No rain overnight, but everything was still wet. Up at 6am. The others started moving around the same time.
There’s a tradition on the PCT where hikers get trail names. In the US it seems pretty common to give each other nicknames in general — one guy near my tent goes by “Screaming Chicken” (something to do with a car, apparently), another one is just “Pants”. No idea about Pants. We talked for a while — them, me, and a guy who’d had his family join him on trail the day before. The conversation turned to an upcoming section where you can’t just pitch your tent anywhere, there are rules about it. We loosely agreed to aim for the same camp spots since we’re all doing around 16 miles a day.
I left around 9am but didn’t get far. Stopped early to spread everything out and let it dry — wet shoes especially are a problem. That took about two hours. Back on trail at 11:20.
The sun disappeared not long after. I kept moving, snacking on nuts and a bar here and there. Then finally — trees. The Cleveland National Forest. After days of scrub and open hillsides, actual shade and actual forest. That felt good.
I got lost twice. Not dramatically lost, just off-trail lost — the kind that happens when you don’t check the map often enough. Cost me about 30 minutes.
Arrived in Lake Morena late. Had a burger — mediocre, but it was a burger, and I haven’t had many of those lately. Restocked provisions for 2–3 days, and ran into someone from the previous night’s camp. By then it was already 5pm, so we decided to skip a stretch and follow the highway for a bit to get to camp before dark.
Just before 6pm we arrived. Found Pants already there, plus a woman who’d done 30 miles that day — her second day on trail. She was something else. Very into it, in a good way. She got fascinated by German words and my accent. We ended up exchanging Instagram accounts.
The four of us shared a camp spot. You have to pay for them here — $35 per spot, split four ways. Each spot is big enough for 20 tents easily, but they cap it at 8. I also ran into people from my very first camp, which was a nice surprise.
They had Knorr here too — just under a different name. Our way of pronouncing it got a good reaction. We talked a lot that evening: America, culture, politics. Good conversation. Long day, good ending.
Photos — Day 3
