My body needed to sleep after the emotion of the last days (see previous publication) and fortunately that is exactly what it obtained. I woke up feeling incredibly well rested. I arrived a little in the morning before heading to the post office to recover my package, I ate a blue Hawaii Bowl Acai that was exactly blue as it was announced, and decided to return to continue with Ainsley. I returned to the hotel room, sewed a great tear along the seam of my pants, organized my refueling, I talked to my mother. I lost my Swiss knife and shattered the room trying to find it (I was under my shoe) … Then I repeated the process with the room keys (they were in my repair kit). I swear that it is not usually so bad.
He doesn’t feel good with those clouds on the mountain. The weather forecast said it was supposed to be clarified in a few days, in time to do Mount Whitney, so I hope that is.
I said goodbye to Mission, Airbender, Amd Big Bill and then left the hotel room. I finished my last tasks, I grabbed a sandwich for dinner and met with Ainsley to get to the road. For such an uncomfortable hitch, it was surprisingly easy. It was not more than 2 minutes before a driver stopped, he asked where we went and agreed to take a trip even though it was an hour of round trip that he had not planned to do. His name was Chuck, a local photographer and we made a good conversation on the road.
It turned out that there was a considerable Pcter group already up with the same plan, camping the night at the beginning of the path and leaving in the morning. The group was Rambler, Sister Blister and Chowder who had previously met in Kennedy Meadows, David, Nick, Alex, Ainsley and me. It seemed that we would all be doing Whitney at the same time, so we tentatively planned it together in a few days.
From left to right: I, David, Nick, Ainsley, Sister Blister, Chowder and Alex. Not in the photo: Toppler, who had moved away.
We are having dinner and talked around the fire and started my new pair of socks! The break came easily, we had only two days before Mount Whitney.
I was surprised by the power level of the Bangel of Nick’s dinner. This is a man who knows how to eat.
Day 64: Heaven opens
The day began with a significant climb to the PCT. Once there, he continued to climb even more. This was especially difficult since my pack was absolutely full of food and very heavy. It would become lighter as the days passed, but at this time it was a maximum weight and I felt every ounce.
Marmots make me disproportionately happy.
I was walking towards Chickn Spring Lake and hoping to jump. I thought I would get there around noon and while I was reasonably sunny, it wouldn’t be so bad. Unfortunately, it wasn’t being. As the morning used dark clouds, it formed above and when I approached the lake, I could hear the distant thunder approaching. When I arrived, he began to overturize hail, there was no way to swim in a storm. I found a good rock to take refuge with a little under the tree line and fueled to wait for the storm. Thunder took an hour to pass and resumed hiking in the now slight hail.
He looked so pretty and wanted to immerse me, but the rumbing clouds made clear how poor an idea would have been.
The path continued uphill a little more, dancing along the edge of the trees line, and finally the hail stopped. He resumed again when I entered the Sequoia National Park, but then made the transition to a soft rain, the first true rain that I had experienced since I started the PCT. He felt wonderful, reminding me of the home and the many rain walks he had done to train for this.
The cloudy sky and the drizzle bathed the landscape with a soft and beautiful light.
However, it only rained for an hour and when it stopped, David, Nick, Alex and Ainsley updated. I walked with them a bit through the land covered with hail, although he quickly became muddy. The body hurt and the mood diminished after a fairly long day. Bean and dinner rice helped, but what really improved things was a hot chocolate pack.
The gang makes its way through the growing muddy land.
While preparing to sleep, I discovered that my lighthouse had broken, the plastic piece that held the lamp section in the shock cable head band that broke and disappeared somewhere. The moment was really bad since I needed this for the Ascent Mt Whitney! Fortunately, the lights still lit, so I thought I could probably manipulate something as a temporary solution.
Day 65: The shadow of the mountain
Today I only had a few miles to cover, so I let it be a lazy morning, sleeping until 7. While walking to grab my bear, can a stick placed inconveniently a great wound in one of my popes! I sewed it again but it was very annoying.
Just outside the camp, I found the first significant crosswater crossing. I was able to cross through a nearby fallen tree to keep my shoes dry, but I faced 2 more during the morning. The last shoe wet me, but I knew that the mountains were quite wet, so I was going to get used to this.
I swear that the tree was more stable than it seems.
In a big uphill I met a hiker named Bison, that it turned out that he had a knitting experience! We talked a little, but he was remarkably faster than me, so I let him go ahead, although not before accepting a slightly damaged knit sweater that was carrying out at our next meeting. The views were beautiful all day.
The landscape is really vast here.
I arrived at the camp but the Ranger was not present. Disappointed since I had been waiting to use its tools kit to help repair my lighthouse. Fortunately, I managed to make things work with my pocket knife, carving pieces of plastic to create holes through which the shock cable could pass.
Jank looked like and staggered a little as he walked, but he would have to do it.
I met my MT Whitney Ascent gang and review our plan for the next day. We were going to start walking at 12 am, a brutal game plan but necessary to avoid the storms of the afternoon and perhaps reach the summit in time for dawn. I was in bed at 4:30, trying to deceive my body to sleep early to sleep everything I could before the long climb tomorrow.
The boxes bathroom here had no walls, door or roof. Finally, an ultralight bath.
Path Statistics:
Catholes: 19
It stops to filter water: 72
Results: 11
Hitches: 13
Ceros: 12
Crys on the path: 7
Ampoules: 8
Gear repairs: 13
Miles jumped: 212.3
Significant water crosses: 3
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