Day 69

Echo Lake to mile 1104.5

PCT Miles: 11.1 (18.2km)

Total Miles: 1104.5 (1767.2km)

Our hiker rhythm + jet leg combo worked once more and at 6 we were awake. We had time in the morning to finalize packing our bags, have a nice breakfast and wait for Diva 🧑‍🎤, our trail angel, to pick us up at 8 sharp. During the half hour drive to Echo Lake, we had a nice conversation with Diva, who is a triple-crowner and very talkative. At 9am we (re-)started our hike!

For the first two hours or so we hiked on the rim of Echo Lake and the view was astonishing. We probably hiked by 4-5 lakes today and they were all very beautiful! We saw many hikers today (around 20), not only PCT hikers but also day/multi-day hikers. This area where we are is called Desolation Wilderness and it’s absolutely gorgeous.

During the day we had a bit of everything, which I think was a cool introduction to the PCT for Maike. We had a bit of an ascend, a bit of snow, a bit of wind, a bit of sunshine a bit of stream crossings, a bit of mud. And a lot of bites from mosquitoes 🥲.

As we continue our tradition of making wise decisions, we took our time to enjoy the day today and finished the day at 11 miles, which is exactly what we had planned: our goal 🥅 is to arrive in Truckee by the end of Friday and therefore we need to do an average of 12 miles per day ✅!

Tonight we’re camping close to another beautiful lake (Lake Gilmore) and Maike already got into the hiker’s sleeping schedule: it’s 8pm and she’s been sleeping for half an hour already 😴.