Daily Miles – 18
Woke up with a swollen eye. Not sure what happened. Feels like someone punched me during the night….as far as I know I didn’t encounter anyone during sleep.
Halfway down the long set of switchbacks to the basin where Lake Edison is, I ran into an Aussie named Steve. We ended up sitting and chatting for at least 2 hours. We chatted about attitudes about work, our various travels and guitar building (he is also a woodworker). As we were wrapping up, 3 young ladies who had just graduated college came up and we chatted with them for a while.
This delay put some pressure on me to pump out some miles…and I had a 6 mile climb up silver pass. I put on a metal mix, and powered up the climb.
I listened to a couple hours of the audio book for Siddhartha this afternoon during a period of at least 4 hours when I didn’t run into another hiker – anomalous for this trail. This is one of my all time favorite books. The audiobook version was terrific, and was a great way to once again enjoy the book.
One of my favorite climbs happened today. It is a set of switchbacks that climb above a meadow that has a wide winding stream. This always reminds me of the book ‘The River Why’. At the top of the climb, I chatted with a PCT hiker for a few minutes and mentioned the giant W below and he too had read the book!
Passed Lake Virginia and saw the campsite that SweetPea and I had in 2016 and remembered the great view we had from our hammocks.
Camped alone, not at a campsite, but on a ridge between Lake Virginia and Purple Lake. The view of the lake is pretty good and I enjoyed watching the sun spread some great color off the mountains surrounding Lake Virginia.
I may be on the longest hammock hang that I have ever had. It is about 30 feet from tree to tree and over some rocks….well, the view is worth it…glad to have a total of 27 feet of webbing as my hammock suspension
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