PCT: Uphill Both Ways

Leaving Idyllwild I was relying on Saina to navigate us up to the trail. We started walking up. Then steeper up. Then steeper... Before I knew it we were sweating and climbing the Devil's Slide trail and my tendon was throwing a pain party in my lower leg. Saina took off and I continued slowly behind her going about 50 feet between tendon massages. At one point I sat down in frustration and ate the majority of my salami-my heaviest food item-in the hopes of lightening my pack on the vertical climb. As I passed an ice cold creek I reached in and grabbed some of the freezing rocks and put them on my tendon for 20 minutes and it seemed to help. After 180 miles you feel sort of like a badass, then a trail like this really humbles you! So up and up we climbed and collapsed at the top. Here's a nice shot showing where we started the day!

Amidst the pain and sweat I was also aware that I was climbing a trail as pretty as any I'd tackled in the Sierras. I took photos every 100 feet, I couldn't help myself!

The rest of the day we gradually climbed and made it to a gorgeous water source right as the sun was setting. We filled up and found a great campsite just as the sky turned, as my mom says, "sky-blue pink with a dash of purple."

Waking up the next day I knew I was in for a tough one.. From where we camped we had a 20 mile stretch of trail that took us down an 8,000 foot descent. And as an extra challenge, there was no water til the end. So carrying 3.5 liters I took off.

Any hiker will tell you that going down is far tougher on the body than going up. With my strong legs I can fly up a gradual incline but going down takes twice the time and energy. Starting early I gave myself an entire day for the whole descent, and I almost didn't make it..

The descent started easy enough with sweeping switchbacks and a gradual, steady decline. And this continued most of the day with the only change being my knees and ankles growing more unstable with every step. When I descend, my knees stay bent and my thighs/quads absorb the most impact, and 10 miles of constant lunging was getting tough.

The temp climbed close to 100 and I started to realize I had made a couple mistakes.. I had underestimated the amount of water I needed and I was rapidly running out, and I had also made assumptions about the trail which were not true and now I was taking a lot longer than I thought to descend. Up until this point the trail had been flat and well-groomed and all of a sudden we were finding ourselves on an eroded, crumbling and difficult trail that was very hard to find and follow at times. So there I was, sweating out precious water and still 8 or 9 miles from the water faucet waiting at the end of the descent. With urging from Saina I found some shade and took a break.

Coincidentally, I took a break exactly at the 200 mile mark! What a boost!

At about the 200 mile mark the giant water tank at the bottom of the hill becomes visible. A big white tank filled with delicious water. Then the PCT makes you wind through 7.5 miles of trail to get to it! I managed to make it the rest of the way down to the water with the help of some electrolytes and frequent breaks, but it was the toughest day yet and I definitely learned a few lessons.