Day 4 (5 April) - Mile 30.2 - 42.6

Kitchen Creek, Yellow Rose Spring to Mt. Laguna, CA

Today we actually were able to to get out of camp at a reasonable time. We woke at 6:20 and started hiking at 8:30. Between the light rain this morning, knowing that we had to hike 13 miles, and knowing there was a hotel room at the end of the day motivated us to get moving. 

As soon as we left the campsite we started climbing. We knew from studying thesis last night that today was going to be all about the up up up.

Profile of today's hike. I pointing at the start. We go all the way to the end of the profile graph.

The start of the day was drizzly and cold. The clouds were passing through the area we were hiking.

Cool clouds.

As we were climbing we realized that we had just enough water to get us all the way to Mt Laguna. This meant we had to conserve a bit and not guzzle it down. Then, not more than 5 minutes later, we came across another Trail Angel water cache...the first that we needed to take advantage of. We guzzled as much as we could and refilled our bottles. No more concern.

Thanks Trail Angels!

Another cool thing we saw today was this girl riding a horse on the trail. Not only do people thru-hike the PCT, they also thru-ride horses along the same route. I'm sure we will see more horses as we go along our journey.

Thru-riding the PCT...how cool.

Overall today, although it was a constant climb, we had a great time and there was beautiful scenery. Climbs led to wonderful views of high-altitude meadows, canyons, and desert landscape.

Tim strolling through the desert.

Cool trees we came across.

A view above Long Canyon that we just climbed out of.

Nifty old trees in a 6000 ft high landscape.

More cool trees.

The first snow we have seen on the PCT.

Low desert way below us. We will be heading down to the low desert in Mojave (Mile 270).

Finally, after our longest day so far, we made it to Laguna Mountain Lodge and our first resupply boxes we mailed to ourselves before we left. Notice the bucket in our room. We were told it was for doing our laundry and soaking our feet...talk about catering to the thru-hiker. 

Our room for the night. Bucket included.

After checking in we waddled our way down the hill to the Pine House Cafe for dinner and...you guessed it...a nice cold microbrew.

Yummy beer.

Tomorrow is going to be a fairly easy day. Sleep in till whenever and check out around noon. Then we will hike under 5 miles to a campground and stop for the night. Who ever thought hiking 5 miles constitutes an easy day!?!