PCT 2007 Day 95 – Whiskey Creek Trail – Person’s

PCT 2007 Day 95

Day 95 / 6-28-07 H 7190 ‘
Just past Whiskey Creek Trail – Person’s
18.2 miles; 1158.8 (48.4) total miles; 3013.0 trip miles
High 70’s, sunny, windy

Deer count is 62
Marmot count is 51
Pika count is 2
Bear count is 1

Last night I made a bed of soft needles to sleep on but I was on a slope so I still didn’t sleep well. Silver, Backtrack and I go up at 5:15 and were on trail at 5:50.

We started on a hill which was kind of a bummer. Silver thought she spooked a bear because she heard loud thrashing and heavy feet on the way up the climb. At the very top we found Second Hand having his breakfast. He stayed in a nice little sheltered spot where he had a beautiful view of the sunrise.

We were in the middle of a ski area now and began our descent to the Squaw Creek where we got water. The data book said there would be no more water for 15.5 miles. It was so wrong, because we passed at least 5 more water sources before the road.
We passed some boy scouts and their parents as we approached Tinker Knob. Tinker Knob is a mountain that looks like it belongs in monument valley in shape. As we left the Knob, we hiked along the Sierra crest, where it was windy as hell. This section of trail would make a great mountain biking trail. It rolled over hill tops right along a bowl on the right, where it dropped off a few hundred feet.

We finally got to a steep climb just before Roller Pass where the trail split. One went up super steep and one traversed. I looked at the steep one and thought, “horse grade my ___!”. The PCT is supposed to be all graded for horses. After I looked at the map, I figured out we took the traverse to Roller Pass.

At Roller Pass we started to see lots of day hikers. As a result, we kept on getting slowed down when they wanted to know where we came from and where we were going. We just wanted to get to Donner Pass.

We descended through the Donner Ski Resort and finally reached the road. Just before the last switchbacks, I ran into a guy who asked how far I had come and if I was out for the night. I told him 15 miles and that I had stayed out. He asked where and I told him. He quickly assumed I was just out for the night and kept saying it must be out just the night. I even told him I was coming from Mexico and going to Canada. He finally got where and what I was doing.

We called a trail angel named Bill Person who told us to hike to I-80 and he would pick us up. We had lunch then hiked to I-80 where we were late. We drove to his house and we had ice cream, a shower, and then prepared dinner food. We then went to the store, where we all got food and Silver got new shoes. Bill dropped us off and went to pick up Marmot and Trail Dog at I-80. At the house it was Marmot, Trail Dog, Mace (all from Seattle), Silver, Backtrack, Second Hand and I.

We had an incredible dinner of 4 kinds of meat, potatoes, salad and veggie stir fry. For desert we had brownies with ice cream. I made a ton of calls and did a bunch of emails.

We all went to bed by around 10. I slept on the living room floor. I was so full it didn’t take long to fall asleep.