A boring day on PCT? (D-29 573.4 - 600 plus 2 miles due to detour not on "official" map yet)

Till late afternoon today, I had not even taken any photos or videos except the one above. And that was just to show the same scenery repeating as last 2 days. I was resigned to it being a ho-hum day of just hiking along one step at a time.

And then, I turned a corner and saw this, about 50 meters away.

My first bear sighting on this trail! Yaaaaaay 😀. And it was right on the trail. The bear didn't even notice me. After about a minute, after I had finished taking the requisite photos and videos, I figured it was time to move. I gave one yell and the bear saw me and turned tail & literally galloped away into the woods. I was pleasantly surprised that it seemed so scared of me. Even the stray dogs of Bangalore are not so scared of me! 😀 Anyway that was the high point of the day.

And, yes, reached this milestone by the end of day 29.

And my completely secluded and almost hidden tentsite at Mile 600.

Data:

Comments

LisaB said…

I’m so excited that you got to see a bear in such ideal conditions!! I’m jealous.

May 15, 2022 at 9:09 AM

Kusum said…

Wow Ravi. Certainly not a ho hum day. A bear sighting in woods and you scared him away!!! Congratulations on 600 milestone! Keep enjoying your hike and keep posting.

May 20, 2022 at 12:27 AM

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...

Resupply (4 days to go)

(Finally gave up on HikerFeed app which seemed good on paper, but never worked properly for me 🙁) 10-day resupply in the bear canister, ready to ship - 7.6 kg / 16.8 lbs (gulp!) Already shipped the first box last week

Water, Wattage & WiFi (D-2)

Today was going to be tough one. If yesterday's elevation gain of 1000+ m was difficult, today's 1400+ m was going to be relentlesly uphill from the start to the end. With hiking legs still to be developed and 3 liters of water carry for a total pack weight of around 18-19 kg, it promised to be a challenging day. And it lived up to the challenge 😄. There were a few bright spots though including coming across the cold and clean Kitchen Creek and meeting a bunch of hikers both local & PCT. The second half of the day was a slog and I was ready for it to end. The goal was to reach Mt Laguna town and find a place to replenish water, charge my phone and get some WiFi as I doubted there would be any decent cell phone signal. But, lo & behold, as soon as I stepped off the trail to go to town, I was introduced to the famed Trail Magic!! A few trail angels has setup a picnic and generously welcomed all the hikers with cold soda, snacks, cookies, pie etc....

A thru-hike attempt

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