Daily Miles: 15.4
Total Miles: 171.4
Though the miles don't show it, this was my toughest day so far on the trail. I woke up early but was pretty lethargic getting out of camp. Basically, I had to decend a few thousand feet today before climbing back up 3500 feet to cross Pinchot Pass. Once again, I was going to be attacking a pass at the wrong time of day.
The first couple miles flew by pretty fast heading down the hill once I was able to get out of camp. A little ways in I looked up to my left and saw what looked like a large fox sniffing around about 100 feet from me. The closer I got, I realized it wasn't a fox but in fact a cotote. I was able to snap a picture but because of the distance it wasn't too great.
He went his own way and I kept on hiking down the hill until I got to my first ford of the year. I hadn't really been thinking about the upcoming fords, so when I got to the first one I was torn on taking off my boots or not. The last time I was on the PCT I had tried to take off my boots at first for each ford, and it wound up wasting me so much time taking them off and putting them back on for each ford, that eventually I just said screw it and walked across each river crossing and let my feet and shoes dry over the following hours.
This year I have decided in the interest of keeping my feet healthy I will walk across with socks on but no shoes, then switch socks after each crossing while letting the wet ones dry on my pack as I hike. The first ford wasn't that tough, but as I was putting my socks back on I heard a rustling to my left and looked over to see coyote #2 who had plodded down the hill. No pictures this time as he was about 10 feet away from me and I felt a little more nervous than with the previous one. I finally raised my voice a bit and banged my trekking poles together and away he went down the trail. Never seen a coyote before. Now I have seen 2 seperate ones just hours apart.
Hiking on I made it down to Woods Creek and the first real bridge I have seen in the Sierras. Apparently if the river is fast enough they will indeed put a bridge over it.
It was actually pretty rickety and reminded me of the bridge from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. After a short break it was time to start plugging away at the uphill. It was long and steady and took me all day with a loaded pack, but I made it to the top of Pinchot Pass around 6PM. There were about 6 of us headed up the pass late and we kept flip flopping positions passing each other as one would take a break.
I didn't stay long at the pass because I needed to find a spot to camp and wanted to be out of the wind and in a little lower elevations. I found a nice spot right off the trail north of Lake Marjorie where the wind died out and there was a stream nearby for water. Next pass up tomorrow is Mather Pass which I have read is not the biggest but can be the most "fear inducing" of all the passes.
Patch
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