Mile 1201.1 to 1211.1 – 10 miles total hiked on PCT + Half mile to Deer Lake

The smoke from the previous night continued to be visible in the morning. While it did give some color to the sunset and sunrise, it was worrying. Based on the smoke forecast, I would have to hike through it in two or three days from now.

I also was having some knee pain.

All that had me doubting whether I should continue this PCT journey. Although there have been other times on the trail when I had some doubts, I was really seriously thinking about aborting.

Since I would be going through a developed lake, I would have the opportunity to hitch back to Sierra city. Sometimes temptation is the worst enemy of a hiker. A trail town or a paved road with a lot of traffic, they could all make you want to go home.

And since I haven’t been home in four months, the temptation was getting pretty strong.

I ended up at a campsite near Deer Lake. I was settling in as a squirrel tried to kill me by breaking some branches off a tree above me. 😀

Having survived that I settled in for a nice night. I watched the sunset behind the lake and then went to sleep.