PCT day 109 - mile 2530 to mile 2563

Long day to get me within the hiking distance to the 9am shuttle to Stehekin tomorrow.

Weather was on the edge the entire day, the forecast was predicting the rain and it did rain slightly few times throughout the day but I guess we've been walking away from the clouds so it never got bad and some shade provided by them worked out really well. The 3200 feet ascent wasn't as bad as yesterday's big climb thanks to the lack of overgrowth and being more gradual overall. The blow down trees were present all day long though providing us with all sort of problem solving activities.

Once we climbed out of the treeline the scenery became breathtaking, I think the ridge we could see to our left around the Fortress Mountain and Martin Peak is my favourite one of the entire trail, just looking at it makes you want to go and walk it somehow, I doubt there's any trail that goes over it. A beautiful beast though. I saw what might have been the oldest person so far on the trail while walking this stretch, the gentleman must have been in his 70's (I didn't ask) and what's more he was hiking alone! He turned to the campsite overlooking the ridge to have a good view of it. I wonder what kind of stories he would have told me if I asked, he seemed really in his element up there.

I'm camping by the roaring river which hopefully will let me sleep better, I'm also awfully dirty and as I noticed while walking nare feet one of the streams today I got holes in my socks, shoes, t-shirt, trousers and my backpack looks like a Swiss cheese, oh well only few more days left and all those items did a stellar job and didn't completely fall apart on me.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Appalachian Trail (day 77) - Hikers Welcome Hostel to Eliza Brook Campsite / mile 1816

Image
"After hiking in White Mountain's everything else seems easy" Sue First day in the White's, I can confirm now that terrain here is unlike anything we faced on the AT so far. In the morning I had a coffee and a breakfast muffin at the hostel, surprisingly despite the early hour Tum Tum, Iceman, Yukon and Gutsy were up as well. Weather was supposed to be a mixed bag but we were all determined to climb Mt Moosilauke today. I headed out and started the 4000 feet climb first, it was a long, steady uphill going through well maintained terrain, problems only started at the top. Day was quite windy, combined with the rain and exposed, alpine environment, it became a recipe for a very wet, cold and uncomfortable time. At the top wind was pushing me left and right and rain was cutting across with great speed, I was completely drenched in just few moments. Luckily exposed section didn't last too long and the AT dived into the pine forest soon after. ...
Read more

Appalachian Trail (day 12) - Icewater Sorin Shelter to Cosby Knob Shelter / mile 231

Image
Today could be described in one word - windy. And it was not your refreshing summer breeze, it was the kind of wind that chills your bones and the moment you feel it you want to turn around and go back home, except there's no home and you can't turn around. The food I hanged last night was completely frozen, it was funny to crunch on a solid snickers and granola bars for breakfast. At least it was sunny, I've put all my layers on and started hiking. Trail looked really good, I could see small patches of snow and icicles probably formed last night hanging from the bushes. Later during the day you could see the damage last years hurricane has done, fallen trees, layers of uncovered rock showing that there was not much trees could hang on to beneath, trail was trying to manoeuvre around the blow downs and disturbed earth. I haven't met many people today but I hiked alongside Blazer, a friendly, older American guy. He also hiked PCT, so w...
Read more

Appalachian Trail (day 76) - Lambert Ridge to Hikers Welcome Hostel / mile 1799

Image
Hot, humid, stormy day. My goal was to place myself withing the short distance before the climb to Mount Moosilauke. AT in New Hampshire definitely prooved from the very begining that it means business. The first and second climb of the day:  Smarts Mountain and Mt Cube were steep and rocky, the path was muddy, overgrown and not very well marked, combined with the hot and humid weather I was moving at a snail's pace. Views were quite rewarding though and after the initial struggle trail got easier for the rest of the day. I've seen yet another two bear cubs, no mother in sight this time around which got me a bit spooked. Cubs climbed so high up the tree I could hardly see them from the trail, they were so incredibly agile! I've taken a blurry video of the couple as I thought it was fairly safe to do so, that's 10 black bears I've seen so far on Appalachian Trail.  At one point I took a break  by the road and tried to dry my feet a...
Read more