Day 7, May.13, 2017

• Miles hiked 22 (a new personal longest day for me)
• Total miles 132
• Hiked from 6:00 am to noon and from 1:30 pm to 5:15 pm

Happy one week trail anniversary to me.

It was a good day for stretching the legs a bit.  Right out of the gate, I had a 2,100 foot climb.  But as I have said before, climbs on the PCT are different than most other trails.  They are gentle and forgiving.  So that climb consumed most of the morning over a length of 14 miles.  The weather was cool and breezy, so the hiking was good.

Some random morning shots

The climb ended at the home of a trail angel by the name of Mike Herrera.  He has a house out in the middle of nowhere right beside the trail.  And it is located on a long waterless section of the trail.  So he has water trucked in to a couple of large tanks on his property and allows us thirsty hikers to fill for a donation.  The generosity of people on this trail is amazing.

I hung around there for an hour and a half, eating lunch and generally relaxing.  I did discover that peanut butter, Chex breakfast cereal and a nip of Frank's Hotsauce on a tortilla is an amazing lunch.  OK, maybe just on the trail.

Looking back at Mike's place

I headed out after my break to tackle the second climb.  This one was only 1,200 feet.  Then it was all downhill to where I am now sharing a campsite with a great young French guy by the name of Ben.

One week down, a whole crapload left to go.  I make that sound negative and I should not.  I really am having a great time out here.

You have to look carefully, but he is there.

I have taken lots of pics of the flore, here are a couple of the resident fauna

Home for the night