Kerrick Creek (mile 980) to Miller Lake (mile 960)
Total PCT miles hiked: 1278
Due to our early start Keith (Starman) and I arrived at the Sierras when there was still a lot of snow, and decided it wasn’t safe to attempt a crossing given my skill level. We elected to flip up to northern California and hike southbound (SoBo) back to where we left off near Lone Pine – giving the snow a chance to melt out. During this flip the PCT milage will be counting down, but I’ll include a tally of our total milage hiked so that you can keep aprised of our progress in a linear fashion.
For one of the first times in my life it feels as though the seasons have actually changed with the solstice. Mother nature nodding in concession to the human delineation between summer and spring. It is suddenly, unforgivably hot. The air is thick with heat and a bright yellow pollen that drifts from the pine trees at the slightest touch or breeze. Today will be another day of walking up and over the great granite waves Yosemite is known for.
The days since leaving South Lake Tahoe have felt like some of the most challenging of the trail, as longer hiking days spawning from bigger milage and more elevation again at higher altitudes have begun to take their toll. Stacking up one against the other until sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever feel rested again. Of course, this means that I’ve walked myself into one of the valleys that lie between the person you were and the person you’re becoming. The problem is, when you’re crossing one of these valleys the effort feels so much greater than you’re capable of. Getting stronger and growing requires a decent amount of discomfort it would seem. And yet, I’m glad for it. The first two months of this hike passed with relative ease. It would seem that I’m late to the pushing my boundaries party, though I’m an exuberant guest now that I’m here. I need to remember that through this discomfort I’m getting stronger; certainly physically, but perhaps in other ways too? Change is like this great illusion to me, in which I can only see it in hindsight, never in the moment.
Despite the burdensome fatigue and the armpit chafe, there is something profoundly marvelous about this trip. Today I walked and snacked my way across a great ocean of granite made of waves so enormous that each wave can only be seen from the top of the previous one. The troughs being filled with damp thick forests with their swarming clouds of mosquitos. Through the miracle that is the modern smart phone, I was able to listen to a captivating book while I walked- The Name of the Wind which was recommended to me by Joyce when we saw her and Mike in Tahoe. Even tonight, as we ate dinner in the tent and listened to the symphonic whine of mosquitos trying to get in, I thought that there is nothing else I would rather be doing than walking across this amazing land while listening to a good book.
Woohoooo! I was just recommending Name of the Wind to one of my coworkers and then I read your blog post and got really exited