Day 3, April 20: Fred Canyon to Mt. Laguna to Mile 46
Start: Fred Canyon Stream - 32.0
End: Mile 45.8 tentsite
Miles: 13.8
Ascent: 2724 | Descent: 1185
The group I was camping with was on the trail from Fred Canyon at 5:45am. I lagged a bit behind them as my foot was really hurting, and the wind was relentless, and I was freezing and tired, so I was pretty cranky for most of the morning. I put my earbuds in and listened to some upbeat music, which helped a bit.
I caught up to the group briefly at a stream where they were just finishing filtering water and were about to leave. They left but I stayed to take a break and relax by the water. I met Skye, who was in a car accident 2 months before hiking the PCT and was stopping every 2 miles to do a stretching routine. She was super friendly. I also chatted with Christina the German and Laura (we later found out there were 3, maybe 4 Laura’s all around the same pace).
I continued on hiking and made it to Mount Laguna! I caught up with the larger group at a restaurant run by a very French family. I had an eggs Benedict and an IPA. It was great! After brunch, we went to the post office and lodge to pick up our resupply packages. I sent myself way too much food and left quite a bit in a hiker box (note to self- oatmeal is already a no go).
I packed up my now very heavy backpack with 5 days of food and filled up 5L of water at camp as I had 10 miles to hike before water including dry camping. OOF my pack was so heavy.
I cruised for the rest of the afternoon on my own away from the group. I took a couple breaks here and there but managed to reach camp before them. They passed by a little while after I had set up camp. I picked a campsite on a wide mountain top, where I camped near Morgan, James and Dustin. I ate dinner and relaxed inside my tent as the sun went down and relished in the alone time.