Day 15 – On the road again…
Originally published on Mason Hikes the PCT 2017.
Mileage: 19
Today was a good day. The sun was shining, the scenery was beautiful, and my body felt rejuvenated after a day and a half off from hiking.
I got a slightly later start than I would have liked (11 am), but it wasn’t too hot and the terrain was pretty mellow for much of the day. I started my hike with a girl named Aurora, but we eventually separated and I quickly ran into some people I had met in town the day before. Valerie, Jason, and Pencil were sitting in the shade and offered me a beer, and who am I to turn down free calories? I joined them for a while to chat and snack and then I ended up hiking with them and Aurora for much of the afternoon.
The scenery around the lake was beautiful and I ran into multiple day hikers who were curious about the trail. I really love talking to these type of people because I’m well-versed in the answers to their questions and I like seeing what they think about everything we do out here. Mostly I just enjoy trying to convince people that hiking 2,600 miles through the wilderness is NOT crazy and is a wonderful adventure that anyone can do.
While talking to two such hikers, Aurora caught up and we ended up taking some scenic lake photos with a guy named Mike from Buffalo. After the photos, we walked together for a few miles and talked about the general state of the world before splitting up for dinner at the most scenic point of the day. Pictures cannot possibly do it justice, but trust me: this view was incredible.
We also met another through hiker named Mr. Clean that had been out here with his two dogs Twerk and McLovin (trail names) for seven weeks so far. It was super interesting hearing about how different the experience is for him and his much harder he has it because he needs to make sure the dogs are safe. For instance, coming down Fuller Ridge, I carried three liters of water for the ~14 mile trek. He started with 11 liters and made it 5 miles before that was gone. He ended up sitting in the shade waiting for nightfall and eventually started digging for water so that his pups could drink. He seemed like he was doing a good job of keeping them happy and accepted their pace as his own, which was nice to see.
After talking with Mr. Clean, I hiked down into the valley and met some guys named Blaze and Frankie who were starting their section hike today. We cooked some dinner, talked for a while about my experience on the trail so far, and then went our separate ways to prepare for the day ahead.