PCT: Day 83

We passed Crabtree Meadows early in the morning.  This is typically the staging area for those summiting Mt. Whitney.  We’ve decided to skip it as we would need to carry yet another day of food. Plus, Waterboy did it a couple years ago and no one else felt strongly about climbing it. We ran into Bo, a Danish gentleman we’d seen on and off since Kennedy Meadows, and hiked with him the rest of the day.

After Crabtree Meadows we had two steep climbs separated by a creek to cover before a final descent to camp. Going up the first climb we ran into Manny of Manny on Trail YouTube fame and ended up in one of his videos. I ran into him first, not knowing who he was until Blue Lizard came up and said “hey, are you Manny on Trail”. She watches way more YouTube hiking videos than I do.

Rockhopper and I went ahead to the creek while Blue Lizard and Bat Boy hiked with Bo. Bo has done 5 of the Camino hikes in Europe, and his passion for them left Blue Lizard with a desire to do one as well. Somewhere along the way Bat Boy gave Bo his trail name, Camino, for obvious reasons. We stopped at the creek for lunch and fishing. Bat Boy caught his first fish of the trip, small but very colorful Golden Trout. We were also treated to our first real experience with mosquitoes as we got swarmed on and off during lunch.

The last climb of the day took us up and over Bighorn Plateau which provided almost 360° views of the surrounding mountains. It was also cold and extremely windy but well worth it for the views. The rest of the day was downhill to Tyndall Creek for camp and more fishing. Upon arrival Camino waved us over to a wonderfully flat and secluded spot that perfectly fit us and General who was coming in behind us. We ran into again Manny while fishing, leading to a more formal interview of Bat Boy. You can see it and the other footage of us on Manny’s PCT Episode 21: Part 2 video.