Campsite north of Bird Spring Pass to Walker Pass

Woke up early again and was out hiking before 6am. 

Not too much notable about the hiking today. I walked and got hot. 

Oh, I did catch my first distant glimpse of snow covered peaks, very exciting! 

Made pretty good time and got to Walker Pass to see the truck belonging to Coppertone, a roving trail angel who I previously ran into at the bottom of the Fuller Ridge descent, and then at the Tehachapi-Willow Springs road crossing. Coppertone is a former thru-hiker who is retired and likes to spend his summer driving his little home built RV to road crossings along the PCT route, following the herd north and providing root beer floats. 

Also at the campground were Meadow Ed, who started trail the trail angel tradition on the PCT 23 years ago. He and Okie Girl and Yogi, who writes a guide book for the PCT, were providing food and shade and drinks for hikers for the weekend. 

Met back up with Ballou and Rembrandt and Happy Meal and Stich, who I had last seen in Agua Dulce. 

Cowboy camped in the campground, anticipating an early start for the climb up out of Walker Pass.

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2021 Update:

Woke up early again and was out hiking before 6am. Yes, this amazes even me.

Not too much notable about the hiking today. I walked and got hot. 

A quick note on heat and hiking: When it's hot and dry and you're hauling a pack up and down, you're going to be sweating. However, the humidity here is so low that your skin mostly stays dry, except maybe your back. At the end of the day, I could feel the salt crystals on my skin, and quite often, see the salt coating the hairs on my arms and legs. On long stretches between being able to do laundry, shirts in particular got so impregnated with salt that they would nearly stand on their own.

Lots of people, particularly those who are used to hiking in higher humidity areas where your skin gets and stays visibly wet, are fooled into thinking that because their skin is dry, that they aren't perspiring, and that they don't need to drink water.

Also sometimes missed is that while sweating, you aren't just losing water. All that salt on your skin and clothes is also being lost. There's a reason that hikers quite often crave salty foods. 

Oh, I did catch my first distant glimpse of snow covered peaks, very exciting! 

Made pretty good time and got to Walker Pass to see the truck belonging to Coppertone, a roving trail angel who I previously ran into at the bottom of the Fuller Ridge descent, and then at the Tehachapi-Willow Springs road crossing. Coppertone is a former thru-hiker who is retired and likes to spend his summer driving his little home built RV to road crossings along the PCT route, following the herd north and providing root beer floats. 

Also at the campground were Meadow Ed, who started trail the trail angel tradition on the PCT 23 years ago. He and Okie Girl and Yogi, who writes a guide book for the PCT, were providing food and shade and drinks for hikers for the weekend. 

Met back up with Ballou and Rembrandt and Happy Meal and Stitch, who I had last seen in Agua Dulce. 

There were about twenty PCT hikers here tonight, spread out through the campground. Having the trail angels feeding people provides a point where everyone comes together. Usually it's hard to get an idea of how many people are on the same stretch of trail.

I cowboy camped in the campground, anticipating an early start for the climb out of Walker Pass.

Photos from today: https://www.b-photo.com/Travel/PCT-2016-Day-by-Day/June/June-10/

Mighty Mouse's blog for this section: http://www.timandgerri.com/blog---2016/day-56-mile-63417-65200