was a bit tough to pack everything, specially the tent. My gloves, which I store on one of the hip belt pockets, were also wet. My socks were wet. On top of all the wetness, my hiking shirt (also wet) is falling apart. For the first time I hiked with something else instead of it: my fleece. I don’t think I can use my hiking shirt anymore.

I knew the day was going to be short, but with a big ascend to almost 11000 feet. The ascend was fine, almost snow free. The trail was a bit slippery and there was a thin layer of ice on top of the snow and rocks. And there were a lot of rocks: these mountains are covered by volcanic rocks, which aren’t the best thing to hike on.

Descending, as usual, was tougher than going up. The fact that I forgot to check for water sources and had to hike 8 miles without drinking only made it worse (I’m so used to have water whenever you want here in the Sierra).

But I had enough time and knew that I was going in the direction of taking a zero tomorrow. So I took my time and tried to enjoy the descent and glissaded twice (one intentionally and the other by accident)! There was also a sketchy part where I had to kick in footholds on the softening snow to be able to traverse a small cliff. Joys of hiking on snow.

From the descent I could see the highway 🛣️. That helped me to give the final push and before 2pm I was at the road. I knew there would be a shuttle that brings PCT hikers to Kennedy Meadows North (a resupply, dining and lodging place, 8 miles from the trailhead). While I waited I saw Rambo coming down the mountain. We chatted a bit and he told me that he knew it was me that made the footholds and thanked me for them! A few minutes later came Bullfrog just in time for the shuttle. At 3:30pm we were all in KMN!

Here we got a room for the three of us and we’re all taking zeroes tomorrow. There are some other hikers around here that I’ve seen before, but haven’t spoke to them yet. This place is huge and quite interesting. I’ll tell more about it tomorrow, on my zero day post!