The Canadian Family was just leaving as I woke up, but Amanda & Julian were still there. I got ready and started hiking a little before 0700. I knew that Pops, Jukebox and Thad were camped a little ways ahead, on the other side of the hill about 3 miles away. This morning my feet were (still) sore, but the pain has not gotten worse. I’ve been massaging my calves and Achilles heel, and am trying out different stretching exercises. The pain slowly diminishes throughout the day, and is usually worst during the mornings. Despite the pain, I was enjoying the morning hike, playing some banging tunes on my music player.
Within an hour or so, I’d caught up with the others, who were just finishing breaking up their camp. I waited for them and we booked it downhill. Along the way we were treated with some beautiful mountain views, and we could now clearly make out the bare rocky features of the Sierra massive above the tree-line. I am real excited to get out there!
In the valley we filled up our water bottles while greedy mosquito’s feasted on our bare legs. We’ve been warned that the bugs in the Sierras can be a real menace, but so far I’ve had no need for a bug-net or long pants. The occasional bite here and there I’ll manage for now, but once we’ll get surrounded by swarms of them I’ll have to change strategy. I did not bring any deet with me. Mainly because I loathe the smell of it, and also because I’ve heard that for deet to work, you need to use the real powerful stuff. This strongest factor of deet will melt through plastic (or your tent). I can only imagine all the beneficial health effects of applying such a chemical substance on your skin might have…
As we were crossing through the outer stretches of the Sierras, the PCT wound trough some gorgeous meadows, causing us to utter lots of ‘Oohs & Aaahs’ along the way.
We enjoyed the final stage of today’s section where the terrain was fairly flat and marveled at more beautiful meadows, one in particular with a wooden crossing. We took a small break to snap some pictures before we’d commence with the biggest climb of the day. Against my (hopeful) expectations, today again was real hot. Fortunately there was more shade than the last weeks, but still I was sweating and drinking a lot.
Around lunchtime I finally reached the summit, where (as we’d already learned from the interactive maps) I’d have cellphone service. Time to quickly catch up with some friends and to upload the last two days entries. The views to the East were pretty impressive, boasting colorful plains.
During lunch break, the days course (and possibly next few days too) took an interesting turn. I hadn’t really kept track of the mileage ahead, leading up to the base of Mt. Whitney, which many hikers summit as a side-trail. Based on Pops’ calculations, we’d be fine to do a couple of shorter days (15 or so miles), in order to summit Whitney and still have enough food until heading down off trail, into town for the next resupply. He however now figured out that his estimated daily mileage to get there was incorrect, and because Jukebox, Thad and Pops all had packages to pick up by Friday at the post-office in town Independence (closed on weekends), they had to up their daily mileage significantly. What would have been two leisurely days, had all of a sudden turned into two very big-mile days for them. They quickly got ready to leave our lunch-spot, because now they unexpectedly had a lot of miles left to hike today. I was still worried about the recovery of my foot, and I’d already hiked a few more miles this morning, so I was not excited to follow up on their new plan. Since I had no deadline to get into town (I just had to make sure I’d have enough food), I decided to keep a more relaxed pace the following days, and summit Mt. Whitney a day later. It’s a shame we won’t summit together, but I just didn’t feel like doing that extensive push, after already putting in extra effort to catch up after Kennedy Meadows. It might be a while before I’ll see them again, because they will be a day ahead of me now.
The rest of the day I hiked with a trail-family of hikers who’ve been hiking as a group for quite some time, all familiar faces and names, and moving at a similar average pace as us. Around 1800 we got our water for the night, and found a lovely and wide open area dotted with pine trees, loose and soft sand and many possible camp spaces. After a quick dinner I headed towards bed, ready to get a long nights sleep in and hopefully give my foot a little more recovery.
Let’s get started,
the faint and broken-hearted
Hold it up, I got something I cannot hide
The worst pain-killer,
The all-in filler, apart and departed,
Look through my eyes,
Sad, how far you ran
I’ll search this land
up to the clouds and back here
We must re-unite,
Like fire-flies
Like an atom-bomb at all hours
Boxing day – Blink 182
