September 18

Distance: 26.4 miles | Ascent: 4160′ | Descent: 4240′

Lunch: J&A – mac n cheese with spam (A-, B+)

Dinner: J – green bean orzo (A), A – chili and rice (A-)

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Today was fairly easy, and super scenic. The most challenging part was the rocky trail. Jason’s shoes had carried him from Ashland and Alex’s from Crater Lake (she got 730 miles on them! Go Topos!). With all the mileage, our shoes had become slouchy and long lost all cushioning. Our feet have toughened up, sure, but several continuous hours of walking over jagged rocks still hurt.

Nevertheless, we feel like we’re in the Sierras proper now. High peaks and lakes surrounded us. Desolation Wilderness offered wonderful views of the barren landscape. We merged with the Tahoe Rim Trail at our campsite last night and saw a few hiking that loop.

We started encountering a lot of day hikers and people out for shorter backpacking trips. One couple we met near 5pm asked where we were going. We still had a bit of a climb up and over the final ridge in the wilderness. They’re response when we said that and that we are hiking the whole PCT: “You’re the crazy ones!”

Yes. What we’re doing is crazy.

We made it to our campsite after dark. That’s just going to happen all the time now. We’re experts at making camp by now, diving into the routine with speed and silence. The dark doesn’t really slow us down.

Bears are active in this area. We took extra care to stow our bear cans properly and ensure all smellables were secured away from our tent. We wouldn’t hate to see a bear. They’re cute and nonaggressive. We can easily scare it away. But a fed bear is a dead bear. We don’t want to be the reason a bear gets in trouble.