August 30

Distance: 22.3 miles | Ascent: 2100′ | Descent: 2230′

Mile marker: 1132.4

Lunch: J – spaghetti mac with parm (B-), A – mac n cheese (B)

Dinner: J – chili with orzo (B+), A – beef stew (A+)

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Waking up to the sunset is a great way to start the day. Less than 20 minutes from our camp, we hit mile 1111.1! We took the LNT approach (also lazy) and made a little marker on the trail for the briefest photoshoot.

The next four miles circled the valley, always in view of the campsite we left. North California is quite literal about the “crest” part of the PCT. While it’s maybe nice to have the flattest trail, it probably would’ve been faster just going straight through the valley. It’s nice to see your campsite at the end of the day; you have a target and goal. But at the beginning of the day, it feels like you’re not making any progress.

Eventually, we left that valley and popped over to the next. We were greeted with views of Mount Shasta as we ridge walked throughout the rest of the morning.

We stopped for lunch at Shasta View spring and it lived up to its name.

The trail then got a little more challenging, but not by much. Today was the kind of day where we were easily going faster than 3 mph. That meant longer breaks, a long lunch, and arriving to camp well before sunset. We settled for a spot with a killer view of Mount Shasta.