Ever since leaving Kathy, Stephanie, and Justin at South Lake Tahoe I’ve been in Northern California. There is a lot less water. For example, in Sierras you’d not worry because you would cross a stream every 15 to 30 minutes whereas today it was upwards to 8 miles between streams. I’m mostly hiking through forests.

I like to hike in the early morning. This was taken shortly after 6 AM. The sun was just rising. It’s cool and quiet. The bugs haven’t come out. I seem to make the most progress at this time of day.

Hidden beneath Interstate 80 is a tunnel to allow PCT hikers to cross the highway.

I don’t know the name of these yellow flowers, but I’ve passed by thousands like this picture.

I’m moving from national wilderness to national wilderness. This one is called Granite Chief Wilderness.

The hiking life is pretty simple. You hike, eat, sleep and not much else. Yesterday I got to my campsite, set up my tent, ate my dinner, and snuggled into my sleeping bag around 6:30 PM. I dozed off and woke at 8:30. I normally wake around 5 AM so I was surprised to have overslept. I got up and started doing my morning things including taking my medicine, getting my socks and shoes on, and packing a few things up. Suddenly I realized that it wasn’t 8:30 AM, but it was only 8:30 PM and still light out. How could I be so out-of-it not to realize this! So I unpacked, took off my shoes and socks, and went back to bed. Sheesh!

I woke early at 5 AM to get a jump on completing my miles by mid-afternoon today. I wanted to rest. Two miles in I encountered a blowdown tree and went right to get over it at a narrower spot. Afterward I veered left to get back to the trail. Slowly I climbed and after about 45 minutes I was nearing the top and took out my phone to look at the GPS. To my surprise I was off trail. Huh? How did that happen? So back down to the trail I went. Finally after 45 minutes I again climbed over the tree and found myself on the PCT. What happened is that the tree blew down on a trail sign post where the PCT went left and the Tahoe-Yosemite Trail went right. When I climbed over the tree I accidentally merged with the right one. Argh! So I lost 3 miles of hiking right at the beginning of the day. I was not a happy hiker for the rest of the day. My desire to complete mid-afternoon was shot.

Although I’m now going through Desolation Wilderness, this lake and its reflection caught my eye.

From Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite (PCT mile 942) Justin and I hiked to Echo Lake (PCT mile 1092).