Friday 19 July 2019

PCT 2019 ver 2 Day 7 July 16

Daily mileage 23
Trip mileage 150
Total PCT miles 1505
Hiked from 5:45 am to 5 pm

The day that almost did not happen.

When I crawled out of my tent this morning  I discovered a rather troubling thing: I could not put any weight on my right knee.  That knee have me issues on my aborted PCT restart in May but it had been fine so far. Given that I was only about two miles from a highway, I had a big decision to make. Carry on with the PCT or head back to the highway. So I figured out a stretch that helped and walked about without my pack to loosen up the knee.

That all seemed to work, so off up the trail I went. Oh yeah, the other factor was I had no idea where the highway leads. I would not even know which side of the road to stand on to hitch!  That is one of the odd things about hiking the PCT, or any other trail for that matter.  The maps you carry cover the trail and maybe a mile on either side of it.  What exists beyond that scope is a big unknown.  So arriving at a highway crossing, you just look and wonder where the blacktop leads.

So off up the trail I hobbled.  Luckily, even by PCT standards, it was remarkably easy hiking.

First up was Mt Thielsen. From a distance, it looks rather dark and foreboding. Kind of a Mt Doom aura. But up close and personal, it was gorgeous. The trail took me around about 180 degrees of the mountain and it was majestic from every vantage.

When I got to the trail junction with the trail that summits the mountain, I knew the PCT went downhill for a bit.  So off I go on a trail that goes downhill. But, not the right trail that goes downhill!  Luckily, I suspected I was on the wrong trail after only 10 minutes mainly because the grade going down was very un-PCT like.  Too steep.  I checked the Half Mile app and discovered I was indeed off trail.  All in all, could have been worse.








Mt Thielsen from several angles

I started hitting snow patches on the northern flanks of the mountain. Not enough to be a bother  but a definite reminder of how much snow blanketed the area this winter.

Modest amounts of snowy trail


As I was limping along, I could see a sign on a tree coming up. It was the high point of Oregon and Washington. So obviously there will be no more uphills ahead!

I actually misplaced the trail twice today. On both occasions, I simply did not pay attention to trail signage and chose the wrong trail at a junction. On both cases, the lack of recent foot prints or the steepness of the grade gave away the mistake.

I had targeted the camp I am in now early in the day because it has the first water available in 16 miles. I failed to read the details about the spring and found out first hand that it is hellalong down the hill and the is a reception committee of a million mosquitoes awaiting your arrival. Oh well, I needed the water. 

Again, no picture of camp because of the mosquitoes.

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