Monday Day 75

6.18.2018

PCT 1118-1135 Karen: 936

So I made up for my lack of sleep. It was pretty early when we retreated to our tents. Our lakeside campsite in cahoots with the clouds overhead proved to be a cold, damp kind of night. We never received any rain but plenty of moisture was hanging on our tents this morning. I woke up at 630. I think I made Laura laugh cause I had no idea it was that late. I still pull my beanie hat over my eyes when I sleep so the sunshine doesn’t wake me. But clearly, I needed some rest. I’m pretty sure that was 10hours of sleep!

Well, we slowly packed up. We actually ate a little bit before leaving camp. Most days I usually walk and eat my first bite of food. It was 8am when we were hiking. It was cool but man, the sun was out in perfection. We were off to a great start.

The first few miles were just like yesterday, easy. Gently rolling hills with beautiful peaks to admire. Around 11am we reached the parking lot for Barker Peak. There was a picnic table there (and I was hungry!) so we had a few civilized minutes at a table for lunch. While we were there (finally) a hiker came up behind us. I actually had just mentioned to Laura that I thought it was weird that we hadn’t been past by any northbound PCTers and sure enough, here comes Einstein. He started April 19 and he’s from Maryland. We chatted for a bit but he took break up ahead. We leapfrogged one more time but never saw him the rest of the day.

After leaving the picnic table though we ran into Luc! He said he took 3 buses to get to Dunsmuir, CA which is where he flipped to. He’s unsure of his plan yet. I was glad to see him out. Justin had sent a message just a few days ago that he had seen Luc as well. Those are the moments I like out here. The only thing that would have been better is having had more time to talk to Luc. We wished him well and safe travels through the Sierras.

After that we had a few switchbacks to climb. I will say this part of the trail seems much more thought out than the desert section. The long switchbacks here were actually pleasant. Not downright grueling as they were down south, but maybe that’s just my opinion.

We had just a little bit of snow when we entered the Granite Chief Wilderness. The wildflowers from here are almost in full June bloom. The colors are so vibrant and soften the harsh contrasting rock walls they grow upon.

The ridge walk across the backside of Alpine Meadows Ski Area was pretty cool. I think I took my favorite photo of Lake Tahoe here.

After that we had about 2 miles of downhill to our campsite. Laura knew of a site off trail–so after I grumbled about hiking more–we ended up at 5 Lakes to camp. Cool view of the mountains and lakes near. And not infested with mosquitos where I had intended to stay. We did have to get creative with the rocks and tent stakes tonight. There’s not a lot of dirt up here to secure a stake.

The dark clouds have passed over and I think we’ve be spared another day of rainfall. We have 21 miles to highway 80. We will make the next 2 days somewhat short. We had already discussed going into Truckee on Wednesday morning. Laura’s husband Andrew is coming up a day early now, so that will be fun. We will get a little time in Truckee before I head back out on Thursday.

The eyes are getting tired. The body is tired as well. I forgot what it was like to do 18 mile days.