Day 68 – Monday, July 31

PCT Mile 1,017.9 to PCT Mile 1,043.1 Campsite on the saddle above Noble Lake
Day Total: 25.3 miles

This morning we had a couple miles of climbing away from the road, up to an exposed rocky ridge.

We ate a big breakfast looking out on the mountains we had hiked the last few days. From there, it was a very snowy descent.

I thought we were through the slushy snow patches and challenging navigation, but not yet. We hardly saw the trail all morning, following snippets among the large, dense, old snow fields.

Downed trees and lots of small streams added to the challenge.

The trail had lots of little ups and downs today, which felt different than the long ascents to passes we had hiked farther south. We saw several more flip-floppers headed south, but didn't see any other PCT NOBOs. We've been in a weird vacuum since Tuolumne Meadows and have hardly seen any hikers we know. Hopefully we'll start seeing familiar faces again soon.

All afternoon there were ominous rain clouds overhead, but thankfully only a little bit of rain. Several times I thought thunderstorms were coming for us, but we kept walking and it never happened.

We had a mission today, and that was to make it to a campsite that our friend Haymaker had recommended several weeks ago. We knew it must be a good one.

We saw a beautiful sunset as we hiked the last mile up to the saddle and our campsite. At the top, there were tremendous views in both directions – mountains and lakes, and beautiful pink sunset clouds. We set up the tent in the sheltered area behind some small trees and ate a big dinner of rice sides with rehydrated chicken.