The Long Resupply (908.7 mi -36.3 -29)

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Lunchtime on top of Whitney at 14,500'. Used my emergency space blanket for warmth, since I didn't have my sleeping bag handy.

Next PO stop: South Lake Tahoe, at mile 1090. My optimistic estimate is still July 6th, but I'll probably actually be there on July 7th. Address:

Hold for PCT thru-hiker ETA 7/6

Matthew Wismer

General Delivery

South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150

Since the last post, I carried 2 days of food in a bear can until Lone Pine, then 7 days of food in a bear can till Red's Meadow. I'm staying in Mammoth tonight. And I didn't lose mileage in the Sierra, even though I basically did a full extra day off trail!

The 2 days were to judge how I did at altitude, before committing to a count of days for the long haul. I managed a 27 mile day up 6000', then a 20 mile day ending at 2 pm, so I felt convinced I could average 25 miles a day through the Sierra, which is well known to be the hardest section of trail. (Lone Pine to Red's is 158 on-trail miles plus 21 off trail miles, 16 of which were Whitney, which was non-negotiable. The others were to get to a road from the PCT.)

Lone Pine itself was great. An easy hitch in, and a relatively easy hitch out with Megan and Olivia. A few town meals and I was back on trail within 25 hours, which is impressive for a 20 mile hitch while Whitney was on fire. Yeah, Whitney was on fire. But only the part near Lone Pine, not the part that I would be hiking. So it was fine.

Day 1 out of Lone Pine was just an afternoon getting set up for Whitney the next day, and oh boy was that bear canister heavy with 7 days of food. I was happy to drop it to day-hike Whitney, which is why I also didn't have my sleeping bag at the top. The top was breath-takingly beautiful after the breath-taking high-altitude ascent. I got down around 5 pm and made a few more miles before ending my day.

Then came the seemingly endless series of grueling and beautiful passes that made me reconsider my 25 mile a day plan. Forester and Glen on day 3, then Pinchot and Mathers on day 4. Each pass was a 2000' to 4000' climb, ending around 12,000'. (Except Forester at 13,200'.) I only did 23 miles on day 4, and had some worries that I was gonna have to bail early for food reasons. (Probably at VVR.)

On day 5 I had what looked like a miserable 5000' climb to Muir Pass, but it wasn't hard at all. It was a gradual climb, so I only did one pass that day. And one Muir Pass was much easier than day 3 or 4. At this point everything got much easier, as the following passes peaked well below the previous ones.

Day 6 was just Selden Pass, but I randomly got shin splints in my right shin, so called the day a bit early. And then my favorite enemy arrived, the mosquitoes.

I kept a flying insect kill count on the AT, and added it to my journal entries and blog posts. I've been keeping the same count on the PCT, but I didn't go out of the way to kill the few desert bugs I encountered. My kill count as of last post was 2. When I entered Lone Pine, 4. Then there were a decent amount in the Sierras, so it was 71 as I approached Selden Pass. When I fell asleep that night, it was over 300. (I killed them between my tent's bug mesh and rain fly with the extra hour I had to burn because of shin splints calling the day short.)

They continued to be bad on the morning of day 7, so I hiked with a single trekking pole and got to 611 at lunch. Then, just before the relatively easy Silver Pass, a thunderstorm rolled in, hailing on me briefly with very close lightning strikes. I was glad to still be under treeline with Small, Tall, Tamale, and Splash, discussing how bad it was. Tall and Small had a schedule to keep, so they pressed on after a bit, while the other three of us set up our tents for a half hour to let the lightning finish completely before crossing the pass. The sky still looked ominous, so I got back under treeline quickly.

Then this morning was an easy 15 miles into Red's and a resupply. I still had about 1000 calories left in my pack, down from around 21,000 at the start of my resupply. Basically perfect. Tall and Small did a short resupply at Red's Meadow (small general store like Kennedy Meadows), and the three remaining hitched into Mammoth, where I ran into Sam and Margo, who are now 40ish miles ahead, after doing one less resupply and skipping Mt. Whitney. Maybe I'll catch them.

I'll add that it's very weird hiking in the Sierras, with so many people backpacking out for a weekend or a month. Normally, 90% of the backpackers I see are PCT thru-hikers, but now I can't make that assumption. I've met some cool JMTers, but they tend to do fewer miles, not having the extra month of training that PCTers do at this point. So I basically only see them once, or possibly a few times over the course of one day.

Did I mention how beautiful this part of trail is?

- Happy Meal, 626

KENNEDY MEADOWS! (702.2 mi, -32.8 -29)

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I made it out of the desert! Before summer hit, too! I'm so pumped for the Sierras! I'll be above 10,000 feet tomorrow, where I'll finally leave this heat wave behind.

Next PO stop: South Lake Tahoe, at mile 1090. My optimistic estimate is July 6th, but I'll narrow that down in my next post, probably around mile 900. (Mammoth) Address:

Hold for PCT thru-hiker ETA 7/6

Matthew Wismer

General Delivery

South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150

(Edited the above because the next month is July. I'm not stuck in an Endless Six.)

I'm doing well physically. My foot problems have been resolved by messing with how my shoes are tied multiple times a day, as I now have the classic thru-hiker circadian rhythm in foot size. My muscles are feeling strong, but the Sierras may have something to say about that, especially with the lack of oxygen at elevation. My knee has been holding up nicely, but still isn't 100%. It swells up if I sleep on it weird, which leads me to my gear:

My Neoair X-Lite has developed some slow leaks due to the pointy small rocks of SoCal. It now loses its air an hour or so after inflating, which is making my sleep much less comfortable. I've also worn through two pairs of Darn Toughs due to those same rocks getting inside of my shoes. I bought an Uberlite and a new pair of socks here at Triple Crown Outfitters, and will warranty the old gear after I finish. (It's been shipped home for now.)

I had to rent a bear canister, because I gave my dad the address to Kennedy Meadows Resort, at mile 1018, and not Kennedy Meadows General Store, where I am. I'm blaming this one on the heat ruining my ability to think straight. (It was before the heat wave, but still...) I also picked up a little emergency poncho that will fall apart after a storm or two, and will get my real poncho at the resort, along with a few days resupply to get me to South Lake Tahoe.

Now, the play by play of the heat wave. Leaving Tehachapi last Monday I knew that I had a heat wave shortly behind me. I got a good 13 miles in after leaving at 4 pm, even after meeting two PCT hikers, Tiptoe and Ducky, who went thru in March 2020. They came with advice and good conversation, but some of the advice didn't quite fit, as starting in March and in 2020 made the trail a lot different than my experience. Me and In No Hurry appreciated the chat for sure, and the later parts of trail will overlap with me considerably. (It was hard to go fast in 2020, for obvious reasons.)

From here it was a matter of making sure that the siesta occurred at a water source, and hiking as fast or as slow as needed to make that happen. Tuesday morning was a leisurely 13 miles to Golden Oaks Spring, when I ran into a bunch of hikers, who I mostly haven't seen since. I've been out of a relative dead zone now. I met Dubs and Mud Dog (?) on the way to lunch, and then three other hikers who don't have trail names (and therefore I can't remember, Zoe was one...) while taking the siesta.

The next siesta was with Curious George, who I met just before entering Tehachapi, at Landers Meadow Spring. Wonderful pine forest for shade, though I had to reposition a bunch to stay in it. Then there was a stretch of ~42 miles without water, but there were two reliable caches to make it workable in the heat. I stopped at the first around dinner on Wednesday then the second for siesta on Thursday.

And I met Devilfish! He's a wonderful angel who supplies a bunch of caches, but didn't take donations. I helped him resupply the Bird Spring Pass cache, which also included battery banks! Spent this siesta with Curious George again, and Ninja as well.

Then on Friday I went into Lake Isabella. It rained a bit while I was there, and all of the employees of the pizza shop went outside to watch like it was a child's first snowstorm. I'm pretty worried about California's drought after seeing that one... Even with the resupply I managed 20.7 miles. And met Amanda after dark. She's big into night hiking.

On Saturday I mostly hiked with Amanda, Quickdraw, Margo (who I knew back from Idyllwild and before), and Sam, though I was asleep for most of my siesta at Chimney Creek. We laid up 8 miles short of Kennedy Meadows, which I hiked in time to attend a Father's Day brunch virtually today.

Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there, especially mine.

- Happy Meal

47.9 mi in 27 hours (558.5 mi, -29.5 -29)

7 am on Friday to 10 am on Saturday, but you can mostly get that from the vlogs.

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But let's start where the last post ended. LA was awesome, but this is a hiking blog, so we'll start when I got dropped off at mile 403 at 6 pm on Monday, doing only 8 miles for the day. (-50 -29 is hopefully the low water mark of the entire journey. Only making up miles from here.) The coolest part of this first night was the way the fog hung on one part of the mountain, which I took a bunch of pictures of.

I met a really cool older couple on Tuesday, Maya and Jay. Maya is hiking the PCT up to the Oregon border, and Jay is both hiking it and supporting her. Jay drives their car around to the next road, hikes SOBO until he meets up with Maya, then hikes with her until they get to the car. It's been fun to pass Jay a few more times since then, as I've gotten ahead of Maya, but not by too much. The ranger at the North Fork Ranger Station was also generous with trail magic, which made for a good day.

On Wednesday I met up with Julianne and her parents, Mike and Jodi, for lunch where the trail road walked through Agua Dulce. They met me on trail at the Sweetwater Bar and Grill, delivering fresh batteries and fresh produce, both of which I was in short supply of. The conversation was so good I was forgetting to eat at times, but I still managed to put about 2 normal sized meals down. Supposedly it was at this point where Timothy Olsen, who is currently attempting an FKT, passed by. He was the talk of the trail for the next few days. Best of luck to him! (Though it certainly puts my attempts at maintaining pace in perspective.) I ended up doing my first 29 mile day, both because of needing to get to Agua Dulce and gaining the FKT inspiration.

At lunch on Thursday I was asked what my plan for the LA Aqueduct was, which was not a good way to learn about a section of trail. I needed some rest after my 29, so I figured that I could do a 21, then a 20-high, then cross the aqueduct early in the morning. 

(On Thursday I called a few people with mixed success. The most notable thing was that my Dad asked if I could see the solar panels in Antelope Valley. I had barely seen them until that point, but I ended up pretty close to them on Saturday, with a really good view as I left on Sunday.)

But then there was a 15 mile stretch with no water, so instead I did 30 miles on Friday. Hikertown was a cool town-themed hostel on the edge of the valley I would be hiking through. I stayed in City Hall, then woke up at 3:30 am to do the aqueduct in the dark, as most people do. First light freaked me out, as I had to beat the sun, so I decided to vlog it to calm me down and give me something to focus on. It worked well. I talked at my phone once an hour through that section, and kept above 3 miles an hour, even including breaks. (Let me know what you think of the vlogs!)

I did another 6 miles after the day cooled off, then did 17 miles today to get into Tehachapi, where I just enjoyed a motel shower, then a burger and a milkshake, and found a 6 pack of Hofbräu Dunkel. I'm planning to take just over a full day of rest, from 1 pm when I got to the road crossing today up until the day's heat starts to fade tomorrow. It's looking like it's gonna be hot the next couple of days, so maybe predawn starts and long siestas are gonna be normal. Until mile 700, when I get into the Sierras and can stop worrying about the sun quite so much.

- Happy Meal

Gaining Miles the California Way (403 mi -38 -29)

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*EDIT*

I forgot to put my next care package drop in this post, because I'm dumb. I'll be picking up packages in Tehachapi on 6/14, or maybe 6/15. (It will be at mile 566, in the hottest portion of trail that I'll go through.) Any packages should be addressed to:

Hold for PCT Hiker ETA 6/14

Matt Wismer

General Delivery

Tehachapi, CA 93561

Reminder that you can add yourself to the Google Photos album to get notified when the blog updates. I post at least one new photo whenever I update the blog.

*END EDIT*

Why are there two separate numbers in the header now? Wildfires. The answer is wildfires. The header represents my theoretical state as of Sunday 6/6. I've only hiked to mile 374, but I'm not allowed to hike between there and 403, so I'll be getting dropped off at 403 on Monday in order to continue my journey. So the first number is the same old marker for how behind schedule I am, while the second number is the miles of trail that I haven't hiked. (Currently there's one other ~20 mile closure in Oregon, with a few advisories that I will likely be safe to hike through.)

Immediately getting a "free" 29 miles and using it to take some time off in LA may turn out to be a bad decision, but I've wanted to visit Chris in LA since graduating college, so this was gonna happen regardless.

Hiking recent has been hot and unexpectedly wet. After getting some delicious cookies and Manuka honey (thanks, Cecilia and JJ!), descending out of Big Bear went fast. I started late, at 9:30 am (about 3 hours later than usual), and still made a 23 mile day.

Then I started hitting swimming options. The PCT crossed Deep Creek a few times, and I went swimming at 2 of them, the second one being at the Deep Creek Hot Springs. I was not ready for a bunch of people who made a 2 mile hike in for a clothing-optional experience. I got one delicately framed picture of one of the 5 pools, and that was after asking permission from the people relaxing nearby.

Then I camped next to Deep Creek 5.5 miles down from the hot springs. Camping right next to a solid source of water was wonderful, and the mosquitoes were downright nostalgic.

The next day we hiked around Silverwood Lake, where I ran into "The Blob", a group of 12ish hikers that includes the Professor, Commissioner, Librarian, Dan, Woof, and AWOL (who I'd met the day before my birthday at Warner Springs, and ran into at Paradise Valley Cafe), among others. I swam there for a bit, then took an aggressive siesta from 12:30-4:30. The high in nearby Victorville was 97 degrees. After the siesta I pressed on to the McDonald's at I-15 where I, naturally, ordered a Happy Meal. (Along with a Big Mac combo and milkshake.) The other hikers in the Blob (who caught up with me during my long break) were downright jealous of my apple slices and milk.

On 6/4 I tried to race the sun up the side of a mountain, and vaguely succeeded. I started with 6 flat miles, and got to my last water source in 17 miles with about 5000' of climb. (3500' to 8200', with some ups and downs to add on). It's cooler up top, so I just needed to get high before it got hot. After my 6 flat miles and a longish conversation with Pop Top, a SOBO thru-hiker, I started the climb just before 9 am. One problem: it was already really hot. But my strategy mostly worked, as it didn't really get much hotter as I climbed. I only needed a 90 minute siesta from 1:30 to 3, though I drank 4.5 L of water during the climb in order to keep my speed up during it. My quads are finally keeping up with me on the climbs, so I'm really just heat-limited when going uphill. I can mostly just go faster if I'm willing to sweat more, but water is the resource to manage here.

Then I had an easy 10 miles before noon (including an hour long break to charge my devices), and got picked up by Chris and Nat, where we immediately hit up a Korean BBQ spot. Then I saw Chris's parents for the first time in a while, and got to shower before my weekend out on the town, in Chris's clothes.

- Happy Meal