A slippery slope

Day 20

I was looking forward to getting back to trail but not the 7.4 miles I would need to do to get there, so I packed my stuff and ordered an Uber. Turns out, however, that it is not easy to get an Uber a bit before 6 am in Big Bear Lake, so I eventually gave up and found a bus that got me a three miles and before I knew of it I had hiked the remainder and got back to the trail. It was probably easier this time because I was exhausted like last. The temperatures were nice, but at first the landscape was somewhat boring. Eventually the PCT brought us by an interesting kind of plateau near a river with white or lightly orange soil and scattered bushes.

Much of the walking was easy, but part of the trail was narrow and slanted downward away from the hill side, which I didn’t like. I want every step I take to be a secure one and therefore I sometimes kicked dirt away until The footstep would be horizontal. In addition I used the tips of an Icelandic glacier expert who told us to walk like a pimp (e.g. with knees slightly bent and a slight backwards lean) on downward sections. This, along with the trekking poles did make things very secure, but was quite slow. Another famous quote of that tour guide was “If you get cocky, you die”. Very little chance of the latter here, but you got to always be mindful of what is at stake and not overlook potential pitfalls. I set up camp after approximately 23 miles feeling well and with plenty of daylight left.