I wanted to sleep in this morning because of the late finish the previous night, and the fact that the sun rose behind a mountain peak relative to my campsite seemed like it would help with that. But I also knew it would be a hot one, that I needed to collect some water, and that I also had to get back to the trail before I could even make progress on the day. So with that thought, I forced myself to start getting up.
Even so, the sun was hitting my camp before I left, and it was around 8:30 by the time I had climbed back up to the PCT proper.
I was definitely right about it being a hot one. The heat was already kicking in, and the first thing I had was a very sweaty steep climb. And there was little respite from the sun where the trail went. It seemed to always be on the sunny side of the ridge all day, and in the middle of the day and later, it went through burned forest where there were very few leaves for shade (but plenty of dead snags to climb over). When I first started this section of the PCT, it was so cool each day that I was overhydrated even though I was hardly drinking. That was certainly no longer true. I was going through a lot of water recently, on this day especially.
Luckily, there was plenty of water along the trail for most of the day. At one point in the morning, the trail worked its way across a hillside where there was so much water coming down from above that channels had been built around the trail to keep it from eroding. Every few feet, a tiny waterfall tumbled down to the trail’s edge. I stood next to one of these while an entire troop of older women in backpacks passed by. All but one were wearing Dirty Girls. This section made me especially glad to be in waterproof boots.
I had lunch near one of two tiny lakes the trail passed in front of. I had a shady spot where someone had placed a flat rock next to a boulder in just the right way to turn it into a recliner. It was hard to get up to do things like collect and filter water, even though it needed to be done. Both because I didn’t want to leave the shade or be on my feet and because I didn’t want to disturb the butterfly that kept landing on my belly or my pack.
I took dinner halfway down the trail to Cub Bear Spring, mostly because it was on the shady side of the ridge, though once I was there, I decided to collect some water too. It was the last convenient water source before Etna Summit, so grabbing some extra water for breakfast meant I could drink more right then, and it had been in the high 80s in the mountains that day. I spent much of the dinner hour sitting on a log watching the insects, in particular one bee that was fascinated by my gaiters, the top of my Nalgene, my bear can. I don’t know what bees are looking for, but my best guess is anything that reflects more UV light than its surroundings.
It was 8pm by the time I hiked out again. I knew it would be two hours until I reached the next reasonable camping area, but the light lasts so long up there that I wouldn’t need a headlamp until I arrived.
It was well after 11pm by the time I was in my tent and sleep-ready, but I was looking forward to an easy morning to the trailhead and a ride into town.
Trail miles: 16.6
Distance to Etna: 3.8 miles
