2026 PCT Day 17, 31 August 2026 (Monday)
Overall PCT Day 133
"Cache Only"
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Start Location: |
Mi. 1849.5 |
Destination: |
Mi. 1876.2 |
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PCT Miles Day 133: |
26.7 |
Cum PCT Miles: |
2424.5 |
|
Non-PCT Miles Day 133: |
0.0 |
Cum All Miles: |
2636.3 |
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PCT Miles Remaining: |
221.8 |
|
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Elevation Gain Day 133: |
3292 |
Cum Elevation Gain: |
416,751 |
This morning was fairly cold again, but not quite as cold as yesterday. But if I didn’t keep my hands in my jacket pocket, my fingers would get numb pretty quickly. My right ankle felt a lot better this morning after waking up then it did yesterday. I actually had a decent amount of swelling yesterday, but it’s mostly gone down overnight. I’m just hoping it stays that way. It seems like it’s good one day and bad the next. So, we’ll see how it goes today. My plan for today will be like yesterday, go at a comfortable pace, don’t push it, and see where it gets me.
Today the water situation is pretty tricky. After Thielsen Creek, which was mile eight for me today, the next two water sources are pretty far off the trail and one of them the water quality is supposed to be pretty iffy. The next water source after that is supposed to be a large water cache which is about 24 miles ahead. And then the next water after that is also fairly far ahead. The latest report is that the water cache still has quite a bit of water, but you just never know with a cache, it could be depleted at any time. However, with a lot fewer hikers coming through this time of year, the cache should last longer.Additionally, the trail looks relatively mellow to moderate for the rest of the day so that should make it easy to carry the extra water weight. And the status of my ankle hasn’t changed since I woke up this morning, which is good. If it had been worse, then I would have to consider how the extra water weight might impact my ankle. So a lot of things to take into your account.
I am going to put my bet on there being water at the water cache. So I pretty much maxed out my water capacity at Thielsen Creek, and I’m going to carry all the water I need for the rest of the day. And if I can’t get to the water cache today, then I’ll get there early in the morning tomorrow.
Right after I finished my lunch, I passed a SOBO hiker, who confirmed there is a lot of water at the cache. That means I could be more flexible in picking a place to stop today and don’t necessarily need to get to the water today, tomorrow morning should be fine.
Although my ankle is still a little swollen and tender to the touch, it held up pretty well all day. What slowed me down was, once again, a lot of tree blow downs. There were hundreds again. Most of them weren’t that hard to get by, but I roughly calculate I could’ve done about 2.5 more miles today if I didn’t have to go over, under or around so many downed trees.
It was kind of a funny day, because I thought the trail was pretty nice today, except for all the downed trees, and the lack of more frequent water sources.
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| Nice water cache in Oregon |
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| Morning view overlooking the Southern Oregon forest |
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| A close-up view of Mt. Thielsen. That looks fun! |
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| Diamond Lake |
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| Thielsen Creek, the best water source today, by far |
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| Some nice forest trail |
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| Interesting...some type of Bitter Boletes |
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| The highest point in Oregon on the red line (baseline) PCT. Yesterdays Crater Lake Rim Trail official alternate actually has a higher point, but that's not on the red line PCT. |
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| For hikers on the metric system |
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| Miller Lake |
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