Day 95 – Sprechen Sie…..North Cackalacky?

7/18/18

Miles: 1521.1 to 1549.6

Trail Miles: 28.6

Miles Hiked: 29.0

I was on the trail by 6am. There were stunning views of Mt Shasta bathed in the morning light.

The trail was mostly exposed to the sun again, but the elevation was between six and seven thousand feet so the temps were moderated.

This section of the PCT goes through the Trinity Alps in Northern California. Oddly, the trail junction signs all show distances in kilometers Up til now, the signs have been in miles. This got me thinking about thru hiker demographics since the majority of the world uses the metric system. It won’t surprise anyone that the majority of PCT thru hikers are American. What might surprise you is the number of hikers from other countries. Note: I don’t have specific numbers. The following is purely anecdotal and based on my observation:

The large majority of international hikers are German. In fact, when a hiker says he or she is from Germany, it’s become so common to hear “there’s a lot of Germans on the trail”, that’s it’s almost a punchline.

Canadians are also plentiful, but sometimes hard to suss out – their accents aren’t always strong enough to ID. I’d guess they rival but do not surpass Germans in numbers.

Next would be Brits, followed by Austrians and Aussies. I’ve also met hikers from Belgium, France, Netherlands, Japan, Catalonia, Singapore, Israel, Ireland and New Zealand. It’s quite international. Many have already hiked one of the other big American trails, like the Appalachian Trail (AT) or Continental Divide Trail (CDT)

The one thing common to nearly all of this year’s PCT thru hikers, American and foreign alike, is race. Sadly, thru hiking is still overwhelmingly Caucasian. I’ve seen and know several Asian and Asian American hikers and two African-American hikers (one was Swiss), but the numbers are not representative of the American population at large. I don’t mean this as a political or opinion post, but I find it interesting that large portions of our population are missing out on the pleasures and benefits of wilderness, nature and thru hiking. (Yes – I realize this is a very broad statement and that one doesn’t have to be a thru hiker to enjoy nature.).

Something else I’ve found, from hitch hiking, is that many trail angels give rides to hikers specifically because so many are foreigners. They like to meet folks from other countries and hear their life story. (I once felt I’d disappointed a trail angel when I said I was from NC.)

Anyways, back to my day hiking……

I took breaks to eat 3rd and 4th breakfast in the morning, then stopped for lunch at Upper Deadfall Lake. I was pushing to do more than 25 miles and didn’t take many pictures, other than sunrise and sunset. Today was what I call a ‘transit day.’ I just hiked and made miles.

I cowboy camped on a saddle between two summits in the Trinity Alps. It was a good day. I made miles, solo camped and for the second day in a row I ate everything in my daily food bag — I hadn’t over or under planned my food! That is the ever present challenge to my resupplies. For once, a resupply was working out perfectly.