Walks A Ways

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

PCT Day 56

PCT Day 56, 07 July 2022 (Thursday)

"Mmiles"

Start Location:	Wilderness Campsite In Northern Yosemite	Destination:	Kennedy Canyon Creek
PCT Miles Day 56:	23.7	Cum PCT Miles:	1,006.0
Non-PCT Miles Day 56:	0.7	Cum All Miles:	1090.3
PCT Miles Remaining:	1,646.6
Elevation Gain Day 56:	4,039	Cum Elevation Gain:	180,470

Well, it’s a good thing I passed the 1,000 mile mark today, because I could not think of any amusing, clever, or interesting titles for today. After how yesterday went, I wasn’t sure whether I would get to 1,000 today. However, the trail today was much faster, at least 2/3 of it was nice, fast trail. As a comparison, it took me two hours less today to cover the same amount of miles I did yesterday. I am now in a good position to get to Kennedy Meadows North a half a day early.

I am still in the Southern Sierra, so there was, of course, another high pass. Today’s was Dorothy Lake Pass at 9,526 ft. This is just above Dorothy Lake, a very nice lake.

Today I also left the Yosemite Wilderness. You didn’t need to see the sign to notice that there is a distinct change in landscape. From here on out, I will be in areas with which I am not as familiar. So, it should be interesting.

I must have had my headlights on, because when that deer saw me, it froze

Wilmer Lake

Falls Creek, another legs wet crossing

Falls Creek

More Falls Creek

Dorothy Lake

More Dorothy Lake

Dorothy Lake Pass

1,000 Mile mark

Walker River with bridge

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PCT Day 55

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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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PCT Day 54

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PCT Day 54, 05 July 2022 (Tuesday)

“Miller Time”

Start Location:	Glen Aulin Backpacker Campground	Destination:	Wilderness Campsite Near Wilson Creek
PCT Miles Day 54:	17.0	Cum PCT Miles:	965.3
Non-PCT Miles Day 54:	0.4	Cum All Miles:	1048.5
PCT Miles Remaining:	1,687.3
Elevation Gain Day 54:	3,861	Cum Elevation Gain:	172,627

Since I wanted today to be a more relaxing, shorter day, I got up much later, and started much later than usual. I also set up my campsite a little earlier than usual. I very intentionally took slow easy steps on the steeper, rockier portions of the trail; my feet were very happy about that. I also did not skimp on any of the breaks today. Even so, I still did over 2 miles more than my target. It just goes to show, when you keep putting one foot in front of the other how far you can go.

An unexpected highlight today was Miller Lake. It is a special lake. It is a very serene place. The kind of place you feel like you could hang out at all day drinking tropical drinks. So if you come here, bring the blender. It is not day-hikeable unless you are an ultra-marathon runner. However, it is worth doing a one or two night backpack trip from Tuolumne Meadows to get here.

There were also multiple, notable northern Yosemite creek crossings today (McCabe, Return, Spiller, Matterhorn, and Wilson). I am camped right by Wilson Creek, so more good white noise tonight.

Another good day on the PCT.

North of Glen Aulin, Yosemite

McCabe Creek crossing

Spiller Creek

Approaching Miller Lake

Miller Lake

Am I at a tropical beach, or a High Sierra lake?

Whorl Mt., I was supposed to hike in that area last year but had to cancel because of all the smoke from the Sequoia fire

Matterhorn Creek

Wilson Creek

The dappled bottom of Wilson Creek

Wilson Creek at sunset, right near my campsite

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Tuesday, July 12, 2022

PCT Day 53

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PCT Day 53, 04 July 2022 (Monday)

“Feel Donahue”

Start Location:	Wilderness Campsite After Thousand Island Lake	Destination:	Glen Aulin Backpacker Campground
PCT Miles Day 53:	21.8	Cum PCT Miles:	948.3
Non-PCT Miles Day 53:	1.6	Cum All Miles:	1031.1
PCT Miles Remaining:	1,704.3
Elevation Gain Day 53:	1,899	Cum Elevation Gain:	168,766

Guess what I went up today? Right, another high pass. Today it was Donahue Pass at 11,073 ft. This one came early in the day, and all the significant uphill hiking was done after that. Going down, though, was steep and rocky. So, the first 7 miles of the day we’re pretty slow.

Yet again, Donahue was another high pass that did not disappoint. The whole area was very scenic. In fact, the whole day was very scenic. I crossed over into Yosemite today, and the majority of the hiking today was in Yosemite. Lyell Fork creek and Tuolumne River were constant companions most of the day.

I found out a couple months before starting my hike that the Tuolumne Meadows backpacker campground was going to be closed. I was planning on staying there, so I had to alter my plans. There are special rules for Tuolumne Meadows that you can’t disperse camp within 4 miles of Tioga Pass Road. This meant that I had to hike an additional 6 miles so I could camp at the Glen Aulin backpacker campground.

Luckily, the elevation gain today was pretty moderate. So even though my backpack is still heavy with food, I was able to make good progress. Though I stopped often to look around and take photos, I made it to camp in good time.

Like yesterday, just about every where I hiked today is day-hikable.

The next few days are going to be relatively low mile days. So, I’ll be able to I go at a relaxing pace and give my feet a bit of a break.