Adam, Leigh and the Trees

Wednesday 31 July 2019
Day: 94
Location: Mile 1,109.9
Distance travelled: 19.9 miles / 32 km

After going to town on the free hotel breakfast for the second day in a row, we were met in the car park by local Trail Angel Leilani, who had offered to drop us back at the trailhead which was about 20 minutes away. We were blown away by Leilani’s amazing generosity in helping out PCT hikers!

We were welcomed back to the trail by a hand written sign warning of bear getting into food at Lake Aloha, which we would be going past today but not camping near. Great, note to self… keep an eye out for hungry black bears while hiking.

The likelihood that we both over-indulged on the free hotel breakfast soon become apparent as we both felt pretty gross on the first hill climb of the day. Surprisingly though, it didn’t take us too long to reach Echo Lake, our first milestone of the day. We took the opportunity to have a break and use the last of our phone reception for the next few days.

The trail took us along the edge of the lake and allowed us to check out the many holiday homes built on the shores of the lake. No wonder our trail notes told us we weren’t allowed to camp along this section of trail!

The views of spectacular lakes kept coming as we eventually reached Lake Aloha before climbing to Dicks Pass, the high point for the day. We were now in the Desolation Wilderness Area and it was easy to see why this place is so special. It was absolutely stunning!

After navigating/bypassing some more snow on our descent, the miles continued to tick over until we found a nice quiet campsite near Middle Velma Lake just as the sun was setting.

Thursday 1 August 2019
Day: 95
Location: Mile 1,137.8
Distance travelled: 27.9 miles / 45 km

We were up early today to cover as many miles as possible now that the last of the snow seemed to be behind us.

We’ve started to really focus on covering 10 miles by 10am to set us up to cover 25+ miles per day and keep us on track to reach Canada before the end of the season.

While there were plenty of ups and downs today, the grading of the trail was pretty good which made for some relatively easy walking, often with good views from the ridgeline – always a bonus when you get some views to keep the mind occupied! Even now and then we had views of Lake Tahoe.

Hiking on exposed ridgelines can take it out of you, as we discovered, as you have very little tree cover and are inevitably copping the sun for the whole day. It’s always a nice feeling when the sting starts to fade away from the sun as it gets later in the day. We stopped for dinner overlooking an out of season ski field before donning our head nets to keep the mosquitoes at bay as we dropped down into the valley to find a camp site for the night near Whisky Creek (unfortunately no whisky was located there).

While today was a largely uneventful day, we did manage to do our biggest mile day so far on the trail – 27.9 miles! After taking a brief moment to congratulate ourselves on this achievement, it started to dawn on us that this type of mileage would need to become our new normal if we are going to reach the Canadian border before the snow sets in.

Friday 2 August 2019
Day: 96
Location: Mile 1,160.7
Distance travelled: 22.9 miles / 37 km

Another early start this morning to try to put 10 miles behind us by 10am. We were both feeling suprisingly good this morning despite the long day yesterday and were able to meet our 10 mile goal reasonably comfortable. Maybe this hiking thing isn’t so hard after all?

We spent the morning winding through snow-less ski fields, which were actually quite beautiful to walk through. We only passed the odd day hiker here and there but had the trail largely to ourselves.

As the day continued, the trail continued to impress with lots of variety and the odd knob here and there. It was mildly annoying passing flipfloppers who were heading south and had just re-joined the trail after spending the night in nearby Truckee and talking about burgers and other tasty delights. It’s hard not to be at least a bit jealous of hikers who have come out of town when you are dirty, sweaty, hungry and still a couple of days away from your next planned town stop, as we were. We’d decided to bypass Truckee in favour of Sierra City. Even though Sierra City was a much small town, it was closer to the trail and we felt we’d waste less time there than if we went into Truckee.

It was also around this time that it really started to get under my skin that every hiker we past kept commenting on the fact that I was still carrying my bear can. It wasn’t the fact that people were commenting on it, it was more the fact that I was having the same conversation what felt like a dozen times a day and having other hikers trying to convince me to get rid of it to save the weight. It was around this time that I made the decision that I was probably going to carry that thing all the way to Canada just to prove a point. Leigh seemed to get a kick out these conversations though as she knew that I was getting increasingly abrupt with people and it seemed to keep her entertained.

We bypassed the opportunity to stop for a free beer at Donner Ski Ranch (seriously, what has happened to us), in favour of pushing on to cover more miles. After avoiding a toilet emergency on the heavily-populated with no real spots to do you business, we spent a good half an hour chatting to this lovely older couple who were out with their dog but ended up doing some adhoc trail maintenance, clearing the cause of a short section of trail that had become flooded.

We then took the tunnel under the highway and, in true hiker trash fashion, ate our dinner outside a roadside reststop/toilet and charged our phones on the outdoor power outlet that we managed to spot on the wall. Anytime you can top up your batteries without resorting the draining your external powerbank always feels like a win!

With our bellies full, we made the climb under the setting sun up to Peter Grubb Hutt, which we shared with a friendly German hiker who was section hiking part of the PCT while he was on holidays. It’s always nice to be able to have a night without setting up the tent, even when you know there’s probably going to be mice running around everywhere once the lights go out!

Saturday 3 August 2019
Day: 97
Location: Mile 1,191.5
Distance travelled: 30.8 miles / 50 km

We managed to achieve our goal of getting up and packed before sunrise and took in the morning colours on trail.

After successfully completing 10 miles by 10am, we were both feeling pretty good, so decided to push today to get as close as possible to Sierra City tomorrow. If we could get into town as early as possible, we’d have to opportunity to do a nero rather than a zero, which would keep us on track to get to Canada before the snow.

The downside of pushing out the miles is that you don’t get as much opportunity to stop and take things in. Still, if we want to reach Canada this season (which we do) that is a sacrifice that we have to make.

The miles rolled by until we finally reached Milton Creek just as it was starting to get dark. We realised after taking our shoes and socks off that the dusty trails today had made their way all the way through to our feet and they looked absolutely filthy. It was such a treat being able to end the day by soaking our feet in the cold water of the creek. I didn’t realise at the time, but this would become a bit of mood booster and re-energiser for me over the coming days as we made the decision to start night hiking in order to increase our daily mileage.