Day 72 - In The Rhythm. 1056.7 (18.4)

Kevin Silvernale January 2, 2017

For some reason, I had not been sleeping very well the past two weeks. I figured it was from the difficult terrain along with hiking and sleeping at higher elevations. What ever it was, I slept wonderfully this past night.

Waking up in a good mood, I packed up quickly and hit the trail. Hiking ahead of the group for most of the day, I mainly saw Skinny Thor whenever I or he took a break.

Being in a good rhythm helps pass some of the less interesting miles. Not that today was lacking in interesting miles. It is easy to forget to look up and appreciate where I am and what I'm doing. Today I made sure I didn't take any of it for granted.

Toward the end of the day, I found a really nice campsite that had a great view of the sunset and had water nearby without any mosquitoes. The rest of the group decided to hike 1.5 miles ahead because it was relatively early in the evening still. I would later find out they had major mosquito issues. It is getting to the time of year where those little buggers will be more and more of a mental challenge to deal with.

Having the campsite to myself, I watched the sunset, read a little then fell asleep early. I had a fun idea of waking up early and going for 25 miles tomorrow. That will be the longest day so far. We'll see.

Day 68 - PCT, The Stream Trail. 996.1 (18.7)

Kevin Silvernale December 26, 2016

Not everyday of hiking is equal (as you've most likely figured out by now). Today was up there in terms of enjoyment on the Trail. Though a bit longer miles wise, tomorrow will be fairly short because of the extra effort.

I woke up and was the most comfortable, in my sleeping bag, I've been in a long time. All despite having a flat sleeping pad...

The whole I patched last night wasn't the only one. But I couldn't find the other pin head sized holes till it was light out. I ended up making all the repairs during lunch.

I took my time packing up camp, relaxed and chatted for a while with Christopher, a thru hiker I'd met a couple days ago. Once on the trail, the snow quickly tapered off as I lost more and more elevation. This made me very happy. At this time, I was starting to get really tired of snow.

Kerrick Creek was today's first of many water crossings. Reports have said this is the hardest crossing on the PCT. At this point, I stopped trusting reports and chose to see the conditions for myself. Kerrick was no worse than any other crossings. In fact, 1/4 mile down stream there was a log Christopher found to cross on. Though the vertigo hit hard mid log, I and many others were able to cross without getting wet. Others found a crossing through the Creek that wasn't so bad, and was closer to the trail.

The last 10 miles of the day consisted of a VERY gradual uphill. 1500 feet in 10 miles make the trail seem as though it was flat. For the last 6 miles of the day the trail was little more than a stream. Water every which way I turned started to take a toll on my mind. I listened to some JRE podcast which helped pass the tough miles.

Camp and sunset were breathtaking.

Day 64 - JMT Alternate Part 2 and Island Pass. PCT 926.1 (17.8)

Kevin Silvernale December 23, 2016

Mileage Breakdown: 11.3mi JMT Alternate + 3.2mi PCT + 3.0mi Unplanned Detour = 17.8 miles.

Very challenging day. Though very beautiful, the terrain mainly consisted of steep incline followed by steep decent. The snow, slush, water and mud added a nice touch to the whole experience.

About half way into the day, I missed a crucial turn at a fork in the trail. Instead of leading on toward the PCT and Island pass, I wandered 1.5 miles in the wrong direction. It was very disheartening, but I had an even longer ways to go before the end of the day, so all I could do was turn around and move on.

About 100 yards after turning around, I found Butterfingers had followed me down the wrong trail. The look on her face screamed, "NOOOOO, don't tell me we went the wrong way". But we had, so together we hiked as quickly as we could to avoid getting into camp before dark. This also meant we didn't take very many breaks.

The views were gorgeous. The wind and cooler tempuratures kept me from stopping to take them all in, so I took a ton of pictures which I could appreciate from the comfort of my sleeping bag.

Island Pass is nothing like the other passes along the PCT/JMT. more of a rolling hill, I never really knew when I had passed it. It's shallower slopes held a lot more snow which caused the end of the day to be mainly post holing in the slushy mess.

In camp, we had a large group. Primarily due to the fact this was the last good campsite before tomorrows pass. I'll plan on being up bright and early one more time. Hopefully it will be the last early morning for a while.