PCT Day 33 -Serenity Oasis (454.7) to mile 458.5

May 7, 2026

Total PCT miles: 3.8 (Nero)

Non PCT miles: 0

Total: 3.8 miles / 6.1 km

Total elevation gain: 2569 ft

Total elevation loss: 2733 ft

Steps: 17081

Even after a giant town meal, a shower and donning clean clothes I did not sleep well last night. The primary culprit for this gear failure – my air mattress has a slow leak. I woke up multiple times and had to put more air into it making for an uncomfortable and rather annoying night.

Today we are doing a proper “nero”. Loosely the definition of a Nero is when you only hike a short distance (usually under 10 miles) and is typically done before going into town or leaving town. Functionally, especially when leaving town it helps avoid vortexing ie spending way more time in town then intended. Some hikers have been known to vortex for days in popular trail towns. So the goal is to get everything done you would normally get done on a zero day with enough time to hit the trail and get a few miles in.

My first goal Of the day was to see if I could find and patch the leak in my air mattress. I got some dish soap and water, filled the mattress with air and started searing for bubbles. I checked around the valves- no issues, the bottom of the air mattress assuming I put a whole in it- no issuss, around the seem on the side of the mattress, again no issues. Finally I checked the top of the air mattress where I found two small leaks in the welds that hold the insulation in place. This is likely a manufactures defect and I have emailed the company to see if I can get it covered under warranty. I’m not sure how well a patch will do because of the locations but I suppose I’ll find out tonight.

Next was breakfast. The Serenity Oasis in Agua Dulce is located at the northern end of town and it’s a 0.3 mile walk to the 4 restaurants and only grocery store in town. I spoiled myself with their cheaper steak and eggs and I probably should have just spent the extra money on the good cut of meat. But it was still delicious and very filling. I then did my resupply at the grocery store. It’s 6-7 days until the next major town but only 3 days to a place that has a small market. So I decided to carry 3 days of snacks and 7 days of breakfast and dinners. This small town grocery store wasn’t optimized for hikers and also not cheap at 92$ USD.

Coming into town yesterday I noticed my trekking pole tip was done. Now I’ve had these poles for a while so it wasn’t too surprising. It is possible to replace the tips but it’s not the easiest thing to do. Fortunately Farmer John had replacement tips for sale and has done more than his fair share of them. A few minutes later and they were good as new.

The heat has officially arrived today and it was 29 degrees out. I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the shade or under the outdoor mist set up at the Oasis trying to keep cool and chatting with hikers. There were definitely significantly less hikers showing up here today than yesterday. It was really tempting to spend another night here but we stuck to our original plan.

At 1630 as it started to get a bit cooler out I started back on trail with Ness. The worst part about town is leaving because that is when your backpack weighs the most. We only hiked 3.8 miles before finding a decent camp site with the rest of the group joining later. We plan to be up really early tomorrow to hike as much as possible before it gets too hot then hopefully find a shady spot to wait out the worse heat of the day.