I first hiked the Pacific Crest Trail over the course of 1994 and 1996, then I hiked the whole thing in one go in 2013. During the latter hike I kept this website updated as I progressed up the trail. I still have about 45 hours of video to edit, but in the meantime there is a lot for you to look at here. Over the course of the 168 days I wrote 138,734 words and put 13,644 photos on this website.
In the very early morning when it was still dark I woke up and my legs were itching like crazy. I am not sure what it was exactly, but I had bumps all over my arms and legs. I took one of Cora's Benadryl and that knocked me out...it also gave me crazy dreams. All I can remember is that I was at some sort of religious retreat and everything was in shambles. The minister guy was showing me around showing how bad off they were. We went to his office and it was all nice hardwoods and several flat screen TVs. I think it was because I was thinking about the Eyes of Tammy Faye Documentary a while back.
Gabe was already up when I woke up. "You are up late", he said. I told him the itchy story. He said you can see Mt. Rainier. I got up and went to look at it. What Gabe didn't mention were the cotton ball like clouds filling up the valleys below us. I went and got my other camera and tripod. I set it up and let it go for about 10 minutes on video. It should look pretty good when sped up.
I turned my phone on and it had a whopping 2% charge in it. The sun was hitting the trees about 200 feet from my tent, so I went and set up the panel there.
We were in no hurry to get going so the PCT did not see our feet until 9:00am. The sun managed to get my phone up to about 80% charged. I know if you are reading this from home it sounds moot, but getting a full charge on something out in the woods is quite a joy.
We got to Pear Lake around 11:00am. I went swimming and Gabe came in a bit later. I stayed in for a while, it was pretty refreshing. We got going again (phone charged to 100% now!).
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We did follow a deer for a bit, ate a bunch of blueberries, and saw a lot of views. Glacier Peak is getting closer and closer.
We crossed the 2500 mile mark and took a few photos. Later that afternoon we ran into a southbound hiker named Stretch. He was at least hiking Washington and then maybe was going to jump down to the Sierras if there was time.
At around 18 miles we decided to camp near a few streams on an open ridge. There are two more passes coming up, but they are pretty low so this was the better option. We are also smack dab in the middle of tomorrow's rising sun so we can be up early. I want to camp at the top of Fire Creek Pass tomorrow. Curtiss, Pete Fish, and I all camped there in 1994 and it has always been one of my favorite memories.
Wind is picking up now, so I'm wrapping this up. No tent tonight since the bugs are not here, nor are any clouds.