Day in the life of a thru-hiker!
Alarm sounds at 5am, sun is just starting to lighten up the sky and warm up the 40 something degree air.
You roll over on your inflatable sleeping pad, yawn and stretch, then assess if the inside of your tent is damp from condensation.
You take 15 minutes to brush your teeth and put your hiking clothes back on (same outfit you’ve worn for 38 days). Your blue shirt is now more grey from dirt!
You stuff your sleeping bag away, and roll up your sleeping pad before emerging from the tent. Doctoring your feet, tending to blisters and hot spots, and applying LEUKO tape or threading blisters is a MUST.
You roll up the trekking pole tent (less than 2 lbs made of dynema) before packing up your backpack. If nature calls, you may need to dig a cat hole.
It’s 6am and your hiking day begins. You’re in your merino wool sun shirt and shorts, as you have embraced the saying “be bold, start cold”.
The trail winds through the terrain - going east, west, and north (occasionally south). But the trail is the trail and you know that by following it, you will make it to Canada. You walk uphill using you hiking poles to pull yourself forward, you edge slowly through washed out areas and you bend your knees and brace for impact on the way down.
You navigate with the FarOut app, but have a paper map as backup. You track your miles and pace with an adventure GPS watch.
Around you is the Mojave desert, sandy with numerous green thorny shrubs, poisonous poodle dog bush, and yucca plants. Scattered thoughout are orange Mariposa Desert flowers. Grasshoppers leap with each step and startled lizards run under foot. Your eyes are peeled and your ears listening for rattle snakes.
After 5 miles, you stop at your first water source to gather water. While filtering water, you also start your stove to make an instant cup of coffee to go with your bag of instant milk and cereal.
Today’s goal is 20 miles, you will break at five mile intervals and if the heat climbs to over 90 degrees, you may take a nap in the shade from 1-3pm (hottest hours of the day).
While you trek, you run into fellow hikers who spout tales of alge-filled water cisterns and mountain lion spottings.
You’ll snack on Protein bars, dried fruit, Gorp, jolly ranchers, and tuna packets.
You slather on sunscreen, sometimes over dirt covered legs.
By 5:30-6pm your day is winding down and your feet are starting to ache.
You check for a tent site - you’re looking for a reasonably flat area with rocks around to help support your tent stakes in case of wind gusts. Bonus if you can be near water and out of the wind.
You set up your tent, re-inflate your sleeping pad and pull out your sleeping bag. You wipe off as best you can with baby wipes and boil water sitting with your fellow thru-hikers, prepping your dehydrated spaghetti dinner.
Camp fires are avoided due to high fire risk in the area. Instead you sit around and watch the sun go down, possibly watching a jack rabbit hopping through camp.
You head into your tent at 8pm, eat some Oreos for dessert (if you’re lucky) and brush your teeth. You journal about your day and send a message to your loved ones on your Garmin InReach, letting them know you’ve made it another day on the PCT. It is lights out by 9pm! Tomorrow you will repeat :)
I hope you enjoyed that glimpse into hiker life! Other important milestones for this section include reaching 500 Miles hiked (and yes, we will walk 500 more), and hiking over the LA aqueduct!
Kennedy Meadows South, here we come!
