Day 89 - campsite near PCT mile 1260.5 to Quincy

Today we had a short day into town. Shortly after heading out we crossed a nice spring at mile 1261.30. It wasn't in Halfmile's app, so that was a nice surprise.

Good spring at mile 1261.30

While filling out our water, Big Boots caught up to us. Apparently he was half a day behind us since Sierra City. But we were going into Quincy, and zeroing tomorrow, while he was heading on. So he will be ahead now. Until next time our paths cross.

Getting closer to Buck's Summit road

We made a quick stop at a water source 2 miles before the end of our day, and then headed out to finish it off. I passed a couple of south bound hikers, and the woman told me we have some "neat trail magic" waiting for us up ahead. That really made me hike faster.
When we finally got to the road, we met Kermit and Jeannie Bug. They were doing great and much needed trail magic. I got some sweetened ice tea, and hike made brownies, and we sat there for a while with Forty Five and Whiskey before catching a ride down to town.
The first car that passed by stopped for us, which is always nice. Our driver was a forest service fire fighter, of the "hot shots" team, which goes in on forest fires all over the country, hikes in to the fire's edge, and clear the trees around it so it won't spread. Sounds like a very hard and intense job.
Down in town, we stopped at the Subway and had subs, and later went over to compare prices at the two motels. We got a good deal in the Spanish Creek Model, for two nights. The room is really good - it has a full fridge, microwave, oven with stove. A really big room. With two queen beds.
We went over to the post office to get our bounce box and my new smartphone battery. The battery will arrive tomorrow.
Back at the room, I basically did nothing but shower, while Idan helped the motel's owner with his printer. It took him a while, and about three round trips to a store to get different ink cartridges. At least we got free laundry out of it.
Later we got a ride from the owner to the Safeway's. We got our resupplies, and called him for a ride back, like he said. But he couldn't come. We waited for the bus that never came, but suddenly his wife came over and picked us up anyway. They are very nice, indeed.

My hummus plate. The Thai wrap wasn't as photogenic.

Later, we went out for dinner at Pangaea. I had hummus for a starter, which came with artichoke and balsamic oil, and some Thai wrap for entree. That was really filling. Idan really enjoyed his burger, even though they didn't have any fries.

Day 86 - Sierra City to campsite near PCT mile 1216

I worried all through the night about the climb out of Sierra City. In the morning, we got our stuff together, and went to get breakfast at the Red Moose Cafe, behind which we have tented last night. Almost everyone inside was a hiker, and we got a table, and both had the eggs breakfast with no meat. It took a long time for the scrambled eggs and two toasts to appear...

View from the climb up from Sierra City

In the mean time, we met Big Boots, who have just come into town. He planned to spend a few hours there, and head out today. Maybe he will catch us some day soon. We also saw Zen Dawg, just when we started trying to hitch back to the trail. He might also head out today.
It took us a while, but we finally got a ride up, and started our hike at about 9:00. Not too bad to start that early when coming out of town.
The trail immediately began to climb, and it kept at it for the next 8 miles. Half of it was above trees, and under scorching sun. It was no fun. Even after the big first climb of the day, we still had plenty of climbing to do today. A total of 4400 feet of climb. Not fun indeed.
We saw some day hikers and bikers at around Packer Lake Saddle, but nobody offered us any sodas. We pushed through anyway.

A big deer on the trail, right by where we camped for the night

At the end of the day, I reached the sign to the water source, and couldn't see Idan. I went ahead a bit, and tried calling him. Then I remembered he was low on water, so he was probably over at the spring. Coming back, I was relieved to see his backpack near the trail, where I haven't looked before. I did find him at the nice piped spring on the side trail, and we filled up some water there. I might go over there tomorrow morning to get a bit more before heading on.

Day 71 - Curry Village to McCabe Creek

Today we said our farewells from Yair. It was hard for me to think about him flying back home, with me having 2.5 more months. But I had a great time with him on the trail, and I hope he enjoyed it as well.
He gave us both a good photo of the three of us, and wrote something nice on the back of it. He also gave me a letter I'm not supposed to read until he takes off, so I didn't open it yet.
We got on the hiker bus down at Yosemite Valley, meeting Big Boots and Ido and Maya at the station. The ride took about 2.5 hours, with the driver talking all the time, and telling stories about Yosemite and it's history. Some of it was interesting, but it was a bit too much.

Tuolumne Meadows store, this bird was eyeing our food

When we finally got up to the Tuolumne store, there were even more hikers there than last time, three days ago. A trail Angel, I'm sorry I didn't catch her name, kept bringing beers, sodas, muffins, and at some point she brought over stuff for everyone to have a sandwich lunch, with cold cuts and vegetables and cheese.

Llamas?

I also remembered to get the package from TarpTent - Henry Shires sent me a pair of replacement zipper sliders. Thanks! I will replace them in Bridgeport.
We met Raven, who was planning to head out soon, after the burger, and also had fun chatting with Free Refills, who came to do the PCT from Berlin, after almost completing it in '07, and Soft Egg from Seattle, who's parents are now in Tel Aviv.
We also bumped into Dafna, who was just sitting around the table there and noticed we are from Israel. She came to Yosemite to climb rocks. I hope she keeps safe and has fun.
After waiting a bit for the lunch menu to kick in, we got burgers. Again. It wasn't anything special. Again. But it was s nice lunch. We finally headed out to actually hike at around 12:00.

Some pack horses on the trail

The trail was pretty easy, most of the day. We still saw plenty of day and weekend hikers around, but we also met some new PCT hikers.
Stopping at Glen Aulin we met Fraser, Joey and another hiker I don't recall his trail name. We set there for a while and had a snack.

A cascade on the Tuolumne River, just before Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp

Further on, the trail started climbing some. We kept leap frogging them, Raven, and then also another hiker. When I passed him, he saw the AT patch on my pack, and we started talking. His name is Dr. John, and he hiked the AT at '04.
At around 17:30 we finally got to McCabe Creek, where we planned to stop for the day. It was a long day, at just under 14 miles, but we did start hiking late. Tomorrow would be hard as well.
We found a good camp site here, and set up our tents. Before we started cooking dinner, Dr. John came along, and joined or campsite, so we invited him to eat with us.
It was very interesting to chat with him. He just finished a 5 month bicycle tour around the US, and then went and did half the AT again. When he finished the PCT he plans to get to  Katahdin, the AT northern terminus, and hike south until he finished both the PCT and the AT in the same year. Impressive.
He also has a PhD in geology, and he worked at some place between Norway and the northern pole. Amazing.
A bit later three other hikers came to stop at our campsite. We were very surprised to see that two of them, Mowgli and Drift Wood, started the PCT with us, and we haven't seem them since Warner Springs. That's about 800 miles back. The third one is called Doc.
All in all it was a long day, and it was strange hiking without Yair. I hope this next section won't be too hard on us, until we get to Tahoe. Here comes the big mileage days!

Day 68 - Lyell Fork ford to Cathedral Lake

A somewhat different day for us on the PCT.
The night was chilly, and in the morning we had a bit of frost on our bear canisters. The tents and the rest of our great were not affected. We waited a bit for the sun to reach us, and then started our hike down towards Tuolumne campground.

Some deer in Lyell Canyon

The Lyell River

The hike was a bit steep at first, but soon enough we reached the valley floor and had a long walk on completely flat terrain. We met a lot of JMT and day hikers, the closer we got to the campground.
We finally reached the store at 12:30. Idan was already there, just finishing getting us into the permit lottery to climb Half Dome in two days. I hope we win.
The PCT does not go down into Yosemite valley, but the JMT, which Yair is hiking, does. Besides, we are so close, we might as well hike down and see the sights.

And this is the Tuolumne Meadows camp store

At the store we met a load of other PCT hikers. Big Boots was there. He just got his Half Dome permit for tomorrow, so he was heading down the valley today. We also met Globe Trotter (who did the Israel trail two years ago) and Salsa, Lucky Winner and Chris (who are hiking a big PCT section, and are not going down to Yosemite), and several others.

This bird kept trying to get to our food, while sitting near the store

We were supposed to get a resupply box we sent ourselves, at the store/P.O.. The guy manning the Post Office kept telling us to come around later, because he was busy "sorting", or something like that. After almost two hours of waiting, we finally got to ask for our box. It wasn't there - it got to the P.O. down in the valley. We were bummed, but we got our resupply from the store. So no worries.
While waiting there, we did eat some nice food from the snack bar. I got the standard veggie burger, and also a veggie chili. So we didn't waste all of our time waiting.
We finally headed out at about 16:30, to start hiking down to Yosemite. We made a stop at the visitor center to figure out if we'd have room in some lodge, when we get down there in two days. It doesn't seem so.
Our plan is to climb Clouds Rest tomorrow, and then camp just below Half Dome for the night, and do it on Friday. So today we just hiked out of Tuolumne about 4 more miles, and camped near Cathedral Lake.

Day 64 - cs892b to Mammoth Lakes

I think we had the coldest night yet. With my new sleeping pad, I didn't suffer that much under my quilt, but my face were exposed and cold during the night. I kept turning to sleep on my side, so I'd have a bit more quilt to cover my head as well. It was cold, but we survived.
In the morning it was still cold, and we had some water bottles and bags freeze on us. I had some extra oatmeal packets with me, so we've made hot oatmeal from all the oatmeal and shared it. That was very nice.
We finally left the campsite just after we got some sun, and started our long hike down. Idan wanted to get to the Red's Meadow store at 15:00 at the latest. That's the place where we were going to catch the bus down into town. It wasn't a hard schedule, for 14 miles, but we weren't in a hurry. So Idan just went ahead into town as fast as he could, like he likes to do. He got there at 12:30. Fast.
Right after leaving camp we met Dan, who was camping just a bit further on. Apparently we've met him some 700 miles back, just before Ziggy and The Bear. I recall meeting him there by the spigot, and that he got picked up by a friend at the highway.
Yair and I walked most of the day together. I put on some music on my phone's speaker, and we also listened to a Louis C. K. recorded show on the way. I hope it didn't bother any southbounders that passed us.
The trail was almost all down hill and easy. We got some nice views to the valley on our left, but near the end of the day there was a big section full of dead and broken trees.

This is what a burnt and broken forest look like

We stopped on the way several times, finishing up all our snacks just because we had them. Some hikers passed us during the day, including Mozi and Emu, Twice and Handbrake. We met them all down at the store.
We finally did get to the store at 14:50. Right according to plan. We got on the first bus, to the ski resort, and had a very nice bus driver. He told me where I can find a coupon for 2 for 1 to the famous pizza place we were planning on, and told me about the fire, 21 years ago, that burned those trees we saw. 3 years ago they also had a crazy wind storm (gusts up to 180mph and constant wind of about 120mph, for 12 hours) that uprooted many trees as well. Scary.
At the resort we got on the free bus down to town, and there we got on the (free, again) bus over to the motel.
We found Idan arguing at the office, getting us a room with a fridge, for the same price, instead of the one we originally got. Then he also got the price down somehow. Amazing.
We got those pizza coupons for dinner, and headed out over there with Twice, Sockpot and Big Boots. They zeroed here today and are leaving tomorrow. We also met Dan on the way, and he joined us.
We got 6 large pizzas for a table of 7, so nobody left hungry. We even got one slice left over from our pizzas for breakfast tomorrow. Others also left with plenty of leftovers.
Passing by the outfitter, I got a card of a local seamstress who might be able to help me fix my tent's zippers. Tomorrow is Sunday, but I will email her asking her if she can have a look, or maybe on Monday morning.

Day 51 - pct mile 753 to Crabtree Meadows

Last night, Yair analyzed my cold nights problem, suggesting that maybe it's because I have a short sleeping pad, and a quilt. The bit where my quilt gets off the pad is open underneath, and the heat escapes from inside.

View towards Mt. Guyot and Siberian Pass Creek

I used his rain jacket at night, to put it over the gap, and I think it did help a little. I am now considering getting a short z-rest pad to close that gap, or replacing my short pad for a regular length one. I'll see in Lone Pine.

Idan and Yair crossing Rock Creek

Today was an easy day. It felt like it was mostly down, even though it was about as much uphill. There were many water sources, and we stopped to rest at two of them. We also got a good look towards Forrester Pass, the highest point on the pct, which we will cross in two days.

Crossing Whitney Creek, right before taking the side trail up to Whiteney

We got to Crabtree Meadows at around 16:30. It's very nice and relaxed here. We washed our feet in icy cold water, and cleaned our socks.

View from Lower Crabtree Meadows

At about 18:00, Happy Pants, Big Boots, Sock Pot and Leapfrog came down from Whitney. They said it wasn't too cold up there, and that there are no major snow sections.
They only climbed up and down today, but we plan on hiking 5 miles more after we get down, so we will get up at 5:00 tomorrow, and hope to make a good time climbing to the peak.

Day 47 - Kennedy Meadows to Kennedy Meadows campground

Today was almost a zero day.
We woke up to a chilly morning, and Yair took off to Ridgecrest to return his rental car. We were hoping he'd have good luck hitching back.

Bambi and Rudolph relaxing at the "Internet Cafe"

We finally got our laundry done, and had a shower, after the water shortage ended. So we were relatively clean. I then started the task of arranging my food for the next 7 hiking days. It's a long stretch, and we also have to fit about 5 days of food inside our Bear canisters. I managed to get all of my food inside my canister, for the entire 7 days. I just don't eat that much. I hope I won't get too hungry on the trail.
Yair got back just before 13:00, and we decided officially that we'd head out in the evening, just to hike the short, 2.4 miles trail to the campground.
We spent the rest of the time organizing, sending boxes to Lone Pine, eating good meals I got from home (thanks!) and laying around.
At about 18:00 we left the general store, and headed out. We stopped to weigh our heavy packs at the Internet Cafe. Idan's was 40 pounds, Yair's was 35, and mine was just 30. I hope I didn't forget anything.

Entering Bear country

The trail to the campground was easy, and Yair got his first taste of the pct. Once there, we found a nice spot not far from the water spigot, set up camp and made dinner.
A short while later Big Boots, Sock Pot and Twice came by, and made a camp fire in their campsite. We joined in for a while, and it was very nice. Penguin also showed up and camped nearby.
All in all, a very relaxing and easy day.

Days 42-43 - zeroing in Lake Isabella

After the great trail magic dinner up at Walker Pass campground, we also had pancake breakfast for dinner. I failed miserably, and only had one. What can I say? I'm not a breakfast person.
There was another hiker that came in last night, after doing a 40 mile day. And two more that strolled in this morning after doing over 30 yesterday. They were all heading out, and not going into town.
We went out to the highway, and got a hitch in about 10 minutes. The lady who picked us up, Helen, said she just started noticing hikers on this road this year. She leaves in Ridgecrest, and drives over to Lake Isabella every Friday. Two weeks ago she picked up a thru-Hiker from Scotland, and first learned on the whole pct. She was very interested in our hike, and asked a lot of questions about it.
When we got down to Lake Isabella, she said she'd like to take us over to the next town of Kernville, to show us the nice Park over there. So she drove 10 extra miles over there, and we saw the nice Park and the Kern river over there.
Afterwards she got us back to the Lake Isabella motel, and we waited for Big Boots, Rudolph and Bambi. We all shared a two queen size bed room, and Big Boots got to sleep on the floor (and pay less).
We did our laundry while waiting for the room to be ready, and later had a shower. It feels so much nicer to be clean in towns.
Idan and I went over to eat something for lunch. I had a burrito. It was all right, but wasn't made of the freshest ingredients. Then we went to Vons and got supplies for the next, 2.5 days, section to Kennedy Meadows. We also got some town food for tomorrow breakfast and lunch.
Many other hikers arrived during the day, filling up the motel. At the evening Writer came in with a new shipment of hikers, including Penguin. Writer has started a thru-hike on April, and wanted to write about the trail and the hikers. She switched to section hiking, to concentrate more on her writing. She posts her articles on http://howdoyouhikethepct.com
I went for dinner with Big Boots, Sock Pot, Young Oak and Writer, at a nearby Mexican place (a real restaurant, not the fast food from lunch). Writer kept asking us about what motivates us, and what makes us hike the trail. It was an interesting conversation. She got our contact details so she will be able to ask more questions later, for her project.
On our second zero we pretty much did nothing except move three rooms down. And a sand twister took Idan's hat flying across the road, when we went out for lunch.

Day 41 - campsite at pct mile 625 to Walker Pass campground

It's seems to be the only photo I've got from that day, after I lost some I took with my phone. Damn.

Another long day.
We woke up to a tent filled with condensation, and had to take our time drying it out in the morning.
The first 5 miles of the trail breezed by, until we got to the Bird Spring road cache, which was indeed full. We also had trail magic in the firm of two picnic chairs and a cooler filled with Gatorade.
While we were sitting there, a truck came along with Forest, Sasquatch and Sharpa the dog. They work for the PCTA, and came around to survey the trail around the road, 5 miles in each direction. They also gave me a beer.
We went further, over a 1500 feet climb, the big climb of the day. It took a while (I think I counted 12 switchbacks), but we got to the top (and even had some cell signal up there).
Just as we were getting our lunch, before Yellow Jacket spring, it started raining a bit. But it ended before Idan managed to set up his poncho-tarp up.
The plan was to hike about 20 miles or so, and leave a few for tomorrow, to get into Walker Pass. But we saw we had plenty of time to make it all the way. So we hiked up some smaller climbs, until we got to the final, 5 miles descent into the pass.
I put on my music and raced down the trail. I met Big Boots just as he was going to find a camping spot before the pass, fearing that the campground at the pass itself would cost money. I guess I convinced him to come along, since he showed up down here several minutes after I did.
Down at the campground we got out second trail magic of the day. Yogi, Kate and Coppertone were there, giving sodas and starting to make dinner.
We got pasta in tomato sauce, and bread and salad. And ice cream from Coppertone for dessert. It was a great ending for a long day.

Day 40 - Robin Bird spring to road crossing on pct mile 625

Last night was even colder than the night before, but I still managed to sleep OK. But this morning was really cold outside.
We took our time, as usual, and left camp last. I hiked most of the day with my wind shirt on, putting on my jacket as soon as we made a stop to eat something. It seemed like it will start raining almost all day long, except that it didn't really, for must of it.

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The hike itself was pretty nice, most of the day, except for a small section of burnt forest.
Our initial plan was to hike an alternate down towards Willow Spring, which was supposedly the last water source for 30 miles, until we reach Lake Isabella. But last night we heard that there is a water cache about 5 miles before Willow Spring, so we figured we'd fill up there and try to hike several miles further today.
When we finally reached the road crossing with the cache, we met Steve, who is supporting his wife Steady, and doing trail magic along the way. We got sodas, snacks and tangerines, and also filled up about 2 liters of water each. The cache itself was empty, and this wouldn't get us all the way to Lake Isabella, but Steve said there is another cache 15 miles further which should be full by tomorrow.
We went further, hoping to get closer to the cache for tomorrow, and hoping we are right to rely on it. Then we met a section southbounder, called GoalTech, who took our photos for his blog, and told us there is a lot of water at the cache. So that put our minds at ease.
We met Big Boots and Steady just at the second intersection with the spring alternate. They were planning to do 5 more miles, but Steady mentioned there's a good camping spot 1.6 miles ahead.
As we were heading out, the rain finally started, and I got pretty wet through my wind shirt. I knew it won't last long, but we agreed we'd tent up at that 1.6 spot until the rain stops, and then figure out what to do.
When we got there, the rain pretty much stopped. I set up my tent, looking for a rock to help me stake in the stakes, when Big Boots and Steady came around, and said they'd go 2 more anyway.
Idan wanted to keep going (it was just over 15:00), and finally he convinced me to take down my tent and head on.

Our camp spot for the night

The next 2 miles were pretty easy, and we got here with Big Boots and set our tents just in time. Rudolph and Bambi came in shortly after. They were planning to get to the next cache, but the weather convinced them to stay, and they also managed to get into their tents just as the rain returned.
We had our dinner inside my roomy tent, while the rain was falling outside. But now it has cleared up, and we even got enough sun to dry my tent. It might rain again during the night, but tomorrow should be warmer.

Day 39 - Golden Oaks spring to Robin Bird spring

Last night wasn't too cold, and I slept with just my base layer. There was no wind, which was also nice.

Crossing another burnt forest

It was supposed to be a somewhat medium day, at just under 20 miles. But it was cold all day, with some colder winds at some areas, which basically meant we didn't stop much, and when we did, we didn't rest for too long.
We made our lunch stop at the campsite where Geordi camped at last night. He was just getting up and having breakfast at 11:00. And he'll probably do the same trick tonight - get to the water, eat and fill up, and head out for some cold night hiking. I understand night hiking to avoid the heat, but there's not much heat around...
We were debating whether we should stop so early today, when it was around 14:30, and only 2.3 miles to go. But doing more today didn't make much sense. It would have made tomorrow easier, but tomorrow isn't too hard anyway.
When we got here, we met Big Boots, who was trying to decide if he should stay or go. He stayed eventually. We were setting up our tents, when the hail started coming. It wasn't raining at all - just small hail being dumped on us. So we are now in our tents, trying to keep warm.
The hail just stopped, so I'll head out to fill up some water bottles now.