PCT Day 65 – PCT mile 815 to Little Pete Meadow (832.8)

June 8, 2026

Total PCT miles: 17.8

Non PCT miles: 0

Total: 17.8 miles / 28.6 km

Total elevation gain: 2917 ft

Total elevation loss: 4997 ft

Steps: 42587

Today’s Sierra pass is Mather. This is Apparently the last of the difficult passes. Some hikers say Mather is more challenging than Forster Pass. After having now completed both I can see how both could be terrifying depending on the conditions you faced. Fortunately for us Mather was rather easy today.

Since we only had 3 miles and 1000 ft of elevation gain to reach the top of Mather we decided to leave at 0600hrs. I had a decent night sleep but I’ve been waking up lots in the night with pins and needles in what ever sides arm I’m sleeping on. It’s something that has been going on for a while but definitely getting worse lately. While packing up my tent I caught the tail end of sunrise colors over the mountains to the south. The trail was easy going and thankfully it didn’t go below freezing so the rock hops across the creeks were easy.

I finally got my first look at the pass and immediately understood why this could be very difficult in poor conditions. The series of steep switchbacks lead you up the final 500ish feet. Fortunately the switchbacks were 90% clear and the small portion that wasn’t had really good boot tracks. I didn’t even bother putting on my microspikes.

From the top of Mather Pass you are rewarded with great views of the northern valley bellow and Palisades Lake Basin. There was a significant amount of snow on the northern decent and the microspikes went on.There were boot tracks going in multiple directions but all of them pretty much went the right way in the end. I picked a line and carried on. The early morning snow was grippy and my microspikes works great.

The rest of the day was just incredibly beautiful and was the most picturesque day I’ve had on the PCT thus far. First was the Upper and Lower Palisades Lakes then down a canyon hiking beside the raging Palisade Creek that I’m happy I never had to cross.

We emerged out of the canyon to one of the most beautiful vistas I’ve ever seen while hiking. Before me was a deep valley backed by a wall of mountains. My jaw literally dropped at the view in front of me. We spend some time admiring the view before continuing down the 1000ft decent in just 3/4 miles. My knees certainly felt this one! I wish we could have stayed longer but there was no safely accessible water nearby.

At the bottom we stopped to rest our knees and have lunch. There was a dear here that was completely unbothered by our presence. From here we continued down into the valley before reaching the lowest point of the day – 8000ff and navigating many stream crossings.

From here we started a slow gradual climb along side the Middle Fork of the Kings River. We passed Grouse Meadow and High Stakes and I almost made the decision to camp here and catch up with the group tomorrow. But alas we carried on. We finally got to a stream we might have been able to cross and keep our shoes dry but I made the decision to cross it bare foot. Mostly because i intended to stand in it for as long as i could bare the freezing cold water. My Achilles are sore today and the cold water felt great.

It was a short mile hike left to where i am now camped at Little Pete Meadow. When I arrived Chopps had started a campfire to cook the fish she caught earlier in the day. There are 4-5 nuisance deer here who kept coming into camp with no fear. How much excitement do we lack currently? Well we had a race to see who’s water filter could fill up two 1 liter bottles the fasted while hung off a log… yup that’s entertainment at its finest. Later our group was joined by another louder group of people…

Tomorrow is Muir Pass. We won’t get there while the snow is firm so I’m expecting a slush fest and postholing.