September 15

Reaching the PCT mileage midpoint today was like dark chocolate; bittersweet. I say mileage midpoint because I reached my time midpoint already and expect to be done sometime near the first week of November. Every step I have taken today and hereafter is one more closer to Mexico than Canada. Louis and reached the midpoint monument around 9 am and spent some time taking pictures and reading the manifest. We signed our names and kept going. One of the things we opted for today was to carry water for 20 miles rather than stop at the one reliable source 0.5 mile off trail. This allowed us to do our 28 miles before 6:30 pm with a one hour stop for lunch. We cruised today and have found a nice campsite near a spring with water coming right out of a rock. It's always wonderful to take water straight from the source. The purity is second to none and it has a fresh, cold temperature. It is a cold night and I made the comment to Louis about how this area right now reminds me of our Washington hiking. Not only have we had the trail to ourselves like we almost always did in Washington, we are surrounded by forest yet on top of ridges with occasional climbs and cool weather. Tomorrow we visit the town of Belden for lunch and then have a 4,500 ft. climb out in the afternoon. I have loaded up with carbs and protein and one tablet of glucosamine to be ready for our crazy afternoon pull.