Day 66 – Saturday, July 29

PCT Mile 985.5 to PCT Mile 1005.9 Kennedy Canyon
Day Total: 20.4 Miles

We climbed all morning. It was just a gently graded uphill, but it continued for miles.

There was a lot of water on and near the trail, including a thigh-deep crossing of a lake outlet this morning. And with lots of water, comes lots of bugs. Holy moley mosquitoes. These were the worst bugs I've ever encountered. The mosquitoes this morning were up there with battling the heat in the desert and the snow in the southern Sierras.

We got up to Dorothy Lake, the boundary of Yosemite National Park, and the top of the climb at lunch time. Thankfully, somehow, the mosquitoes weren't as bad up there.

I was sweating like crazy because I'd been hiking in full rain gear and my head net all morning, so Stephen and I jumped in the lake, which was cold and refreshing.

We met a bunch of PCT hikers who had flipped north to avoid the snow and are now hiking back south at lunch today. We traded information about the snow we'd walked through for info about the towns along the trail farther north.

After a delightful lunch, we started our descent from Dorothy Lake Pass. The trail crossed some snow fields and skirted some beautiful high alpine lakes. We crossed Cascade Creek, which was a thigh-deep ford. The trail descended all afternoon, mostly through forests of big trees.

We passed the 1,000 mile mark this afternoon! I can't believe we've walked one thousand miles. Sometimes it feels like we've been hiking for a long time, but more often I am surprised at how long we've been on the trail.

We sang the "I will walk 500 miles and I will walk 500 more" song and we took photos. I realized we have taken a photo at every 100-mile marker, except 800 which we missed because it was buried under snow. Oh well!