Hannah the hiker

Less than a year later and I’m back on the Pacific Crest Trail!

I was able to secure a hiking permit and a leave of absence from work! I’ve learned how to take care of my body a bit better and will be able to use those skills to avoid injury.

My trip out to California was not what I was hoping for. My flight from Syracuse was delayed which caused me to miss my flight to Fresno. I stood in line for about an hour with customer service and was able to get a flight the next day to San Francisco then Fresno. United Airlines also gave me a hotel accommodation for the night. However, I never made it to the hotel. I was so lost in the airport and couldn’t find any actual help to steer me in the right direction. There was supposed to be a free shuttle to my hotel. I called the hotel from the 4 different phone numbers listed online, no luck, I’m not even sure this hotel exists. I took the train around the airport to find a shuttle, none to be found. The airport information desk told me to go back to terminal 1 and that I need to contact the hotel. So I went back to terminal 1, TSA was closed, there were no employees and it was about 11:30 pm. My flight the next day boarded at 6 am so I decided to just stay the night there. I think they specifically blast the air conditioning in this part of the airport to keep people from doing this. I had none of my hiking gear since it was in a checked bag. So I just tried to get comfy with just a rain jacket. I was really appreciative that Conner helped me out through this whole fiasco, he couldn’t do much from New York but the emotional support was all I needed.

I went through TSA at 4 am and then bought a blanket so I could sleep a bit before I boarded my flight. I got two extra meal vouchers and a water bottle out of all that chaos! Woohoo, go United! My flight to San Francisco went well, and then there were problems with my checked bag and then I was on my way to Fresno and finally reunited with my hiking pack. To sum that whole thing up, I’ll just say I am going to try my very best to never fly with United again. I missed a hotel reservation, 2 bus reservations, and started the trail a day late. Their customer service left me feeling like I messed up somewhere along the way, not them.

Anyway, I got to my hotel, had a burrito and horchata and called it a night so I could finally get some sleep.

I woke up bright and early Sunday September 3rd to get my bus to Yosemite valley. I slept most of the way, and when we got to the valley it was raining. I caught some glimpses of El Capitan and it brought me right back to when we drove into the valley last year. Only this time I wasn’t in any pain!

I had a nice lunch and met some other JMT and PCT hikers while I charged my phone. I got some helpful trail intel and relieved some of my stress by just chatting with other people.

I walked around the park a little bit and did the short trail to Lower Yosemite Falls. This was pretty! I tried to just stand and kind of take it all in, but there were loads of people so this didn’t last long.

I wanted to visit El Capitan and Half dome but the valley wide shuttles were packed and there was no chance I’d have enough time to visit and catch my bus. Instead I just found a nice place to sit down and eat an ice cream. I bought some remaining necessities and relaxed.

At 5:14 pm I got on the bus to Tuolumne Meadows! This brought me to the exact spot I left the PCT last year. As soon as I saw the little metal sign that said “Pacific Crest Trail” I broke into tears. I didn’t want to leave last year and I have been thinking about the trail every day since then ( and annoying everybody by talking about it). It felt so relieving to be back here and looking at Lembert Dome and the little 2 foot wide path. Maybe this is cliche but it really felt like I was coming home. It just felt right.

I walked to the campground and set up camp for the night. And of course did my little stretch routine before crawling into my sleeping bag. It felt good to be back out on trail.

Day 2 started off chilly! I woke up at 6 am and found frost on my tent! I stayed toasty in my new sleeping bag so I hadn’t noticed how cold it got. My thermometer said it was 20 degrees outside. I put some of my warmer clothes on while I packed everything up and started hiking. I started around 6:45, have to get back into the swing of putting things away quickly. I saw a lot of hikers in my way up to the first pass of the day. I slept at around 8,700 feet elevation and Donohue Pass sits at 11,073 feet. I haven’t had much time to acclimatize so this was a drag for me. I stopped frequently to catch my breath and drink water. I was feeling pretty out of shape until I saw that every other hiker I met was having just as hard of a time. Misery loves company. I also encountered my first patch of snow on the trail!! Probably the first of many to come, but I have my microspikes just in case.

From my campsite to the top of the pass was 11 miles and I didn’t get there until 1:15 pm. It took a while, but I know that within a couple days I will be having an easier time up at elevation. I sat up at the pass for about an hour drying my tent and socks out. I had a tasty lunch of tortillas with tuna and drank some maple syrup. After the pass I entered Ansel Adams Wilderness! I feel like I’ve probably seen some of these mountains before from the pictures my mom has in the house.

When I left the pass things started to really warm up and I was able to show off my wicked cool Hawaiian shirt which got a lot of compliments along with the patches on my backpack.

The trail was pretty wet from recent rain and all the snow melting, so my clean socks didn’t stay dry long. There were a couple water crossings higher than usual but nothing too terrible.

I saw my first marmot since I was in Washington last year. I also saw two frogs, some fish, deer, and numerous squirrels.

I hiked about 6 miles from Donohue Pass to Island Pass. Island pass sits at 10,226 feet. I found a nice little campsite here where I could look at the peaks that are towering over me at 12,000 plus feet. I had a nice backpacking meal for dinner, Pasta Primavera. This is one of the meals leftover from my resupply boxes last year. Last year I packed all of the good food in my last 3 boxes and never got to eat it. So this time around I’m eating good food the whole way. I always save good things for certain times and I’ve adopted the mindset recently that everyday is worthy of a freeze dried backpacking meal or lighting a nice candle. You don’t need a special occasion to enjoy things that bring you joy.

I went to bed kind of early since it was a tiring full day back on trail.

Day 3 wasn’t as chilly of a start as day 2. I left my campsite around 7 am and started my hiking for the day. There wasn’t as much elevation gain this day, only about 1,500 feet over 17 miles. Most of the trail was downhill so I was able to cruise! I walked 10 miles by 11:30! I didn’t even realize I had gone that far. I walked through the Agnew Meadows trailhead and met another hiker, Thomas. Thomas has hiked the PCT numerous times and is just an experienced hiker overall. He asked me what trail I was on and such. He had some great stories and advice to share, we talked for about an hour! He told me that I need to really soak the whole trail in and in 20 years it won’t matter how many miles I did today, it will just matter what I saw, how I felt, and if I really enjoyed myself. That was my biggest downfall last year, I never gave myself the time to sit back and soak it in. So after hearing my dad, Conner, and now Thomas saying this I realized that I really need to listen to this advice. He talked a lot about signs and trail magic and how lucky we are to just be on the trail in the first place. I felt like having that conversation with him was a sign for me!

We said goodbye, but I’ve found that it’s never really a goodbye on the PCT.

I kept on walking and had lunch at a little creek. There were some mosquitos but not too bad.

I hiked about 3 miles more and made it to one of the infamous bridges that were destroyed in the San Joaquin River. I saw some posts on Facebook and comments on FarOut from people who forded the river. I figured that I would take a stab at it. I crossed just downstream of the bridge where it looked like other hikers had crossed. The water was pretty cold and moving fast so I used my poles to keep myself steady. After about 5 feet the water was moving a bit faster as it went over some rocks. I just kept testing my steps with my poles and holding myself steady. As I got closer to the other side the water got quite a bit deeper and my butt was getting wet. At this point I had a teensy moment of panic since all I could hear was the water rushing around me and rising up my legs. I just kept my cool and focused on my steps and eventually grabbed the dirt of the other side. That was a spicy water crossing! And probably not my last!

It definitely got my blood pumping as I kept walking on down the trail. I made it to Devils Postpile and was able to see the monument. According to FarOut, the postpile was made less than 100,000 years ago from slowly cooling lava. The process is called “jointing” and formed the columns of basalt that we can see today. Pretty cool stuff.

I took some pictures and hiked on to my campsite. I elected to camp at the Middle fork of the San Joaquin River, and there is a real sturdy bridge there! I set up camp at around 5 and laid in the sun for a while. I had Chana Masala for dinner, which was super tasty. I crawled into my sleeping bag around 7:30, another great day of hiking done.

On day 4 I walked about a mile to Reds Meadow resort! I got here at 7 am and ordered breakfast. It is super cold this morning so I might have to hold off on ordering a milkshake.

I was able to resupply, which was incredibly expensive. $3 per pack of tuna!

Right now I’m hanging out with some other hikers, charging my electronics and letting my tent dry out from frosting over last night. My next stretch is about 7 days to Bishop. I will probably walk about 15-17 miles a day in this stretch since I’ll be getting a bit higher in elevation.