Day 35 – Pacific Crest Hail?
Originally published on Mason Hikes the PCT 2017.
Mileage: 10 out of Kennedy Meadows
My day started with no alarm and no sun shining in my face, so I slept in until about 9AM. I got up, said bye to the trail angels we had hung out with last night, then started my town chores. I did my laundry, took a shower, charged everything, hydrated, etc and was generally having a good time hanging out on the porch. Over the course of the day I had three chili cheese dogs and a hamburger from the grill, which was delicious.
I spent a lot of time talking to different people I had met or hiked with about their plans for leaving and the Sierras and decided that going swimming in the river with Dom, Robin, Dodger, and Purple Savage was the best option. We started packing up our gear and getting ready to leave when all of a sudden, we see Ruben pulling up. We get to talking again, he tells us about his titanium arm from being shot with a shotgun as a cop, and then he decided to buy us a 12 pack of beer for the road. He’s been so generous and really just wants to help us on our journey, so we can’t reasonably refuse his offers. We decided to divide the beers amongst the people that would be drinking them, but somehow Robin convinces us that he’ll carry them all to the river. This puts his pack at around fifty pounds, which is insane considering how much he weighs. Once we’re packed and ready to leave, we say our goodbyes and hit the trail.
Storm’s a brewin’
As soon as we get back to trail, it starts to drizzle. Then it starts to rain. Then it starts to thunder. Then it starts to hail. Toto, we’re not in the desert anymore…
We continued walking toward shelter because the rain and hail were getting pretty intense, so we sat at a campground with Drippy for a little while until it stopped. Once it cleared up, we were back on for swimming and hiked to the river. At one point, I climbed above the trail to go to the bathroom and in the middle of nowhere under some rocks, I found my first geocache box! Nothing too interesting inside, but just finding one was cool!
We went swimming, we drank some beers (some of them shotgunned with an ice axe), then we hung out until all of our stuff was dry from the storm.
Then we hiked the remainder of the miles for the day through some awesome alpine valleys and climbed on since rocks before calling it a night at the top of the hill.
Slowly but surely, we’re on our way to the mountains!