Mile 26

Day 2 Summary

+ High: Shower and hot food at Lake Morena Campground

- Low: Both of my feet were hurting in the last couple mies

• Best gear of the day: Gossamer umbrella

• Worst gear of the day: n/a

• Key people: Kevin from Bay area, Lori from Seattle, Giggles from CA, Mike from Seattle and Michael from Michigan.

In the morning, I hiked out of hauser creek by myself around 7. It was a big hike out of valley. I met Kevin and Lori on the way and later Giggles joined us. Everyone has been really friendly.

Giggles and Kevin had hiked PCT before. Giggles even finished 2000 miles last year. She got rescued by NOAA because she breathed in too much poison ivy smoke when the wild fire burned. After 3 days in ICU, she’s back on the trail in two weeks, again. Kevin is from SF Bay area and retired from IBM last year after 30 years. He just loves hiking. He brought a satellite messenger with him so his wife can find him all the time. He said “It’s expensive, but you gotta invest in your marriage. Believe me. I’ve been married for a long time.” I believed him.

5 miles in, we are at Lake Morena campground. It set aside an area just for PCT hikers. And the best part here is the Malt’s shop. We are able to get real food! I had chicken finger and fries, coke and a coffee. The waiter looked at me “ a coke and a coffee?” “Yes, please.” It’s a great lunch. We had fun!

After lunch break, Most people decided to stay for a night and I decided to move on with Michael. The hike out was not bad, pretty flat relatively. But at some point, both of my feet arches were hurting like hell. I’m not sure if it’s because of the weight or my shoes insoles.

We got in to Boulder Oaks campground just before dark where had water and restroom. Lovely place. I got out of the tent late at night to use restroom, the night sky was incredible. You can see every single star in the sky. They are so many stars that I couldn’t recognize the signs that I knew.

I think I did good today.