May 26, 2019
Another partially-weather induced zero day!
According to last year’s PCT survey, the average hiker took 17 “zero” days. So far we have taken 10, 5 of which were taken unplanned for weather. (Apparently the most “0” days are usually taken in the desert section, so we cool!) Also, according to some random, possibly made-up fact that we all keep quoting, the average PCT thru-hiker sees about 5 days of rain on trail, usually all up in Washington. We have had 13 so far…in the first 560 miles of the “desert.” 🏜️
Today’s weather called for a “wintry mix”- basically cold rain where we were, with snow at elevations only slightly higher. No thank you.
I also had some random shin pain yesterday during the last 2 miles of our hike, so it was probably for the best that we took another day off- one day here and there for aches and pains sure beats having to go off-trail for a bigger injury!We enjoyed kind of sleeping in- we forgot to shut the curtains last night and I woke up at 6am with the daylight! But after closing the curtains asap I enjoyed the darkness in the comforts of a bed for a few hours longer!
We ravaged the free hotel breakfast (no picture because we KILLED it!!)
It took us forever to get moving, but we managed to leave our hotel to walk .9 miles each way to the grocery store to resupply
We enjoyed sushi with Arc and Silver
I took a nap while the others enjoyed a local brewery
And then we met a bunch of friends for pizza!!
And I accidentally extended our hotel room for another night- we decided to slackpack 8 miles tomorrow and enjoy one more night in a hotel, hopefully with the rest of our trail fam who should be here tomorrow!!What’s slackpacking? Basically the art of turning a piece of a backpacking trip/thru-hike into a day hike! We will get a ride to mile 566 and hike back towards where we left off yesterday at mile 558- this will allow us to catch up with our trail fam, it buys us time for some snow to melt in the Sierras, AND it cuts down on the otherwise 25 mile water carry! No water until mile 583! Woof.
Ali Walks Far 