Trail Day 105: Tentsite (mile 1767.6) to tentsite (mile 1793.7)

26.1 PCT miles

This morning when my alarm went off and I decided that I wanted to reset it. I accidentally reset it for an hour later than I intended. Oops.

I picked up the trail, just as I had left it yesterday, winding through lava rocks. The lava rocks must absorb a lot of heat during the day because it was still pretty warm walking through them in the dark/early morning light.

My camera was accidentally on the "vivid color" setting when I took this, but it turned out pretty cool. Walking over lava rock.


Soon after, I hit the junction to Fish Lake Resort, crossed a fairly busy road, and found the stream to fill up on water. The air was much colder by the stream. I had considered camping here last night, but I’m glad I decided against it. It is directly next to the road. Any traffic going by would have kept me up during the night.

Next I started an approximate 4 mile uphill climb. Luckily,  the uphill part wasn't too steep. Before I knew it, I was almost at the top. I hit a trail junction that wasn't well labeled and took the fork I thought I needed to take to finish the climb.

The climb was steeper and longer than I thought.  After a while, I checked out Guthook and it showed that I was on the wrong trail. I had gone, at very least, a half mile in the wrong direction. When I backtracked, I saw that someone had made a giant arrow out of wood, pointing in the direction I was supposed to go. How did I miss that? Again, oops.

Someone should really put an arrow here to make things clearer.


Most of the rest of the day was pretty unremarkable. I was mainly walking through forest again. The skies looked pretty clear and I couldn't smell any smoke. I stopped at a spring for a late lunch, then continued towards the next fire closure.

Walking through the forest. 
Clear skies.


Later in the day, as I was doing another uphill climb, it started to get hot and smokey. I came to the top of a ridge that had what would normally have been a great view. Today I saw smoke billowing up from a small fire across the valley.  Yikes!

The PCT. 
The Pelican Fire.


When the sun started to go down,  I got myself stuck in a rocky place between campsites again. Luckily, someone made a note on Guthook about a spot to camp that was not rocky. I managed to find it in the dark and cowboy camped. It was so warm that I didn't need my sleeping bag, just the liner.

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