Day 100 : The halfway headache

29th July 2013
Mile 1332 to mile 1335 : Soldier Creek to Highway 36
Mileage : 3

Today was not about hiking, it was about celebrating the achievement of hiking halfway to Canada from Mexico, and about some hard truths about the miles to come. I had made it to the raod by 8am, and thanks to Ned, my ride for the day, into Chester by 9am where I met up with Dr Slosh, Smiles, Rocky and T-Rex for some celebratory breakfast calories.At first conversation was centered on congratulating ourselves for how far we had come literally and figuratively, but soon we started thinking about half far we still had to go. 1330 miles is a long way to have come, but 1330 miles is a long way to go, especially when the time element is considered. It has taken me 99 days to cover the first 1330 miles, averaging just 13.4 miles per day when zeros are included. Given that my goal is to finish at the end of September, including a 10-12 day break, it means my average daily mileage for the 52 days i reckon i have left on the trail has be 25. That is a big number. I'm not sure just how achievable that is, but starting tomorrow when i leave Chester I'm going to give it a go. The only things that will stop as I've previously said are a family emergency, or an injury, and my personal belief is that an injury can best be avoided by keeping the weight on. In VVR several weeks ago, and in Sierra City several days ago I weighed myself, and doubted the result both times, but have managed to do it third time and now believe the previous scales report on my weight. I started the trail weighing 86 kilos and in the last 100 days have lost only an implausible 4 kilos to take me to 82kgs. The reason I say this is implausible is that every other thru-hiker I have met, male or female, has lost considerably more than that. Shady Acres for example, who is roughly equal to me in height, build and hiking ability, has lost over 16 kilos since the start. I know that muscle is more dense than fat, and that I have no doubt that a have transferred a good deal of muscle from my upper to lower body, but a loss of only 4 kilos is improbably small. I think this is accomplishment about which i most pleased given how far i have come physically and mentally in the last 100 days, and i intend to try and keep this weight up if I can. There is a current myth going around the hiker that the second half of the trail is easier than the first, and that consequently we cover the miles quicker. I am skeptical about such assertions. Perhaps the conditions on the trail are marginally easier, but this is offset by the fact that the average mileage has to almost double for most hikers, and I definitely fall into this category. There is often talk about the fact that as we can cover ground more quickly we can carry substantially less food between trail towns, i personally think this is a big mistake. Up til now my calorie intake has been largely based around taking on 1000 calories 3 times a day and then at least 1000 calories worth of snacks between these meals. As I have been losing fat, I must be consuming more than I'm eating, even with trail town splurges, but given my relative lack of weight loss I can't be too far from correctly assessing my daily calorific requirements. The danger for the future is, in my view, to continue this strategy as i massively increase my average daily mileage. To counter this I have decided to change my calorie intake strategy to one based round miles and not days. A healthy average male is supposed to consume about 2500 calories per day, so this is my base. On top of this, I am going to attempt to eat 100 calories per mile while on the trail. As my 25 miles per day estimation includes any zeros i might take from here on, my aim for a daily mileage is going to be 30, resulting in an average daily calorie requirement of 5500. All in all, this means that, where other hikers are finding they are carrying less, I might actually end up carrying more, but I feel this is the right way to go. There is a well known hiker crash point at the end of Oregon, where hikers realize they pushed too hard through Northern California and Oregon and no longer have the strength to continue through Washington. I personally feel that a crash at this point is self inflected due to an insufficient calorie intake regime, and I am determined for that not to be me. On that note, it is time for resupply.

Day 99 : Halfway!

28th July 2013
Mile 1309 to mile 1332 : Cold Springs to Soldier Creek
Mileage : 23

As of today I have hiked halfway from Mexico to Canada, a total of 1330 miles!

I was the last out of camp this morning, which i like as i prefer hiking at the back of groups where i don't keep looking round every time I want to stop to take a picture or whatever. I filled up my water to capacity and started off in the early morning cool to get as many of the 23 waterless miles done as possible before it got too hot. Although it doesn't happen very often, the halfmile maps on this occasion were wrong and didn't list 2 springs along this section cutting the waterless length down to 12 miles, which i would do later that afternoon. I decided to lunch earlier than usual and so stopped at the last spring before the actual 12 mile waterless stretch. As yesterday, my current hiking group were following the same plan and we all stopped in some shade at the top of the day to rehydrate before tackling the days climb in the hot, hot sun. Again most of hikers left in front of me and i spent the rest of the afternoon catching them up so we could all celebrate at the halfway marker together. At about 4pm i reached the PCT halfway marker at mile 1326.5. I had hiked halfway from Mexico to Canada! It was actually a little anticlimactic, i don't know why, but it did. I think mostly because the two main groups of people with whom I have made friends, PRT and the Wolfpack, weren't there, and it felt a bit strange celebrating with people i didn't really know. I don't have anything negative to say about the present group with whom i am hiking, but they just weren't my group. Nevertheless, 2 of the group, Fireball and Busted, had each brought with them a bottle of sparkling wine, which we all used to good effect in front of the the monument. Interestingly, the PCT halfway marker isn't halfway along the PCT. The length of the PCT changes over time as detours are added and then removed, for a whole host of reasons, and this year the trail is 2660 miles long meaning the mid point was at mile 1330, and not 1326.6 where the monument is located, but who's counting? After a long time collectively patting ourselves on our backs we all carried on down the trail towards water and that night's camping spot. I was in two minds as to whether to stop at the water, or continue to the road and try to hitch to Chester, 7 miles eat from where the trail crosses the nearest highway at mile 2335. In the end i decided it was getting late and my chances of hitching in the dark were close to zero, so i decided to cover the last miles to the road early in the morning and get to bed early that night, so along with most people, except Dr Slosh and Smiles, who had turned up out of the blue at the monument and then had disappeared back into the blue immediately after on their way to Chester that night, i camped at Soldier Springs. My main reward to myself for getting this far has been the low mileage of the last couple days, I know that this is going to change in a big way from here on out, but that night i drifted off to sleep content that i was well on my way to fulfilling a long desired goal of hiking from Mexico to Canada along the PCT.

Halfway through!

Clockwise from the champagne : Fireball, Lady X, Solstice, Golden Boy and Busted

Day 98 : The 2nd hardest climb of the PCT to date

26th July 2013
Mile 1290 to mile 1309 : Belden to Cold Springs
Mileage 19

By now I am a hiking machine and am not generally phased by anything the trail throws at me. But the climb out of Belden was definitely the 2nd worst climb of the entire PCT to date. 1st place in the horrible climbs awards goes to the climb out of Ziggy and the Bear's into the San Gorgornio mountains over 1100 miles ago, but the Belden climb came close to pipping it. The gain over the 14 mile cllimb was about 5000ft, but Dr Slosh worked out later that the total change, with all the little ups and downs, was more like 7000ft. It was less than pleasant. 14 miles should take less than 5 hiking hours (not including breaks), this took over 8. Thankfully there was shade and water for the majority of the ascent, but even so i was hot and dehydrated when i got to the summit. My original goal was to do about 25 today as i slowly ramp up the miles, and although i could have gone farther, i decided to call it a day after only 19. Once i had recovered a bit, i discovered i wasn't actually that tired, but knew that i would still be dehydrated for some hours to come, and so shouldn't start off dehydrated into the 23 mile dry stretch which lay ahead, especially now that i only carry 3 litres water capacity. Where I stopped at Cold Springs, I discovered i wasn't alone in my plan for the dry stretch, and in the were a large group at the campsite that night : Shay Acres and his two friends, Fireball, Busted, Solstice, Golden Boy and Lady X.The mood was pretty excited that evening, for one big reason, tomorrow we would be halfway to Canada!

Day 97 : Belden

25th July 2013
No Miles
Mileage : 0

The climb out of Belden is 5000+ft, and i had no intention of doing that today. Realistically the only time to tackle a climb like that in the middle of summer is in the cool of the morning, and given i had gotten up late today following Pan's birthday celebrations, i planned to tackle the climb the following morning. Belden is too small to do any real resupply, and too small to have anywhere with wifi or internet connection, so oddly i didn't have any chores to do. The high point of the day was getting in touch with Sophie, with whom i hadn't spoken since Yosemite Valley a couple weeks ago, and after that i spent most of the day by the river with Shady Acres and two of his friends who had come up to hike with him for a couple days. Towards the end of the day Chick-Chack and Starfox turned up, and the three of us headed across to the Braatens', some local trail angels who put up hikers in their cabins. The three of us spent a couple hours chatting about our experiences on the trail thus far, and talking about the fact that in the the last couple hundred miles or so there had been a substantial number of people dropping of the trail, and we wondered if any of the people we have been hiking with would end up leaving. Sourcream, the young canadian guy who started on the same day as myself, Chick-Chack, T-Rex, Rocky, Mr Green and Hoopdreams, with whom i have mostly stuck with up til now, is the only person we know personally that has left. He decided he had accomplished enough for his needs, and decided there was no need to carry on. A few hundred miles ago (i have taken to expressing time in miles hiked) I would have taken a dim view of this, but now I am much more laid back about it. Each hiker should hike his or her own hike, and not judge others for deciding to take a different path. Although the only 2 things that pull me off the trail are an injury or family emergency, it did make me wonder about continuing. More accurately, it made me wonder about stopping. The Mexican and Candian borders are just arbitrary lines drawn on a map, and don't really represent a physical barrier, e.g the sea, to a hiker so why place so much importance on it? Why stop there? Why not continue up into Canada and beyond? I find it difficult explaining even to myself why i'm out doing this trail  in the first place, so I understand that if Sourcream feels he has gone as far as he needs, he doesn't need to explain himself to anyone. After reaching the conclusion that all of us are out here with different aims and objectives, and that it is unfair to judge other people for making decisions that aren't inline with one's own, i went to bed contemplating the enormity of my own objective for the following morning : A 5000ft climb in the hot summer sun.

Brenda Braaten

Belden bar and restaurant

Day 96 : An unexpected reunion

24th July 2013
Mile 1266 to mile 1290 : The Williams' to Belden
Mileage : 24

As if the previous day's hospitality hadn't been enough, the 5 of us hikers staying at the Williams' last night were woken to the wonder smell of coffee and frying bacon. I had the best of intentions to hike out early and make the most of the cool of the morning, but the breakfast laid on by the Williams' put paid to that. It was without a doubt the best breakfast i have had on the trail thus far, and i don't imagine it being beaten any time soon. By 9am i was on the move once again and after a 5mile road walk around Bucks Lake had regained the PCT. With the hundreds, if not thousands, of calories i had taken on a breakfast i had covered 15 miles before i needed to stop an eat again, and did so just before starting the 5000ft knee jarring descent down to Belden, a small hamlet built on the North Fork of the Feather River as it cuts east to west through this most northern section of the Sierra Nevadas. The trail spat me out almost directly in the middle of the centre of the 'town', a grandiose title for population centre of 22, according to wiki. Upon arrival at the local watering hole, i spotted the packs of PRT. I discovered Peter Pan, Mr Greem, Dishcloth and HoopDreams soaking in the river celebrating Pan's birthday and awaiting my arrival. They had been expecting me earlier in the day, but my trail angel stop had delayed me by about 9 hiking hours and so they whiled away the time doing what PRT does best, resting. In truth i was not expecting them, to be here so soon, as was intrigued to know how they'd gotten here so fast. It turns out they had found it too tough to leave Sierra City given the steep climb out of there, and so had obtained a ride to Bucks Lake, from where they had hiked into Belden. In order not to cut any corners, they now intended to get a ride back to Sierra City tomorrow, from where they would hike back to Bucks Lake, whereupon they would get a ride back to Belden before returning as normal to the trail. The logic of their plan escapes me, but it does leave me with a bit of a dilemma as to whether or not to wait for them in Belden, or whether to continue up the trail and hope they catch me up. For the moment I put all that from my mind and joined them cooling off in the river with a hard earned beer. Planning could wait til tomorrow.

From left to right, by Starfox : Rocks, Yours Truly, HoopDreams, Dishcloth, Mr Green, Peter Pan, Shady Acres, Nurse Betty & Nurse Betty's fella whose name i don't remember

Day 95 : A pleasant surprise

23rd July 2013
Mile 1251 to mile 1266 : The Middle Fork of the Feather River to The Williams'
Mileage : 15 + 2.5

The Feather River has 3 forks, Lower, Middle, and Upper, and they cut through the terrain forming deep forested canyons. Most of the trail follows the tops of of a plateau like landscape at about 7000ft except for where it crosses rivers, which mostly flow west to east. Whenever this happens, the trail dives straight to the bottom of these canyons and climbs straight up the other sides. This is the situation at Sierra City, the Middle Fork of the Feather, and at Belden. The rivers are often over 3000ft, and at Belden almost 5000ft, below the plateaus and the temperatures are substantially higher, difficult to believe due to the intense heat of the plateaus, as a result. For this reason I was actually looking forward to the 6000+ft of climbing the trail had planned for me that day. The first 4000ft were completed at relative speed as it was up, up, up from the go that morning, and by midday i was at Lookout Rock admiring the view. At Lookout Rock, I saw a sign for a local trail angel at Buck's Lake, took a picture in case i needed it later, but otherwise didn't think much of it as i wasn't planning on on stopping there. Most of the angels are well known to hikers in advance, so we can plan to stop in or not, but this was a total surprise and so i hadn't planned on a stop there. By the time i reached Big Creek Rd however, I had changed my mind. PRT were still behind me, and i was trying to ease up on the pace to let them catch me, so decided i would go and investigate the local trail angels Terry and Nancy Williams. It turned out to be a very good idea, and they turned out to be the best Trail Angel experience i've had so far. There was no traffic going my direction on Big Creek Rd, so after 15 minutes i started walking down the road in the direction mentioned on the sign, and before long had found the Williams' cabin 2 miles down the road. The Williams are from the Bay Area, and keep a small cabin up by Bucks Lake to escape the worst of the summer heat. It was wonderful. I was the only hiker there that afternoon, but was soon joined by Chops, Rocks, Hercules and Daniela who turned up just in time for dinner. It turns out the Williams had had a large family reunion a few days before and were doing there best to offload all the excess food onto us hikers before it all went bad. The 5 of us did our best to help Nancy and Terry out and put our hiker appetites to work. Many calories later we were all snoring soundly in the cool evening air all congratulating ourselves for the making the decision to stop here. As i said it was the best Trail Angel experience thus far.

Clockwise from far left : Chops, Terry, Hercules, Rocks, Nancy and Daniela

Day 94 :The Feather River

22nd July 2013
Mile 1221 to mile 1251 : A-tree Spring to the Middle Fork of the Feather River
Mileage : 30

I made good time today getting all the way to the feather river before dark fell. Most of the day was spent trying to hide from the sun that beat down on me all day as it continues to be the hardest part of the hike at this stage. There were several unpleasant exposed sections on the tops of ridges, that i had to tackle in the midday sun, but thankfully these were short in length and i was able to hike in the shade for the majority of the day, although at the hottest part of the day even this wasn't possible. Exacerbating the intense heat is the stillness of the forest. On the exposed ridges there is sometimes a breeze, but mostly the forest blogs out the wind, every once in a while i can see the tops of trees waving slightly, but down on the forest floor there is no relief, the oppressive heat and silence weigh down on me everyday and is difficult to ignore. Towards the end of the day the forest is at it's hottest, and today was no exception. At the end of the day I had a 3000ft descent down to the Middle Fork of the Feather River, and as i descended i could feel the temperature and humidity increase with every step, even as the forest was starting to darken with the oncoming evening. The river was a welcome sight at the end of the day, and i was able to cool off, but even so i looked forward to the climb back up from the river as the forest is fractionally, but noticeably cooler with the increase in altitude.

Day 93 : The Heat Returns

21st July 2013
Mile 1197.5 to mile 1221 : Sierra City to A-Tree Spring
Mileage : 23.5 + 1.5

I was indeed up early, but my early start to the hiking day was stymied by the fact that someone had kindly unplugged my tablet before it was even half charged, so i waited around to get half an hour worth of charge before heading out to the trail. I wasn't lucky enough to get a ride to the trailhead, so had a mile and a half road walk up to where the trail and road cross. It was definitely a good decision to get up early as the sun soon heated everything up.  The first half of the 3000ft was shaded, but the second half was not, and by the time i reached to top i was hot, tired and sweaty. Along that final stretch i met a deer who was travelling down the trail. It was unafraid of me, and was clearly trying to go down the trail but didn't want to get closer than about 10 metres to me. I continued up the trail with him advancing in spurts up the trail, looking around every time as if to say, 'you're still on the trail? I need to get past!' After effectively chasing him up the the trail for a good 100 metres or so he final got off the trail to let me through, as i past him, he got straight back on the trail and continued down the trail to wherever he was going. After recovering on the shade by a gurgling spring, i pressed on toward my destination for the night, the A-Tree spring walking along ridgetops with stunning views down left on right into evergreen valleys as far as the eye could see. Night was falling as i arrived at A-Tree spring, and i began my evening routine as quickly as possible trying to avoid using my headlamp. Just as I was settling down for the night, another deer appeared out of the forest almost treading on me surprising both of us. I don't ever camp directly, next to a spring, as a lot of animals use the same springs we do and it's not fair to either deprive them of a cool evening drink or force them to get closer to humans than they would otherwise do, and i thought i was far enough away from the spring to aboid these sort of wildlife encounters but clearly not. We eyed each other up for a moment or two, both deciding the other wasn't a threat and went back to our respective activities, me to sleep, and him to drinking. As i drifted off to sleep i wondered if i should be worried about encounters with other more threatening animals, i.e bears and mountain lions, but was asleep before i could give it much thought.

There are no deer passing points on the trail unfortuntely for this guy

Day 91 + 92 : Sierra City

19th + 20th July 2013
Sierra City
Mileage : 0

I didn't intend to take more than one zero here, but the gods, the need to wait for the rest of PRT, and the pleasantness of the town conspired to make it two. I have being staying in the backyard of the of the Red Moose Inn, a very hiker-friendly establishment run by the two owners : Bill and Margaret. The first night i turned up to discover that the female element of the Wolf Pack, that is to say Smiles, T-Rex and Chick-Chack had decided to skip the last section and had hitched up to Sierra City arriving around the same time as me. T-Rex had had a couple of face plant style falls and badly sprained one of her ankles, it was as big as a soft ball when i saw it, Chick-Chack's knee was still giving her problems and Smiles just enjoyed taking the time off. It had been a long hot day getting into Sierra City so I was in bed fairly early, looking to get up early and get my chores done. Early next morning, i went to to post office to pick up my two packages. I was in for 2 surprises, one very good, and one not so good , infact fairly rubbish. I'll start with the good one. Jeanne, whom I met on the flight over here very kindly sent me a million of the best cranberry biscuits of all time. Americans as a rule tend to put way to much cinnamon in food, to the extent that i don't really like it anymore, but these biscuits had just a hint of cinnamon in them, and were gorgeous. I wish i could say i savoured every bite of them very slowly, but i didn't, instead i had scoffed the entire lot by the end of the day. The other surprise was the arrival of my new hiking shoes. Over the last couple hundred miles they have begun to fall apart. The tread is wearing on causing me to slip and slide more than usual, the laces are beginning to fray, there are holes in the sides that let even more dirt in than is the norm, and worst off all they are no longer anywhere near as stiff. This is the biggest of the issues due to the fact that i have to pay real attention to every foot position as a wrong step results in a rock being pushed hard into my eternally tender feet. A less than ideal situation. When I excitedly picked up the package from the post office i immediately knew something was wrong. The box seemed a good deal smaller than it should be. When i opened the box i saw why, it turns out that i had ordered the Merrel Moab Ventilator in Brown Size 13 - Kids. The addition of this 4 letter word at the end of my order, which i hadnt seen, is very important it turns out. As the picture below indicates, i couldnt have even got my big toe into the shoes, let alone my entire foot. The incidient caused much hilarity amongst the assembled hikers, but it caused me to wear my sad and sheepish face for a god hour or to as i came to terms with the fact that my feet would have to endure another 150 miles of my current shoes before a second replacement pair arrive. I spent the afternoon swimming with Shady Acres and T-Rex in a swimming hole by which the trail passed on the out skirts of town. It had looked so inviting when i had passed it the afternoon before, and i was glad that we got to swim in it. The next day, when the male half of the Wolf-Pack, Dr Slosh, Starfox and Rocky arrived with PRT in tow we all headed down to a similar but closer swimming hole to enjoy some much needed pool side rnr. The water at these pools was deliciously cold, at first it would be too cold for our tired and tender feet, but after a minute or two of acclimation, as an american would say, we were all soaking our tired limbs in the cold yet sunny water. Although PRT were probably going to stay another day, i was getting antsy about being in town so long and decided to head out the next morning. The last night was spent on the church lawn trying to sleep in the almost oppressive evening heat. At the beginning of my hike, i had worried about the inadequacy of my sleeping bag to deal with the cold, but now it's just to hot to sleep in. For the last couple nights i have been sleeping in my sleeping bag liner, and using my sleeping bag as a quilt, only really using it in the early morning before the dawn when the night is coldest, but even then i don't really need it. One positive thing about the heat is that it is a major motivation to get up and going in the morning to avoid the heat. So that's what i'll be doing tomorrow.

Sierra City was a pretty town

My new shoes with my feet for scale

The cookies! (i am not sunburnt in thi picture but I admit it definitely looks like i am)

Day 90 : Things that go bump in the night.

18th July 2013
Mile 1170.5 to mile 1198.5 : White Rock Creek to Sierra City
Mileage : 27.5

I was up at 5am today looking to get some miles in before the day heated up. From looking at the maps i guessed the first section would be exposed and it made sense to do these when the day was cool. By 9:30 i had covered over 11 miles when i got to a water source and found several other hikers resting after doing a similar morning hike. There was Cherub, a South African girl i hadn't met before, Ingrid and Tracy, whom i hadn't seen since Ziggy and the Bear 1000 miles ago, and Puppy, who i see on fairly regular basis at the moment. After a few minutes of chitchat the topic of conversation turned to things that go bump in the night, and specifically the things that we all we had heard go bump last night. It turns out we had all camped within a couple mile of each other and had all heard things moving on the trail the night before. Last night, at zero dark 45, i was awoken by someone or something, and possibly several someones or somethings on the trail not 5 metres from where i was sleeping out in the open without even the thin fabric of my tent between me end whatever it/they were. I awoke suddenly, my body alerting me to the noise, and was.instantly aware that something was out there. My first groggy thought was that hikers were making proverbial.hay while the sun wasn't shining, a sensible approach given the weather forecast. But i know what hikers sound like and it didnt sound like hikers. Deducing the noises were animal in nature but not knowing more was a tad disconcerting. My sleeping bag forms a sort of cocoon around my head leaving only my mouth and nose open to the elements meaning i couldn't see what was out there, and tat the sound was muffled.to the point where the only thing i could determine was that it was either big, or they were numerous, to be making so much noise, and i couldn't tell.which. Neither option was particularly comforting as this only  ruled out mountain lions which are solitary animals and hunt by stealth so the chances of being eaten by a pride of noisy clumsy mountain lions were pretty slim. Being in my cocoon i also couldn't get to my hiking poles at speed which would be my only defense in the case.of a marauding bear and i reasoned that the best course of action was to remain quiet, not startle whatever was out there and hope it would pass by not noticing me and leave me unmolested. To think that any animal can't detect me in on the trail is ludicrous, as bears can smell food through sealed packaging, and deer can smell salt in urine and on clothes with ease and have been known to eat salt saturated hikers clothing, but in my foggy awake/asleep state i didnt know what else to do. My encounter must have lasted all of about 30 seconds before the forest fell silent once again, and i lay there trying intently to hear anything else, but the next.thing i remember hearing was my alarm, and i was jolted into the pale morning light wondering whether or i had dreamt the whole episode. I didn't think of it again until Puppy brought it up a which point i realised it was all real. Puppy had awoke in time to shine a light at the noise and had seen several, if not a whole herd, of deer which bolted as soon as they realised she was there, clearly just as startled as us by the whole affair.

With the mystery and story over we one by one headed on down the trail keen to get on with the hike and get into Sierra City. The rest of the day past uneventfully, and after a quick dip.in a river, i was regailing other hikers of last nights events while ensconced at the bar of the Red Moose Inn, the home and establishment of Bill and Margaret, the local trail angels. I had arrived late and before so long it was time to hit the hay on the grass in the backyard of the inn. Before settling down for the night Margaret informed us to put all food stuffs inside to encounters with prowling bears. I did the necessary and went to bed mostly too tired think about more about any bear problem, but also hoping that this night would be bump free.

Day 89 : Donner Pass

17th July 2013
Mile 1144 to mile 1170.5 : Granite Chief Mountain to White Rock Creek
Mileage : 26.5 + .5
Today was a fairly eventful day. My clifftop granite campsite faced due east so i was hit by the hot sun seemingly even before it had appeared in the sky. I had resolved to do another 30 miler today but it soon became apparent that this would be a big ask. The sun was back, and in a big way. I haven't felt heat like this since the miserable Tehachapi to Kennedy Meadows and i was filled with a sense of foreboding a i thought about the difficulty of covering hundreds of miles in heat like this. I consoled myself in the fact that i would at least have tree cover unlike in the desert and tried to put it all out of my mind as i thought about the upcoming day.
The main feature of the day was the Donner Pass, and several other geographical features such as Donner Lake and Donner Peak all owing their name to the ill fated Donner Party.
The Donner Party refers to a group of settlers, mostly consisting of several family groups and associated help, as well.was two native American guides, attempting to reach the valley area of central California in 1846. From the outside they ran into difficulties taking a supposed short-cut suggested to them almost certainly by individuals looking to profit from them taking a non standard route via seldom frequented trading posts. The party, so named after the nominated leader George Donner, set out late in the migratory season, and after the short-cut were another month behind schedule and were racing to get over the Sierra Nevadas before he first snows in the autumn. I hiked past the actual pass used by the settlers using this route into California at Roller Pass. At his point Wagons would be hauled up the 45 degree slope by double teams of oxen with all party members ferrying goods up and down the pass. The Donner Party took a wrong turn, missed Roller Pass and found themselves stranded below Donner Pass by the first the winter storms. Before long supplies were running low and groups set out to get help, with rescue only.coming in the spring of 1947. In the interim, a number of the party died, and in the case of the native American guides were killed, and eaten by the others in an effort to stay alive. Just over half of the 90 who set out survived. It was a sobering thought as i wound my way down the trail to the now busy Highway 80.
During my descent i bumped in trail angel Reno Dave and his daughter Holly, who gave me my first trail magic, a 7up, since Walker Pass almost 500 miles previously. I chatted with the pair for a few.minutes before heading down to the road, and was told to stock up on water at the nearby truck rest area on the highway as the next section. A little while later i was mistaken for a crazy homeless person by a non-english speaking trucker, who tried to give me some money. I could see him getting out his wallet, and as he proffered the note my instinctively was to decline insisting i was not homeless despite my dragged appearance. As i began my PCT routine, it became clear he didn't speak English and didn't know what i was on about. Quick as a flash i dived into my rucksack sending stuff flying everywhere while i got to the bottom of my clothes bag, found PCT bandana, and started gesticulating wildly with my hiking poles pointing first to the bandana and then to the surrounding hills. At this point he clearly thought i was both homeless and crazy, and retreated to the safety of his truck before driving off. After watching him depart, i reflected that his assessment of me was fairly accurate, at least glance, as i sat there at the truck stop with all my.possessions strewn about me, thin, bearded and haggard-looking drying my socks on the table next to me. I suppose i am homeless at present, and am probably a bit crazy to have decided to do what i am doing.
Afterputting off hiking in the afternoon heat for.long enough i headed back to the trail and climbed up the other side.of the pass into the surrounding mountains, managing another 12 miles before deciding to call an end to the day's hiking on the top of a low saddle. It had indeed been an eventful.day.

Reno Dave with Holly

Roller Pass, where the Donner PArty should have traversed the Sierra Nevada

Day 88 : A high day

16th July 2013
Mile 1113.5 to mile 1144 : Somewhere in Desolation Wilderness to Granite Chief Mountain
Mileage : 30.5

After yesterdy's tough and trying day i was determined the today would be better. And thankfully it was, considerably. I was up at dawn and had hiked almost 12 miles by 11am when i took my first break right before the first real climb of the day. The climbs of the day took me to some stunning viewpoints of Lake Tahoe, and during that afternoon i passed Starfox and Chick-Chack, Atlas and finally Rocky and T-Rex  just before ending my day a the sun was setting having completed over 30 miles. It felt good to be doing the big miles again, and i was actually looking forward to doing more high mile days in the future if they all go as easily as today's miles did. I camped on a granite outcrop overlooking Lake Tahoe and fell to sleep quickly after a long but successful day.

Day 87 : A low day

15th July 2013
Mile 1094.5 to mile 1113.5 : Echo Lake Chalet to Somewhere in the Desolation Wilderness
Mileage : 19

There are good days and bad on the trail, high days and low days. Today was a low day. It started off promisingly enough with my illegal stealth camping venture ending wi me back at the Echo Lake Chalet Store waiting by the phone to call Sophie on her birthday. Sometimes I manage to get through, but today the gods were conspiring against me and I didn't manage to get through. With way I hope you had a fantastic birthday Sophie! Between attempted calls to Sophie, I went into the store to ask them if they wouldn't mind charging my tablet for an hour or so. It turns out they would mind. Regardless of the fact that I could see at least two free sockets behind the till, the young male employee said he would get fired if he let me plug in my tablet next to his, which i could see happily charging next to the open sockets. I didn't get this get to me, and I went back outside to plug my tablet into the sun, and chatted to some other thru-hikers sitting outside. About half an hour later I looked at my tablet to find, to my dismay, that I shouldn't hav plugged it in directly to the solar charger and for reasons I can't explain it had totally drained the battery. This was not turning out to be a good start to the day. At this stage I gave up trying to get through to Sophie and packed up my stuff, my last chore being to fill up my water bottles. I walked back into the store whereupon they once again refused to help me out. I couldn't believe it. I can sort of understand them not wanting the liability of having multiple phones and computers lying about the shop, but not filling up water bottles, given there was a fully functioning cafe, was unforgivable. Trying not to convey my irritation, which by now, given my morning, was verging on anger, asked the same employee where I might fill up my bottles if not at the store. The helpful employee pointed me to the lake and told me I should get water there. I asked him if he meant the same lake into which I had seen a fisherman disembowel a fish, into which seen a motorboat owner spill some fuel, and in which i had seen children playing and probably peeing. He confirmd that yes this was the lake from which I should draw water. Thoroughly peeved I left for the trail at speed, and 5 minutes onto the trail saw a sign on the trail leading to some lakeside chalets undoubtably owned by the Echo Lake Chalet which said 'no lake access for PCT hikers', not simply 'hikers', but specifically PCT hikers. I know there are bad apples among any demographic, and have no doubt that PCT hikers are no exception, but to be so unhiker friendly as to refuse water to a hiker is close to criminal. I hiked on to the next lake, Lake Aloha, and got water there after 8 miles of hot hiking in the midday sun. That day, due to my late start, I only managed 19 miles before I lost the light and decided to stop. I was half a hiking day behind PRT and The WolfPack and resolved to get up early and catch them both tomorrow.

Day 84 : Town

12th July 2013
Mile 1081 to mile 1092 : Carson Pass to Highway 50
Mileage : 11

I think somewhere in the last couple days I have made a mistake with dates, but I am sure that this entry's date is correct. I'll modify the offending post later. With so few miles to do today, we could have taken it easy, but the thought of town, and all that goes with it, was a major motivation and we coverd the miles to Highway 50, our hitching point into South Lake Tahoe, at speed. Before long the 4 of us were squished into a jeep on our way down to the lake having successfully flagged down a ride. Our ride today was thanks to Ben, a former Search and Rescue volunteer who knew all about the trail and therefore knew who we were. South Lake Tahoe straddles both California and Nevada, with the Nevadan (?) side known for two things: the casinos and the casino buffets. Buffets aren't usually my thing, but I had heard good things about these buffets, and was prepared to make an exception. Ben dropped us off on the Californian side of town at a central shopping district, and only seconds after extracting ourselves from the car and coaxing our legs back into the upright position, Mr Green had spotted an All You Can Eat lunch at a local pizza place, it seems that California does buffets too. Many stodgy American style pizza calories later, we were back in a car, this time courtesy of Aloha, on our way to find somewhere to put up for the night. A while later we found ourselves in the cheapest motel we could find for a Friday night. South Lake Tahoe is a weekend getaway resort for people living in the Bay Area, and consequently the prices were grossly inflated. The cheapest motel turns out a to be not so cheap, and b very, very, decrepit. Not a great deal to be done about that unfortunately as even the campground was 50 dollars a night. After getting clean and lounging long enough to digest lunch, we set out to a nearby micro-brewery for a local beer and some more food.

Day 85 + 86: South Lake Tahoe

13th+14th July 2013
Mile 1090.5 to 1094.5 : Highway 80 to Echo Lake Chalet
Mileage : 4

I slept terribly last night, infact to use the verb 'to sleep' here misrepresents the facts. After a good dinner and few beers he night before i thought id pass out no problem, but it was not to be. Peter Pan, Hoop Dreams, Mr Green, Aloha and myself were sharing the very tiny shabby motel room so we weren't of to a good start. Mr Green, with  whom ordinarily i have absolutely no problem whatsoever, was snoring loudly enough to wake the dead. If this wasn't enough, a fairly busy road passed close by not helping matters. And to top it all off, at about 3am several groups of drunk Friday nighters began returning to their rooms, conveniently right next to ours, nite helping matters at all. I have grown used to the blissful silence of the outdoors, and now find it difficult to sleep with even the slightest evening distraction. By 8:30am i had had perhaps 2 hours of fitful sleep but it was time to get up. I resolved there and then to head back to the trailhead that night if only to be assured of a better nights sleep. Aloha was leaving early to go and meet his wife Toots Magoots and her hiking companion Tears for Bears who are a few days ahead, and i got a lift with him.toothed local library to do some much needed blogging. I was too early for the opening of library, so had a nap for almost an hour before sitting down for several hours at the computer. I was.there for most of the day it turned out, with an hour break where went across the road to.stuff myself with very good Indian food as the local.Indian restaurant was having a lunchtime buffet. For reasons i don't understand South Lake Tahoe is full of buffets, not usually my cup of tea but a perfect was for a hikers to take on huge amounts of calories. Back at the library to finish blogging, i bumped into two thirds of the The Wolfpack, Rocky and T-Rex who started on the same day as me, and Dr Slosh and Smiles, another couple from the bay area. Dr Slosh had a friend with a cabin in South Lake Tahoe and they were staying there while taking their zeros. Another reason for my initial of heading back to the trail was that i didn't want to pay Saturday night prices for accommodation, food or drink in this Bay Area expensive weekend playground. I sensed an opportunity to yogi a free nights stay and of course they said yes. We all needed to go do resupply and then wait for Chick-Chack and Starfox, the final third of the Wolfpack, and with whom i did the High Route section,to turn up with the van. Initially i had assumed the van would be of the people carrier variety, but i wasn't, it was a u-haul, moving house type van as it was the last vehicule available. With all of us plus shopping crammed in the back trying to be as inconspicuous as possible as technically what we were doin was mildly illegal we set to find the cabin. Upon arrival i knew i had made the right decision. Although all the bedrooms were claimed, i would have a couch and an entire room to myself in this calm residential part of town, i would sleep very well that night.

After many, many hours of sleep, making up for the night before, the house stirred and at about midday the lot of us were back in the van on our way back to the trail. We.didn't quite go.directly back to the trail aw We had to.drop off the van and then wait for rides from trail angels back up to the trailhead. By 3:30 i was doing the short hike from where i had gotten picked up, to Echo Lake where the others had gotten dropped off. The first few miles after a town stop and with a full pack are always difficult, and today was no exception, but soon enough i was there. The Wolfpack was there, along with Puppy, with whom PRT had been bumping into on and off over the last few days on the trail. Puppy told me the rest of PRT had just set off, and that i could probably catch them if hurried. I was in two minds about what to do, on the one hand i wanted to get on trail and makemiles, and on the other i knew i would probably not get reception up there to call Sophie on her birthday the next day. I decided that i wanted to speak to Sophie more than i wanted to catch up with PRT, so went a little way up the the trail to find somewhere to stealth camp. Stealth camping, as the term suggests, is what hikers do when they want to camp incognito. The two main reasons for doing this are : 1 - camping might not be allowed as was the case for me that night as i committed my second illegal act in as many days. A sign that i ignored told me that i was not allowed to camp within 2.5 miles of lake, and i had no intention of hiking out just to come back the next morning to ring Sophie, and 2 - a hikers might not want to spend a lot of money paying for accommodation in a town and so goes to find somewhere to sleep. Had i not met up with the Wolfpack yesterday afternoon my stealth camping would have for both reasons. A little way up a side trail i found a bi of ground just big enough for my sleeping big and settled down for another long nights sleep, but jot before taking in the stunning vista of the southern end of lake Tahoe from my vantage point high on the surrounding mountains. A good end to the day.

Day 83 : Carson Pass

12th July 2013
Mile 1051 to mile 1081 : Sherrold Lake to Carson Pass
Mileage : 30

I realized after after posting it that my last entry doesn't talk about the subject in the title, so here goes. The mosquitoes appeared after Crabtree Meadows, and have been with us ever since, and were especially bad n the section between Tuolumne and Sonora Pass. Miraculously, they seem to have diminished in intensity since then, and for a while I didn't know why this should be, until Dr Slosh, about whom more will be said in a couple posts time, gave me an explanation. He said the predominant reason for the sudden drop off in mosquitoes was the change in geology. The central section of the Sierra Nevadas, through which we have been hiking for several weeks is almost entirely all gqranite, a hard and impermeable rock. This means water stays on, or close, to the surface, and given the layered nature granite, produces lots of swampy meadows which are perfect breeding grounds for the mosquitoes, in contrast, the mountains after Sonora are predominately volcanic, which being much more porous, does not allow for a great deal of surface water, and hence there are fewer mosquitoes. Mystery solved! Thankyou Dr Slosh. There are pros and cons of the change in rock, the pro being the lack of mosquitoes, and the cons being the sharper rocks, and the relative lack of water, although by now a 10 mile waterless stretch doesn't even appear on the radar of the days events. Today we managed 30 miles motivated primarily by th desire to do fewer tomorrow when we would get into South Lake Tahoe, and we ended up stopping just after Carson Pass. By the time we stopped the light was fading fast, and the temperature was dropping so we stopped at the first available spot. There was only enough space for 2 bedrolls, and given I was the last into camp, I had to set up on the trail itself. The only other time I have done this was during the first week where I spent a blustery night hugging the side of a cliff overlooking the stunning Anzo Borrego Desert Park, it seems like a lifetime ago thinking back to it.

Day 82 : No mosquitos

10th July 2013
Mile 1026 to mile 1051 : Nowhere Special to Sherrold Lake
Mileage : 25

In an effort to start doing some higher mile days we set off at a reasonable 9am, and enjoyed the fact that the day's hiking dint include any significant climbs. That being said it wasn't an easy day, although there weren't any major climbs, there were a number of small little ups and downs which cumulatively add up to a large number. The rocks alternated all day between sharp volcanic outcrops sharp enough to hurt my feet even with my shoes on, and granite sections with big rounded boulders strewn about the trail. I can tell that my current pair of trail runners are reaching the end of their lives as I can feel each rock as I step on it. Either that are my feet are bruised and are more sensitive than they have been. Probably the two are conspiring angaint me in tandem, but for the moment there is not a great deal I can do it. A lot of people take iboprufren towards the end of the day to dull the pain of hurting feet, but so far I have resisted doing this as I think the pain helps keep my aware f when I'm ready for the day to be over. Whispers, who appears to hike with us for a day or two before dropping of the radar, will do a 50 miler every once in a while for no obvious reason. My body could probably do the distance without too much trouble, but my feet would not be happy about doing this sort of distance, and I would have to medicate in a big way in order to get through it. 25 miles is the point at which my feet start to complain, and so it was after this distance that we decided to call it a day.

Day 81 : A late start

9th July 2013
Mile 1018 to mile 1026 : Sonora Pass to nowhere special
Mileage : 8

It is fair to say that hiking got off to a late start today. We had the best of intentions of getting a relatively early start and hitting the road by midday after having done a small resupply. The first part of the plan went fairly well, and by 1 pm we were all good to go, so Pan, HoopDreams, Mr Green, whom we had caught up to the day before, and myself walked back to the main road from the resort to start hitching. It did not go well. We had heard that it is a hard hitch, but had high hopes given how easy our hitch was to get down to Kennedy Meadows in the first place. When we got to the junction, we found 6 other hikers looking for a ride, some had been there a while. There was not a great deal of traffic heading up the hill, most infact turned at the junction to go up the Kennedy Meadows leaving only one or two to zoom past us. After about an hour we decided that a group of 10 was too intimidating for most drivers, and that our best course of action was for most of us to hide out of sight and let the first two try their luck and for them to be replaced when they got a hitch. It was a good idea, but it didn't work. By 4pm we were getting despondent, and i decided to try yogiing a ride. An elderly man called Mike staying at the campsite just next door had come over to chat to us a little while earlier, so I went over to ask for a ride. He said could certainly help us out and wanted to know how many of us wanted to go, to which i replied 'as many will fit in the truck. Fortunately, turned out to be all of us. He had a large pick up truck for towing his camper van around so 10 hikers didnt phase him or his truck in the slightest and before so long we were all back at the top of Sonora Pass looking to make some miles in the late afternoon sun. And so it was that 2.5 hours later we had covered 8 miles, and although way below our initial target, it was good enough for the day so we set up camp, had a fire for once and went to bed determined to make tomorrow a better day.

Day 80 : Kennedy Meadows North

8th July 2013
Mile 1004 to mile 1018 : Long Lake Trail to Highway 108
Mileage : 14 + 1

The mosquito were mostly absent in the morning when i got up thankfully, and that made for a much more pleasant start to the day. Today was a short day as the plan was to get to Highway 108, which is right on Sonora Pass, and hitch down to Kennedy Meadows North on the west side of it. By mid morning Pan, Hoopdreams and i were standing on top of the 2000 ft climb we had just done surveying the landscape. From our vintage point we could see the  granite Sierras stretching away to the south, and a much more volcanic range to the immediate north. The change in rock was almost instant, one minute walking on granite and one minute walking on something else, bizarre. An hour or two after that the three of us had made it down to the road and were looking for a ride. As luck would have it, a young couple were just heading back to their car as we turned up. I asked them straight up which way they were headed and uf they wouldn't mind giving us a ride. A minute or two later we weree on our way down the pass. When we arrived 2 other hikers were waiting for  a ride, but i didn't feel bad about taking the first hitch. If you don't ask you don't get, we asked first and got the ride first, they didn't. Jessica and Matthias, our ride that day were US nationals living Zurich on he last stretch of a coast to coast road trip, a distance to rival what we're doing although being able to travel at 70mph means it takes a bit less time. We got out at the road junction to KM and covered the last mile on foot up to the resort, i at least not quite knowing what what was in store for us there. I have to say i was  expecting an equivalent to he hiker haven that is Kennedy Meadows South, and was sorely disappointed. KM North turned out to be a campground store and cookhouse charging a lot of money for mediocre products and food. I was less than impressed. In its heyday a hundred years ago it had been an important part of the local logging industry.

Day 79 : 1000 miles

7th July 2013
Mile 981 to mile 1004 : Kerrick Creek to Walker River
Mileage : 23
Today passed the 1000 mile mark, woohoo! Thankfully my energy levels were back to normal this morning and the first 2 climbs, totalling almost 2000ft were done and dusted in no time at all. I had started early and caught up with HoopDreams, Pan and Whispers just as they were breaking camp two miles farther up from where i stopped last night. The only real goal for the day was the 1000 mile marker. In some ways being this far is incredible, i can't really believe I've done it, and in other ways its only 1000 miles, not even half way. By the time we got there it was late in the afternoon we stopped only long enough to take a couple of pictures, but that was it. We planned to camp 4 miles later on and so there was little reason to stop, especially that late in the day when the mosquitos come out to play. The mosquitos have been getting worse and worse in this section and they're supposed to get even more.hellishh before they get better. They are at they're worse, or best depending on whose side you're on i suppose, in the early evening after the sun goes down but before the light fades and the air is still warm. They can get through shirts, trousers, socks and even warm hats. To avoid them you either have to cover your clothes and skin with either Deet or Permetherin, which i debt like doing as those to chemicals with eat through some types of clothing so whanever ther are doing to my skin it  can't be good, or you can cover up with layers, and this what i usually do. I carry my head-net within easy reach at all times so put that on immediately when i stop in the evening, always wear my down jacket in the evening anyway so no worries there, and with my rain trousers on and my socked feet in one of my dry bags i can usually do my evening chores wihot going crazy. All this protection means i don't have to bother setting up my tent. I've gotten used to cowboy camping and sleeping in the open air under the stars every night to the point where i don't sleep as well in my little tent. When mosquitoes are around though i have to make sure that the net isn't touching my face as i fall asleep, the consequences of which i recently witnessed on a fellow hiker, not pleasant. It had been  a long day so soon enough i was tucked up in my sleeping bag being buzzed asleep by the hordes mosquitoes unable to get at me in my little cocoon.

Day 78 : Lethargy

6th July 2013
Mile 962.5 to mile 981 : Matterhorn Creek to Kerrick Creek.
Mileage : 18.5

Today was really, really tough. Last night my dinner was unusually unappetising, and unusually i didn't eat it. Consequently, my energy levels were really low all day, and that made hiking really difficult. I struggled all day, and by the middle of the afternoon i had only done 10 miles and was at the bottom of a big 1700ft climb, that i wanted so much not to do. I sat at the bottom of the hill being swarmed by bugs and took on over 1500 calories before attempting the climb. It still wasn't enough. I resolved to get to the bottom of the next climb and call it a day there instead of carrying on and doing one more climb. And so catch up with HoopDreams and Peter Pan. I ate another 1500 calories and tried to get an early night.

Day 77 : Northbound again

5th July 2013
Mile 942.5 to 962.5 : Tuolumne Meadows to Matterhorn Trail Junction
Mileage : 20

After too many days siteseeing in Yosemite, was back on the trail heading north toward Canada. The intention was to get an early start and make some miles. This didn't happen unfortunately. Several of.us still needed to sort out bounceboxes, myself included, but for some reason or other the Post Office, which was just one corner of the small Tuolumne story, didn't open til noon. By half past midday though we were finally on the move on our way to Canada.

For most of the day i hiked on and off with HoopDreams and Shady Acres, who had recently got back on trail after taking 11 days off. He looked fresh and healthy, i was jealous. For the first half of the day there were tourists and day hikers everywhere, but after a strategic trail junction, they all but disappeared. Somehow we managed 20 miles even with our late start, but by the time we stopped it was dark.

Day 76 : Half-dome

4th July 2013
Half-dome to Yosemite Valley
Mileage : 0 + 9
The alarms, or at least my alarm, went off at 3:30 and by 3:45 Pan, Starfox and i were on the trail on our way up to the top of Half-Dome. 45 minutes later the three of us were at the top of the sub-dome looking up at the cable route in the early dawn light. When Yosemite was first explored by white settlers it was thought that it would be one of the last peaks in the range to be climbed due to the steep almost completely smooth slopes of the mountain. Ironically, it is probably now the most popular and accessible mountain to climb in all of US. Even though the cables make the climb pretty straight forward, it is still a 45 degree slope without the cables it would be nigh impossible for the experienced climber let alone a hikers or even a tourist. Nevertheless being the first and only hikers en route to the summit we made good time up the cables.to the top. By 5 am we were at the top of Half-Dome watching the light grow over the whole of Yosemite Valley and the surrounding wilderness. Peter Pan, Starfox and i sat on the monolith that is Half-Dome for 45 minutes before the sun finally appeared between two pinnacles.on Clouds Rests bathing us in sunlight as we took photos on The Visor trying not to get vertigo while sitting with our legs dangling over the sheer drop thousands of feet below. For almost two hours the three of us had Half-Dome to ourselves, incredible really given the date and the popularity of the mountain with the American public. Eventually we made our to the top of the cables about to start the descent when we met the first group of early bird day hikers and tourists up on Half-Dome just not in time for the dawn. It was at that stage that i realized just how dangerous the cable route could be in the rush hour. Just like the Mist Trail that i descended a couple days ago, and that i would redescend later that day, the danger is not  the trail itself but the myriad tourists struggling up and down the cables, i was glad to get up and down with no dramas. By 7am we were back down at our camp.about to go our separate ways. Starfox was off up the JMT that we same down yesterday, and Pan and i were returning to Yosemite Valley via the tourist Mist Trail. The descent proved uneventful, better even than the first time as most tourists were on their way up, so i didn't get stuck behind anyone. Instead i clicked my hiking poles loudly on every step announcing my presence forcing tourists to look up and avoid me as i came barreling down the trail. Soon enough we were back in the valley having met up with HoopDreams and other hikers sipping cold drinks and contemplating our next move. We had intended to hitch our way to see some big trees in the south of the park, but our tiredness, the heat, and the humidity put paid to that. Instead we did as little as possible for a few hours before catching a bus back up to Tuolumne Meadows.
Our bus left from in front of the visitor centre, and we past some time looking through the exhibits. There was a small amount of  information about the natural history of the park at a level  adequate for a primary school child, quite a lot regarding the history of the arrival of the settlers in the 19th century, and a small amount about the  Native Americans who once called the valley their home.
I found the display and information extremely thought provoking. My main thought was how inadequate, if not disingenuous the word 'settler', and all its forms, is when describing the arrival of white men in the 19th century as it does not describe what they did in the slightest. What they actually did was to invade an already populated land, rob the native inhabitants of all the had, evict them, and finally decimate their population to the extent where i wonder if the term 'ethnic cleansing' is adequate to describe what ultimately happened to them. After all these abuses the remainder of the native American population were relocated to areas of little interest to the rest of the population and marginalized there after. As i thought about it thought further, i realised the extent of my contact with native american culture is summarized as : a grinding stone i saw on the second day, a piece of native American land that i passed on the third day but didn't enter s it wasn't on the trail and also as there were signs saying entry was prohibited, two place names, Tehachapi and Yosemite, one  swanky hotel in the middle of the valley called the Ahwahnee, and one grainy photo in the visitor centre of a tribal leader performing a dance. That is all that remains of a people and civilization who probably lived in California for hundreds if not thousands of years.
Before so long the bus arrived to take us back up to Tuolumne Meadows and away from the oppressive heat of the valley and the tourist masses. That night was spent battling mosquito, which oddly there were none of in the valley, which were so bad i put ubky tent, but invariably a few got in, so i battled those before drifting off to sleep after a long and successful day.

The glove pile at the base of the cables

Clouds Rest from Half Dome, the sun came up right between the the two pinnacles to the right of the main peak

Breakfast beer anyone

Beer o'clock

These guys were persistant and had no fear of humans whatsoever

Here comes the sun...

As close as i could get to the edge of The Visor

A long way down

A perfect silhouette of Half-Dome

Descending the cables was much easier going backwards

Most images taken like this have a steady line of people going up and down the cables, we had the peak to ourselves for almost 2 hours

Day 75 : Half-Dome set up

3rd July 2013
Tuolumne Meadows to the base of Half-Dome
Mileage : 0 + 19
Last night, we had taken advantage of the fact that we were in a real campsite and had had a fire, which are banned in the park outside of proper campsites owing to the dry conditions, and a few drinks. We were all up late-ish the next morning and it took a while before i was up and moving. I, along with Pan, intended hike down the JMT back towards the main valley in order to set-up for a sunrise summit of Half-Dome the next morning. Another reason i wanted to do this hike is that it would connect the dots of my continuous hike from Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows, from where the PCT heads north. Just before we were set to leave, Dishcloth announced the was getting off trail for a couple weeks to sort out some personal stuff had been putting off. We were sad to see him go, but hopefully he'll be back with us before so long. Pan and i covered the 19 miles to the base of Half-Dome in just over 6 hours, arrived just as the light was fading and set up camp while waiting for Starfox. Starfox, who had stayed in the valley the night before was due to join us for our Sunrise attempt, and was also supposed to have permits  for Pan and I. Permits for climbing Half-Dome, perhaps the most popular mountain to climb in all of the USA, are massively oversubscribed, and notoriously difficult for the general public to come by, except for PCT hikers. Starfox simply went into the same wilderness office that i had visited yesterday, asked for 3 permits, and walked out of the office with them 5 minutes later. No hassle whatsoever. It is known, and greatly appreciated by the PCT community, that the park looks favourably on us. Technically, our thru-hikers permits are only valid on the PCT and nowhere else, meaning i had been hiking illegally in the park since i crossed into it following my High Route adventure. However, the park staff, and especially the back country rangers, know about the trail, know how far we've come on human power alone, and are confident that we know what we're doing out in wilderness and generally let us go where we please in the park, and this includes Half-Dome. Starfox had ascended the same Mist Trail that I'd gone down the day before and said that it was just as bad, if not worse, than it had been. Pan and i would be running the gauntlet one more time the next morning, whereas Starfox.would be taking the the JMT back to Tuolumne in the opposite direction to what we had done that day. We prepared stuff for the climb the next morning before getting an early night, in order to see the sunrise we would have to be up.and on the trail by 4am. I am not a morning person, but the early alarm would definitely be worth it tomorrow.

Tourists

Day 74 : Yosemite National Park

2nd July 2013
Lyell Canyon to Yosemite Valley
Mileage : 0 + 20
None of us slept well last night, although asleep in minutes after going to bed, we didn't manage to stay that way for long as at about 1am it started raining. As i usually cowboy camp this required a lightning setting up ofhe tent in the dark, which thankfully didnt take too long. Back in my maggot a few minutes later i tried unsuccessfully to go back to sleep. For a long while i could hear something rustling in the dark near my tent. I had no idea what it was but had little inclination to stick my nose out to investigate. Although probably the smallest mouse of all time, my imagination got the better of me and i expected a bear to rip through my tent any second. All of this excitement meant i didnt really go back to sleep, and so at 6am we all got up to get an early lead on the day's hiking.
The day's objective was Yosemite Valley, a very long way down the Merced river valley as it would turn out. The 3 of us stuck together until we hit the first signposted junction and Ranger Station. Onwards from there Starfox and i, itching to make miles and get to Yosemite Valley left Chick-Check plodding along behind safe in the knowledge that she couldn't get lost. The hike down to the valley floor was about 20 miles dropping almost 7000ft in the process. While the hiking itself was easy enough, what wasn't easy was adjusting to the hordes of tourists that we began to encounter as we got closer and closer to the valley floor. Over the previous 2 days, the proof of human existence, obviously excepting ourselves, amounted to : a discarded glove, a small piece of wire, a deflated balloon, and a foot print. That was it, no other trace of mankind at all. I don't think i have a memory of going 2 days without seeing another human being. To go from that to tourist central in the heart of one America's most famous national parks was a massively overwhelming to put it mildly. At first, there were dribs and drabs, one or two hardy hikers and ranger types, but by the time Starfox and I reached Nevada falls just above the valley floor the trickle had turned into a torrent rivaling the majestic waterfall in scale. Heavily make-uped young women with designer handbags, and designer dogs to go in them. Morbidly obese people in unfortunate figure-hugging jeans looking like this was the most exercise they'd had in years. Mums carrying babies, and Dads dutifully pulling the pushchairs up the steep steep trail. I wonder what they must have thought of us bedraggled hikers turning up in their midst. The granite benches that i mentioned in the last post were present throughout all of the descent today, and the most impressive of them all was right at the end going from Little Yosemite Valley down to the main Yosemite Valley itself. The bench drop off is near vertical, and had produced two roaring waterfalls, Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls, and to get between all these stunning geological features was the Mist Trail which winds its way between them all via slippery steps each almost a foot high. Descending this was nervewracking, not because of the terrain, i have encountered much worse on the trail, but because of the myriad people on it. The are posters all along the trail warning people not to become one of the several hundred that suffer serious injury on the park trails. I saw the man directly in front of me lose his footing and slip  off the step he was on, and only avoid a broken (insert bone of choice here) or worse thanks to the presence of a large lady two steps below him who broke his fall. I was glad to get down it with all my limbs intact.
Once down in the valley i set about trying to find something to eat and organise a permit for possible summit of Half-Dome the next morning. The park is well laid out, with lots of free shuttle buses to encourage people to shun their cars whilenin the park, but it definitely had a Disneyland feel to it. I enquired in the wilderness centre, an implausibly small office given the size of the park and the number of visitors every year, but aptly illustrating how few tourists leave the sanctity of the well manicured main sites, and asked where i might find other PCT hikers.in the park. I was dutifully pointed to the  backpacker campsite, but the unusually helpful ranger (more about that in two posts time) seemed doubtful.that i would find anyone there as she explained that most PCT hikers and co are usually to weirded by the main park area to stay. I could well believe it. After staking a claim, ie dumping my rucksack unceremoniously on a free patch of dirt, i went off in search of food and other hikers. I found Chick-Check with Starfox, whom had left at Nevada Falls, outside the general store. Between us we deduced that the cheapest  high calorie meal.was a couple of the largest pizzas possible split 3 ways. While Starfox and I stood in line waiting to place an order for an overpriced, PRT showed up. I hadn't seen them since they had headed to the trail before me in Mammoth and they had driven to the valley from Tuolumne Meadows in Aloha's car thinking would be there but being unable to check due to the lack of mobile phone reception. With Aloha at the wheel, Peter Pan, Discloth, Kat and I went back up to the relative calm of Tuolumne Meadows with me thankful for a speedy getaway from the savage hordes of tourists in the main valley.

My first glimpse of Half-Dome

Nevada Falls

Vernal Falls