Despite getting into camp late last night, I still got an early start. I think I’m finally getting faster at tearing down camp too. I should be, it’s been 58 days, most of them camping.
The trail today was either nice and dry or totally snowy. Elevation didn’t seem to matter much, but the way the slope faced did. Some slopes were totally snowless and others were totally covered. It does seem like as I keep going north the snow cover gets a little thinner. The creeks are definitely a lot smaller here.
Today I crossed a small paved road that the guidebook said wouldn’t have much traffic. When I got to the road I saw car after car after car. It turns out today was a huge bike race called the Death Ride and those were support/spectators.
There was a family there getting ready to go for a backpacking trip. They said they were going north on the PCT. I’m not sure they realized how much snow there still was and how hard it makes navigating. I’m sure they’ll have a good time though. I passed a beautiful small lake with lots of good campsites that was pretty close to the trailhead.
The dad offered to take a picture of me, since he figured (correctly) that I don’t have a lot of pictures of myself from this trip. I am getting so skinny!
I took a break at the road and some people helping with the bike race showed up with extra food from the aid stations. I’ve never seen so many Oreos at once in my whole life. I stuffed my face with them and then hit the trail.
I know I said the mountains were smaller, but they aren’t any less impressive. They’re completely different from the high sierra. They’re made of different rock and they have totally different shapes.
Despite all the trouble I had with snow today, I still did 27 miles. That bodes well for Northern California and Oregon since I shouldn’t have the navigation problems that slow me down so much. I have some catching up to do if I want to get back to a 20 mile per day average.
Update: The family I saw at the trailhead made it to my camp a few hours after I did. They made a campfire and we roasted marshmallows. They had a lot of questions about the trail and I really enjoyed answering them. It was a fun night.