Day 11 – Up and Down and Up Again
Originally published on Mason Hikes the PCT 2017.
Mileage: 25 to begin the climb to Big Bear Lake
The PCT is a beautiful trail, but it can be frustrating sometimes. There are many times that you know which direction you should be going but the trail planners had a different idea in mind. Oftentimes, that idea is “Hey, instead of going around this, let’s go up and over so that it’s both more difficult vertically AND a lot longer!” I’m not the biggest fan of this idea. The amount of times that we’ve gone up just to come right back down or gone down just to come right back up is staggering, but I guess that’s what you sign up for when you do the Pacific CREST Trail. I suppose it gives you better views of everything and you get a killer leg workout, so it’s not all bad. 👍🏼
In related news, I’ve both ascended and descended over 37,000 feet in the past 11 days, so that’s fun! 🎈🎉🏆
Today was a pretty standard hiking day with lots of ups and downs. I started by hiking down Fuller Ridge, hiked across the desert, then started climbing up again. In the middle, I ran into a hillbilly under a highway overpass that gave me a beer, some moonshine, and some good conversation. We sat there and ate some sandwiches for a while until I decided to get back to hiking. The generosity (and diversity) of trail angels will never cease to amaze me.
I then started climbing for a long while, past a wind farm and into a beautiful river valley. Here you can find an oasis by the name of Whitewater Preserve which is an amazing spot to come and relax or even stay the night. I came to make dinner, but it was so nice that I almost stayed the night.
A few more hours of hiking brought me to a campsite right before the brutal climb (~7000 feet) which I seem to have gifted myself for my birthday tomorrow. Yay! Happy birthday, Future Mason! 🎂🎁