[pct-l] weathercarrot and sam-i-am on the pct

[Michael Henderson <mikeh@royalrobbins.com>]

spent a little over 24 hrs, from sat afternoon to sunday eve, collecting
weathercarrot and sam-i-am from various sacramento transportation termini,
feeding them, getting them to the grocery store, providing boxes, tape and
markers for mail drops and getting them to the trailhead at donner pass for
their 2/3 pct hike.  weathercarrot decided not to attempt a full thruhike
what with all the snow the high sierra has had.  he was still a little
nervous at all the snow we could see from the car on the way up.  and,
since this is his first 'new' trail since 1991, he was as excited as if he
were seeing the first white blaze at springer.

i hiked the 3 miles between hwy 40 and I-80 with them, negotiating a small
but steep patch of snow in the first 400 yds.  they weren't too keen to see
that, but after i kick-stepped my way up and across in sneakers without
much of a second thought, they followed easily.  after that it was piece of
cake to I-80.  i think weathercarrot said "hmmm, nice smooth trail" no less
than 3 times as we negotiated the plentiful switchbacks.  sam-i-am, whose
total lifetime experience of california was the previous 24 hrs, was blown
away by the scenery; "why the hell is everyone on the AT instead of out
here?" she mused.

after walking through the PCT tunnels under I-80 and laughing and waving at
all the 4th of july traffic sitting bumper to bumper on their way back to
the bay area, we stopped for a water break, and i readied to return to the
car.  i mentioned that they had missed their first and possibly only chance
at a slackpack on the PCT, and they grinned at the realization that
"slackpacking", "purist" and other AT terms are meaningless on the left
coast.  they headed on another 4.5 miles to peter grubb hut, an
open-to-the-public sierra club hut, for the evening.  imagine, their first
night on the PCT and they get to spend it in a shelter!

it was hard not to go with them.  two more years...

mike
ke kaahawe  AT92  TYT94  PCT2000
mikeh@royalrobbins.com
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