Day 42 – Wednesday, July 5

PCT Mile 712.7 to PCT Mile 730.8 Death Canyon Creek

Day Total: 18.1 Miles

We woke up in a beautiful green forest of tall, old trees, a landscape different from anything we'd seen so far.

The trail passed into a green meadow looking out to big mountains and we ate breakfast at the south fork of the Kern river, a spot so beautiful it looked like a postcard. Our campsite buddies from last night, Moe and Toe, were fly fishing. 

The trail took us mostly upward, passing a lot of streams. I love water and had missed streaks for the past month.

Hearing thunder we chilled in the tent for an hour in the afternoon instead of going higher. After the skies cleared, we reached 10,000 feet and saw small remnants of snow. Snow! And big trees.

It was smoky and getting worse as the day went on.

Although we couldn't see much of the mountains because of the smoke at times there were pretty views of upcoming snowy peaks.

In the late afternoon we had light rain for a bit, enough to put on rain gear and the pack covers we carried for 700 miles without ever thinking about using them. Finally, they are worthwhile! 

We got to camp a little after seven, saw several other tents and set up our tent with the rain fly for the first time in a very long time.

Stephen was heading down to the creek to get water just after dark tonight and freaked out when he heard loud growling right near him. Was it a bear?

He used his headlamp to look all around and couldn't see anything.

And then he realized it was the guy in the tent closest to the creek snoring like a madman!