Day 94 (22 July) - Mile 1060.49 - 1081.73

Tributary of Pleasant Valley Creek to Showers Lake

I slept OK last night. I woke up pretty warm and unzipped my flap for some fresh air and then I had trouble falling back asleep. I eventually did, but woke around 5:30 AM and stayed awake till Share Bear "woke" me up just after 6:00 AM.

We know we have another long day ahead of us, so we both quickly got ready to hike. We said goodbye to the two guys that we shared a camp when they left before us, then Boston Scott showed up. He woke early and started hiking at 6:15 AM and made it to our camp one hour later. He actually made it just in time to get into our morning photo at 7:23 AM.

Ready to hike

Share Bear and I started our hike while Scott stayed behind to eat some breakfast.  The trail started climbing immediately before we even had time to warm up.

Share Bear leading the morning climb.

Today's hike shouldn't be too bad except for the distance of 21.25 miles we plan on hiking. It should actually be close to the same difficulty as yesterday's hike when we were able to hike the same 21.25, so we feel pretty confident that we will make it.

Our morning view.

While climbing we saw and smelled a pine tree that we thought might be a ponderosa pine.  We smelled the bark and it smelled like vanilla, so maybe this is a ponderosa pine and not the tree I smelled a few days ago.

Ponderosa pine?

We completed the first 5 miles of the day by 9:30 AM and took our "shoes off" break on the side of Blue Lakes Road. While sitting there, we met and talked to Yard Sale and Flying By, both PCT thru-hikers.

PCT sign of the day just before Blue Lakes Road.

After the break we continued on. Our plan was to make it another 7 miles before stopping for lunch. The thought was that we wanted to have less miles to go after lunch than we hiked before.

We started hiking and the trail went to the right of a large hill. I joked to Share Bear that the trail will probably then turn left and go up and around this huge hill. We both laughed and said, "Yeah right."

View as trail went right.

We both stopped laughing when the trail did turn left and started climbing that huge hill. The trail went up to what we thought was the top, but it wasn't. Again it did the same thing and went over a false peak. Finally, on the third peak looking climb we actually made it to the top.

The actual top of the climb is right ahead.

Self-portrait "View from the top"

Of course after that climb we were both pretty hungry and we still had 1.5 hours till we arrived at our lunch goal, so we took a little break at the top and had a snack.

Another view from the top.

View coming down from the top.

Finally, just after 1:00 PM we saw a valley of trees that we knew was where we were going to stop for lunch.

Lunch will be in those trees.

The lunch spot was close to a river and really comfortable. There was a nice breeze keeping the mosquitos away, so we decided to cook and eat dinner for lunch. It only because of the bugs, but we figured we would be getting into camp late, so it would be easier to just eat a sandwich for dinner and not bother cooking. Plus, yesterday when we hiked over 20 miles we arrived at our camp famished. Since our dinners have more calories than our lunches, it makes sense to have the higher calorie meal to help us get through the hike.

While eating we met Drew, a day hiker, who is working for a non-profit that finds land to turn into Wilderness Areas. After filtering water, cooking and eating lunch, washing the pot, and talking to Drew, 2 hours had past. Wow. That's a long lunch, especially since it is now 3:17 PM and we still have 9.37 miles to hike today.

We started back up after lunch and had another big climb to do up to Carson Pass. About halfway up the climb I spotted Tim ahead on the trail. He parked at the Carson Pass Visitors Center and hiked in 3 miles. He was hoping to see us sooner, but we decided to take a 2 hour lunch, so he had to hike in further. His 3 mile hike was pretty difficult having to climb up from the parking lot and cross a couple of snowfields before starting down the other side where he finally met us.

Tim hiking ahead of me.

By 5:00 PM we made it to the Carson Pass Visitors Center on Highway 88. We caught it just as they were preparing to close. When the volunteers who work the center realized we were PCT thru-hikers they filled our water bottles and provided us sodas, strawberries, apples, grapes, and chips. Best of all, Ginger offered us some of her homemade banana bread.

Ginger serving up banana bread

We hung there too long, especially since Brad was in the car waiting for us down at the next parking lot.

Before leaving we noticed this cool Canada / Mexico distance sign.  We still have a long way to go!

Still not almost to Canada.

We walked the 0.14 miles to the lower parking lot and met up with Brad. He is feeling much better, but needs more time to heal completely. We hung out there for way too long and finally got back on trail at 6:00 PM with just over 5 miles to still hike to make it to our planned campsite. 5 miles used to be half of my total miles for the day. Now I'm hiking 5 miles after 6:00 PM...it's amazing how far I have come.

We climbed up a bit from Highway 88 and then settled into a meadow for many glorious, flat miles. 

Share Bear in the meadow.

The beautiful PCT.

Of course the calmness ended when we had 0.8 miles and 367 feet to climb. To make the climb even worse, mosquitos were swarming all around us for the entire climb. We finally made it to our campsite at 7:41 PM meaning we averaged 2.93 miles per hour for the last 5 miles of the day which included 2 pretty big climbs. Wow...we have come a long way!

We were so glad we are dinner for lunch since the mosquitos continued to drive us crazy as we pitched our tents. After my tent was up and quickly got in and didn't leave it. I did eat some Cheetos and a cheese stick inside my tent which is a big no-no, but I didn't have a choice.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Karel form Czech Republic has been hiking with us since after lunch and decided to camp with us tonight. Here he is setting up his tent:

Karel setting up camp.

Tomorrow we have just 10 miles to hike to meet Tim at Echo Lake which is close to Lake Tahoe. We are then going to spend 2.5 days there relaxing before getting back on the trail and continue hitting it hard. We can't wait for the break and for all the food.

Campsite for the night. Showers Lake is down behind those trees.