June 14, 2008 Pacific Crest Trail

Destination: Death Canyon
Miles: 16

Adrian:
Seems like we irritated iPod a bit last night by coming in so late. Oh well, as Rob says, I wouldn't lose any sleep over him.

Our packs are ridiculously heavy with 11 days of food and it makes these first few days out of Kennedy Meadows difficult. We are tempted to eat a ton of our food to reduce weight, but this grub has to last us for many more days.

One nice development is that water is no longer an issue. We don't need to plan our day around water sources or carry 10 pounds of it. For the next 400 some miles, we'll carry little more than one liter at a time.

Rob is hanging tough but has some blister problems. I feel for him. He and us with our heavy packs make for a slow but steady team. We get to camp late and can barely cook food before falling asleep, much less journal entries. We struggle to keep up.

The mosquitoes are hitting hard even though we are camped high above any kind of water. We ate dinner down by the river and now all we can do is hunker down in the safety of our tents.

Tomorrow we have to do 20 miles in order to stay on Rob's schedule. So we got that to look forward to...

Kirsten:
Rob is pushing through the blister pain and is keeping up without difficulty. He is usually much chattier and these silent periods are a sure sign of a hiker who has hit the trail after a long absence. That's not to say that Rob is in bad shape. He is probably in better athletic condition than I am. Blisters and a heavy backpack are difficult to prepare for. The only way is to experience them on the trail. Unfortunately, this takes the spring out of many a hiker's step.

We ran into Jeff Saufley - part of the Saufley trail angel team - this morning. It was pretty cool to see him enjoying the PCT along with the rest of us.

Wildlife alert: We saw mule deer today. Sadly, no bear. I'm not wishing for a confrontation. I would love to see a bear lumbering through the forest - a safe distance away - doing what bears do. You know, catching fish, eating berries and grubs, scratching themselves. Bear stuff.