September 9
Had a great night sleep again last night. For breakfast I did check my fried steak with eggs, hashbrowns and toast again and took the 1030 shuttle to the trail head. And 11 AM I am again on the PCT.
Hiking up from Sonora pass, I hiked up to and around some really cool volcanic rock formations. There is wide-open, views to the surrounding mountains as well.
Once I crested the top of the hill, I dropped down into the valley on the other side, and the rock completely changed from volcanic to granite. It also went from a barren with a little plant life to forested hillsides.
There were also great views of the mountains on the side of the valley as well.
I crossed, many small streams, waterfalls, and impressively large Sierra junipers along with more cool granite rocks.
There continued to be great views of surrounding mountains as I climbed back up and over another mountain.
One of the surrounding mountains had a large, oval shaped granite cone reaching skyward.
I had intended to hike 17 miles today due to my late start, but was feeling good and continued on past my original selected area. I ended up with 21.4 miles today.
As I approached my campsite, which is in the pine trees at the bottom of the picture, I could see the sheer mountainside just across the valley I will camp in. It has been lightly raining off and on for the second half of the hike today. It had let up about 40 minutes before I got to the campsite, but started up, just as I set up my tent. I quickly got everything inside made my dinner and ate in the dry tent. I didn’t get a picture of the tent site, I’ll have to do it in the morning.
Today’s PCT miles hiked 21.4
Total PCT Miles hiked to date 2340.9
PCT mile marker 1038.3
(Returned to complete 303.4 flipped over)
Miles left:
Kearsarge - Echo 54.0
Snoqualmie-Terminus 259.5
Total 313.5
