PCT: Day 108

Shasta Trinity National Forest

Miles today: 18.6

Trail miles sum: 864.6

Trail location: 1539.7

Elevation: 6860

Spinning on the turntable: Audio book: The other side of history: Daily life in the ancient world

Shasta Trinity National Forest

Sunrise over Mt Shasta

Nice view to start the day huh? That’s Mt. Shasta peeking over the rim. (“Shasta, Shasta, Shasta!” say all the other mountains.)

Today promised less elevation gain, for which I’m grateful.

Guthook Screenshot

Guthook Screenshot

The snow was waiting for me not more than a mile or two from camp.

Shasta Trinity National Forest

Snow at the top of the trail

Luckily the trail swung to the left of the snow! The snow is covering up a trail to a water spring but I had planned ahead for that (Guthook) and carried extra water yesterday.

Alpine Lake on the PCT

Alpine lake on the PCT

It was great to hike above the alpine lakes and imagine taking a cool dip in them. Seeing the snow on the side of the lakes was a reminder that the water is most likely very, very cold.

Shasta Trinity National Forest

Ah Mt Shasta

Ah, Shasta again. I’ve not tired of her splendid magnificence yet. Frankly, I don’t think I will grow weary of her. She reminds me of Mt. Rainer in Washington State.

Toad on the PCT

Toad on the trail

I was more than a little surprised to see this tiny fellow on the high mountain trail this morning. I wonder how he got here?

Flowers of the PCT

Flowers on the PCT

More fun flowers!

Flowers of the PCT

Red and white bulb flowers

As usual I have no idea about the name of this plant.

I continued climbing throughout the morning and reached the apex of about 7500 feet around noon. The snow was waiting for me!

Snowy PCT

Always snow at the top

It was actually quite minor, perhaps 150 feet in total that I needed to transverse. Easy peasy!

Snowy PCT

Snowy trail

I managed to gently navigate my way through the snow and back onto the trail pretty quickly.

I stopped to fill up on water at a spring.

Spring filled water stop PCT

Spring-filled water stop

I was incredibly happy that the water was super cold! That’s so nice. Cold water is the bomb.

Flowers of the PCT

Red and yellow flower

Noelle hiked up to meet me and we hiked back to the van together. She took a little tumble and stopped to wash the dust and grime off her knees.

Washing in a creek along the PCT

Washing in the creek

Tomorrow looks like a good day for slack packing. I’ll strip my pack down to the bare essentials for a day hike and then hike 20 miles and meet up with Noelle again in the evening.

2 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    What a beautiful day with great pics. Keep on trekking! LMND

    Reply
    • mcgarveysan

      It was beautiful! Thanks!

      Reply

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