Day 59: Tuesday, July 2

Tenting just past Noble Creek (PCT mi 1047.6), walked 27.8 miles today

Fell asleep last night to very calm weather, but woke up around midnight to a hellacious wind blowing down the mountainside, and my tent facing precisely the wrong way. The Hexamid doesn't like to be repositioned once it's pitched, but I had to pull out all 8 stakes and turn it around in the dark so the back of it absorbed all the wind, instead of it blowing through the open side. Put in earplugs to silence the disturbing noise of the tent and the pole straining so hard, woke up again at 2 to find it was raining, then finally got real sleep after that. Hiking by 7:10 this morning with the intent of a big-ish day.

After a few miles, the trail made a sudden transition back to the old white-boulders-and-mud style of 20 miles previous, but just as soon departed from it. For the most part the trail today was gentle and rolling, with an occasional steep mini-climb or -descent. Skies clear in the morning, but definitely not clear by noon. In the desert, Plato and Charlie used to shout, "Omar comin'!" whenever they saw dark clouds, which is apparently a The Wire reference, and now I can't see rainclouds without thinking of that and them. Rain and thunder started about 12:30 ... The rain wasn't ever that intense, and the temperature was warm enough that the rain actually had a pleasant cooling effect, but the thunder was constant overhead for a few hours. It only really stopped around 4:30. By that point I was 22 miles in looking at a water source at 27.5 for an end goal, but when I got there it happened to be a waterfall on a very steep cliff side. Collected water there intending to dry-camp at the next good spot I saw, which ended up not being too far past. Got to do another day like this to set myself up for being able to reach Echo Lake (mi 1094) by 4pm Thursday, which is when I told my dad I'd meet him. Camping alone for actually the first time in awhile.