PCT day 9 - mile 160 to mile 179

"It's always the second gate that suffers the lack of attention" Jarsh

"At first this gate seemed a little standoffish, but I approached it with tentative care and when I reached out it opened right up" Dangeroso

"Best gate I've opened since the last gate I opened" dannyrolf18

[Guthook app gate marker comments]

What a killer day it was, we ascended 1660 meters (5.443 feet) and descended 1120 metres (3.663 feet) throughout the day. The plans to have an easy day and get into Idlewild in the morning has been revised.

Since we hit high elevations we experienced quite a lot of snow patches along the way, luckily snowfall this year in the area is considered low so micro-spikes covering the shoes for better grip on the snow were not necessary, and that's a good news because I didn't have them. I'm planning to purchase it in Kennedy Meadows before we will start our way through Sierra Nevada mountains.

Majority of the trail today was leading through the burned area, massive amounts of forrest has been swallowed by wildfire, it was a very sad sight as some of the trees must have been few hundred years old. Their fallen carcasses were blocking the way so we were going over, under or around about seventy of them along the path.

We arrived at the Saddle Junction, our camping spot at around 6pm. The plan for tomorrow is to hike down 2.5 miles in the morning on Devils Slide Trail to reach the car park from where we should get a hitch or a bus to town.

Today has surely kicked my ass, thank you PCT.

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