For Parker’s first morning on trail, I was impressed by how quickly he packed up. We were up and moving within 35 minutes. Our goal is to cover 60 miles by tomorrow evening so we are camped at the approach to Forester Pass. There are 7 total mountain passes in the next 200 miles that allow us to navigate through the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Each requires between 2k-4K sharp vertical ascent followed by a similar descent. Essentially, allowing us to ‘pass’ over one mountain to the next. 

The mountain range was a welcome change of scenery. We hiked through pine tree forests, green meadows, and climbed a few small mountains for some epic views. 

The trail was pretty sandy though, and the dirt and grit got in Parker’s shoes causing blisters in each heel. So, he improvised and made make shift Gaiters at a water break. 

The make shift gaiters worked ok but were unlikely to make it through a few days of hiking. 

There is a saying in thru-hiking: “the trail always provides”. During that same break, a backpacker named ‘Bad Foot’ was chatting with us and saw Parker’s dilemma. Parker and I had hiked on, but Sandman hung out for awhile longer. ‘Bad Foot’ carried a pair of gaiters but hadn’t been using them so he decided to give them to Sandman for Parker to use. Legendary!!

There must’ve been an Air Force base close because most of the day we could hear the loud hum of a plane flying close by and then suddenly a fighter jet would appear in the horizon.

Miles: 29.6

Total Miles: 959