After finishing the climb up to the PCT this morning, it is like a whole new universe revealed itself. The PCT is wonderful. Visible trail. No debris. Ah, this is what a maintained trail looks like. Water is not an issue until later in the day, when a large stretch before and after Etna is dry. I load up with nine pounds of water.
I absolutely fell in love with this area on my PCT hike in 2004. Rereading my 2004 blog I see I was positively gushing about it. Take a peek: trailjournals.com/steady
As we approached the crossing of the road to Etna, we both wondered about going into town. Naw, let's get the miles done. Besides, it is notoriously difficult to hitchhike down to town on this remote road. Regardless as we cross the pavement, a local person drives up and offers us a ride to town. We decline, still preferring to make more miles.
I do find that the PCT is more physically challenging than I remembered. This section still has lots of up and down. Maybe it was easier in 2004 since I was thirteen years younger and had already hiked 1,600 miles. Back then, I clocked 25 miles a day through this section. Today we hike 17.
Huge milestone: 180 miles is exactly half way! We can relax a little on the pace now since we will have two spare days left with half the miles to go. Much better than we faced a week ago!
17 miles to a saddle above Etna, to mile 180.
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