1,000 Miles

I’m currently in South Lake Tahoe and have now walked 1090.8 miles of the PCT. It’s hard to believe I’ve walked over a thousand miles, yet I’m still in California and still have more than 1,500 miles left to go. But, the 1,090 miles I have walked seem like a lot, particularly because I finished one of the hardest sections of the trail — the Sierra. The last 11 days were particularly challenging, filled with steep and rocky ascents and descents, mostly devoid of connection to the outside world, and swarming with mosquitoes. But they were also filled beauty, allowed us to realize our physical and mental resilience, and showed us how important we are to each other. In the last eleven days, we only had a short half-day pit stop at Kennedy Meadows North on July 4.

I never wanted to get off trail or even considered it, but I think I struggled more mentally and emotionally during this last 11-day stretch than I have all trail. While in this section, you don’t have access to any of your normal coping mechanisms to alleviate whatever issue is plaguing you. You have nature and your trail friends. Sometimes, being alone in the mountains is comforting and the space apart is needed and curative. The air is crisp, the birds are singing, and the views continue to stun. But, if you spend too much time alone, no matter the beauty of the wilderness, you (or, perhaps, I) start to go insane.

This is where your trail family comes in. I think I’ve found the best family on the trail. It’s not to say that it’s rainbows and butterflies all the time, but the seven amazing people I’ve been hiking with are my friends and family out here. They are my support when the going gets tough. And the going does get and has gotten tough. Each one is different, unique, funny, kind, smart, and, perhaps, most importantly, someone I would never have met, if not for the PCT. Each has taught me something and showed me a view from a different perspective. There’s Renee, a 5’2’’ mountain biker from the Canadian Rockies who has the strength of someone twice her size. Illy is a former lead singer of a band who educates us all on the California mountains and is one of the toughest people I know. Big Spoon paints giant murals, will always have on the best color scheme, and also makes award-winning videos from his tent with only his iPhone. Star Camel recently graduated from college, but you’d never know it. He also finds time to make guitars, as well as smoked and cured meat (I’m looking forward to the day he starts his charcuterie business). Pickle is an illustrator with a penchant for romance novels and a personality to match the quality and robustness of her trail food choices. Slay, a nurse, who hails from the Czech Republic, has immunity to pain and can make the best caramel sauce I’ve ever tasted. Finally, Squeezy has the best dance moves, strangest trail food combinations (Cheeto-salami burrito, anyone?), and a special knack for bringing a smile to anyone’s face. Big Spoon took portrait photos of each of us, save for himself. I’d trust any of these seven friends to save me from a bear, which I might need them to do in this next section (I’m serious—the bears from Tahoe to Truckee are the smartest and most habituated bears on the trail.).

In honor of us crossing the 1000-mile mark, Big Spoon put together this music video (yes, from his tent). Thank you, Vanessa Carlton for singing this song. I’m not sure how else we could have memorialized this moment, if not for the fourth most popular song of 2002.

So what did we actually do over the last eleven days besides make a music video? We hiked. A lot. We saw mountains, alpine lakes, waterfalls, and animals. And then some more mountains, alpine lakes, waterfalls, and animals. Eleven days ago seems like an eternity, having covered close to 200 miles. I’ll do my best to recount those miles, but it pretty much boils down to hiking, seeing mountains, lakes, waterfalls, and animals, and eating dehydrated and non-perishable food. And then doing it again. And again. But thankfully, those mountains, lakes, and waterfalls are quite beautiful and the animals are quite cute. In addition to all-encompassing beauty, cute animals (the marmots in particular), and fun (mostly of the type 2 variety), we’ve made it this far, so we keep on walking, despite the pain, despite the terrible food, and despite the unyielding mosquitoes, my mortal enemy. And, in case you were wondering, marmots are my new favorite animal, perhaps because they have the same coloring, body type, and waddle of my cat, Mari. The photo below is me, trying to mimic a marmot. What can I say, the normal poses at the tops of mountains get boring after 10,000 of them and removal from society does things to your brain.

On June 28, we left Mammoth. After a small detour past Devil’s Postpile and walking far enough to leave the day hikers far behind, we reached Ansel Adams Wilderness. It’s not a surprise someone decided to photograph this place. Ansel Adams probably did a better job at capturing the landscape than I, but it would probably be some form of cheating to insert his photographs here. Thankfully, it’s pretty hard to take a bad photograph given the subject, even though no photograph (at least no photograph of mine) could capture the grandeur of this part of the world.

On June 29, we walked into Yosemite National Park, after crossing Donohue Pass, at mile 929.6. The PCT runs through Yosemite until mile 997.1, at Dorothy Lake Pass, the northern most entrance to the park. It’s not surprising why these were the borders for Yosemite. The scenery simply changes, dramatically. Not that one side is more beautiful than the other. It’s just completely different. I don’t know enough about geology and earth science to know exactly why — probably something to do with volcanos, glaciers, and tectonic plates — but Yosemite is marked by sheer granite rock formations and gushing waterfalls. And at Dorothy Pass, that just ends. The colors of the mountains change. The signs of lava become more pronounced — it almost looks in certain places that the lava was bubbling up, but froze in place. Yosemite was by definition stunning, but the PCT does not go through the most popular places in the park (Nevada Falls, Half Dome, El Capitan, etc.). Rather, it goes through Tuolumne Meadows and then through the more remote sections of the park. While Tuolumne was flat and has a small store along the way, the rest of Yosemite may have been some of the most challenging hiking we have done so far. It was constant up and down steep ascents and descents. We would climb up 1,000-2,500 feet, only to go all the way back down, having to watch each step because of the steep granite rocks that someone called a trail. Once you reach the bottom, you do it all over again. And, while we all craved a rest, stopping allows the mosquitoes to swarm. And the Yosemite mosquitoes are a special breed. There are so many of them that they don’t fear being killed. They must know they are so numerous that their species will live on no matter how many die trying to eat a human. So our breaks became shorter and far less restful. Sorry, legs.

Tuolumne Meadows, surprisingly no bear sightings.

Pickle canceling her 10 o’clock conference call from the Tuolumne Meadows General Store parking lot.

Here are some other photos from Yosemite, just some more mountains, lakes, and waterfalls.

After exiting Yosemite, we made our way to Kennedy Meadows North (not to be confused with Kennedy Meadows South, at mile 700), which we hit on July 4. We ran through those last 10 miles on July 4 because we heard there would be trail magic awaiting us at the trailhead. And there was. I don’t even drink soda in my normal life, but an Orange Crush soda never tasted so good.

After resupplying at Kennedy Meadows North, we left to make our way to Lake Tahoe, the end of the Sierra section of the PCT. We all enjoyed this section. The hiking was not easy, but it got easier. We were hiking 20+ mile days. While tired, we were finishing before 7pm. We were taken aback by the change of scenery, the other-worldly rock formations, the abundance of wild flowers, and the respite from the mosquitoes. On July 8, we made it to South Lake Tahoe, a beautiful, but overpriced town, possibly due to a celebrity golf tournament (unfortunately, I had no run-ins with Justin Timberlake or Steph Curry).

Tomorrow, July 10, we start the Northern California section of the PCT. This is where will have to pick up the pace to 25+-mile days, to try to avoid the height of fire season and finish by sometime in September. I’m told 25-30 mile days is now possible given the easier terrain and our Sierra legs, but it still seems unfathomable to me.

That’s a wrap for miles 906.6-1090.8 of the PCT. I think my next break will be Quincy, California, at mile 1268. Hope to update then! ‘Til I get a rest… ❤️