June 9th, 2016
Miles Hiked: 9
Total Miles:
Start Location: Crabtree Meadow Ranger Station
End Location: Mile 775
End Location GPS: 36.64268, -118.38781
I closed my eyes at 9 PM last night and did not open them until 5:30. It was the best night’s sleep I’ve had since I started this trip and I think I needed it badly. We decided to do a short day and sleep in more. Yesterday’s hike did a number on us and it felt good to get a few more hours of shut eye.
For the first time since I can remember we didn’t actually get hiking until almost 9 AM. Normally we are hiking by 5:30 or 6. It felt good, like I was on vacation, and not waking up to the sound of the alarm was really nice.
The hike today was beautiful, yet again. Towering scraggly mountain peaks lay out before us like a buffet for our eyes. The snow on the very tallest spires looked like someone had accidentally spilled half thawed vanilla ice cream all over them.
Marmots are by far the most abundant critter out here. They kind of look like what the offspring of a cat and hamster might look like after a one night stand that started with kareokee and bull riding. They are the most adorable things I’ve ever seen, and they are just everywhere, their light brown body’s lollygagging over rocks and through meadows without a care in the world.
Tonight we are camped by a roaring creek. All the water and streams are swollen with the quickly melting snow. Many of these we crossed today by means of fording them, which means we had to get wet going across. Some streams are as deep as my thighs. The water is so cold, too, like how the Antarctic Ocean might feel if one took a dip near midnight.
Tommorrow we will go up and over Forester pass, the highest point on the PCT, and then proceed out of the mountains through Kearsarge pass to go to town and resupply.
This is all so unreal.