The day started off pretty good until my stove wouldn’t light. My fuel canister was empty. Either it was leaking, I had used more fuel over the past 3 days trying to light the gas with a faulty Piezo lighter problem, or Dicks Sporting Goods sold me a half empty canister. I made do with some food that I didn’t need to heat up and set off for Mount Laguna.

I did rehydrate one of my rice balls, which didn’t need hot water.

An easy crossing of Kitchen Creek Road.

It wasn’t too hot in the morning, but it did get hot midday and that’s about when I discovered I did not have enough water to make it to the first water source on trail.

Plus apparently I was entering an area with unexploded munitions. Not sure which one scared me more.

I thought I had more water when I started that morning and I had assumed Cibbits Flat Campground was close enough the the PCT to get water from quickly without a long detour off trail if needed.

Both turned out to be wrong assumptions.

If I went down to the campground, I wouldn’t have time to make it to Mount Laguna. And without fuel, that meant I’d have to have cold snacks for dinner and breakfast again.

After procrastinating for a bit, I decided to go down to the campground to get water and ask around if anyone had spare fuel in the campground. I was fortunate. I got both down there so while I couldn’t make it to Mt Laguna, I could make it to Long Canyon and have hot food for dinner and breakfast.

I also had to overcome my first serious thoughts of aborting my hike. 3-4 days is somewhat common time frame for doubting yourself on long through hikes. I almost aborted my John Muir Trail hike in 2020 on the morning of day 4, but managed to push through my doubts at the time.

Fortunately, I also overcame that challenge. My trek would continue.

Why did the caterpillar cross the trail?

I have no idea, but there were a lot of them to be seen all day long.

I also came across a Horny Toad. Sadly, only one, so all the horny went unused. 😀

I did make it to Long Canyon and enjoyed a hot dinner and a nice sunset with some photogenic clouds.

Mile 29.8 to 37.1 – 7.3 miles total hiked on PCT

Another short day, but at least I overcame my first major gear glitch, first water miscalculation, and my first serious thought of aborting the hike.

Small and large challenges are all part of what you have to overcome during a long through hike like the Pacific Crest Trail. I knew there would be many challenges before I started this hike and I knew that there would be many more to come.