I awoke near 3am to the feeling of something on my shoulder then my face. My sleepy self thought it was a critter so I sat up quick and grabbed a light. Holy shit, that’s a tail I see in the corner followed by a squeak. I shine my light on it and it scurries to a different corner of my tent. I spend 2 minutes trying to catch the mouse in my tent before finally being smart enough to open my tent door all the way and scare it out. Once gone, I then set about trying to find the hole where it chewed through to get in, but there is none. Somehow, the mouse squeezed through the hole between my two zippers -- wild! The rest of my night was restless since it is a little hard to fall asleep after that. 

The hike began with a 500 ft elevation gain per mile for the first 5 miles... of which 2.5 of those miles were through overgrown weedy trail. A fun (and very slow) way to start to the day. Just kidding, it sucked real bad. 

We crested the top and shortly after saw our first SOBO hiker of the day. The views were stunning but smoky due to a fire nearby. 

The trail was reminiscent of the High Sierras where there were 2 big climbs followed by 2 big descents. After the 5 mile morning climb, we had a knee breaking 8 mile drop into a valley. I didn’t find my first wind today until stopping to make coffee at 10 am. 

I ran into a group of female hikers I’d met in Burney, CA at a restaurant-- they’d flipped up to the top of the trail to head south and said they’d been on the lookout for me. 

The mix of hikers today was like 70% female, which is super uncommon since it feels like most people on the PCT are dudes. Going SOBO is regarded as harder, so these gals are hardcore! 

The afternoon was a 10 mile gradual ascent of 3,000 feet through an old growth forest. I think old growth forests are my favorite to hike through because the trees are incomprehensible size and it puts life into perspective -- these trees were old when my great-great-great grandfather was born. 

We finished the day off with a 13 mile descent stopping at 39 miles. There were more SOBOs at camp and it was fun to hang out. I’m now officially within 100 miles of touching the border! 

Miles: 39.1

Total Miles: 2,662