Monthly Data Update (M-2; 31-60 days)

All data below in italics is for M-1, for comparison

Distance traveled on PCT: 554 mi / 892 km

(631 mi / 1015 km)

Total time: 280 (280) hours

Total ascent: 99,040 ft / 30,190 m (117,830 ft / 35,915 m)

Total descent: 99,730 ft / 30,400 m (115,912 ft / 35,330 m)

Highest point: 13,120 ft / 4000 m (9407 ft / 2867 m)

Average distance/day: 18.7 mi/30.1 km (21 mi/34 km)

Average distance/hiking day: 21.3 mi/34.3 km (21.8 mi/35.1 km)

Average time hiking/day: 9.3 (9.3) hours (incl Zero days)

Average pace: 2 mi/hr (or) 3.2 km/hr (2.3 mi/hr (or) 3.6 km/hr)

Number of Zero days: 4 (1)

Number of Nero days: 8 (4)

Weather-related breaks: 1 Zero & 1 Nero (incl in above)

Number of meals eaten that I hadn't carried on my back: 25 (15)

Number of proper showers taken: 14 (7)

Number of bears seen: 1 (1)

*Most of the trail was above 8000-9000 ft in M-2, unlike in M-1.

Comments

In-town & Trail Activities (D-45 @ 903.3 and D-46 4.3 miles plus 906.7 - 924.5)

I am still surprised how busy in-town zero days can be. You think that you have a lot of time to take care of everything that you had planned to do while hiking earlier. Yesterday, in Mammoth Lakes, first I had a large breakfast (very important thru-hiker activity) & then visited 3 different stores to research and buy new shoes & glove liners. Old ones were completely gone. Post that, went to the big grocery store to buy the resupply food till the next stop & as usual, got overwhelmed by the number of the items available, picked up excess items, realized I can't carry all this, put back a lot of stuff and still ended up with extra food to carry. Next stop was the pharmacy to get blister-care bandages, then a decent sized pizza lunch and then back to the room to sort and repack. Speaking of blisters, I have got 2 till now and I had to prick one of them with a needle a few days back and then cover it up. First time, I had to sterilize the needle in a flame and the...

The High (& sometimes scary) Passes of Seirras - Part 1 (D-38 760 - 774.7; D-39 774.7 - 795.5)

The 7 main mountain passes (a pass being the low-point saddle between two mountains that one has to cross to go on the other side of the mountain) that I had to cross were as follows (south to north): 1. Forester Pass (13200 ft / 4023 m) 2. Glen Pass (11957 ft / 3645 m) 3. Pinchot Pass (12127 ft / 3696 m) 4. Mather Pass (12094 ft / 3686 m) 5. Muir Pass (11970 ft / 3648 m) 6. Selden Pass (10913 ft / 3326 m) 7. Silver Pass (10778 ft / 3285 m) All of these passes have some ascent and then a descent and essentially, the descent of one pass leads to the ascent of the next without too much of a flat area in between. Because this was a low snow year (some reports put it as only 43% of the average trail snow which means a bad summer drought for California 🙁), hikers like me are able to enter the Seirras and hike through these passes so early. Of course, this also means that there is still quite a bit of snow left on the passes and around them, which makes them more difficult and...

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...

A thru-hike attempt

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