PCT Day 36-43

Welcome back everybody! I tried to release this post a week ago when I was sitting at the Kennedy Meadows General Store, but the wifi wasn’t too good and so I feel as if I am behind in posting! For those of you who want to know where I am in real time, I am resupplying in Bishop, CA and am almost 800 miles into the PCT. I’m frantically uploading photos, so hopefully this gets done in time for me to be up to date.

Even though I am not caught up to date, I have very exciting news that I want to share with you all! My birthday is coming up and I will be passing through the Tuolumne Meadows general store a few days before, so more than ever I would love mail to make the day feel like a celebration! If you’re feeling up to writing me a postcard or sending me something fun I will be in Tuolumne Meadows around July 11. Thank you in advance 🥳🎉🎁

Tuolumne Meadows Post Office

Brooke Giorgi

c/o General Delivery

Tuolumne Meadows

Yosemite National Park, CA 95389

Arriving by: July 11

Ok folks, let’s dive right on in!

Day 36: 6/15/2025, mile 558 - 568

Today’s hike ended up being fairly easy. When we got to the trailhead Dennis and I couldn’t believe we had just been here 5 days prior. We met a kind man named Rabbit who received some trail magic from the Gavrilenko’s. We had some fresh cherries and apricots to share from their garden, yum!

Along the hike today, we stopped to find a geocache and enjoyed a nice break where some camp chairs were set up.

I also learned that carrying a bear can on top of my backpack would not work for me! The can fell off a few times and I had to reconfigure it to fit inside the bag.

We saw a few other hikers today but kept to ourselves because it was so hot and talking felt too difficult. We found a nice flat spot to camp about 10 miles in. Thanks to our recent visit to Los Angeles, Dennis’s parents gifted us some fun dehydrated meals to bring for the week. We are living it up out here!

Unfortunately the tent site was in a wind tunnel, so I got effectively no sleep at night because all I could focus on was the wind, the train horns in the distance, and the freeway we were camped close to. I ended up falling asleep at 5am and sleeping for 2 hours until it was time to get a start on the day. Oh brother, I was in for a long hike!

Day 37: 6/16/2025, mile 568 - 589

We started this morning with a 4 mile climb. After my lack of sleep last night I moved slowly but surely. I didn’t realize until today, but I dropped my phone last night and cracked one of my camera lenses. You’ll be getting only 0.5x photos from now on unless I take pics on Dennis’s phone. Dennis and I decided to have lunch about 15 miles into our day at a pipe fed spring.

I arrived a while after Dennis and enjoyed my rest. Eventually Dennis and I parted ways for him to go attempt to find a geocache on top of cache peak. Little did I know this would take him 4 hours to complete, so I meandered on towards our final campsite about 23 miles in. I set out my tent footprint and cursed to myself for leaving the rest of the tent AND the stove with Dennis. I arrived to camp nearly 2 hours before him and decided it was best to get in my sleeping bag and doze until he showed up. Finally around 10pm I was rewarded with some lasagna! 

Day 38: 6/17/2025, mile 589 - 610

Today we took forever to get up because we were so tired. We took it as a sign to have a nice slow morning where we had hot oatmeal for once and left camp around 9:30. The first half of today consisted of a lot of climbing. We climbed over 4,000ft under the hot sun with me occasionally running for the woods to deal with my unfortunate case of diarrhea. We took the most wonderful nap at Robin spring, and had a late lunch there at 4pm. Then we hiked just past sunset into Sequoia National Forest. I wasn’t feeling too well, so Dennis hiked ahead and set up the tent for me before I made it to camp. I cooked a yummy tomato soup for dinner and am finally going to be asleep before 10pm!

Day 39: 6/18/2025, mile 610 - 632

This morning I drew the short end of the stick by completing the camp chore of filtering all 6L of water. I left about 30 minutes before Dennis, enjoying the morning light through the trees but was quickly fooled. I only got to hike another mile through the thick tree coverage before 20ish miles of desert stretched before me. We had a pleasant 7 miles descent before we came across a sign that said “magic, red Honda.” Unfortunately the guy doing trail magic forgot to take down his sign so we were led the wrong way.

We rested a bit and decided to continue until we found a nice Joshua Tree to have lunch under. The next 4 miles uphill in the 88 degree heat were pretty miserable. I found Dennis under a nice tree and we ate lunch and tried to relax, but we had to get a move on if we were going to make it to the next water cache by nightfall.

I was having terrible diarrhea and Dennis like the chivalrous guy he is carried my bear can and heavy items the last 6 miles of the day. I was not moving quickly so I very much appreciated the help!

Day 40: 6/19/2025, mile 632 - 653 

We woke up early today at 5am to do the 1700ft climb in the cool morning. I was feeling great! After our big climb we had a pretty mellow day full of rolling hills until we had a long descent to relax at the end of the day. We decided to hitch into the town of Lake Isabella at the end of the day so I could get more Imodium. As we neared the end of our day we walked into the Walker Pass campground and the red Honda got its redemption! There was donuts, beer, bananas, Gatorade, and more.

We relaxed for a while before trying to hitchhike into Lake Isabella. We were having no luck until a man stopped in his Mercedes RV and gave us a ride into Lake Isabella. We weren’t having good luck with hitching from Walker Pass, so we tried to jump up and down and excitedly clap for each car to get a ride. He claimed he picked us up because we looked so excited to see him. We stayed in the most motel looking motel ever and ate some delicious town pizza while we did our laundry.

We also didn’t have enough food for the next section, so we stocked up on groceries too. We crammed a full zero day into a full day of hiking and were still on trail by 7:30 am the next morning!

Day 41: 6/20/2025, mile 653 - 669.9

This morning we got up at 5am and took the 6am bus. As you can imagine, there was some sprinting that took place to get on the bus. We walked a mile to catch the bus, drank our gatorades to put electrolytes into our body before we started hiking, and were on trail at the Walker Pass trailhead by 7:30. 

I often roll my eyes when Dennis needs to use his perplexity AI to research a question. I usually ask him “Why can’t you just ask this to google” which uses far less energy to answer the question. I also have been mercilessly, teasing Dennis and constantly reminding him of the fact that his choice of post poop wipe is extremely harmful to the environment. Dennis prefers to use wet wipes instead of toilet paper. Today before beginning our hike as we sat on the side of the road, Dennis decided to ask perplexity AI a few questions. He asked “are wet wipes bad for the environment?” If so, how bad compared to toilet paper? “My girlfriend says they are bad for the environment?” Is she right? After seconds of searching perplexity responded with what lives are extremely bad for the environment went on and on in detail and finally at the section in response to is my girlfriend right it said yes, extremely right and I feel very validated. I screamed a big Ohhhhhh!

Today’s climb wasn’t very difficult. It was gradual and I really enjoyed the cool air and listening by to my podcast. Dennis and I ate hot ramen at the top of the climb and decided we would have lunch at the next water source, 17 miles from where we started. We haven’t been getting much sleep lately, so we ended up falling asleep after lunch from 5-7pm. I guess we needed our nap! We decided to call it a day and set up camp. We are off to make our final 35 mile push tomorrow. 

Day 42: 6/21/2025, mile 669.9 - 701.4

This morning we left camp by 6:30 and started our uphill climb almost immediately. Dennis taught me all about geologic mapping this morning! We had such a long day full of brisk walking, snack breaks, story telling, emotional breakdowns (around mile 30) and fantastic views. We also received impromptu trail magic from a family who was camping. They gave us cold Yerbamates and a whole subway sandwich.

Today we finally came to the Kern river! Gone are the water woes that the desert provides. We no longer have a need for 6L water carries, INCREDIBLE NEWS. We hiked for a few hours in the dark and took a detour to make it to Grumpy Bear’s retreat off trail in Kennedy Meadows. We walked 3 miles off the trail with Dennis navigating us to a victory. We were greeted by a cheery Zoe who was shouting Rainbow Carrot, Rainbow Carrot! It was probably the most beautiful sound I’ve heard in a while. We relaxed with a free cold beer and settled down to sleep so we could be alert in time for the famous hiker breakfast and pancakes here. We hiked a total of 36 miles because of our off trail adventure today. Officially my longest day yet!

Day 43: 6/22/2025

Today was our rest day in Kennedy Meadows and thank goodness, we earned it! We completed our huge push so we could celebrate Flo’s bday with him! We found Flo and Pablo’s tents at 8am, peeked in and yelled we made it!!! We had a birthday breakfast with Flo who turned 27 this morning. The hiker breakfast special here is known for pancakes the size of a steering wheel. Flo’s pancake was the biggest of the day and the owners added whipped cream!

The PCT has a concept known as the trail provides. I thought about adding it to the dictionary section of my blog, but it deserves an even longer intro! The trail provides is basically the concept that whenever you are most in need of something, you’ll find it through some magic of the trail. For example my sun hoodie (my long sleeve shirt that protects me from the sun) was 3 years old and completely shredding at the thumb holes. I didn’t need a new shirt, but I was going to be a bit disappointed if the thumb holes were no longer functional. Somehow at the Grumpy Bear retreat someone decided they didn’t like the fit of their perfectly good and almost brand new sun hoodie, so I now have an outfit change! Additionally, our resupply package did not arrive on time, but my friend Sarah did send me a package and it contained more precious sauces! Since my resupply package did not arrive, I didn’t get any of the sauces I pre packaged, so this was a life saver!