Mile 48.7 to 68.3

Elevation ascent 2,058 ft, descent 3,823 ft

Wow last night was one of the worst nights sleep that Amy and I have had backpacking. Our camp last night was in as a protected space as we could find, but the tall scrub brush wasn’t a match for the 40 mph gusts we had all night. The wind was steady all night at what we think was 20-25 mph but then we would hear the freight train coming in from the distance only to slam into the tent and the sides of our faces. So needless to say we didn’t get much quality sleep.

Our plan was to try and get in 19 miles so we were up at 6:30. As typical it took us an hour to be ready to hike. We arose from tent in the middle of a cloud and strong winds. We both had on a majority of our clothes to stay warm and even got to use our wind jackets finally. There wasn’t much to the morning since we were in a cloud and couldn’t see more than 100 yards at times. The hardest thing was trying to walk a straight line. The wind was blowing both of us all over the trail. An outsider might have thought we were drunk.

The sun finally came out at 11:00, but would disappear behind clouds from the storm rolling in. The one thing that didn’t let up all day was the wind. We would get occasional reprieve but that only lasted for short periods. We ran into 3 more PCT hikers today. One guy we didn’t get his name, Going Postal was a man we met at lunch and we also met Hannah who is here from Norway. The one thing both Amy and I enjoying are the flowers and variety of colors in the desert.

The one thing you come to rely on out here is information regarding water. Some creeks are dry, some are barely flowing and others have plenty. You really start to understand what things are really important when it isn’t right at your finger tips. The trail community does a great job of passing information up and down the trail by word of mouth and with an app called Guthook which most hikers rely on for information. That being said there are some times no matter how much you think you need the water you just have to say no thanks and move on to the next source. Sometimes this is a tough decision because it could mean quite a few more miles to get what you need.

We made it 19.5 miles today and feel pretty good. It definitely isn’t easy and we are both dealing with some aches and pains or small blisters. My blisters started on day 2 and I have been doing everything I can with my shoes to alleviate the rubbing. Since nothing is working I have decided to switch shoes once we get to Julian. This may sound bad but we are able to we deal with these ailments and won’t be slowing us down.

We are hunkered down as the rain is suppose to start in about an hour which should turn to snow later tonight. Could be cool to wake to a winter wonderland. Well that’s it for today. Hope you all are healthy and safe.

Brian