PCT Day 3!

15.4 PCT miles + 1.6 off trail miles

Daily total: 17 miles

Running total: 43.7miles

3143 lowest elevation noted

6028 highest elevation noted

Started the day just before 0830. Swift climb, but stunning views and beautiful wild flowers. We had planned to stop for water at Cibbets Flats Campground @ mile 32.6, but when we got there we found that it was ridiculously far off trail, so we decided to continue on to the next reliable water @ mile 36.9. When we got THERE, we found a ridiculously steep path down to the creek, so we decided to continue on yet again to mile 37.8, where it looked like the trail actually crossed the creek- I was really hoping there wasn’t a bridge & that the creek actually had water- we had enough for now, but if it got warmer, the next few miles were gonna suck!

Thankfully the trail did in fact cross the creek, so we sat down, ate lunch, then filtered some water. Matt wanted to stick around a little longer, but I was anxious to bust out the last 500 foot climb to Laguna, so I started up alone. The scenery was GORGEOUS, but for as beautiful as it was, the terrain was terrible. So rocky- I was afraid I’d either twist my ankle or step on a snake!

Matthew quickly caught up and we hiked the last 2 miles together to a “Y” intersection, where we turned left off of the trail towards the post office and store. It was a little before 4 and I had heard that the store closes at 4, so I sprint-walked the .8 miles, only to find it was open until 5. Oops! But that gave us time to assess what food we had left and we realized that we didn’t need to resupply afterall. Instead we bought the essentials: cheese for Matt and a pickle for me. And some chips and cheese dip. And one of those “travel” size bowls of raisin bran crunch. And dry milk. I’m so psyched for breakfast!

On our way back we ran into Flower (/Melli/Melli in the world), Ellie, and Caleb- three of the people we camped with the night before. They invited us to join their campsite, along with an Austrian named Martin, so we went back and set up camp while they hit up the store. When they returned, we all sat around snacking, preparing dinner (cold soaking for matt and i, cooking for the rest of them- Ellie and Caleb started preparing their food back in January, dehydrating meat and veggies!!) I made couscous with freeze dried peas and tomatoes, but it was so gross I ended up throwing it out & snacking on random stuff instead. It started to get super cold and windy, so by 1930 matt and i were bundled up in our tent. We heard rumors of rain and wind for the next day…

Happiness is: Walking into what you think will be a smelly pit toilet only to find that it has flushing toilets, toilet paper, AND a sink!! (Just no soap…glad I packed some!)