PCT day 52 - mile 1057 to mile 1082

"As of 1st of June there is water here and snow free space for many tents depending on how friendly you are" Ultra.

The day didn't worked out quite as planned but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing for once.

We woke up early and attempted to chase Ravi and Sunshine who ended up ahead of us yesterday due to myself taking the wrong path and putting me and Owen an hour behind. Problem with the group I'm hiking with at the moment is that our pace and routines are so similar that it's extremely difficult to catch up in this sort of situations.

Especially when the people you chase have what I would call a "town day gravity pull". Tomorrow we will reach Lake Tahoe South, me and Owen ended up 8 miles away from it which is perfect because we can be by the Highway by 9am and get a hitch to town arriving there when everything is opened. Now Ravi is meeting his friends there tomorrow and Sunshine has rented a room for the night so they both have extra reasons to be there as soon as possible. I'm only planning to resupply, withdraw some cash from ATM as I spent it all in Kennedy Meadows North and hike back out. Since my 'town pull' was not so strong, I gave up the chase after them just after midday, we will most likely meet again back on trail at one point or the other.

Day itself was near perfect, weather was beautiful, trail fairly forgiving and easy to navigate (although I still ended up with soaking wet feet) and we actually hit some trail magic at Carson Pass Information Station where bunch of volunteers had a portable fridge with energy bars, sodas, apples and beef jerky! It was first magic I experienced for about 400 miles, high Sierras were to remote for anyone to try organise such things.

Our campsite for tonight is also way better than yesterday, first of all the ground is levelled, it's located just by Showers Lake so we have access to water and it's well protected from the wind. We arrived here fairly early and in good spirits, it makes such a difference for me to set up camp, eat and lay my head down without being completely exhausted. Profit!

The slight problem we are facing now (and still) are the bears. From legal perspective bear canisters are not required anymore and I returned my few days ago in KM North, but apparently the amount of bears for the next hundred miles around Lake Tahoe and Desolation Wilderness will increase substantially, so the only way to protect the food is to tie it into a string and hang it high on a tree branch. I've been doing it for couple of days now and it works good so far. Fingers crossed it will be enough.

Hikers stack rocks like this in order to help others find trail when it gets lost in snow etc.
Little fungi on the forrest floor:
Hanging food on a tree branch in order to stop bears from stealing it:

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