Km: 35.8 Time walking: 8:53 Ascent: 928 Rattlesnakes: 0 Bears: 0 ( although a lot of bear activity ) People: 0 Various furry animals, and some that looked suspiciously like Disney’s “Snipp og Snapp”
When traveling many people tend to become constipated. As you can see from the title that’s no longer the case. As you have to do your business in a 4-6 inch deep hole you have dug with your titanium toilet trowel, you also can’t help becoming a little more aware of the output than at home.
With that business done, camp packed up (with the tent grimy from soot), I set off in the rain. I started in shorts and Catherine’s leggings and a rain jacket. As the path was overgrown in places I was soon soaked through. The path climbed to over 1900 meters today and finally I had to succumb and put on rain trousers and sn extra fleece. Still my teeth were shattering.
Generally the trail thread is smooth as a road and allows for quick and easy walking. Today there was a four mile stretch of patchy snow as well as a couple of scary snow traverses. At least I thought they were. Certainly you didn’t want to slip here, the slope was steep and you were bound to hit something unforgiving at a good pace.
The PCT is built for horses as well as people. That means the gradient is very gentle. But to achieve that they have had to carve the path out of the hillside. Which is bloody steep in places. Need to think a little bit about what to do further north as there is plenty snow north of I-5.
Broke my promise to not hike longer than 22-25k days in the first couple of weeks. Did 35.8k today. Which is about 22 miles. 37 miles left to I-5 and the resupply at Castella (or Shasta).
Note my guardian camp tree has balls. :-) “Lille Persille” works well, but a freestanding tent might have been easier to set up.
