Just another day (D-11)

Today was yet another day of hiking 🙂. A few highlights, in no particular order:

Crossed the 200-mile-marker

Saw a rainbow in the clouds above Mt. San Jacinto (look closely and you will see it)

Most of the day was spent walking towards I-10 highway - mostly downhill. You might see the highway in the far-off distance. But more interestingly, saw this patch of green in the middle of all the brown. A small community called Snow Creek…ironical since I doubt there ever see snow 😀

These were the group of hikers who were all taking their break in the small area of shade under the rock. I was also there where the guy in the blue is sitting. Everybody squeezed in as close to the rock as possible to escape the heart. To the extreme right is a water faucet provided by the local water company, as a service to the hikers when natural water sources are far apart.

Below was trail magic under the railway bridge, next to I-10. Normally this would be a place nobody would go to, but for PCT, it was heavenly with water and even a bowl of fresh fruit, which a couple of us polished off. As you might guess, fresh fruit & veggies are non-existent on the trail.

My tentsite - it was very windy through the night

Btw, remember the tent pole issues. I sent an email to the company and the owner responded within a couple of hours with the tracking number of the replacement poles sent to the PO of the next town I will be stopping in. That's customer service at the highest level!

Data:

Comments

Vipul said…

Wonderful Ravi

April 29, 2022 at 6:33 PM

[v] said…

And just like that - 200 miles 👏

April 30, 2022 at 3:56 AM

Why you shouldn't (or should) thru-hike the PCT? (D-115: 2592.1 - 2613.1 - Nero @ Mazama, D-116: 2613.1 - 2642.6)

Over the last 116 days, I have had plenty of time to think about what's good or bad about this thru-hike and just in case, one of you is thinking about doing a PCT thru-hike, here are my thoughts about why you shouldn't or should do it. Why you shouldn't do a PCT thru-hike - It is very tough physically and mentally - There is less than 50% chance that anyone starting it will finish - Almost everyone seems to have negative physical effects including weight loss, muscle loss, days & days of tired legs & feet etc - You will definitely get scratches, bruises and cuts, if you are lucky. If you are unlucky, major sprains, muscle tears & other hike-ending injuries. Btw, most people who stop do so 'cos of injuries. - You will trip & fall down multiple times (when the avg number of steps is 50000 - 70000/day over uneven paths, the law of large numbers takes over and some of those steps will lead to falls) - It is an expensive activity, with a bulk o...

Gratitude (D-114: 2577.8 - 2592.1 - Nero @ Mazama)

As the last town day on the trail ends and a few dozen miles left to the end point, I would like to speak of gratitude. Every so often on the trail, there are moments of "why the heck am I doing this?" and that's when I have to compel myself to remember that this is an option and an opportunity given to me. I am fortunate enough to be able to hike on this trail for a long period, which is essentially a vacation (albeit, a physically & mentally demanding one). Not everybody gets the option of taking such a long vacation from work, family and other commitments. It may be a cliche, but I am full of gratitude for this. I am also deeply grateful to a bunch of people who made this hike possible and I would like to use this post to mention those people. Ravin & Deepika opened their home and hearts so that I could do all the preparatory work before the hike. They were generous to a fault and I used (& perhaps, abused) their generosity. Even during the hik...

A thru-hike attempt... successful! (D-117: 2642.6 - 2653.6, D-117S (SOBO): 0 - 17.1, D-118S (SOBO): 17.1-30.6)

It is done! Finally, on August 10th, 2022, 117 days after I started at the US-Mexico border on April 16th, 2022, I reached the US-Canada border. Walked 2653.6 miles (4270.6 km) south-to-north through the states of California, Oregon and Washington. No bittersweet moments...just sweet relief to be done 😀. We were few of the lucky thru-hikers this year who were able to go south-to-north continuously without any interruptions. People who started even a couple of weeks earlier and maintained this pace hit a lot more snow in Seirras and a hell lot more in Washington, the latter being almost hike-stopping. By the time we got to Seirras, the snow was much more manageable, and almost all the snow had melted in Washington. People who started later or were slower have had to skip parts of Northern California due to forest fires. Even Oregon and Southern California have some fires starting already. Anyway, reached the northern terminus of the PCT yesterday morn...

A thru-hike attempt

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