PCT Day 55, 06 July 2022 (Wednesday)
"Taking A Brake"
Start Location: |
Wilderness Campsite Near Wilson Creek |
Destination: |
Wilderness Campsite In Northern Yosemite |
|
PCT Miles Day 55: |
17.0 |
Cum PCT Miles: |
982.3 |
|
Non-PCT Miles Day 55: |
0.4 |
Cum All Miles: |
1065.9 |
|
PCT Miles Remaining: |
1,670.3 |
|
|
|
Elevation Gain Day 55: |
3,804 |
Cum Elevation Gain: |
176,431 |
I’m glad I didn’t plan big miles today, because the trail was having none of it. This was unexpectedly a very hard day. The trail was putting on the brakes whether you liked it or not. I’m not going to say it was the hardest day, I’m not even going to say that mile for mile it was the hardest day. I think that would be a case of recency bias, where in the latest thing is foremost in the mind. I’m just saying it was hard.
It felt like dog miles today, where every mile hiked felt more like seven. It was just straight up and straight down, then more straight up and straight down, and so on. There was very little flat (NOTE: I purposely don't post photos for the sole purpose of trying to show how hard or sketchy a trail is, because pictures rarely capture accurately the difficulty, steepness or sketchiness and they just seem to indicate I'm over exaggerating.). And the trail was very rocky and uneven. Just a very difficult trail on which to get any momentum. I ran into a couple of park rangers today, and they said everyone underestimates how difficult this part of the trail is.
I’m not complaining, it’s the nature of the trail. I’m just trying to accurately describe the experience I had on the trail. On any long-distance hike, you have to expect days like this that aren’t maybe what you expected. In a way, you just have to embrace days like this as part of the challenge. I mean, if every day was easy, and there were no challenges, I might as well just camp at the beach for 4.5 months.
I did go over two more high passes today, Benson at 10,107 feet and Seavey at 9,129 feet. Despite the difficult trail, there was still a lot of good scenery today.
By the way, this is the first time in the whole hike that I’ve had a ranger actually check my permit, and they also checked to make sure that I had a bear canister.
Deer near my campsite
On the way up to Benson Pass
Top of Benson Pass
Smedberg Lake
Scenery from the trail
Scenery from the trail
A small lake in Northern Yosemite, one of many small, unnamed lakes (BTW, unnamed lakes are identified by the elevation of the water level "WL")
Seavey Pass
Snowy, Craig, and Tower Peaks
Larkspur, I think
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