A creepy cabin & fresh fruits (D-13 & D-14)

Nothing spectacularly interesting happened these two days. So, here is a combined summary (darn! these corporate terminology is ingrained in us now):

- Entered San Giorgiono wilderness. If you don't know anything about it, no worries. I didn't know it existed till yesterday

- Banana cake and instant oatmeal for breakfast

- Saw clouds below mountaintops

- Came across an amazingly creepy cabin called Coon Creek Cabin This cabin is owned and managed by the CA Land Mgmt agency and they even rent it out for $115/night. The issue is there are no doors or windows and nothing inside the cabin at all. It is completely decrepit with broken floors and who knows what lives in there. You definitely don't need any reservation to stay there overnight...if you dare to! I had lunch outside the cabin.

- This was & is a private zoo that is next to PCT. It used to house bears, big cats and other animals used in movies & TV. Now there are only dogs left.

- This morning came across this amazingly full and fresh trail magic. There were even fresh fruit there and I took a banana that was consumed right away and an apple for later

- Lots of sign boards along the trail have been used as target practice and you can see the bullet holes. Why...I don't know.

- A Tootsie Roll Pop lasts about 2 miles. This was my first and last Tootsie Roll in my life

- Saw a deer next to tonight's campsite. It ran away as I was taking out my phone - so, not a good pic

Finally data:

D-13: 36.5k, 10:18 hrs, 1700 m elevation gain (once again stopped my watch in the middle for 45 mins and had to reconcile with "official" data

D-14:

Comments

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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