Day 51: Monday, June 24

In the Motel 6 in Mammoth Lakes (PCT mi 906.7), walked 11.1 miles today

No snow last night, but the weather still very grey and cold all morning. Got hiking by 6:30 and, aside from the first mile or so of uphill, the 11 miles to Red's Meadow were a victory lap. Easy stress-free descent the whole way, did it all in one push and arrived at 10 sharp. Gavin and Skip were there, each on their way back out. Wouldn't have been enthused about hiking myself, given the weather. Sprinkling slightly at Red's Meadow, but after I caught the bus that brought me over to Mammoth Mtn. ski resort, it was positively pissing rain. Transferred to the free town shuttle from the ski resort and it was still raining, cold and very windy all the way down in town. I'd guess no more than 50 degrees ... not typical summer conditions for Mammoth.

Texted Matan and found his room at the Motel 6, Gangster and a dude named Bandleader were also present. Already a tight fit, an absolutely rancid-smelling fit, but a cheap fit, then I ran into Bow at the post office and he decided to make it 5 for the night, then it became a /very/ tight fit. Spent the afternoon running errands and wandering around Mammoth in the rain ... had two great meals, a log-sized burrito for lunch at Roberto's (that name made the Israelis and I start singing Lady Gaga, to Bow's bemusement) and an entire 14" pizza for dinner at Zpizza. Matan wouldn't eat lunch with us because, in this city of a bajillion restaurants, he was dead set on eating McDonald's--American McDonald's, which he's only had once, as opposed to Israeli McDonald's. I'm imagining the "Give me back my gefilte fish" jingle all over Israeli TV.

Talked to Kristin in the evening on the phone, declared that I could take no more dehydrated beans in my maildrops ... It's over between them and me. Don't know what the plan is for tomorrow, because I still have errands to do ... Bought a mosquito head net today but I still also want long pants for the immediate hiking future, so I've got to find a pair at a reasonable price. Been reading Tribhu's blog (awalkofsurrender.blogspot.com, he's way ahead, despite being hit by a car here in Mammoth and having to lay up for many days) and he speaks gravely of the mosquitos north of here. Got to resolve the sock situation, too, they're holey enough now to be giving me my first blisters of the entire hike but there is no way to get store credit for my warrantied replacements at the outfitter, I have to go through Darn Tough themselves and get them sent to me farther up the road, and in the meantime find interim functioning socks.

Going to bed in a very crowded, smelly room. Bandleader went into some other hikers' room and said it smelled like beer and weed, but ours just smells like farts. I'm proud of the guys.

Day 50: Sunday, June 23

Tenting near a raging stream (895.9), walked 22.8 miles today

Woke up and had the morning to myself, including a descent into the spectacular Vermillion Valley (no good pictures, trees always partially obscured the view) until getting to the trail junction to Vermillion Valley Resort at about 10. Saw a couple of PCTers there straggling out from the morning ferry ride, none of whom I'd met before, all of whom I liked right away: Two Bad Dogs, who are an older couple; 30-somethings named Headstand and One Pint, whose relationship was indeterminate; and Muk-Muk from Australia, with whom I hiked a long time today (I neglected to tell her of the torrid correspondence I used to have with an entirely different Muk-Muks ...). Climbed and descended Silver Pass chatting with her about this and that. She ended a food break about 5 minutes before me in the afternoon and I didn't see her again for a few hours until I got to this campsite, at which she was cooking dinner and then planning to hike on into the night to Reds Meadow because she temporarily is without a tent and the weather is sub-optimal for cowboy camping tonight. Thought about pushing on myself, especially once The Messenger caught up and said he had the same Reds Meadow plan, but then I remembered that 35-mile days just aren't necessary now that I'm out of the desert. It's the Sierra, I don't have to do that shit anymore.

It was brisk and grey the entire day, in marked contrast to just about every other day on the PCT so far. Liked it for two reasons, one being that I don't really enjoy monotonous weather patterns, even if they're pleasant (it's worse if they're unpleasant. See: the Pacific Northwest), and so this was a nice change. Other perk was that it mostly kept the mosquitos away. The two lakes from this afternoon, Virginia and Purple Lakes, had a totally different character about them than I'm sure they would have if it had been just another 75-degree sunny day. After Purple Lake walking a ridge there was very brief, very light precipitation that could have been anything--somewhere between snow and rain. The whole day I was looking at the clouds thinking they looked like snow clouds, but that the temperature was just too warm for snow, but now I'm not so sure ... It's quite nippy and windy at this site ... Snow tonight? June 23? I've seen a video of it snowing on hikers at Sonora Pass on July 1, so it's possible. We'll see in the morning.

Day 49: Saturday, June 22

Tenting at my own special tentsite (PCT mi 873.1), walked 21.4 miles today

Got walking around 7:45 and the first five miles were so easy they shouldn't even count--the gentlest of downhills. Walked through real forest for a piece until getting to the side trail for Muir Trail Ranch. This is a ranch that super rich Californians apparently visit and/or rent out in the summer, but the location is such that JMTers and some PCTers send resupply boxes there, even though they charge a modest $55 holding fee. I reread the description of the place in the Yogi book and it said they let hikers charge electronics and that sounded good to me, so I headed on down. They were very friendly to me, I charged my phone, ate some lunch (my own), scored a Mountain House Chili Mac from the hiker box, and read the register to learn that the Israelis had just left there this morning. Also got some water and mingled with the staff and one of the dogs, Jax. A good-vibes type of place ... I had gotten the impression from things I read before the trip that there was mutual enmity between hikers and the MTR people, but I experienced just the opposite.

Left there and climbed straight uphill back to the PCT, then almost straight uphill a few more miles to Selden Pass. Easy pass by the standards established so far, no snow, nice and sunny and green, but at the top there were terrible mosquitos for the first real time so far ... I swear the first one that buzzed by my ear said, "We're heeeere" in its dreadful mosquito-y drone because it was that level of bug ambience or worse for the rest of the day, and presumably it will stay like this for a few hundred miles. Definitely buying a head net in Mammoth, assuming people haven't already wiped out all the outfitters' head net supplies.

Mosquitos, or musquetors if I'm channeling my Meriwether Lewis journal-writing skills, change everything ... Walked much longer without a break than I would've liked and only took one 3.5 miles later, after the Bear Creek ford (knee-deep) when there was a spot inexplicably devoid of bugs. They returned after that, I thought about just walking until I caught up to the Israelis, wherever they are, but that could have easily been 10 miles past here and I was tired. For the second day in a row I walked alone the entire time, only today I didn't even run into anyone else from the PCT however briefly, just the odd weekender coming the other way. One of them was playing a ukulele as he walked, very competently I might add. I have no idea how this wave-and-trough thing works, because three days ago I couldn't have sneezed without hitting a PCTer, and now I'm so roneryy, a rittle ronery.

Calculated yesterday on one of my breaks that if I want to reach Canada by September 20, I have to average 19.8 mpd from here on out, or 18 mpd to finish by October 1. I immediately wondered if that was a good thing to know or not, but as soon as I saw it on the calculator screen, I couldn't un-know it. I think when people say the PCT is a huge mental challenge, they mean something like this ... At some point everyone realizes that the amount of work they have to do to finish by winter is going to require a massive sustained effort. 20 mpd is certainly achievable, but now every time I sit down for a break or want to be a lazy ass in town, I'm going to think about that number, and that may wear on me after awhile. I'm sure it will for everyone who really intends to finish, once they run the numbers for themselves. I just hope I can balance an embrace of the present with the background knowledge that I've always got to be moving.

Day 48: Friday, June 21

Tenting at some campsite (852.2), walked 24.7 miles today

Got out by 7 this morning ... the valley floor I was walking up was in shadow for at least another hour and a half, resulting in a lot of magical moments with the local deer population. Slow ascent paralleling the Middle Fork of the Kings River, making me wonder if I was in the namesake Kings Canyon. Climbed with my shirt off for awhile along with a guy named Stumbling Beef, as a way of easing into Hike Naked Day. Ran into the first fully naked hikers coming the other way around 10, which gave me the impetus to try it for myself. I had missed this very important holiday on the AT because I was off trail with my family, so I'd never actually tried backpacking in the buff ... I have to say it felt very nice but I was too concerned the whole time about sunburn, especially as I was getting above treeline at that point, so I only spent a mile or so lettin' it all hang out, and I didn't even have the good fortune to run into any JMTers or weekenders during that time.

The climb up to Muir Pass above treeline was stupidly fun and beautiful. There was about 5x as much snow as anywhere else on the trail, but not enough to be troublesome. Just fun. The lakes near the top were beautiful (as most of them tend to be), and it was unlike the other passes, which always make you finish by switchbacking straight up some crazy steep rock wall ... this one just wound around some lakes and slopes for awhile and then finally I crested a snowfield and there was the pass and the hut. Stripped down for that last part too, because you just HAVE to do any high Sierra passes au naturale if you happen to be there on June 21, but there was no one around, just two JMT dudes in the hut, and it seemed weird to run in on them in the nude so I put my clothes back on. Hung out in the hut for an hour or so, during which time about 6 more PCTers showed up, the last two (won't name names) very much naked.

Struck out on my own from the pass around 2, was feeling good and really only took one break all afternoon, at Evolution Lake. The landscape, as it has been coming down from every pass so far, was jaw-dropping, but the area around Evolution and Wanda Lakes felt extra special for some reason today. Eventually made it down into what seems by comparison a lush, low-elevation forest but is actually still at 9,000 feet. Evolution Creek, which in some wet years comes up to people's midsections when they have to cross it, came up ALMOST TO THE MIDDLE OF MY SHIN at 7 pm. Death-defying. Had planned on camping there at the creek, but the mozzies were brutal so I moved on another mile or so to this spot, your garden-variety wooded Sierra campsite with a nice little brook babbling by. No one else around. Been tenting the last few nights because of light mosquito traffic, and to reduce the condensation on my down sleeping bag ... same deal tonight.

Day 47: Thursday, June 20

Tenting near the confluence of Palisade Creek and Middle Fork Kings River (827.5), walked 18.3 miles today

Was surprisingly warm all last night even though my water bottles all froze, woke up to a baking hot morning by Sierra standards, meaning the sun was on my tent and I couldn't see my breath and my hands didn't go numb at any point. On the road by 8:30. Legs felt fine, but my mind was not fit for pushing miles today ... took indulgent, aimless breaks wherever I felt like it. Was about 2 trail miles short of Mather Pass in the midst of one such break in the late morning when I heard what sounded like a huge rockfall for about 45 seconds somewhere off in the distance. It was coming from an area that I didn't think was Mather Pass, but once I was walking again I realized that the trail was taking us straight toward that area. On the way up I half expected to see part of the trail buried and having to make sure no hikers were involved, but that wasn't the case, the trail was pretty clear ... Later I ran into some people who had seen it happen and they said boulders really were bouncing over the trail. That could've been me in the way if I hadn't been so lazy all morning. Can't tell if having been there would have been more or less exciting than witnessing yesterday's misadventure with the donkeys on Glen Pass.

Back side of Mather had a few sketchy snow passages, during which I even borrowed someone's trekking pole, then after that it was a long, slow descent for about 9 miles. Palisade Lakes after a few miles were definitely stunning, but about a half-mile after that the PCT gods cranked the scenery up to 11. Absolutely mind-blowing views of the Palisade Creek cascade/gorge leading down into a very deep valley with very steep slopes all around it. There are some pictures, including the one with me in it, and they do an okay job with the general idea but they don't do the scale justice at all. It was a YOOGE view from the top.

After getting down into that valley itself there actually wasn't a ton to look at, as it was all forested. Got to the very bottom of the descent, started back up again and after about a tenth of a mile of going uphill said the hell with this I'm stopping for the night. Ash, from Texas, with whom I'd hiked on and off during the day, helped confirm my decision by pointing out that our site overlooks not one, not two, but three different river valleys. Two other girls, Skedaddle and Beer Float, walked by later and likewise abandoned their climbing plans to camp here. Three ladies plus Scrub ... They must all be curious to see what I'm working with for Hike Naked Day tomorrow :o

Day 43: Sunday, June 16

(Just saw that day 43 failed to post. But it did happen! See below:)

At the Independence Courthouse Motel (PCT mi 788.5), walked 26.3?? miles today

Got out of camp at 7:30, well before the others this morning; when Bow caught up to me later he said the Israelis were still chatting in Hebrew over their coffee when he left. So Mediterranean. In one example of previous years' advice not being applicable in the current one, I rock-hopped dry across Tyndall Creek, which someone in the Yogi book had said was the worst ford on the whole PCT in 2010. Got above treeline just after this and picked out Forester Pass off in the distance, recognized it from a hundred YouTube slideshows and documentaries viewed before the trip. But even getting to within a mile of it, I had absolutely no idea where the trail went or how it got up there. Found out only by walking up ... like with Whitney yesterday, Bow and I were in constant confusion about how the trail could have ever been constructed. It was a surprisingly calm and easy ascent. At the top we found Guino emitting content-less strings of words with rarely more than a 10-second pause, which was enough to drive me and many others down the other side faster than we'd planned. The views from the top were as stunning as they come, and I got good pictures, but there was to be none of this silent-and-awed-contemplation hokum.

Started racing a bit too much down the other side as we realized that we weren't going to make it out over Kearsarge Pass before most of the day-hikers packed up their cars at the Onion Valley trailhead and headed off without us. I'll probably always regret not being able to stop and enjoy this afternoon too much. Exited the PCT at the Bullfrog Lakes trail junction around 4:15, leaving us just the 8 more miles to our destination. We hustled over that, too, again taking good pictures but not really stopping to let the scenery soak in. Iceaxe (2009) in Yogi's guide had said that the hike over Kearsarge was "easy miles on a well-graded trail." Bow and I both agreed that Iceaxe (2009) should be drawn and quartered, as the trail up from the west was steeper than anything on Forester or Whitney.

After slogging over the pass and making our way down toward the Owens Valley past a series of stair-stepping alpine lakes, we got to the trailhead, found no day-hikers driving back to Independence, called up a motel, got a quote of $40 for their shuttle, said hell no, made no headway with anyone at the nearby campground, and were ready to give up when we saw one last lone day-hiker coming down the trail. He wasn't planning on driving down but he didn't have anything else to do, since he was waiting for friends to show up at the campground later tonight, so he drove 30 extra minutes each way just to take us into town. We got to Independence and Bow and I said we'd buy him all the sandwiches and Sun Chips he wanted at Subway, but all he ordered was one of the cheap $5 footlongs and refused gas money. We never even got his name. People, man.

Checked into the Courthouse Motel, which is very friendly, then farted around on our phones for a few hours reveling in the first 3G service for two weeks. Navigated the impenetrable local bus website and finally discerned that we should be able to get to Bishop tomorrow in the morning, spend all day enjoying the pleasures of a real town, and catch a return bus to Independence in the evening. So that's the plan. There is no way I'm hiking for the next 36 hours at least; I've gone way too fast over way too difficult trail lately and it's time to rest.

Day 46: Wednesday, June 19

Tenting near Lake Marjorie (PCT mi 809.2), walked 21.7 miles today

Woke up at 6:30 to frigid weather outside my cozy zone, which made me close my eyes again til about 7:30. Left at 8:15, then had to climb 400 feet and walk a mile before even getting back on the PCT ... got to stop doing that shit. First up was Glen Pass, which people tend to say is the steepest and sketchiest on the PCT/JMT ... Got to the top with little trouble and immediately noticed a donkey standing in the snow by itself about 50 yards off. Sensing that this might be one of Pascal's donkeys (see Day 8), I scanned around and saw the other one lying in the boulder field a hundred feet or so below the snow, with Pascal yelling at her and trying to yank her up. Someone told me she had fallen on the ice, which, as advertised in the Glen Pass portion of Yogi's guidebook, was covering a big part of the north-face trail and hadn't really softened much at that point, 9:30 a.m. because it seemed to be about 35 degrees at the pass still. Watched Pascal wrestle with Daisy for awhile, she slipped on the boulders going uphill repeatedly, one time she rolled back down the slope, like on her back, and I figured I was watching this poor donkey die or at least break her leg coming to a stop on the boulders. Somehow she survived that bit and made it back almost up to the trail before slipping and getting stuck again ... By that point someone had gone over to Jimmy to keep him calm and two other dudes and I decided to hike down and try to help Pascal and Daisy, which we did by fire-brigading all Daisy's gear uphill and then helping Pascal lead her up finally to the trail. As I left to keep hiking there were about 5 hikers plus Pascal trying to coax/pull Jimmy down off the ice/snow onto the trail, but Jimmy appeared unwilling to move. Someone told me later that they'd finally gotten him to the clear part of the trail. I didn't hear anything about how they fared the rest of the way down, because there were other patches of snow and ice for the next half-mile or so ... not much trouble for a human to negotiate, but probably hard for two traumatized donkeys.

After the excitement of the Glen Pass donkey rescue, the rest of the day seemed dull by comparison. Hiked mostly alone, including the part where the PCT pulled a PCT decided to send me uphill for 8 miles over 3.5 hours and 3,500 feet of elevation to Pinchot Pass. Not much snow on that one at all, just some chilly breeze at about 7pm on top. Got down a few miles on the other side before descrying an ideal tent site sheltered by trees and near water, but a fair distance from the lake. Camping near lakes is always ass-cold ... tonight will probably be ass-cold anyway because I'm at about 11k feet. Can't really feel my hands much as I'm typing this.

Day 45: Tuesday, June 18

Tenting at Charlotte Lake (PCT mi 788.9), walked 8.7?? miles today

Woke up this morning after sleeping about 10 hours, hit up Jenny's again, then went to the Eastern California Museum for a few hours. Really neat place, they had quite a bit about the Owens Valley water rapeage of the early 20th century, which I remember ChrisP used to decry even back in high school although I didn't know much of the story til now. Also a display on the Manzanar Japanese internment camp, one on a local badass named Norman Clyde from the 1920s who has a first ascent of damn near everything in the Sierra, a photograph from Death Valley in the '20s of a Ghost Riders in the Sky situation where an actual mule team 50 miles away was reflected in a mirage in the clouds above the Panamint mountain range, and all kinds of odds and ends about the settlement of the California and Nevada desert. I could see the rest of my adult life flashing before my eyes, me idly wandering for days on end through small-town museums all over the most remote parts of the West ... hope Kristin doesn't mind.

Jenny's for lunch one last time, except now it was filled, incongruously for this town, with suits from the nearby county courthouse on their lunch break ... Independence, which is basically a speed bump of a town, is for some reason the Inyo County seat. (Side note: I've had to fight off the urge to say things like "I'm Inyo national forest, hikin yo trailz", for past few weeks.) Stuck my thumb out and within 5 minutes got a ride in a van that already had 4 other hikers in it, plus two boys from Tennessee ... The dad driving was about to drop off his son and a friend, both age 14, for a JMT thru-hike. All us hikers told them they'll be the coolest 14-year-olds ever by the time they finish. It was a long 25 minutes pretzeled on the floor of the van with 2 other people but eventually we got up to the trailhead around 4. There were a ton of PCTers there, some of them flaming morons, so I started up the trail sooner rather than later. Immediately was in a bad mood from the obscene weight of my pack and the fact that it was trail I'd already done and it didn't even count for the PCT. The wind literally blowing me off the trail near the top of the pass oddly did nothing to cheer me up. Knew I wasn't going to have the energy or the fight to get over Glen Pass, supposedly the steepest in the whole Sierra, 2 miles after reentry to the PCT, plus that wind scared me a bit, so I turned right away for this place, Charlotte Lake, a mile off the PCT in the other direction. It has a bear locker, which I need because my food doesn't even come close to fitting in my canister right now and this is a legendarily bear-problematic area, according to Jill back in Eugene.

No other PCters here, because it's a mile off-trail, just two older Muenchner men who are out for a few days in the Sierra. I told them I'd been to their city and loved it, but I neglected to practice my small arsenal of German phrases on them ("Wo ist die Getraenkeshop?" "Ich moechte ein liter Weissbier, bitte!"). Going to try catching up to Bow and the Israelis tomorrow. I know for a fact that they all bought way too much food to be making miles anytime soon.

Day 44: Monday, June 17

At the Independence Courthouse Motel (PCT mi 788.5), a zero day

Woke up and moseyed to Jenny's Cafe, which came highly recommended from a hiker we'd run into the day before, and it did not disappoint, best huevos rancheros of my life (sorry Kristin, sorry lady whose house I stayed at in Virginia on the AT). Shortly afterward caught the bus north to Bishop along with Bow and the Israelis, the latter having just hitched into town that morning and made it to the bus stop 30 seconds ahead of the bus. Bishop was bumpin ... I got off the bus thinking that it had the right outdoorsy, Sierra-y feel for someone like Galen Rowell, then a few hours later I saw one of his galleries on the main street and it turns out he'd lived (and died) there. Did errands in the morning, including the laundry, the library, and a visit to two different outfitters to see if I could get store credit to replace my holey socks ... Couldn't, I have to wait til Mammoth for that.

Round about lunchtime, went to the quasi-legendary, tourist-attraction-in-and-of-itself Schat's Bakery, sorry Bakkerai or some shit ... I was overwhelmed and it was too crowded/hectic but I did get quality gelato out of it. The Holy Smoke BBQ across the street was better, I had some nice fatty smoky pulled pork and real sweet tea for lunch there. Talked on the phone with Kristin, rounded out my latest email to Yogi, drank soda, sat in the park in the shade, found the terminus of U.S. Route 6 and sent pictures of it to Chris Parmenter in Cape Cod, did some supplemental food shopping at Vons, charged my phone from an outlet behind an ATM machine, caught the return bus to Independence around 6:30. The Subway guys had somehow gotten slower in the past 24 hours, but Bow and I eventually managed to get dinner there. Got chided by the hotel owner for leaving our AC on during the day, which is some heavy bullshit because we're paying handsomely for this room. Drank some beer, reorganized my approximately 20lb of food for the next week, then called it a day. Back out tomorrow, hopefully.

Day 42: Saturday, June 15

Tenting at Wallace Creek (PCT mi 770.2), walked 19.3 miles today

Woke up pretty unenthused about climbing Whitney, although later I realized it was just low enthusiasm for getting out of my sleeping bag. Serious freeze last night, water bottle a solid block of ice, so it couldn't have been above freezing at 6:30 when I woke up. Got up after some moaning, did the morning chores, for breakfast tore into my new jar of Skippy which was somehow not a frozen brick, then put a few warm layers, some snacks, my phone and sunglasses and two water bottles in my pack. Stashed all the other stuff either in the bear can or in Bow's tent, then set off for Whitney.

Won't dwell on descriptions of the scenery, that's what all the pictures are for. Suffice it to say it was spectacular beyond belief. Got to Guitar Lake easy, failed to gather water there when I should have, which made for a thirsty descent a few hours later. After Guitar Lake the climbing was brutal for a few miles, switchbacking straight up an almost vertical rock wall, it only eased up a bit about 1.5 miles below the summit. Everywhere on the way up the trail itself was an incomprehensible feat of engineering ... I have no idea how one goes about building rock steps and retaining walls on near-vertical slopes at 13,000 feet. Bow and I could not figure out how most of the stuff we were looking at was ever constructed. It wasn't a cop-out like the AMC does in the Whites in New Hampshire, where they build some cairns and say, "Here, scramble straight over these boulders to the next one"; there was actually a well-hewn trail all the way to the top.

Traffic picked up dramatically when we got to the junction with the trail that comes up from the east side at Whitney Portal. Nothing boosts the ego like striding breezily by day-hikers who are struggling with literally every step. The last mile-ish was pretty easy, got to the summit at 11:45 or so. Felt better than I ever have on top of a high-elevation peak ... had none of the headaches, sleepiness, or impaired cognitive function that I've had on top of Shasta or Steens or South Sister. Bow, the 3 Israelis, a few other PCTers I didn't recognize, and then about 20 day-hikers were all at the summit. The PCTers were having way more fun than the others, most of whom were in some attitude of exhaustion. I would've been too if I'd tried that without a 750-mile warmup. Got a lot of good pictures and spent over an hour up there just enjoying the scene. Found a spot to sit in that was sheltered from the breeze but had enough sun that I could stay warm in just my shorts, hiking shirt and windbreaker.

The descent is all a blur because I was mostly out of water and didn't stop for any breaks except to snap pictures. Was in disbelief the whole way down that I'd ever managed to get up all that a few hours earlier. Met some PCT people who were on the way up for the sunset and then camping on the summit, which seemed questionable to me given the temperatures. Got back to Crabtree Meadow around 5 not actually feeling that great, with a headache coming on. Made a decision with the others to get a few more PCT miles done to this spot, Wallace Creek, to try to set ourselves up to get out over Kearsarge Pass and into Independence tomorrow evening. Walked the last bit with The Messenger, the third Israeli guy ... He talked about graduating from high school in Israel last year and then immediately coming to the States and hitchhiking literally all over the country for a year, fascinating stuff. Finally got to this campsite a little before dark and found it already populated by mosquitos, so I put up my tent and retired early without much socializing. A great day overall, even by the haughty standards of the PCT, but I'm exhausted and tomorrow, with Forester Pass in the morning, will probably finish me off and there will be some zeroing on Monday. I've averaged 21 miles a day, including breaks, since the Saufleys' and that's a bit high. Time to chill out in the one part of the trail that practically mandates it.

Day 41: Friday, June 14

Cowboy camping at Crabtree Meadow ranger station (PCT mi 766.3), walked 24.5 miles today

Got going at 7:30 this morning and had a really easy first 8 miles or so. After 4 miles, got to Poison Meadow Spring, the very last water source on the water report. There was much rejoicing. After 8 miles, got to Chicken Spring Lake, aka Chickenhead Lake, which is a spectacular alpine affair. Did some laundry in it and washed my legs and face, Gavin went for a 5-second long swim that probably significantly decreased his chances of successful reproduction later on in life. I was having pretty exceptional gas by that time (beans for dinner last night) and it was so good that an innocent female passerby sitting about 50 yards away started cracking up. A proud moment. Hung out at the lake for a long time, left only because we were supposed to be 16 miles past there for tonight and it was getting to be the afternoon.

A little climbing here, a little descending there, a lot of flat walking everywhere else and finally Bow, Gavin and I popped out at a stellar overlook of Crabtree Meadows and the Whitney massif around 6:30pm. Before that all we had really seen was a view of it that made it look like a big featureless sandhill. Pretty gnar, as they say in these parts.

Got to the first Crabtree Meadows shortly thereafter, then climbed to the upper meadow. There are a lot of tents around, like in the two dozen range, but a lot of them appear to be unoccupied. The first day and a half out of Kennedy Meadows, we'd been seeing a metric ass ton of hikers--because of the KM bottleneck, because we've caught up to the Kickoff people, and because everyone who skipped half the actual trail in the desert is back out for the Sierra--but we've outrun a lot of them, I think, and keep catching up to new faces. Still camping with Matan (possibly the Hebrew Hammer), Gangster, Bow (possibly BowNOBO), and Gavin. Wicked cold already and it's barely twilight, I have on pretty much all my layers. Expecting a freeze. Hoping I'll have motivation to leave cozy land and go climb Whitney in the morning.