Day 87

Mile 1296.6 to mile 1324.9

PCT Miles: 28.3 (45.3km)

Total Miles: 1324.9 (2119.8km)

The most interesting part of my whole morning was stopping to camel up and fill to all my water capacity (currently 4 liters) for the shadeless and waterless stretch ahead. The spring was very convenient 😊.

Around 12:30 the sun started to get really hot. I was halfway to a water spring (which was 15 minutes off trail) and I had just enough (lukewarm) water to make it to the spring. And then.

Trail magic 🪄!

Free fresh food and cold drinks. Differently from the usual trail magic, there were no cliff bars or m&ms or junk food in general. There were actually a lot of homemade food! Potato salad, fruit salad, home baked cookies, muffins, sandwiches. Fresh fruit and vegetables from one of the trail angel’s garden. All there absolutely for free for thru hikers to satisfy their hunger. It was the best trail magic I’ve experienced so far.

After almost three hours eating cantaloupes and watermelons and cherries and strawberries and apples and bananas and peaches and blueberries and raspberries and grapes and kiwis and pineapples — seriously! all those fruits! — plus cookies, muffins and a sandwich or two, I cameled up for the coming 17 miles without water (and dry camping tonight). The rest of the afternoon was hot, but not as much as the previous days.

Right before my camp site for tonight, I passed the PCT midpoint mark 🎉! It took me almost three months to do the first half. I want to finish the second half in less than two months! Cheers 🥂!

There were a lot more of forests of dead trees today (and I think it will continue for a few days still). I learned that these black dead trees are called widowmakers. I’m actually camping tonight surrounded by them and it’s really creepy and a bit frightening how they indeed creek and squeak. And sometimes you hear branches falling out of the blue. Tonight I’m happy that it’s not windy 😮‍💨.