Since I've gotten so far behind on my journal, I've decided to just do a quick recap from where I left off until the Washington border. I plan on coming back to this section in detail after I finish the trail. And since everyday is so different, and I have hundreds of pictures, it will be easy to remember even the smaller details. But for now here is a quick recap.
The Sierras were incredible. Our group slowed down significantly because we wanted to really enjoy the high Sierra. We averaged about 16-17 miles a day, which may sound like a lot, but when you are used to doing 25+ a day it was a piece of cake. There were 8 major mountain passes we had to cross over. At the top of each pass we were rewarded with spectacular views of dozens of snowy peaks all around us. The snow made the scenery beautiful but it does make for some difficult travel. On each pass, I usually took at least one glisade down for fun. The only pass I ran into trouble was Glenn pass as I talked about in my last post. We had to hike through quite a but of snow through the Sierras. It wasn't so bad in the mornings when the snow had refrozen, but by the afternoon we would be postholing sometimes down to our waist in the slushy snow. All the melting snow meant that all the streams and rivers were raging. Evolution creek was our biggest crossing, which had a swift current that came up to my waist. Also our shoes were wet most of the day from all the streams crossings. June 21st, the summer solstice, is known as hike naked day on the pct. I was the only one in my group brave enough to participate. I hiked up to the top of a 12,500 pass naked and more than surprised some unknowing jmt hikers when I reached the top. Our whole group stopped filtering water. Every night we camped in scenery totally different from the previous night. We had spectacular sunrises, sunsets, and stars everyday. I lost a lot of weight in the sierras, so much I had to add even more padding to my hipbelt. The mosquitos came out in the sierras. Sometimes they were so bad I found myself literally running down the trail to escape them. Other times I was like an air traffic controller swinging my trekking poles around to keep the mosquitos away. By the time we had gotten through the Sierras my group had gotten separated. It was so much fun hiking with them, but we all kinda started developing our own hiking paces after 900 miles together. But Dilly Dally and I stuck together and we are still hiking together here in Washington. I miss my group, but being apart from them has allowed me to meet so many other hikers now.
Once out of the Sierras I was cruising in Northern California. With our slow down in the Sierras dilly dally and i were feeling a little behind schedule, so we made it a rule that we had to at least 20 miles a day. At first it was hard to stick too, but we got better and better with each day. We organized a 4th of July party on trail with about 20 other hikers. We all packed out booze and special food from town to make it a big celabration. It was one of my favorite nights on trail people wise. We walked along the west rim of Lake Tahoe and had spectacular sunrises views of it for about 4 days. Next we passed by Lassen and Mt. Shasta which would remain in view for weeks on the trail. Each time we saw Shasta it gradually grew a little bigger until it was right in your face, then it gradually grew smaller until it was out of view. Summer came into full swing in Northern California, sometimes bringing the temperature near 100 degrees. We spent one afternoon at Burney falls, which I highly recommend if you are ever in the area. Just before the Oregon border we reached the trinity alps, which I new nothing about. They were like walking through a mini Sierra. After ore than three months of hiking we finally reached the Oregon border. While just an arbitrary man made marker, it still felt like a huge acomplishment.
The trail in Oregon flattened put relatively speaking. It by all means was not flat, but relative to some of the trail in California it was. But scenery sure wasn't flat. Crater lake, Mt theilson, the three sisters, Mt washington, three finger jack, Mt Jefferson, Mt hood, all dominated the skyline across oregon. Sometimes you could see three of volcanoes to the south and three to the north at the same time. There were also spectacular hidden lakes, lava fields, old growth forests, amd Alpine meadows. And I probably met three new people each day.
While wasn't by any means a "quick recap" it barely scratched the surface of everything on the trail so far. I promise to go back after the trail I finish go more into to detail, but for now I want to be able to focus on the last stretch through Washington. Less than 500 miles to go!