Day 33 - PCT 2024
Miles Hiked: 8.9
Total Ascent: 1,251.6 ft.
Total Descent: 839.9 ft.
I’m back on trail! Woohoo! I’m feeling a bit tight and stiff coming off my zeros. You’d think your body would be refreshed but I’ve found the opposite. At least for the first day. I’ve learned to try to take it easy on the first day back but that’s not always easy. Kathryn and I planned for a shorter mile day, thankfully, but being in and out of the snow is a challenge in itself.
Dr. Jess gave us a ride back to the trail head this morning. Big Bear is wonderful for trail angels. Nobody would take our offer of gas money. And with the amount I end up spending in towns, I’m sort of grateful for that. As a Canadian, getting cash out of an ATM is a huge expense. I should have gotten a USD account or something but hoo boy, Canadians be prepared for exorbitant fees if you do this. My offer of gas money is genuine though. I’m blown away by the kindness. And there’s a free bus around town too! It’s slow but free!
Today was my first day encountering poodle-dog bush! I had to use my Seek plant detecting app to be certain but when we saw it, we were instantly suspect. Touching the plant can cause a severe allergic reaction including rash, blisters and respiratory problems. It’s no joke! It grows in burn areas in Southern California. This and poison oak are common along the trail. Scary!
We climbed into the snow and although we didn’t put on our microspikes, as the afternoon sun hit the snow, we started post holing. It’s exhausting. You never know what step is going to crater. I didn’t feel unsafe on the snow. I didn’t think I’d slide down the mountain or anything but when you post hole, you never know if you’ll hit rocks, logs, vegetation, etc beneath the snow. It’s worrisome. Also, it’s incredibly easy to twist something and cause injury. My knee was acting up from it all and our shoes and socks were soaked.
I was happy when we rolled into our camp fairly early. It was a cute site with lots of tent space and a little creek. We hung out on the logs eating and drinking the little bottle of wine I packed out. Our shoes got to dry in the sun. Having access to water is always a good thing too. As we were hanging out, I noticed a guy showed up a little bit down from where we set up camp. He didn’t say anything and initially he scared me because I thought we were alone. PCTers generally say hi at the very least. As females, it can be uncomfortable when you don’t know someone is there or they don’t acknowledge themselves so Kathryn and I both felt that was weird. Especially because it was quite obvious we were there.
We received a severe weather alert of an upcoming storm so we reluctantly decided to drop down to Big Bear in the morning to wait out the storm. We want to hike another 2.7 miles to Cougar Crest Trail before dropping down but we know there will be a lot of post holing so we’ll aim to hike early. As the sun went down, the air got cold. We decided to retire to our tents early.
