Miles hiked today: 16.5
Miles hiked total NOBO: 745.3
Miles hiked total SOBO: 224.7
In the morning, it is tough to wake up. I feel like this has been a trend for the past few days. We have been waking up at 5am most days, it is always cold, and we do not take weekends off. Even in town I tend to wake up with the sun. Once I am awake and have hiked a few miles to warm up, I usually feel a lot better. Today is no different – once I am hiking, the early wake up is worth it. We hike through some snow going downhill, but then hit a green meadow with just a few snow patches. However, there are lots of creeks to cross. At one creek, the boys take a long detour to keep their feet dry, but it is a warm day, so I decide to get my feet wet. After that whenever there is a creek crossing where the stones don’t look steady, I just splash through and wait for the boys on the other side. I would much rather get my feet wet on purpose than slip into the water off a stone. We head uphill, away from the meadow, then down through a beautiful dry stretch with wildflowers surrounding the trail, and snowy mountains ahead of us. We cross over with a few northbounders today who I recognise from around the time we were at Kennedy Meadows.
We reach the pit toilets at the Carson Pass trailhead, and then the visitor centre across the road. They welcome us and offer us free fizzy drinks and snacks! They also say us international hikers can send postcards home for $1.50 – and it’s only a dollar to send a postcard to the US. I send one to a friend back home. MVP spots that they have a bucket of loaner trekking poles. I ask the lady if I can take one and then mail it back when I am done with it. She says I don’t have to mail it back, I can just take one, and that they are poles left behind or donated by other hikers.
We stay a long time, but when we finally leave, we head uphill for a short way before we reach the boys’ personal 1000 mile mark! (Mine will still be in a short while because of the miles I skipped around South Lake Tahoe). We make a mile marker out of a stick, stones and pinecones, and I play that Vanessa Carlton song (you know the one…). We then reach the actual Carson Pass, which we were expecting to be sketchy because of a post someone put up on Reddit a while ago. But we are pleasantly surprised when it is a pretty easy traverse.
One of my favourite pictures I’ve taken on trail. I love the colours!
We stop for lunch after a snowy climb, where it is pretty windy but we manage to find a sort of sheltered spot. After I eat my food, I try to lie down for a nap, but ants keep biting my feet – I took my socks off as I was trying to dry them out from earlier. We continue on, following a ridge with beautiful views of lakes, then when we get to the peak we follow the advice of a northbounder who just told us to skip the snow traverse by taking a rocky scramble instead. However, this was a stupid idea because he had not actually done the scramble himself, so he didn’t know what he was talking about. We go scouting up a steep scramble, but when we get to the top, Odin decides to go back and walk along the snow. MVP and I push on, climbing rocks around this peak, and we make it through. After this, our efforts are rewarded by a beautifully easy stretch of trail – smooth, soft, sand, gently downhill, with gorgeous views.
Can you spot MVP scouting out the rocks?
We just have a few more snow patches to get over before we make it to a road, where we have been told by several other hikers that there is trail magic. Sure enough, a father and daughter duo call us over and ask if we’re hungry (of course the answer is yes, it’s always yes). Their trail names are Lotus and Ibex, they hiked the AT last year, and are now living out of their van for a while. They cook up some brown rice for us, which we add cheese and hot sauce to. There’s also fresh green leaf salad with balsamic vinaigrette, strawberries, and bread and butter. We stay for a while, chatting to Lotus and Ibex, and another group of hikers who arrive just after us. Then we say goodbye and hike a very short way from the road to find somewhere to camp. Before going to sleep, we all eat a second dinner, even after all that trail magic, because our food is heavy and therefore must be eaten.
Notes from the PCT 