Day 26, 23.4 miles!

This morning was super misty and cold. I lazed around a little and we didn’t end up leaving until just after 7am. Luckily it wasn’t raining too hard. There was just on and off light rain but almost always socked in with clouds. As most of my mornings go, we climbed.

7 miles in, we crested this pass…

I’m sure the view is usually nice 🤣 

I was able to get a call out to Claire to discuss logistics for finishing the trail on Sunday! The end is near! The conversation was short as I had to run back down to warm back up! 

Looking back up the pass

Cheeseburgler and I passed Digs, Big Pig, and Landslide, who had broke camp first but were hunkered down waiting out some rain in the forest. Not 10 minutes later, I came across a beautiful open meadow of flowers and some blue skies!! I was quick to do a pack explosion! 

Cheese and I drying out our sleeping bags

Digs and Big Pig cruisin’

Digs and I SO happy for some sunshine!!

Eeeeuuuugh….

Dry socks for the first time in over 24 hours 😊 


A beautiful afternoon! 

There is a 14 mile water carry, which definitely changed our plans. It means that we have to do at least 22 today if we don’t want to dry camp. Usually, I like dry camping but only if it’s a few miles between sources. With a 14 mile carry, it’s definitely best to just get to the second source around camp time. I was sooooo happy that the afternoon held sunny skies!

Still not out of the weeds though

Goodbye San Juans! 😭 

I needed this for the last hill!!

Wu-Tang Mush

Big one down

At about 5:30, I got to the water source, JUST as rain started! There was thunder directly overhead for about 5 mins before so I was RACING to get to the water source. Spinewalker and Weights were already there taking shelter from the storm. Cheeseburgler was about one minute behind me, which I was thankful for because I hadn’t seen him for the last two hours! We set up his tent as a fast pitch, meaning only the footprint, poles, and the rain fly. Perfect for waiting out a thunderstorm! 

Three stinky dudes in their mid 30’s! 🤣 

The Three Musketeers were right behind Cheese, and they decided to fully set up their tents and stay there for the night. Cheese and I waited out the storm while filtering water and eating dinner. We were hoping to go .5 miles more steep up a climb to a scenic lookout where we heard there were fantastic views! Around 7pm, the storm finally stopped and we packed up the fast pitch and hiked on! I’m so glad we did! 

We got to the junction and all the campsites were taken, but we decided to go out .2 miles onto the ridge to see what we could find! There were two tents already up in the best spots but I found a nice wind protected space about 50 ft from the viewpoint and Cheese shimmied his way into one of the most epic camp spots he’s ever had! A new storm rolled in and I was happy to have my tent set up and jumped in just after 8.

Cheese’s tent with his door facing the epic view for sunrise!! 

What an epic day! I don’t think we were planning on going this far but hey, it’s worth the extra push for the epic site! Only two more nights on trail, may as well! We are hoping for a beautiful sunrise tomorrow, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of pics! 

Thanks for reading!!

P.S. It’s 9:40pm, and I am in the loudest thunder I’ve ever heard!! Only two lightning strikes have been followed by thunder within the second, which were both ground shaking. The rest seem 3-4 seconds/miles away. I have live trees around me and I’m very protected from wind. I’m not afraid of lightning strike, but it IS really intense and fascinating since the lightning strikes are 360° brightness out here on the scenic point!! 

Day 25, 19.5 miles

Today started out as such a gorgeous morning! We were the last to leave the campgrounds at 6:30. As we climbed the overcast morning made for some amazing photos! 

Pit toilet in the morning is where it’s at!! 

Engineer Peak

Cheeseburgler

Would be really fun to splitboard this area in the winter! 🏂 ⛷️ 

Gumball Rock

Oatmeal! Her and owner Bubba are almost done with the whole trail!

She was SO excited about that bark! 


A perfect spot for a snack and stretch, water just out of frame on the right

Gorgeous red canyons all day

Weather starting to turn

That last area was so gorgeous! It’s really hard to tell with the overcast day, but a lot of those rocks had blues, greens, yellows, oranges, and reds in the mix! We crossed over the pass and started descending. I found a nice big tree about half way down where I stopped to eat some food and pull out some snacks.

It was here at this tree pictured above that the rain started to come down pretty heavy. Cheeseburgler was ahead of me when I had stopped, and I figured he would hunker down somewhere down the trail. I waited about half an hour until I thought the worst had passed…

The next 3 hours were rough. The most constant, cold rain we’ve had yet on the whole trail! I’m taking it RAINED from 1pm-4pm. For some reason my rain jacket was letting rain down the front of my shirt. My phone got wet and got water in between the case. I couldn’t slide it open to take pics or even use my hiking app… Luckily, I had started Spotify while sitting under the tree so I had good music for a few hours! 

My hands got soaked and were freezing cold even with my rain mitts, and I almost lost full dexterity again in my pinky and ring fingers. I am stoked to be done with this trail soon! I caught Cheeseburgler on the uphilll towards the next pass. Luckily, the weather started clearing up nearing the top and we even had some sunshine on the other side! 

A bit of some blue sky finally! 

Bambi and Momma

We arrived at Celebration Lake which is aptly named because we were STOKED to be out of the rain and done hiking for the day! We saw Digs, Landslide and Big Pig camped there, all of whom we never thought we’d see again! They had gotten cold and wet and then took a break during the storm so they were near hypothermic and warming up in their tents! I am glad that Cheese and I decided to keep slogging once wet! 

We went on a few minutes more up the trail and found some nice campsites tucked away in some trees. It was there I officially met Weights. He and Spinewalker had made a fire! I met Spinewalker just before catching the train yesterday. He hiked the PCT in 2021.

Weights and Spinewalker

I didn’t think I’d be enjoying a fire on this trail at all but honestly today was the perfect day to have one. I’m not a fan of fires in Colorado or the West in the summer, but I made sure that we stirred the fire and put it completely out before we all went to bed. It’s been a long, wet, and soggy day, my poor feetsies are still freezing! Pretty sure we’re going to try for a 22 miler tomorrow, due to a long water carry. I hope the weather is better!

Thanks for reading!!