September 27

Distance: 26.1 miles | Ascent: 3730′ | Descent: 3300

Mile marker: 1718.7

Lunch: J – Korean beef (A), A – taco (B+)

Dinner: J&A – chicken parm (A, A)

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We’re not trying to do this. This is the fourth time. It seems highly improbable.

The “distance” we assign to each day is based on what the map app on our phone says between where we lie in bed writing the post and where last night’s campsite sat. It’s notable that for the fourth time, we’ve gone just 26.1 miles, frustratingly 0.1 short of a marathon (which is actually a term hikers use to describe 26.2+ mile days). Not 26.3. Not 26.0. It’s almost funny.

If we used kilometers, like every other civilized country*, we wouldn’t even register going 42.0 or 42.1 or 42.2 kilometers on several instances. Those would just be random numbers**.

The real reason we walked almost a marathon is because that’s how far our legs carried us and there were good campsites at those two locations.

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Yosemite is dramatic. Anyone who’s been probably knows that. The exposed granite mountains and gushing rivers make for some very pretty hiking. It also makes for some steep hiking, however.

We saw streams and rivers:

And deer:

And mountains:

And meadows:

And a lake:

And forests:

And big slabs of rock:

And waterfalls:

And a carbonated spring***:

And mushrooms:

When you walk almost a marathon, you see a lot of neat things. Would recommend.

*I think the UK uses miles sometimes. Maybe that’s why they decided not to be in Europe anymore.

**42 is the meaning of life, not just a random number.

***While at the spring, where carbon dioxide bubbles up from the ground, We blew some minds by telling a family on vacation about the PCT and that we were on day 91 of our trip. The mom was shaken by that news, horrified at the thought of being in the wilderness that long. Minutes after that conversation had ended, we overhead her walking away, repeating to herself “91 days…”