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Day 50 – 3 July 2026: Covertly Sniffing Locals

📍 Mile 904.4 | 🥾 9.77 km | ⛰️ +291m / -336m 

Today it was easy to wake up early: town was calling, and I wanted to be on the first trolley from the trailhead at 9.30am. Thankfully, it was pretty easy trail. When though technically Mammoth Pass was a pass, it felt like barely a bump in the earth. I had the trail pretty much to myself until I arrived at McCloud Lake, where day hikers were already out in droves. 

From there I sped down to the trailhead, where I ran into a couple of hikers I’d first met in Kennedy Meadows South, and had seen only in passing in Bishop. They introduced me to the others in their group and we all piled onto the trolley together, chatting easily on the ride into town. The sole subject of conversation was food; everyone was arriving in town with absolutely nothing left to eat. 

As soon as the trolley dropped us off we headed to the Old New York Deli & Bakery Co, which came highly recommended. Unfortunately we arrived at peak hour so it took a while for our orders to come out. When they did, they went down fast. We decided to be budget conscious and head in for second breakfast at the supermarket. 

The Grocery Outlet was surprisingly overwhelming. The shelves were close together, everything was fluorescent, and there were plenty of people in there, stocking up for the holiday tomorrow. The longer I was in there, the worse it felt. It was like being in a pressure cooker. 

After resupply we split up. I was waiting for El Pres’s group, who’d invited me to stay at the Airbnb they’d booked, to get to town – I was surprised they hadn’t already made it in – and Astrid was waiting to check into her hotel. We passed the time by nursing cold brews at Looney Bean Cafe. 

The group arrived in town and I caught the trolley to the Airbnb, covertly sniffing all the locals who smelled absolutely amazing. The Airbnb was pretty quiet when I arrived; people were flitting in and out, tackling town chores. 

For dinner, we did homemade pizzas. Somehow, in the shuffle of sleeping arrangements I managed to score a single bed. Quite the upgrade from my inflatable sleeping pad, which has continued to half deflate every night despite the apparent lack of another pinhole.

Day 51 – 4 July 2026: America’s Birthday

📍 Mammoth Lakes | 🥾 0 km | ⛰️ +0m / -0m 

My sole priority this morning was laundry. Annoyingly, the shared laundry at the Airbnb was locked until 8am. I couldn’t wait that long, so I volunteered to venture out with my fellow hikers’ clothes to a laundromat. Worth it. 

When the laundry was done I headed out to meet up with Astrid for breakfast. We hadn’t booked anywhere, and on the 4th of July this was a mistake. Town was bustling with families out enjoying the warm sunny morning, and it was sensory overload. After trying a few cafes we ended up at the Latin Market, which was mercifully quiet and served up a delicious breakfast burrito. 

Afterwards, we moseyed down the Main Street to watch the parade, picking up some free hotdogs on the way. The parade went on for at least an hour and a half. In Australia we really only have two parades: the ANZAC Day parade, which is for military organisations and veterans; and Mardi Gras. I guess I’d thought the 4th of July parade would be something more like ANZAC Day parades, maybe less solemn. But it was totally different; basically just businesses that had put various levels of effort – from none at all, to all-out choreography of 6 small diggers – into their floats, which meandered down the Main Street as several different MCs gave a short spiel about each. Honestly, it was a little underwhelming. 

I headed back to the Airbnb for a rest, and found pretty much everyone else already there doing the same. I didn’t think I’d fall asleep, but a nap came easily. It was the sort of deep nap where you wake up feeling hungover. There’d been talk of a barbecue, and heading out to the fireworks after dinner – but they were over a lake that was a bit of a journey out of town, hard to accomplish without a car. Eventually these plans fizzled, everyone too tired to bother.

Instead, we went out for dinner, followed by a trip to the supermarket for a pint of ice cream each, and passed the evening quietly, everyone in bed before the fireworks had even started. It was bittersweet; I’d decided to do some major side quests, but as most of the group were American they’d decided to simply continue on the PCT, so this was probably the last we’d see of each other. 

Day 52 – 5 July 2026: Smoking Tourists

📍 Mile 917.1 | 🥾 25.51 km | ⛰️ +873m / -946m 

Continuing their streak, most of El Pres’s group left for trail before I was even awake. By contrast, I took advantage of the 11am check out time, lingering until the last possible minute. Everyone had gotten a bit excited in town, so as a group we had plenty of stuff to contribute to a hiker box; I walked it over to the Motel 6, which was happy to accept it, before jumping on the trolley to head out of town. 

Back up and over Mammoth Pass, today’s walk was really beautiful. Through an old burn area where there were lots of fragrant purple Mountain Mint, and relatively young trees left open views of rocky peaks capped with patches of white snow. 

I briefly rejoined the official PCT, and then almost immediately left it for a side quest to Rainbow Falls. The trail was wide and flat, and it felt pretty good to absolutely smoke the tourists who were out on a day hike. The crashing falls were well worth the side trip; and I learned that the riverbed – and the location of the falls – changes over time as the gushing water erodes the rock at their base. 

Back on the PCT again, I filled up my water at the next stream, and then headed off for my second side quest of the day: the Devil’s Postpile loop trail. A stand of basalt columns that looks a little like the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland. My jaw dropped as I took in the towering columns, covered in a light layer of moss, some of the columns tumbling sideways into the others. 

I’d planned to catch up with Astrid on trail, but my side questing meant I somehow leapfrogged her and ended up at a campsite a few miles ahead. It was already a little busy when I got there, maybe four other hikers already set up. But as the evening went on more and more people turned up, squeezing in where they could. Clearly there was a bit of a hiker bubble coming out of Mammoth after the holiday. 

Day 53 – 6 July 2026: Rainbow Rounds

📍 Mile 934.8 | 🥾 30.63 km | ⛰️ +1,218m / -1,170m

Unusually for the PCT, yesterday had been rather overcast. I was pleased to wake to a bright blue sky this morning, and more pleased still when I emerged from forest onto a contour line that clung to a hillside and offered lovely views of the surrounding mountains. 

Just after 11am I arrived at Thousand Island Lake, which seemed to be a beacon for rainbows. They danced everywhere, and even when I lay out in the sun for a while there was an unusual circular rainbow haloing the sky. Somehow, an hour passed as I lay there, soaking up the sun and the views. 

Then I heard voices nearby; it was Astrid and Sass, one of the other hikers I’d run into on the trolley into Mammoth the other day. They went for a swim – I was too chicken to risk the alpine water – and I chatted with them briefly before heading for Island Pass, followed quickly by Donohue Pass. The passes in the Sierra are sadly getting lower and lower in elevation, which means slightly less jaw dropping views, but they’re still high enough that the altitude leaves me short of breath, especially towards the top. So when I finally arrived at Donohue, crossing the border into Yosemite National Park, I decided another lie down was in order. I had the place to myself, save for a pair of marmots chirping piercingly at each other. 

After a while Astrid, Sass and Pokey – another hiker I’d met in Mammoth – arrived, and since we were all planning to side quest into Yosemite Valley tomorrow, we decided to camp together for the evening. 

The descent from Donohue was beautiful. My favourite part was a section beneath a mountain that was still largely covered in snow, although it was rapidly melting into a basin of turquoise water that we had to rock hop over. My least favourite part was the design of the “stairs” set into the trail, which were all so tiny – barely big enough to get your toes on if you were going uphill – that slipping was likely without slowing your pace dramatically. But I survived it unscathed and arrived in camp, joining the others as they made dinner, supervised by a young deer who didn’t care about our presence at all.  Hiker hunger kicked in for me in full force this evening: as I lay down to sleep, my stomach rumbled. Luckily, tomorrow there’ll be a store where I can gorge til my heart’s content. 

Day 54 – 7 July 2026: Hungry, Hungry Hikers

📍 Mile 943.7 / Yosemite Valley | 🥾 27.48 km | ⛰️ +905m / -1,020m 

Everyone had left by the time I woke up. But with Yosemite Valley on today’s agenda I was motivated to move quickly. Although not so quickly that I couldn’t stop to watch a couple of pika engage in a little boxing match. In the last couple of miles I ran into a ranger, who checked my permit and asked if I knew how far away I needed to camp from water. My brain short circuited; I’d read the rules last night but it was too early in the day for imperial/metric conversions. I remembered there was a 3 somewhere, and a 100. “100 metres?” I guessed. “100 feet, or 30 metres or 40 big steps,” he gently corrected.

I arrived at the Tuolomne Meadows store just a few minutes behind the latest of the others. We had a quick snack, but decided to hold off on a full lunch until we were down in the Valley. Astrid’s brother, William, had come to visit her, and was happy to let four of us hop into the bed of his truck for the ride down to the Valley. He didn’t have a tailgate, though, so he improvised one by stringing rope through the straps of our packs. 

The drive ended up being a long one, especially when we ran into some road works. Tourist cars lined up behind us, a habituated raven begging for food. We were all disappointed to see tourists actually throwing chunks of bread to it. Although we also joked about jumping out and cawing to the tourists to see if they’d feed us, too. 

As we descended in elevation and the time neared midday it grew hotter and hotter. When we finally pulled up at the general store in the Valley, we all made a quick beeline for the airconditioning, and the food. Pokey, who’d sat in the passenger seat of the truck, said William had been trying to offer us sightseeing stops along the way, but Pokey had had to gently break it to him that really the only thing we were interested in was food. We sat outside the store and ate as Astrid arranged a campsite for us all to share, and I headed to the Welcome Centre to get some recommendations for things to do today.

Hiker hunger temporarily satiated, we dropped our things at the campsite and then most of us headed for a stroll along the Mist Trail. It was steep; and somewhat ironic that the worst grade we’d encountered throughout the entire PCT was on this – literally – paved tourist trail. By the time we made it to the top my heart was about to leap out of my chest. We cooled off with a dip in the pool at the top, after clambering less than gracefully up the steep granite slope that made up the far side of the pool. 

We sunbaked a little, but probably only for around 15 minutes, before hiker hunger started to return and we began to hike back. After another trip to the store, we returned to the campsite for dinner, where we started up a campfire – the first I’ve had on the PCT. The campsite was busy with holidaymakers, but it was surprisingly quiet. Until a large group of kids started playing a game. We couldn’t quite figure out the rules, although it seemed like a land-based version of Marco Polo – they kept shouting “Elmer!”. At 9pm we grew tired of it, and Astrid shouted, “SHUT. UP!” “Thank you,” came a soft call from the campsite next door to us. It was comforting to know we weren’t the only ones fed up with the game. Thankfully, it wound down not long afterwards. 

Day 55 – 8 July 2026: Granite Giants

📍 Yosemite | 🥾 25.82 km | ⛰️ +1,922m / -868m 

This morning was my earliest wake-up in a while. I was on a mission: make it to the Wilderness Office early, so I’d have a chance of getting a walk-up permit to hike the Half Dome cables. I’d entered the lottery, unsuccessfully, but had heard there was a chance of a same day walk up if you got in early enough. The rest of the group had decided not to side quest Half Dome; instead, their major thing for the day was a breakfast buffet at the Ahwahnee Lodge. 

Happily, my research paid off and at 8.10am I was walking out of the Wilderness Office with a permit to camp anywhere beyond Little Yosemite Valley and to climb the Half Dome cables. But before I set off on my side mission, I decided to play tourist on the free buses around the Valley, checking out some of the popular attractions like Yosemite Falls and the approach trail beneath El Capitan. 

Then it was time to set off for Half Dome. I followed the John Muir Trail up and out of the Valley, making steady progress through a constant stream of day hikers. Above Nevada Falls the traffic dropped off, and from there the trail was much quieter. 

I arrived at the base of Sub-Dome in the mid-afternoon. The ranger stationed there checked my permit, and I began the final climb. By this point my energy was starting to fade; it’d been a big day of climbing and my quads in particular were really starting to feel it. I was glad to be there at the end of the day, instead of the more popular sunrise, since there were fewer people around. Although I did run into a couple of other PCT hikers I’d also run into in Mammoth, so that was a fun reunion. 

Arriving at the cables, I picked up some gloves from a pile left by previous hikers, to help protect my hands from the twisted metal. Then I began to climb. There were little wooden rungs across most of the poles holding up the cables, which made for convenient break stops to catch your breath. The granite was slippery, and I couldn’t help but think of the story I’d listened to just a couple of days ago in Shattered Air, about the first guy who’d ever climbed Half Dome – he first tried applying sticky sap to his shoes, and then more successfully had used climbing eyebolts which he’d drilled into the rock. I couldn’t fathom how he’d managed it. 

In the steepest section of the cables, all of a sudden there were no wooden rungs. My shoes are relatively new – I’ve had them for less than two weeks – and yet I struggled to get a grip. My arms were definitely doing a lot of the work of keeping me on the rock, and I was trying hard not to think about a story Astrid had told us all yesterday about a girl who’d fallen off the cables a few years ago. I was stressed, and again thankful there weren’t many other climbers on the cables so I could go at my own pace. When I arrived at the next wooden rung, I took a long break to let my adrenaline come down. 

Towards the top, I ran into an unexpected surprise: Analog and Brendan – who’d done the Aqueduct on the same night we had – and we spent several minutes chatting and catching up. What a place for it. Until another climber came up behind me and, so as not to cause a traffic jam, I continued up. It was a huge relief to arrive at the top of the cables. My legs were heavy with adrenaline, and my heart was pounding. I took a few moments to take it all in, before heading over for the views. Which were SPECTACULAR. Wow. The whole Valley stretched ahead, its sheer walls looked totally unreal. The green of the valley floor carved through the granite giants which stood like sentinels over the land. 

The descent along the cables just about ripped out my shoulders, I was clinging on so hard. Some people were walking backwards, but I didn’t like not being able to see where I was going, so I faced forwards and in several places ended up almost glissading on my butt. Slowly and steadily I made it to the bottom, then just about destroyed my knees on the stairs down Sub-Dome. A snack reward was in order at the bottom, then I set off to find camp somewhere along the JMT. At a stream I ran into another hiker – not a PCTer, though – who I’d happened to exchange a few words with on the bus in the Valley this morning. He told me some other hikers had told him that water after this was a bit scarce. I decided to cowboy camp there, and we ate dinner together and chatted as the sun set, with a profile view of Half Dome through some old, burnt trees. The perfect finale to the day. 

Day 56 – 9 July 2026: Handsy Marmot

📍 Mile 943.7 / Tuolumne Meadows | 🥾 34.89 km | ⛰️ +1,454m / -1,147m 

I let out a strangled cry. It was who-knows-what o’clock in the morning and something – or someone – had just grabbed my butt. As thoughts raced through my head in no particular order – was it the guy I’d eaten dinner with last night? But he seemed trustworthy. Or was it some random axe murderer or rapist who’d happened across us, even though we’d camped on top of a slab of granite and weren’t visible from trail? – I struggled to wake myself up enough to fight off who or whatever it was. By the time I was properly conscious, I realised that my butt was now free from assault, and concluded that it must’ve been a marmot or a squirrel that had mistaken my black quilt for a rock. I rolled over, heart still racing, and gazed at the stars until enough adrenaline had worn off that I could go back to sleep. 

Today I was heading back to the PCT. I was on a deadline; my powerbank needed charging at the Tuolomne Meadows store, but I didn’t know what time it closed. 5pm seemed like a safe bet. But I also wanted to side quest: who knows when I’ll make it back to Yosemite? So some hustling was in order. First up, Cloud’s Rest. The climb up to it was much easier than yesterday’s hike from the Valley, but I was definitely feeling some accumulated fatigue. Luckily, the views from the ridgeline more than made up for it: a spectacular world of blue, purple, white and green, stretching as far as the eye could see. The descent was much easier, and quicker, and then I turned off towards Sunrise Lakes. Their name sounded promising, but honestly they were a little disappointing after the splendour of the Sierra lakes. 

Next up was Cathedral Pass, which was mercifully rather flat as it wound beneath ridiculous pointed rock formations like Columbia Finger, Tresidder Peak and the Echo Peaks. But once I passed Upper Cathedral Lake I entered forest, and the day became all about making it to the store before 5pm. This proved to be a bit of a challenge, though; I kept running into PCT hikers I hadn’t seen in ages, and obviously had to stop and chat with. One I hadn’t seen since Warner Springs in week 1! 

I was surprised my arms and shoulders weren’t sore today, after yesterday’s death grip on the Half Dome cables. But then, after collecting water, I tried to shake out my filter before I stashed it away again, and I thought the motion might throw my shoulder out of its joint. 

Eventually, though, I made it to the store and was relieved to find that it closed at 8pm. Plenty of time to charge, resupply, and plan out how I was going to catch Astrid, Nightcrawler, Sass and Pokey, who I’d convinced to side quest the Tahoe Rim Trail with me. Some big days were in my future: the Sierra passes were lower, now, but the elevation profile was still dramatic.