Thursday, April 14th
Mile Start: 80
Mile End: 91
Days since shower: 5
Temps: 72/46
Morale: relaxed
“My mom told me that she tried to throw away her baby brother, so I gave it a shot as well” -Andre
5:30 sure is a great time to wake up and start walking! After slumbering in the nook on the side of the mountain, we wanted to wake up early and start walking before the sun took over. We were heading 12 miles to “the third gate cache.” This is the most notorious water cache (storage location) on the trail and is signified by the third gate you pass after Scissors Crossing.
The morning was chilly but fantastic for some brisk walking. Along our early morning stroll we saw the campsites of many of the people we’ve been walking with over the past week. Everyone was tucked in on the side of the mountain. I mentioned how cool it was that our community all slept separately, and what felt like completely alone, but we're all within a couple miles of each other tucked into the mountainside. The trail stayed around the same elevation and simply traced the outline of the mountain footprint.
After a couple hours hiking when the sun did come up and start to beat down, thin, wispy clouds on a pure blue backdrop gave us enough cover to keep the air brisk. The views were expansive but became a little monotonous over time so we threw on our favorite podcast to help us cover the ground. We pulled up to the third gate around noon and promptly plopped under a nice shade bush and made some lunch with a couple other hikers.
I helped one hiker, “ultra”, put his pack on. It had all kinds of things dangling off of it and weighed a verified 69 pounds. You should have seen my face when I picked it up!
[Lizzy was a tired bug, had to climb up... it was windy!, the 3rd gate!, relaxing in the shade, the water stockpile!, liz's downed pair of glasses]
We spent the rest of the day lounging and talking to other hikers as they passed through. We spent a good amount of time kibitzing with Trace, an equities trader turned entrepreneur and now a PCT hiker.
Our current motto is, "no rush,” so we are planning to keep our miles modest and the enjoyment high. Lots of people are pushing ahead or trying to squeeze a few extra miles in each day so that they can arrive at a town a day earlier, but we are nicely committed to not rushing, listening to our bodies (which are still relatively happy!), and enjoying the adventure!
Southern California has a wind advisory tonight with gusts up to 80 miles an hour. We’ve put rocks over all of our stakes and even staked out a couple lines that we’ve never used before. The tent is rocking and rolling, but so far so good! We could be in for an interesting night, but we should at least be dry!
Until tomorrow!
Typical views as we snaked around the mountain ridge.
