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.
I think the scenery today was probably pretty good but I couldn't enjoy it.
MOSQUITOES EVERYWHERE!
I should have taken it as a sign how the day was going to go when I saw them piled on top of my tent. I hadn't even been outside yet and they were waiting for me pre-6am.
I made coffee and mashed potatoes for breakfast. It was a good thing I did this because this was the only proper meal I got all day.
I passed one lake and it looked like a swarm of dragonflies were munching on the mosquitoes. I hope so.
The trail had a couple of creek crossings that required wading, there were no logs or rocks to use. I thought I was going to die from mosquito poisoning while I stopped to take off my shoes. Once on the other side I couldn't even get them back on. I resorted to walking barefoot down the trail until I found a spot where there might be less. It didn't help much.
The trail did a lot of climbing and dropping today over the 26.5 miles. I ran into three southbound hikers doing a section of the PCT from Sonora Pass to Tuolumne Meadows.
Around the 10 mile mark I heard someone say "OTC!", it was Texas Poo. He had just gotten back from a three mile detour the wrong way. Somehow he had missed the PCT and ended up going down to Tilden Lake, which was a mosquito infested swamp.
It was such a shame about all the bugs, it would have been nice hiking otherwise.
Going through Grace Meadow was just as bad as it was in 1996, although I was in less of a full sprint this time. Bugs in ears, bugs in hair, bugs everywhere. The DEET didn't even help much after a while. It would work good initially, but then wear off or something about an hour later.
Around 2:00pm I pulled over, laid down my ground sheet, then draped my tent over me. I took a 20 minute nap...didn't get enough sleep last night. I know it was 20 minutes because I was listening to Marc Maron podcast and later I found the spot where I didn't remember anything and it was around that long.
At Dorothy Lake Pass I saw Texas Poo at the top. It was the northern boundary for Yosemite NP. It is also the mark for where you no longer have to carry a bearcan. We didn't see any tossed aside since they cost around $65. Had they been $5 I would have expected to see them everywhere.
On the other side of the pass we heard a couple helicopters. They flew near us really close and then went the other direction. TP said he felt like we were in Red Dawn.
I watched my iphone app as the miles tick-tick-ticked from 999.99 to 1000. TP and I took a few pictures. I had one more celebration, I retired my red shoes that I had walked the last 1000 miles in. Now I'm in green shoes. I hope my feet get used to them. Nu Shooz!
Texas Poo stopped after about 5 miles and I went another couple and made camp. I thought about going to the ridgetop and camping, but it was another 1500 feet and the mosquitoes were exhausting me. I mostly just wanted to send Mike (Gabe and Lela's Dad) an email telling him when I would be at the pass. I hope we can meet up tomorrow. I thought cell service would have been better at TM and I could have gotten everything taken care of. Oh well.
Really tired right now, gotta get up early so I can hammer out the 11 miles to Sonora Pass by 10:30am or so.