PCT Day 29 – PCT mile 383.9 to 404.3 via Alternate Route

May 3, 2026

Total PCT miles: ????

Non PCT miles: ????

Total: 18.2 miles / 29.3 km

Total elevation gain: 2828 ft

Total elevation loss: 4429 ft

Steps: 39796

Woke up this morning with a beautiful view. In the far off distance standing at 14 thousand feet and about 250 kms away I could see Mt Whitney. Hopefully I will get the chance to summit this mountain in about a months time! Although not officially part of the PCT many thruhikers make this side quest to the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states. After a bit of a lazy morning and breakfast our group was on the trail at about 0800hrs.

The only real acent for the day came early on while my legs were still aching from yesterday. The trail climbs almost to the peak of Mt Williamson but I chose to not make the final climb and just continue along the PCT. The views of the cloud inversion from the trail were incredible and I stopped several times to take it in.

Arriving back at Hwy 2 the group decided to road walk until it rejoined with the PCT later on. The Hwy is presently closed due to multiple washouts and just up the way you must take it anyways due to a long standing closure to protect the endangered mountain yellow-legged frog and its critical habitat. This closure has been ongoing for as long as I have known about the PCT and forces hikers to walk the highway for a few miles. Walking down the middle of the road with no fear of cars made me feel like I was in some sort of post apocalyptic zombie world. The shoulders are very narrow in places and I could not imagine doing this while sharing the road with vehicles. Even more so because people are known to test out their sports cars on this twisty turny mountain road.

There are 2 real places you can rejoin the PCT. We skipped the first one because the trail is washed out in sections. Due to the road walk we probably walked 2 less miles. But when you have 2650 or so to do who’s counting?

After rejoining the PCT I passed the 400 mile marker! I think I am finally starting to believe that I can actually maybe complete this thing. Wild! Despite injury and obstacles I’m still out here doing it and I’m excited for for what the next day brings.

Next up was Camp Glenwood which is a cabin in the middle of nowhere’s that I have no idea what the purpose is. There were two guys here who gave us some lemon cookies but apologized that they were all out of Penut butter and Jam sandwiches.

It’s in this area where the highway is open again and as I passed a parking lot I saw 3 “supped up sports type cars” that would later fly past me on the highway with someone holding their phone out the window recording.

Then as I came into the next parking lot trail magic appeared! Celso and Finch were set up serving delicious burritos, fruit, cold or hot drinks and had many other hiker essentials. They had near 30 hikers stop in today which is wild to me because it has felt so quiet on the trail. Massive thank you to these wonderful people for this.

Our camp site for the night was just 1.2 miles away from here. It’s going to be about 4 degrees tonight while we basically sleep in the same clouds that looked so beautiful earlier today. The next two days are going to be well below seasonal temperatures and then the weather looks like it will warm up sognificantly.