October 3

For whatever reason, hiking today seemed unusually easy. In the morning I managed to lose the trail almost immediately. I had to turn around after hiking north for half a mile wondering why the trail didn't switchback south. I found a trail labeled "Reds Meadow" and since I knew the PCT and JMT went right by there I took it figuring it would get me close. It did just that, and with some simple bush whacking and a short scramble I made my way back to the PCT. I stopped by the Reds Meadow store to find it closed, although I did not get my hopes up beforehand knowing it was a long shot. It was a 0.6 mile detour and worth checking out, plus I got a bottle of water from a couple who drove up there also to find it closed. After that, I had a long and gradual pass to climb over and stopped near the top to enjoy the sun and have lunch. I had already travelled 16 miles by lunch and only planned to do 25 total today. However, I got to my intended riverside campsite tonight at 6:15 and the river was so loud plus it was so cold down in the valley that I decided to do a couple more and get 700 feet of climbing out of the way for tomorrow morning. I have the rest of a huge pass to deal with in the morning, and today I had a slight shin splint pain in my right leg, but I am hoping rest will take care of that.