The End of the Seirras (D-52 1016.9-1034.2; D-53 1034.2-1060.5; D-54 1060.5-1083.5)

Finally, the end of the Seirras (remember the Beauty & the Beast tag) is almost here. At least, officially and by the change in terrain and scenery. Hopefully I will be reaching Echo Lake tomorrow morning and that's the official end per Far Out app. Supposedly, the Seirras are the toughest part of the PCT. I can definitely attest to it being physically demanding and mentally challenging, especially since it was early in the season with lots of snow around and lots of snow melting resulting in sketchy snow traverses & water crossings. I am sure the trail will remain "adventurous" in the next 3 sections - Northern CA, Oregon & Washington - too (esp the last).

In the last three days, I didn't cross any high passes but it was lots of constant ups & downs with plenty of trail still covered by snow & water, which meant lots of painful way-finding and losing the trail. Did I mention already that I hate way-finding? 😬 I think I am done with snow and hoping it goes away soon. There were also couple of so-called Death Traverses, only cos a fall would mean sliding a loooong way down. But they were actually easy as long as one was careful and slow.

I have been hiking with Sofie, Owen & Cinnamon last three days, or at least, meeting them occasionally on the trail and at the end of the day, which is very pleasant & something to look fwd to. Tomorrow we split apart due to our different zero day schedules, but hopefully I will meet Sofie & Cinnamon later on (Owen is taking a few days break).

The last three days have been rather uneventful and in fact, I seem to be jaded by the beauty of Seirras by now 'cos I took only 1 pic on D-52 (see above).

Getting ready to get on the trail after a shuttle ride from Kennedy Meadows North

An artistic pic 😋

A snowy traverse to Noble Lake

Bare hillsides with the trail going up, definitely indicating a change from a typical Seirras trail

Nice new PCT signage

Alpine lakes - still fascinatingly pretty (in case you didn't notice, my notes now have video links too, like this one of the Alpine lakes)

A couple of those long snowy traverses which drastically reduces your pace

An abundance of natural toilet paper (they are good!)

Finally, the return of trail magic - at the Carson Pass info center

Hiking along in the twilight

Cowboy camping tonight

Data:

D-52

D-53

D-54

Comments

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

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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 morning around 8:40 am

A thru-hike attempt

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