Make good decisions (D-6)

If you look closely at the above photo, you might wonder just like I did...why is the big rock not sliding off the bottom rock or rather, when will it slide off? These are the kind of inane questions one asks when one is walking 9-10 hours a day mostly in solitude. On the other hand, walking 9-10 hours/day makes it a busy day (a topic for a later post) and directly to blog at the end of the day. Well, that's my excuse for not updating in a long time. I did say that I would do this occasionally, didn't I?

Day 6 was a pleasant and relatively easy day.

I reached Mike's Place around 4 pm after about 17 miles. Mike's Place is a mainstay in PCT thru-hiker lore. He opens his property to hikers to camp anywhere as well as provides water in huge tanks. I was initially planning to just fill water and proceed on, since the weather was great and there were couple more hours of sunlight left.

Weather when I reached Mike's - clear and sunny. In the foreground, you can see the Spot emergency device that also tracks my progress with an hourly ping.

Mike's property has a collection of interesting (or "junk" depending on your take) articles spread across.

Anyway, the weather forecast to the best of everybody's knowledge was rain/wind during the night. No idea how much and when. I'm any case, though I was tempted to go on, I decided to stay at Mike's for the night. And, boy, am I glad I did 'cos it poured buckets accompanied with high winds overnight. As my mentor and friend, M says, you have to make good and wise decisions, especially in the wilderness. One good decision made!

That was my "luxury" sleeping pad in the swing under the porch

A short day:

Comments

[v] said…

Rock sliding off :D

Did you resist the urge to calculate the extra mass required or slope required for the that rock to slide off?

April 26, 2022 at 7:52 PM

Vipul said…

No temptation to go up and carve your name on that stone Ravi 😀

April 29, 2022 at 7:11 PM

My gear and my tramily (D-97 @ 2148 - Zero day)

Some of you have asked about what gear I am using. Since today is a Zero day (the last Zero day was on D-57) and there is nothing much to report other than the fact that I shipped the last set of resupply boxes to different places in Washington state and ate substantial amounts of food today, I figured I might as well talk about my gear, and also a bit about the other most essential component on the hike - my "tramily" (trail-family). Tent : 1-person Rainbow Li from Tarptent (bought new). This has worked very well for me and as you know from my earlier posts, Tarptent has given very good customer service too. I haven't had the chance to use the tent in heavy rain or snow (luckily) though and can't comment on it. I use a Tyvek ground sheet (already owned), also from Tarptent. Backpack : Catalyst from ULA (already owned). I started with Zpack Arc Air Robic 60L (bought new) and used it for 700 miles, but it was not comfortable at...

Monthly Data Update (M-4; Day 91 to 118)

All data below in italics is for M-1, M-2 & M-3 respectively, for comparison. M-4 is 28 days (all other months were 30 days) Distance traveled on PCT: 702 mi / 1130 km ( 631 mi / 1015 km; 554 mi / 892 km; 798 mi /1284 km ) Total time: 281 ( 280; 280; 320 ) hours Total ascent: 126,923 ft / 38,686 m ( 117,830 ft/35,915 m; 99,040 ft/30,190 m; 123,951 ft/37,780 m ) Total descent: 128,161 ft / 39,063 m ( 115,912 ft/35,330 m; 99,730 ft/30,400 m; 123,921 ft/37,771 m ) Highest point: 7174 ft / 2187 m ( 9407 ft/2867 m; 13,120 ft/4000 m; 7580 ft/2310 m ) Average distance/day: 25 mi / 40 km ( 21 mi/34 km; 18.7 mi/30.1 km; 26.6 mi/42.8 km ) Average distance/hiking day: 26 mi / 42 km ( 21.8 mi/35.1 km; 21.3 mi/34.3 km; 26.6 mi/42.8 km ) Average time hiking/day: 10.0 ( 9.3; 9.3; 10.7) hours (incl Nero days) Average pace: 2.6 mph/4.2 kmph ( 2.3 mph/3.6 kmph; 2.0 mph/3.2 kmph; 2.5 mph/4.0 kmph ) Number of Zero days:...

Pleasures of being on PCT (D-16; 303.7 - 328.8 miles)

Heading out from the cowboy camping experience last night, I was looking forward to Deer Creek Hot Springs that is apparently very popular among the locals too & tended to get crowded during the weekends, even though one has to hike in a mile or so from the trailhead parking (or hike 308 miles on PCT 🙂). Reached it early enough, but still it was chock full of people - locals & thru-hikers both - most of whom had camped there overnight in spite of it being a No Camping zone. People were lazing around in some of the pools in various states of undress, as it was a clothing optional area. It was way too crowded for me and I decided to head out. But, as I was heading out, I saw a small pool of water with nobody in it and the water was pleasantly hot (not just warm). Pool I "discovered" away from the crowds Close-up of the pool Me in the pool 😋 What a lovely feeling to be in a hot pool, especially after not having had a hot ...

A thru-hike attempt

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