September 9

Distance: 19.4 | Ascent: 4290′ | Descent: 2430′

Mile marker: 1343.5

Lunch: J – mac n cheese (B+), A – chicken parm (A+)

Dinner: J – chicken parm (A+), A – mac n cheese (B-)

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Woah! We’re halfway there!

We reached our halfway point! It’s now shorter to walk to Mexico than to Canada, so there’s no sense in turning around now.

There were actually two halfway points. The first one we made the ½ sign on the trail with burnt sticks and bark. This is the true halfway, that is equal mileage between the southern terminus and the northern on this year’s route. The trail changes slightly year to year due to maintenance mildly rerouting things.

A bit further downtrail from our true midpoint was the midpoint obelisk erected long ago when it was the true midpoint and before the fire wiped out the entire hillside. Good thing the obelisk is made of concrete.

After eating lunch at the midpoint marker, we continued our climb out of the valley towards the next water. It was a 12-mile water carry up  through the burnzone. Fortunately, the temperature was exquisite today with highs in the mid-60s and cloud cover. There’s even a chance of rain tonight and tomorrow! There were some interesting rock formations along this stretch. We wish we knew more about geology to understand the rocks better.

We got water at the next spring and ran into three other southbound hikers! It included our friend from Colorado whose hat we found twice and a French couple we had only met at Castle Crags a week ago.

The clouds parted just enough to give some incredible views of the rocky hillside on the other side of the valley. We met a northbound section hiker who’s doing the PCT in two-week chunks every year. He said he had run into about 20 southbound hikers since he started.

We made camp just before dusk at a rocky outcropping overlooking a huge valley. We realized that we’ll have to stop at Beldan tomorrow; the trail cuts straight through the little resort town and there’s a crazy climb out without any established campsites on the way up. Therefore, there really wasn’t a need to rush to cover more distance today. With the climb, a full 6 days’ worth of food, and the 12-mile water carry, we did enough today to not lose our pace but also not get ahead. Unfortunate, but maybe we can bank some miles on the last stretch of this section and take a half day somewhere down trail to rest a bit.