Day 47
Start: Morris Peak
Finish: Sawtooth Peak
Daily Mileage: 22.6
PCT Mile: 679.8
The night wasn’t cold, or at least didn’t seem cold, but there was a slight frost on the ground this morning in a few spots. My tent and bag were also soaked with condensation, likely due to the moisture from the rain yesterday. Packed up wet to deal with it later, as always.
First thing this morning, Cookie Monster and I had to finish the climb we started yesterday afternoon. We did most of the elevation yesterday, but still had some ups and downs. Leisurely 6:30 start this morning.
There was some good trail rounding steep mountains early on, with jagged mountains ahead dominating our views. I really like how we are getting into bigger and more majestic mountain landscapes. The low desert is still off to our right, but there are layers upon layers of mountains regularly now.
We grabbed some water at the bottom and started up to our next pass. This climb was out in the open with desert vegetation, and the day was beginning to heat up. It was a decent grade so we had to slow down a bit to keep good forward progress. It still wasn’t too long until we summited the pass and headed back down once again to another new layer of mountains. This one looking more dramatic and rocky.
We took a good break at the bottom and I dried out my gear in the sun. Thankfully, or not, we had our biggest climb of the day in the afternoon sun, with most of it fully exposed. We grabbed water, and I took up 2.75 liters, as that seemed like more than enough for the 8 miles to the next source.
The climb was brutal in the sun. Cookie Monster and I separated to go our own paces, and I had to set a much slower pace than normal to trudge my way up this last mountain. I’m not sure if it was the sun or the amount of elevation we had already covered, or a combination, but I started dragging.
I just kept trudging upwards, and checked my progress on my app several times. The top didn’t seem to be coming as quickly as it should. I finally rounded a pass. There was more climbing, but some clouds rolled in giving me a reprieve and there was now forest giving me a little shade.
The trail rounded a huge bowl over a few miles to the opposite side. It was neat to see the trail cut circle the whole thing. I couldn’t fully appreciate it or the mountains though since I was still dragging and low energy. I think I got behind on water earlier in the day, and I never really caught up. I flew through my water supply that should have been more than sufficient, and I would have liked more. The last bit of the day was flat to downhill at least, so I knew I could make it to the next stream.
The stream took longer than it seemed to get to, probably because I wanted it so much. I still kept checking my app as it slowly approached. At long last I made it and replenished my water.
There were supposed to be some camp spots in the vicinity, but I couldn’t find anything walking back and forth on the trail, so I just grabbed the flattest spot I could find to set up. I didn’t want to go any further.
I was exhausted in camp, and it took more effort than normal to get my chores done, including cooking. Feeling better after relaxing though. Hopefully I’ll get a good sleep to restore. Some sort of animal is making a barking noise in the distance. Haven’t heard anything like that before. Oh well, bed time.
