Day: 220

Direction: Southbound

Trail location: 1516

Cumulative miles hiked 2019/2021: 2235

Cumulative miles hiked 2021: 218

Miles hiked today: 15.5

Elevation: 7259

High/low temp humidity: 76/54/27

Spinning on the turntable: Greta Van Fleet: The Battle at Garden’s Gate

I took a few days off in Truckee. Three days to be exact. I ate a lot. Oh how I ate!

Today I’m back on the trail and hiking “up”.

This is the kind of trail that just slays my feet. If I had to do it all over again, I think I’d go with boots with a hard sole. The open air/mesh shoe has been fantastic for blisters, but oh how the rocks hurt my dogs!

I went to one hiking goods store in Truckee but they don’t carry a size 14 in anything. The second store had the exact kind of shoes that I already wear, so I opted for new Superfeet insoles. It’s a slightly better fit than the last pair, so hopefully it will help my feet a tiny bit.

There’s much less smoke in the air today, for which I am extremely grateful. Looking at the path ahead we figured out that I’ll be leaving the trail in about 60 miles to bounce around a fire to the south. The PCT is shut for this section. It was bound to happen at some point, but I’m bummed that I’m going to end up skipping about 60 miles of the trail. (I’ll live though.) I’ll reenter at Kennedy Meadow North and hike into the High Sierra mountains.

I bumped into a hiker today, Shady, that we met on the trail in 2019. It was fun to see a familiar face! Shady is trying to button up all her missed miles as well.

The trail today was pretty quiet. I think I passed five or six other hikers. I think many (most?) NBTH are skipping from Echo Lake to Old Station, about 235 miles total, due to fire closures.