September 12

Distance: 22.4 miles | Ascent: 4450′ | Descent: 4450′

Lunch: J – cilantro pesto pasta (B-), A – bacon mac (B+)

Dinner: J – chili and rice (B+), A – chicken parm (B+)

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It rained last night. We woke up a little soggy. We had little motivation to hike. Jason dilly-dallied a bit, leading to a late start to the day.

There’s a thing called the NorCal Blues. Basically, Northern California is kinda boring. There’s a lot of burnzone, not a lot of great landscapes to admire, a lot of seemingly unnecessary hills, and not a lot of water. It can really bum out hikers and is notorious for causing them to quit their hike altogether. We got the full Norcal Blues experience today.

The rain is an anomaly for this area and time of year. It added some excitement to an otherwise mundane day, but we paid for it with damp packs and a soggy tent to start the day – not fun.

The trail last night was awesome and cruisey. It became the opposite today. We climbed up rocky terrain to the one viewpoint for the day.

From there, we descended down a rockier and slanted trail with more blowdowns. It was slow going and tiring. Even with the relative coolness of the day, we were beat after walking downhill all morning. Along the way, we hit 1400 miles! But it was even less scenic than when we hit the halfway point.

After lunch near a creek, we had the pleasure of climbing up the other side of the valley. By that time of day, it was hot and our legs were already shot. And of course, more big blowdowns to contend with.

We complain about blowdowns often, but we have our reasons. They can be dangerous. Rarely, you can walk around them. Most of the time, you have to go over them. Uncertain footing (will this rotting branch hold when I put all my weight on it? Let’s hope!), slippery bare wood, and our weighted packs add to the risk. It would be easy to twist and ankle or knee when navigating over a blowdown. In the rhythm of walking, we suddenly need to use all our mobility and flexibility to get through them. Even a few can really slow us down. One misstep could end the whole trip.

At the base of our descent through the blowdowns, we reached a river. It was nice, and if we had more time, we would’ve camped there and swam in the pools. But the steepest part of the ascent awaited us. We were not making good time today, and our hopes to get ahead on distance are fading in this challenging section.

More burnzone waited at the top of the climb. Thankfully, the day was starting to cool. Even more wonderfully, we seemed to be just a day behind a trail crew which cleared out over 200 blowdowns! They are our heros. We had heard a lot of people complain about this section, but we had it much better. The fresh sawdust and newly maintained trail ensured our spirits didn’t completely shatter. We can imagine how difficult this would be with poor trail conditions. We still took a break on a rocky hill and nearly decided to call it a day there.

We reached a campsite by the smallest spring, tucked deep into a patch of shrubs, and settled in for the night. It wasn’t as far as we hoped to get today, but the blowdowns and general malaise of the trail had just worn us down.

Most PCT hikers don’t finish the trail. Most quit in Northern California. We’re not planning to quit, but these long, challenging days are beginning to wear on us in many ways. We look forward to our next shower, laundry, and the Sierras.