Day 68

(Originally written on Saturday, July 11)

When I started hiking this morning, I was at Mile 987.6 (Wilmer Lake). When I finally made camp just across Sonora Pass (Highway 108), I was at Mile 1018.5--a total distance of 30.9 miles! This was easily my longest day on the trail thus far and my first 30+ mile day. Suffice it to say that I am extremely proud of myself, especially because I did it in the Sierras, which isn't generally very easy terrain. Three benefits that will help immediately are that 1) I should now be out of the worst mosquito country, 2) I have only a short climb tomorrow back up to 10,000' for the last time on the PCT before dropping down a few thousand feet, and 3) I'm past a very windy section that looked strangely like terrain the Mars Rover has been on. I'm sure that there will be times that I miss the higher elevations, but I'm ready to be done with them!

In other news, I crossed the 1,000-mile mark! It doesn't feel like I've actually made it that far, although my feet feel differently. I'm confident that the next 1,000 miles will go better and faster than the first 1,000 miles. At least I'm hoping! To make that happen I've got to get to the Tahoe area in the next five days, which wouldn't be a problem except that my shoes are (sort of) falling apart and most of my socks have holes in them. So when I get to Tahoe, the first order of business will be to pick up Adrienne from the airport in Reno (she's visiting me for a few days), then go to In-n-Out where I'm going to eat multiple burgers, then to REI where I will upgrade some of my clothes that have taken an absolute beating through the Sierras. It's going to be wonderful.

After today's long miles and yesterday's 26-mile day, tomorrow figures to be a smaller day. I'm not sure how many miles I'll go for, but I'm pretty sure my feet will have a say in that because they are pretty sore and tired right now.