Pacific Crest Trail – Mexico to Canada 2023 (and beyond)

PCT Section Hike 2025 – Day 3 Southbound – Lolo Pass to Ramona Falls 8/19/25

September 5, 2025December 12, 2025Ian

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

10 miles – PCT mile 2117.3 to 2110 + 3.5 mile hike out

Well, sometimes shit happens. I woke up on day 3 and the IT band on my left hip was super sore. This is the other first I was talking about earlier. I’ve never had that pain whilst hiking before. Pain is of course inevitable, but this seemed different. Here’s the video I made when I got back to Portland. Afterwards will be photos from Day 3 of my hike.

The day began with a big climb and my first Mt Hood view!

Trail – look at the edges of the trail and you can see the holes from all the hiking poles that most hikers walk with

I descended down another 1000 feet to Muddy Creek and crossed on a log. Right after this was when I started to realize my hip was getting worse.

The trail to Ramona Falls was slightly uphill, but my hip made it feel much steeper. It started to become apparent that I may need to bail out. Ramona Falls was beautiful though.

There were plenty of day hikers around. I scoped out who I thought might be a good mark to “yogi” a ride from (thru hiker term) and found Mike and his dog Rogue. He was with another couple as well and I could tell they were good people. The art of yogi-ing a ride is subtle. I started by asking how far it was back to the parking lot and if there was any cell signal there for me to call an Uber. I then explained my predicament and Mike volunteered to take me back to Portland, as his drive brought him near the airport anyway. Success!

Sadly, parking lot would be my destination

I was about 11 miles short of my intended stopping point of Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, but I’ll come back another year. I think I may have undertrained a bit for this trip, compared to my hikes in the previous years and perhaps I also went too fast out of the gate. Regardless, it was a great hike and I got to check some more miles off my ultimate goal of finishing the entire PCT over the coming decades.

PCT Section K Southbound – Day 5 – Lake Aloha to Echo Lake Chalet and end of hike 7/19/24

July 26, 2024Ian

Friday, July 19, 2024

6 miles – PCT mile 1099.5-1093.4

Last day! So of course I got lost. I headed out of camp after saying goodbye to the friends I had made the night before and just walked off into the woods.

Once I found my way back to trail, I hiked on toward civilization. Lake houses became more frequent and sweet-smelling day hikers were passing me coming from the other direction. A couple of hours later, I arrived at Echo Lake Chalet, put my pack down, and went inside to get a snow cone for breakfast. This was the end of Section K of the PCT. 65 miles total.

End of Trail

I was happy and exhausted. My trail angel, Madison (Buffer, PCT Class of 2023, just like me), that I had also met at Trail Skills College before the hike, picked me up and drove me to her house in South Lake Tahoe. She and her boyfriend Shawn (Sean?) pampered me and were a blast to hang out with. He likes Star Wars more than almost anyone I’ve ever met and we got along great.

Unfortunately, I found out that I had apparently done this entire hike while infected with Covid.

I had started feeling kinda crappy from day one and just pushed through the miles anyway. The daytime wasn’t bad, but at night I would get a super stuffy nose and was definitely coughing the entire hike. I think I may have had fever that night after the 21 mile day.

But I figure I’ve had worse and proved to myself I can take on a solo hike for a week, sickness and all, and do ok. I’m pretty tired of carrying a bear can and would like to not do that on whatever section of the PCT I tackle next.

The next morning, they drove me to Harrah’s in Stateline to pick up the shuttle bus back up to the Reno airport where I met Rayna again to grab my suitcase and headed back to Texas. Great hike. 10/10, would do again.

PCT Section K Southbound – Day 4 – Desolation Wilderness camp to Lake Aloha 7/18/24

July 26, 2024Ian

Thursday, July 18, 2024

17.5 miles – PCT mile 1116-1099.5

I woke up sore, specifically my shoulders. Legs were actually fine. Now I was heading into Mordor for mosquitos, apparently. Also, Dick’s Pass, the highest pass I would cross on this hike (9000+ ft) was looming in the afternoon.

As I came out of mosquito hell, I started to get into the lakes section of the Desolation Wilderness and it was pretty spectacular.

Dick’s Pass was a 1500 foot climb and was a bit daunting, but you just have to take it one step at a time. I did it in about an hour. I bonked pretty hard at the top, as I had waited to eat lunch, so my body was completely out of fuel, but the views were great.

Looking down on Dick’s Lake from whence I came

The entire trail down from Dick’s Pass was NOT my favorite. If you’re a fan of sharp rocks stabbing your feet though, have I got a trail for you!

God damn rocks

The rest of the day wound up and down past a couple of smaller lakes and then opened up to Aloha Lake (Lake Aloha? I’m not sure what the proper order is) where I would find my favorite campsite of the trip. Great neighbors, including two Sobo hikers that were continuing into the Sierra further south and also a couple and their friend, and their dog (Doug), who had hiked in from Echo Lake to basecamp and day hike. Fantastic swim in Aloha Lake to end the night.

PCT Section K Southbound – Day 3 – Five Lakes to Desolation Wilderness bush camp 7/17/24

July 26, 2024Ian

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

21 miles – PCT mile 1137-1116

This was the longest distance I have ever hiked in a single day. 21 miles.

I woke up early, checked that my water was full, and headed straight up hill. It’s always best to get big climbs out of the way early, I’ve found.

Once I got to the top of the ridge, it was a lovely day and I just enjoyed the breeze and easy trail.

After a while I did have to sit down and do some foot care, as the outside of my left heel, which is always the first place to blister no matter what it seems, started to blister. This and the outside of my right heel were the only two blisters I would incur on this trip, so I think the new toe-sock liner combo I tried worked out pretty well.

Top to bottom: toe-sock liner, regular sock, leukotape, ibuprofin, blister bandages, sit pad

A little while later, I came to the junction of the PCT and the TRT (Tahoe Rim Trail). From here, the TRT joins the PCT until just south of Echo Lake, where I would end my section hike, so I would be on both trails for the remainder of this trip.

I would also reach the other end of the Granite Chief Wilderness.

Then it was lunch time and I found a wonderful little creek to lounge by.

After lunch, I passed several hikers who had good news for me: trail magic just down the hill! I honestly didn’t even think I would run into any trail magic on this trip, so it was a wonderful surprise. First, I walked through an idyllic field of Wooly Mule’s Ears again.

As I descended down to a trail head parking lot, I saw some Nobo hikers surrounding a couple of coolers of soda. Trail magic! Thank you trail angels!

I knew I had another climb to get to my goal, 5 miles ahead and 3 miles past Richardson Lake in the Desolation Wilderness. With about 3 hours left of daylight, I put on some climbing music (metal) and put my head down to power through.

Those last 2 miles were ROUGH. They were flat, but mentally challenging, knowing this was my longest day ever and that I was almost at the end of it. I collapsed at camp and it was all I could do to set up my tent and force down a protein bar for dinner. I didn’t even brush my teeth this night. Just lay flat on my back and fell asleep quickly. There was no breeze and all was silent.

PCT Section K Southbound – Day 1 – Donner SNO Park to Camp 7/15/24

July 26, 2024July 26, 2024Ian

Monday, July 15, 2024

13 miles – PCT mile 1157-1145 (plus one mile from SNO Park to PCT junction)

For reference, here is the map of my track over the whole hike, which took four and a half days. For some reason it didn’t start tracking until a little ways in, but I actually started at the red arrow (I-80).

First day on trail! My pack was HEAVY with a full bear canister and 2.5 liters of water. No stove though!

My trail angel from the PCTA Trail Skills College, Abel, drove me to breakfast and then the trail head. He’s from Tehachapi, CA, another trail town down in southern California and trail angels hikers all the time. Hundreds a year, he says. He has also biked across the US and climbs and hikes all the time too. He’s a great guy and I have his contact info for when I do his section of the PCT one day!

I had a mile to hike from the trail head to meet up with the PCT. Within 5 minutes I saw my first wildlife. Marmot!

I took a lot of videos on this hike to try and illustrate the trail experience a bit better.

The trail started to wind up the mountain towards Donner Ski Ranch.

I put on my sun gloves like a good husband of a dermatologist would and hiked on to the Ski Ranch.

Then I came to a very nice section of trail.

As I strolled into Donner Ski Ranch with the other hikers who were there at 9:30am, the bartender insisted on me getting the 40 oz malt liquor and I figured it was hiker tradition, so what the hell. I tried to trade it for a beer, but she said “nope, it’s the 40 at Highway 40” and that’s what I had to get. I only had the one cup and wasted the rest, but oh well.

I charged up my phone a bit and continued on trail, up a 1000 foot climb to the ridge overlooking Donner Lake that I would be on for the rest of the afternoon.

First big climb

Hey, still some snow! But not really wanting to risk the traverse.

That’s better.

I continued on the exposed ridge as clouds started to form overhead. I knew I had quite a long exposed section, so when it started to thunder, I made the call to get down off trail into some trees a couple of hundred yards below.

The rain intensified and soon became a not very fun experience. It lasted almost an hour and I had to take lightning precautions, which involved spreading out my pack and my poles away from me (metal) and also standing on my sit pad as an insulator, while at the same time keeping my body moving to avoid hypothermia as the temperature dropped probably 30 degrees and I was getting wet.

I continued on the trail being chased by more rain clouds the rest of the day, but thankfully nothing more materialized. I also got my first view of Lake Tahoe.

The hike then took me over some scree fields around Anderson Peak and Tinker Knob around 9000 feet before descending down into a valley where I would make camp.