At breakfast, we actually met 5 other Sobo section hikers…we are not alone. They even talked to us. We all agreed to try to commandeer the first shuttle out at 10. We know of at least 5 Nobo’s that are planning on heading out this morning. The van can only hold at most 10 people. After getting packed up, the 9 of us all took our packs out to the van area rather than the PCT hiker area…we kind of jumped line, but in reality, we were the first hikers to request the shuttle and the first lined up. Additionally, we’re all older hikers so the young pups can wait for their elders to hit the trail.
Ron, the driver, dropped us off at Sonora Pass. 8 of us are planning on heading to the same campsite tonight. We have a 1200’ climb up to 10,850 feet elevation. Bunny and I immediately drop to the back. Her hip isn’t hurting today and we want to keep it that way. There’s a group of 4 women who call themselves the “Jay Walkers.” They started at Truckee on the 5th of July. It’s pretty doubtful that we’ll ever see them again after today if they covered the same distance we did in 3 fewer days. They seem to have more testosterone than our group does.
Something else about today—it’s a dry day. We spent most of the hike above 10,500’ and there wasn’t any water. It was 10 miles between water sources which meant we had to carry a bit more water than usual combined with a full 6 days of food. Surprisingly, we handled it pretty well.
Billy Goat was out again today. We ran into him about 6 miles in. His companion, Soul Flower had packed up some bear canisters for him to reduce his carry. A couple of assholes had the nerve to open them up and take some of his food. Since we had met everyone heading both directions today, we were able to determine who the culprits were. We had even talked to them at the top of the climb. Bear had good enough signal to call Kennedy Meadows North and give a description to them. Ron, the driver, and all the staff at Kennedy Meadows know Billy Goat so they will handle the matter.
It did give us the opportunity to spend more time with Billy Goat. He first climbed Katahdin in 1958 (the year Bear was born). He found out there was a trail from there to Georgia and right then he decided he wanted to walk it. He began section hiking and finished his first pass of the AT in 1987. Since then, he has hiked the AT 3 times and is finishing his 10th time on the PCT. He has 26,500 miles on the PCT alone. He was worried he might have to turn around if too much of his food had been taken. The women in front of us had given him some food and I’m sure everyone on the trail will contribute if he needs more. I pointed out to him that if he turned around and headed back to the pass, that would be considered the start of his 11th PCT hike and he’d be obligated to finish that one as well. He said he’d wait for Soul Flower to catch up before he made a decision. I’m sure he will continue on.
We got high for lunch. That is, we stopped around 10,700’ when we found a clump of stunted trees that gave us a little shade. I’m pretty sure that something was up that I shouldn’t share completely with our young readers: Bear said he wanted some afternoon delight and Sassy asked to borrow my Vagisil. That’s not entirely true, Sassy traded a Snickers for my Payday and the use of my Vagisil. She also borrowed a couple of safety pins to pleat her shorts which had been chafing her thighs this morning. She and Bunny are now “pleat twins.” And Bear’s “afternoon delight” consisted of borrowing the orange bag of relief and disappearing into the woods. Word is, he did wave to Sassy when she relieved herself. Alabama folk!
The mountains around us are just fucking stunning. I’m sorry, there is no other way to describe them. But we have to remember, these mountains are Yosemite rejects. We don’t enter Yosemite for about another 7 miles. We will have walked from Lake Tahoe to Yosemite National Park tomorrow, and we’re just barely under way for this year. We’ll still have two more National Parks to go.
I’m just in awe of the natural beauty we are seeing. Everything looks like a painting. We can see the trail for miles at a time. It’s just hard to capture the scale of what we are seeing in pictures. I’m taking way more pictures than we can post and we’re having a tough time of what to include. We still have 300 more miles to go.
We got to camp a bit before 6. We chose spots close to the trail and were over ran with nobo hikers heading into Kennedy Meadows tomorrow. The nobo people we ran into today seem less uppity. I think the people that are only 1000 miles in right now are realizing they are going to have to flip up North if they are going to stand a chance of finishing. Even worse, they see that they may end up like us and become lowly LASHers. Reality can be cruel.
EFG