Day 67 – Ohhhhh, we’re halfway there!
Originally published on Mason Hikes the PCT 2017.
Mileage: 35 to right outside Chester (mile 1328)
I woke up this morning knowing that we had some brutal climbing ahead of us today, so I wasn’t in any particular hurry to get started. At 6AM, I sat up and saw multiple people packing up their packs. I was still in my sleeping bag. At 6:15, the first few people started to leave. I was sitting in my tent eating. At 6:30, the last of our group left. I was sitting in my tent eating. As much as I love hiking, sometimes you just need to ease into the day, so I took my time and got out of camp shortly before 7.
The walk up was fairly gradual and went through a lot more fields than the south side had, so there were some pleasant views to be had.
As expected, there was a lot of elevation to be gained, but the miles went faster than I thought they would. That was mostly a problem with my calculations since I thought we still had 10 miles of uphill instead of only 8, so I was happily surprised with the top of the climb about 40 minutes earlier than expected.
It’s oveerrrrrr
Soon after the top, we made it to a major milestone of the PCT: mile 1299.9! I don’t know who decided to mark this point, but I love it!
Worst thumbs up I’ve ever seen 👍🏼
As we continued on, we kept getting glimpses of what I think was Mt. Lassen off in the distance. If so, we’re hiking right towards it, so we’ll see in the coming days.
Lassen? Is that you?
On my way to the final water source before my campsite, I ran into ANOTHER hiker I knew from my early days on trail: Styles. I have run into her at Mike’s Place, at Kennedy Meadows, on top of Kearsarge Pass, and then on top of Kearsarge again. I have no idea how she got up here, but Dodger and Savage said she was leaving Kearsarge the last time we saw her because the Sierras were too dangerous. Seeing three people from the earlier days of my hike in the last three days just goes to show you, as much as I run, I simply cannot hide from my past. No matter how fast I go, they will find me. 😱
Since Taylor and the Swiss are staying in Chester tomorrow night, I hiked on alone so that I could get into town early in the morning, get my chores done, and get out. I had a nice hill to climb before the day was done, so I gained enough elevation to get back to the snow! You better believe I walked through it even though it was completely unnecessary. I missed it! ☃️❤️
Ohhhh yeah!
I got to the top of the mountain and was really tempted to take a side trail just because of its name, but I pushed on.
Shortly after Butt Mountain, I made it to the PCT “halfway” point! It was an incredibly plain looking post with barely legible inscriptions of the mileage on the sides. It was a far more symbolic victory than something you take a picture of to show the folks back home.
I did anyway
After singing some Bon Jovi to make sure that the whole forest knew that “Oohhhh, we’re halfway there, oohhhhOHHH, I still haven’t seen a bear,” I walked a few more miles to get to my creekside campsite by the time it got dark. I greeted my camper neighbor quickly and then proceeded to immediately faceplant on some rocks right in front of him, which was probably both hilarious and horrifying for him. Once we had established that it was just my dignity that was bruised (and my hand that was bleeding), I set up camp and called it a night.
I really can’t wait to mail all of my unnecessary things away once I get to Chester. Those UL guys really inspired me to get rid of everything, so I might send home my whole backpack and live off of Clif Bars that I keep in my pockets. I’m only 50/50 on that idea, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens tomorrow.
I’m also still considering the long flat section I’ll be hiking in a few days… should I? We’ll see how I feel in a few days.