Mile 131.6-149

Elevation gain: 2,242 ft

Elevation loss: 2,373 ft

First things first, I’d like to give a shout out to our daughter, Maddie, for making me an awesome “moms PCT jams” playlist on Spotify. Brian and I have never listened to music on any of our previous backpacking trips, but yesterday’s long miles and climbs were getting really monotonous when we were only at mile 10. I think Bri could tell I was struggling so he suggested I use his ear buds (I only brought my wireless beats which would drain way too much battery…rookie move). I put them in just one ear so Brian and I could still chat and it made ALL the difference! I felt like a new person and the miles went by so much easier. Anyway…let’s chat about today. Another day of the same scenery, pretty much. U can basically copy and paste the following picture of Brian thousands of times until u reach 17.4 miles and then you’ll see everything we saw today…

Well, not completely because we did meet some amazing people today, saw another snake, and were delighted by the amazing colors of wildflowers that this otherwise stark scenery would throw at us along the way.

It was definitely hotter today for the first time…mid to high 70’s, which made the exposed climbs much tougher. I have been wearing 2 layers most of the time, but today I was finally sweating. Can’t imagine what this would b like for the hikers starting in May! We have been told by 2 different PCT hikers that we don’t look like thru hikers because we “look so clean”. But I think they’d feel differently if they took a whiff of my pits after today…Oooo-weee! Normally Bri and I cut one of these wet ones in half daily to wash up, but today we felt like we each needed our own…it’s a Red Letter Day, Campers!

The water is becoming a bigger concern daily since the streams are drying up and there are more miles in between available water sources. This means we really need to plan ahead…thank goodness we were able to pass on this source. It was a cement cistern w a large crack on the top from which u could gather this “liquid” if desperate (not sure we can really call it water…yuck!).

There was a great little spot that trail angels provide about 14 miles in today. They had a huge tank of water that they “fill by hand” (not sure how they do that, but it tasted great and was crystal clear), an outhouse, journal for hikers to write in, picnic benches, and a little library! This is where we met a super fun group of hikers: Stranger Danger and his brother, Ranger Danger (Michigan), Disco (Alabama), Lowlander (Austria), and Ash from Switzerland (we still need OUR trail names for Pete’s Sake!). We all decided to hike on another 3.6 miles to camp in this huge flat spot together…super fun to be able to all make dinner and eat as a group! (Oops, Lowlander got cut out)

Can’t wait for a HUGE breakfast at Paradise Cafe tomorrow morn just 3.8 miles away!! Thanks for reading everyone! Amy