PCT: Days 108-110

We’ve finally made it to our planned double zero to stay at an Airbnb with our close friends Aaron and Jody and their kids. Sure, we’ve taken a some double, triple, quadruple, and longer unplanned stretches off, but at least this one is part of an actual plan. The grown-ups are excited and the kids are more excited. We take our time getting out of the hotel and doing some grocery shopping before showing up at the house in Mi-Wuk Village. Our friends show up a couple hours later. After a rapid debrief of our trip they take all the kids to a nearby lake while we get dinner going.

We take our time getting moving the next morning before heading to Calaveras Big Trees State Park. The park is home to a couple groves of giant sequoias. We take a fairly short hike past dozens of absolutely enormous trees. We’ve been to Sequoia National Park to see giant sequoias, but it’s still mind-blowing to see just how big these trees are. After leaving the park we gets shave ice again from the place in Twain Harte. The rest of the day is spent relaxing.

Our second full day off is the one the kids have been most looking forward to. They’ve been enthralled by Dungeons and Dragons over the last year, and Aaron runs part of our campaign which takes up most of the morning. We all head back to the lake after lunch for a mix of swimming and lounging. There’s a little more D&D after the lake and before I have to start thinking about trail logistics again. It’s been great to have a break with friends where the struggle of trail logistics gets pushed to the back of our minds, but it’s only temporary.

I spend some time finalizing my food and gear for the next stretch of trail. I was originally going to rejoin the trail tomorrow at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite, but we don’t have any luck getting a permit to enter the park. The alternative is to enter before 6am, but I can’t convince myself to wake at 4am and have Blue Lizard drive me 2.5hrs to trail. I decide instead to start at Sonora Pass which is a little more than an hour from here. This does leave me another stretch of trail I’ll need to come back to, but that’s a logistics problem for another day. My plan is to move forward as quickly as possible from Sonora Pass and only skip sections of trail if they’re closed. If I finish as early as hoped there should be time to come back and pick up missed miles. Worst case, we have an excuse for another vacation to the Sierra next year.