Brad's Adventure

“HOLY S*** ITS A F****** BEAR” – Seth

Days 69 – 75

Miles 943 – 1091

Due to the fact that I had gotten into Mammoth at 8:30am and then taken a 0 day the next day, by the end of the Yosemite it had been essentially 4 days off trail and I was antsy to get back. Especially after the crowds of Yosemite.

After we met back up with the crew we had some lunch at Tualumne Meadows and set out. We did a half day, about 10 miles. It was basically just enough to get out of the Yosemite no camping zone. The clouds started looking pretty ominous in the evening but it never really turned into anything.

The next few days were very physical, but also the most beautiful of the entire trail (so far) in my opinion. The High Sierras were grandiose, but the Low Sierras had a more intimate feeling to them.

There was an interesting scene over another meadow: a large line of parallel contrails. It’s not exactly nature but nonetheless it’s a neat thing I otherwise might not have seen. Not all of the PCT experience is wilderness.

On the third day, Seth, LB, Sandy and I were eating dinner when all of a sudden Seth yells “HOLY S*** ITS A F****** BEAR!” He had been facing away from camp in the circle and sure enough we all turned around and there was a huge bear strolling by. It was probably 50ish ft away. I sadly don’t have a video or picture. It wasn’t walking toward camp, just very casually strolling parallel to the campsite. We started shouting at it (as you’re supposed to) and some other hikers got out of their tents to watch and shout too. It didn’t care, at ALL. It didn’t even acknowledge our presence. It just kept slowly strolling onward. I got the impression it was going home after a long day and was just completely unbothered. Someone even threw a rock near it and it didn’t flinch. This was, surprisingly, our first bear encounter of the whole trail. Other hikers who had seen 5-6 said this one was easily the biggest they’d seen.

That night we were MUCH more vigilant about our bear cans. We had gotten slightly lazy with them, sometimes leaving out toothpaste, sunscreen, etc. but tonight everything went into the bear cans that could possibly attract the bear back.

The next day was another big event, 1000 miles! We had officially walked farther than the guy in the “I would walk 500 miles song” I like these milestones because they force me to look back on what I’ve accomplished. It’s easy for me to only focus on what’s in front of me, to think about how much farther I have to go, how many miles to the next town, etc. The miles slowly tick up, the mile markers on Farout lose meaning, and then suddenly you see a sign and think, holy crap I’ve walked 1000 miles. And I’ve been walking every day since April 22.

That same day was cut short because of dark clouds and the potential to be stuck on a 6 mile exposed ridgeline during a thunderstorm. In case you aren’t aware, that’s not something you want. I think we were all secretly happy we didn’t have to go as far that day.

The last day was Sonora pass, and it was awesome. Super pretty, and because it was exposed you had a great view of the surrounding area. I could look north and tell we were getting close to the end of the Sierras.

We even got a little treat at the end of the pass. There was a small patch of snow that was perfect for a glissade. I slid down and waited a few min for Seth to catch up so I could get a vid of him doing it too:

After the glissade there was a small stream across the trail that was 100% snow melt. I normally don’t do this but we both filled our bottles straight from the stream, no filters. Some of the best water ever.

We’d heard whispers of trail magic at the highway so Seth and I jogged most of the downhill, excited for some real food and something cold to drink.

Sure enough there was a couple down there that had a tradition of July 3rd trail magic and they gave us some chili and cold drinks, and an American flag bandana for the 4th.

From the highway we started our attempt at hitch-hiking to Lake Tahoe. Seth and I had decided a few days ago we wanted to be in Tahoe for the 4th of July. I had looked it up and the fireworks there are rated top 5 in the country by the American Pyrotechnics Association, sounded pretty legit. So after 3 different hitches and 5 hours, we were at the RV campground in Lake Tahoe. Of our group, 5 hitched to Tahoe. LB kept hiking because she said “Tahoe on the 4th of July sounds like Six Flags on memorial day”. We had known a group of hikers way back around mile 450 that had done Six flags on memorial day weekend.

Because we were in Lake Tahoe on the 4th of July, our options were a $500 hotel room, a $12000 (yes, $12,000) Airbnb, or the free PCT camping area at the RV campground. We chose the campground. It was a small roped off section in the middle of the park. I was glad I’d bought earplugs back in Wrightwood.

Even though it was chaotic and loud, I’m glad we decided to make the effort to get to Tahoe on the 4th, but I’ll talk more about that in the next post.