Mile 8.3 to Mile 25.2
We were happy to be camping in the woods last night. The night before, at Guitar Lake, was stunning. But, somehow we just feel more at home down among the trees. We quickly ate breakfast and were excited to get hiking this morning after such an amazing day yesterday.
Yesterday was a lot to take in and we’re still processing everything. It is a bit hard to comprehend the scale and beauty of this place. And the variety — from the pine forest valleys to lush alpine meadows to crystal clear lakes everywhere to never-ending granite peaks as far as you can see.
We’re not going as high today, but our vertical gain is a little more than yesterday.
We paused for a little while at the top of the pass to just take in the moment. While we were there, a PCT hiker walked up going southbound. He asked us to take his picture as he stood up on a rock with an epic pose to commemorate reaching the highest point on the PCT. He was about to continue on but stopped because he noticed a sticker on Rocket’s bear canister from Shaw’s Hiker Hostel, where we stayed for a night before the 100 Mile Wilderness in Maine on the AT.
That started a really great conversation about his AT hike and how things were going with his PCT attempt. He was in the Sierra at this time of year because he had to skip sections up north due to fire closures, and he was super-frustrated about not being able to complete a traditional end-end hike. This topic can get a bit philosophical when you start to contemplate that more severe winter weather and the now-annual fire season in the NW make a traditional PCT thru-hike increasingly rare (and involve a fair bit of luck). It is something we’ve been thinking about a lot as we consider potentially doing this trail before Rocket goes off to college in a couple of years.
RocketWalk 