Day 104 (1 August) - Mile 1206.18 - 1224.64

 Campsite at mile 1206.18 to Unpaved Road

I slept well last night only waking up twice all night and then finally waking up just after 6:00 AM. Share Bear on the other hand was woken up by noises around 3:00 AM that was most likely deer, and couldn't get back to sleep...sucky!

Believe it or not, after breaking camp and eating breakfast, we were ready to hike at 7:18 AM...even Brad was ready that early!

Ready to hike

Today's hike doesn't look too bad. Pretty much a roller coaster much of the day except for a climb just after lunch and a climb at the end of the day. All in all it should be a nice day if hiking.

Immediately we had a great view, except for the smoke in the air from the fire near Monterrey.

Morning view with smoke

View of Deer Lake

We climbed a little peak up to the 5 mile point and took a break at the top. There was a slight wind keeping the bugs away making it a sweet spot for a break. Plus, the view was awesome.

Brad happy to be on a break.

After about 30 minutes we were back on the trail and was amazed at the view just around the corner:

View of three lakes

Share Bear felt energetic after the break and took the lead up the trail.

Share Bear leading the way

Brad and I needed water, so we stopped at Little Jamison Spring. While collecting and filtering the water Share Bear took advantage of her free time to sneak in a little nap:

Share Bear taking it easy

What a perfect day to hike. The weather was awesome all day.

Self-portrait "Enjoying the day"

We stopped for lunch around 12:45 PM. Painter and Pogo were already there was was Jay and Chen. It was obviously the place to stop for lunch. It didn't hurt that there was an great spring there too. Somehow we managed to take 2 hours for lunch and got back on trail at 2:41 PM...we have to figure out a way to shorten our lunch break so we don't keep getting into camp so late.

Right after lunch we had our first good climb of the day. I was feeling good, so I took the lead and charged up the hill. 40 minutes later I was at the top waiting on Share Bear and Brad...I really pushed up that hill averaging 2.55 miles per hour.

View from top of hill

Relaxing after pushing up a hill.

We now headed down, but not to crazy of a grade, so it wasn't too bad. On the way down I snapped this photo of a PCT sign:

PCT sign of the day.

Brad and Share Bear stopped on this switchback on the way down for a nice photo:

Posing for the camera

At 5:00 PM we had 4 miles to go to make our 20 miles and felt confident we would make it. We collected water at the east branch of Bear Trap Creek since the campsite we planned on getting to is dry. We hiked 0.88 miles to a dirt road crossing and noticed a place by the side of the road that would make a good camp. We were still 1.5 miles from doing 20 miles, but we decided to not take a chance and camp here.

The bad news is that we hiked 18.5 miles and not 20. The good news is that since we stopped on the side of a dirt road, Tim is going to come up here in the morning and allow us to slack pack for 14 miles tomorrow. I'll give up 1.5 miles today to slack pack 14 miles tomorrow!

More good news is that it is before 9:00 PM and I am done with the blog so I can go to sleep early today...woohoo. With that said...until tomorrow.