There was a huge mound of crumbly rocks that looked like it was dumped there in the middle of the wilderness. Around 1 o'clock a sobo told us there is a trail magic at highway 4 which was about 13 miles ahead. Burgers and beer is always a great incentive so we took off on a long death march hoping to arrive by dinner time.

We took the trolley to the edge of town and threw our thumbs out next to the RV campground hoping that vacationers would be heading home after the holiday. After an hour Corey hold over to pick us up in...another Prius! She was ecstatic to be giving PCT hikers a lift since her good friend hiked the trail a few years ago

I was up earlier than usual and cooked a delicious egg, ham, and cheese dehydrated breakfast that I scored from a hiker box. It was probably the coldest morning yet, aside from the top of Mount Whitney, and the mosquitoes returned the second that sunlight touched down. The day started off with another easy descent then followed Bear Creek for awhile. We had a relatively easy ford but the water was extremely cold and Sea Lion made funny airplane noises as she walked across. Cold water is her kryptonite.

The big descent was at a perfect grade to speed down the trail like a winding roller coaster through an alpine forest. At the bottom there was a large stream that feeds into the Kings River and it was the first time rock hopping or log balancing wouldn't cut it so we had to ford.

After summiting Mount Whitney, returning to camp, and taking a much needed nap, we returned to the PCT to begin section H. It was a relatively uneventful hike because we were just on top of the tallest peak in the lower 48 but there were some pretty flowers, dragonflies, and a nifty pond off to the side.

It was nice not having a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, multiple days of food, and other miscellaneous items weighing down the pack. It was pitch black and we hiked by headlamp across the meadows, past Guitar Lake, and up the seemingly endless switchbacks.

After siesta-ing for a couple hours we set out to tackle some ascent before night fall. The first camp site was on a saddle and super windy so we went a bit further and found a shallow bowl to cowboy camp in. We had a nice view of the sunset, the lights of the town of Ridgecrest below and the sunrise the next morning.

We got up and went back to the Village Grill for brekkie where I got banana and pecan topped waffles, eggs, sausage, and a glass of milk. Sea Lion got a short stack, a side of hashbrowns, and a hot tea. We returned to Red House, packed up, and then tried hitching for five minutes but wound up calling a Lyft to take us across town to the market

I am breaking the posts up by sections according to this map, roughly 100 mile chunks. The tiny East Coast states on the AT made section-chopping pretty easy but out here, obviously, the states are larger.

Back at Hiker Heaven, we were taking care of chores when a rattled trail maintenance crew arrived after fleeing from a wildfire. We looked north and saw the huge plume of smoke, soon followed by helicopters and fire planes dumping red fire retardant.

With a McDonalds just ahead at Cajon Pass we needed no extra motivation to fly down the final 6.5 miles in just two hours. We got breakfast, second breakfast, and lunch there while charging batteries, ordering new shoes for me and a new backpack frame for Nhandi.

After hanging out under the bridge, sampling snacks, and talking to a few hikers as they popped in before heading to town, we set off to begin section C. The other side of I-10 was still windy but we soon saw a decaying truck and some other derelict structure just off trail so we went to investigate.

We took an extra day off to relax and do some camp chores; bucket shower, read, redistribute the down in my sleeping bag, blog, and go to the post office to get our food drop from San Diego, syphon off enough to make it to Idyllwild and ship the rest up to Aqua Dulce. Also, because our feet were really sore

It was a short trek into Mount Laguna that involved some pretty flowers and a water refill at a faucet surrounded by bees. I thought it was cool. In town, we found our gang of hikers under a huge tree next to the post office so we joined them, kicked our shoes off, and raised our aching feet up

Three vehicles set out at 6am to shuttle all the hikers and their packs from Scout and Frodo's to the southern terminus to begin the journey. A photographer has been posted there all season taking Day 1 portraits of everyone and planned to take final day portraits of the hikers at the northern terminus to show what 2650 miles of hiking does to your face

After an insanely busy few days of moving out, packing up, quitting life, and squeezing in a rock concert in DC, the time had finally arrived to head out west. We flew Southwest and each checked a box with our trekking poles, pocket knives, and first two food drops needed at Warner Springs and Aqua Dulce

New trail on a new coast, new states to conquer, new gear to break in, but same general plan; wake up and walk a lot. With longer stretches between resupplies and less abundance of water your pack will, at times, be heavier on the PCT so I wasted no time in cutting weight. On my way home from Maine, we stopped at Hyperlite Mountain Gear's HQ in Biddeford, ME so I could get a new pack, 1.5lbs shaved off right there!