The trail through this section just keeps getting easier. This day, aside from a short climb right at the beginning, featured nothing but trail that was either mostly level, or sloped so gently as to make no nevermind.
I woke up in a huge campsite that looked like it was cleared for parties of 20 or full size RVs. Except how there was only one picnic table. Although I woke up before six, I decided to try to go back to sleep until my 6am alarm seeing as how I needed all seven hours of sleep for a full hiking day. But soon enough I was taking full advantage of that picnic to speed my packing up.
There were campers in all the more reasonably sized sites all around me, some of them awake and packing. I asked the man loading up across from me if he knew where a trash can was if there was one. I say “asked” but I was really yelling in an otherwise quiet morning campground as he was very hard of hearing. He didn’t know. He wanted to tell me all about himself, so I asked if he knew where the privy was. Sometimes there are trash cans near or in privies. He didn’t even know the campground had one. I excused myself and went to find it. No trash can. I would have to pack out my trash when I left. No problem.
I noticed there was a proposal to attach a 15 dollar fee for camping at the campground (which was currently free). I’m all for it if they use the funds to add trash service to the campground and waive the fee for long distance hikers who probably won’t have the cash on hand to pay it and would opt to climb out and put greater pressure on potential tentsites on the nearby hillsides.
Crossing the road, I was accosted by Pony who claimed to have met me in the Sierras this year. Nope, bud, you’ve definitely got the wrong guy. But he just wanted directions to the toilet. A loud, brash, unafraid man who had no time to chat. Well, if you’re desperately seeking a toilet, that stands to reason.
After a brief mile or so of climbing, I came around a corner and met a woman with a dog tucked down her shirt asking if I had just passed a water source.
“No, I think you just did.”
“Well, yeah, but the comments said there was a better flow 100 feet north.”
“The one you just passed probably is the one 100 feet north.”
“I just didn’t want to have to go backwards.”
She took the dog out of her shirt and her pack off a moment later, and I realized we were at the good spring. Exactly where I wanted to take my morning break because I needed the water too.
Her name was Kangaroo (because of the dog in the shirt obviously–just picture it) and she was a pretty fast hiker. She was from New York and did the Long Trail with the dog in 2020. And now she was on Day 69 of her purist northbound PCT thru-hike-with-dog. Calculating it out, she was averaging nearly 23 miles a day with town visits and zeroes factored in. Which meant she was doing 27 to 28 miles most days and frequently in the 30s. Fast, like I said. She was so fast she got ahead of her bubble and did hundreds of miles in the space between bubbles before catching her current tramily, who hiked faster than most but she still had to slow down to stay with them–or else get lonely with no humans to talk to again.
Soon after she left, the other members of her tramily started showing up. None of them had to stop for water, so I didn’t really meet them, but we spoke. I met another couple (individually) a little south of there who had camped with them the night before but had no intention of trying to keep up with them.
I took another break a couple of miles up on a random rock that happened to be in the shade. Then one more break a mile or two later that I hadn’t planned on, but there was good cell service and I just felt like it. Then a huge family group with small crying children appeared out of nowhere, and I ran up the trail. After a mile or two, I found a shady enough sitting rock to throw myself down for lunch. I did lunch as quickly as I could and hiked on.
With one unscheduled stop along the way, I pushed on as fast as I could to a Chilcoot Creek for another break. I had originally wanted to collect some more water there, but I met Pathfinder and Cruise (as in cruise control because she only had one speed) who told me this water was not convenient to collect, but the stream in 3 miles was. Pathfinder also wanted to know about the water situation ahead.
Even though it was only 4pm, they indicated they were only going to go a mile or two more, probably just to Bull Lake (which I had just passed). In fact, they were in the middle of cooking supper. Pasta Sides with bacon bits and grated Parmesan cheese. They always packed bacon bits and Parmesan and put it on whatever they ate.
“Wow, you guys are rich… rich in flavor.”
And it seemed to work for them because they had already done the whole PCT and were working through it a second time by sections. This despite being to be horizontal by 7pm each night–when I was usually eating dinner myself. They call people who hike until sunset like me late night hikers. That’s what they said when I told them I meant to go 9 more miles to Deadfall Lakes that evening.
They packed up and hiked on, and with an immediate goal of that better water source just a few miles ahead, I put on my headphones, put on some music, and hiked as hard and as fast as I ever have over rocky but basically level trail. It took less than an hour.
I didn’t waste any time at the streams for a full break. It was going to be supper time soon anyway. I just grabbed the water, filtered it, and left. (While waiting for it to filter, I was singing along to Bolero at the top of my lungs when another hiker appeared and stopped to collect water. I stopped singing, but I refuse to be embarrassed.
I set out again at full speed… which was maybe not quite as fast as when I had the music and that snack energy. I hiked until I could see a potential spot for supper: a place where the ridge above the trail came down to a saddle that was only a bit above the trail and I could climb up to it easily. I was able to find a relatively flat spot in the shadow of a trail tree up there. I also could see a town in the distant valley, which meant cell service. I used that to grab a few more podcasts, then started cooking.
It turned out to be a very windy spot. I had to set up a wind barrier with my hat and bear can to stop my stove from blowing out. I also had to put on my down puff. But despite that, I was able to get through supper very quickly. Somewhat less than the usual hour. I had gone up just before 7 and was back down to the trail about 8.
I had a bit under 4 miles to go to get to Deadfall Lakes, and it was basically level and slightly uphill. So I put on a podcast and pushed myself as fast as I could. I passed the Parks Creek Trailhead a few minutes later and saw a ton of cars. I had been told by the hiker I had seen at the last water source that there had been a good number of visitors to the lake, some set up to stay. I was expecting a hard fight for a tentsite.
I came into the Deadfall Lakes area around 9:20, the sun a thin glow on the horizon. I started working my way from the trail along the lake shore and up the adjacent hill. There were tents everywhere I looked, tucked into even spots that didn’t seem particularly comfortable. Eventually I came to a clearing overlooking the lake with an older couple standing in the dark waiting to the see the moon rise over the ridge. They were the owners of the tent and were happy to let me camp on the other side of the clearing (which was quite large).
While chatting with them about the area and their day and the weather and everything else innocuous, I set up my tent by headlamp right in front of them. The moon rose and I crawled inside mine just after they returned to theirs about 10pm. Always nice to find a pair of friendly fellow night owls.
But unlike me, they were not also early birds. The wouldn’t be getting up until I was already up and packing. But for that to work, I would need some good sleep, which wasn’t easy given the clear view of the clear sky and the bright full moon. I woke up at midnight, just an hour after starting to fall asleep, thanks to my eyes understanding that powerful glow outside my tent as daylight. But eventually, I did manage to get in a few good hours of sleep.
Trail miles: 23.8
Distance to I-5: 35.8 miles
