Ebbetts Pass to Carson Pass, 8/17/26 to 8/20/26, (30 PCT miles)

 

Frog Lake Near Carson Pass

This short trip was the culmination of over a year of diligent work at the gym to overcome a bad case of tendonitis in my right leg and hip that I developed in 2025.  I had planned a longer trip ... but when it came time to hike I felt this was about my limit.

This 30 mile section of the PCT is mostly unsung, while being a truly spectacular stretch of trail with many very clear volcanic features, including some large lava flows that are unusually clear.  The weather was perfect, and the sky was often as beautiful as the mountains with white clouds against a deep blue background.  We had campsites at Pennsylvania Creek, above Wet Meadows, and at Lost Lakes.

There were very few hikers on trail, and they were all "section hikers" or simply destination hikers.  Lost Lakes is reachable by 4WD truck, and there were at least six parties with vehicles at that lake, but it there were no loud parties, so it didn't really affect our experience significantly.

Alex Jodidio, a friend from college, joined me on the hike.  He had recently retired and was eager to get out on the trail again.  Even the short days felt a bit challenging, but we were in good spirits.  Our pre-hike trip started with two nights at Curry Village in Yosemite Valley, and one night at Bridgeport (elevation 6,463 ft), which helped with acclimatization.  Christine joined the pre-hike days and generously drove us to the trailhead and then picked us back up a few days later.

As usual, there is a photo album for the trip:  Ebbetts Pass to Carson Pass

How much faster are trail runners vs. boots? What does the research tell us?

 

I hiked over 5,000 miles on the PCT in Asolo Falcon boots ... and was definitely an outlier.  About 90% of thru-hikers wear trail runners.  Just ask a typical thru-hiker and you will be greeted by wild enthusiasm for this lightweight, cushy footwear that breathes and dries out quickly.  I like the Asolo Falcon boots because they are reasonably lightweight, provide good ankle support, and keep my feet dry everywhere except stream crossings.  However ... they are heavier ... and that matters.  But how much does it matter?

Let's see if we can figure that out quantitatively for a person weighing 150 lbs.  You could pick a different shoe, but to get a comparison, I'll use the Brooks Cascadia 19, with weights per pair from the REI website.

Asolo Falcon:  32 ounces (pair)

Brooks Cascadia: 19:  21.4 ounces (pair)

Difference:  10.6 ounces, or .662 lbs, almost exactly two-thirds of a pound.

The Mountain Tactical Institute did a quantitative comparison of heartrate, backpack weight, and ankle weights and determined that for typical hiking speeds, we can assume that one ounce of ankle weight is equivalent to four ounces of backpack weight.  In other words, that 10.6 ounces of additional shoe weight is equivalent to about 42.4 ounces of additional backpack weight, or 2.65 pounds.

Next question ... for a person weighing 150 pounds ... what is the impact on calories and speed of an additional 2.65 pounds in the backpack?

Outside magazine published an article with a calculator in it "The Ultimate Backpacking Calorie Estimator" and we can estimate calorie usage with just a few extra assumptions.  Let's assume a 150 pound hiker, 2.5 mph hiking speed, and 7.5% uphill grade (the PCT average), and a 25 pound pack as the base line.  Result:  195 calories per mile.  Add 2.65 pounds and we get 197 calories per mile, or about 40 calories over the course of a 20 mile hike.  

Doesn't a heavier pack slow you down?  The Mountain Tactical Institute also looked at that and found "every 1% of your body weight in your pack makes you six seconds slower per mile."  So, applying the 2.65 pounds of backpack equivalent weight, for a 150 pound person it will take about an additional 3.5 minutes to hike 20 miles.

So the cost of wearing lightweight boots over a 20 mile hike would be about 40 calories and 3.5 minutes.  The benefits of boots are typically:  fewer foot problems during the hike, better ankle protection, easier to kick steps in snow, better edging in slippery conditions.  Boots also have a downside in addition to weight:  they are less convenient for wet stream crossings.  Many people will say that you "can't get your boots dry," however I did not find that to be true on my hikes.  

If you want another look at this topic, here's a video where the author reaches the same conclusion and provides a lot more details:

https://youtu.be/bMsFM9A8-S4?si=OHmIuUSKiOyuuMYT

Just for fun ... here is my song about ultralight backpacking, which I do think makes sense, but maybe not as an obsession:

Moving With the Sun -- A PCT Thru Hike Musical

“Moving With the Sun” is a song-cycle by J. Kevin Mann tracing the emotional arc of his Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike—from desert dawns to snow-bright summits. Each track captures a different facet of the long walk: endurance, camaraderie, humor, appreciation for trail builders, and the quiet transformation that comes from moving through wild land on foot."

I've tried to capture the feeling of hiking the PCT in these songs.  It's loosely framed as a musical.  There are five songs about trail sections, three light-hearted songs, and three more serious songs.  

You can find the album on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon music, YouTube, and several other platforms.  Use one of the links below, or do a Google search for "Moving With the Sun" J. Kevin Mann to find it.  Spotify and Apple Music should allow you to see the lyrics, and I've also put in a link to the lyrics as the end of this post.

Spotify:  Moving With the Sun

Apple Music:  Moving With the Sun

YouTube:  Moving With the Sun

In brief, here are the songs in album order and a few words about each one.

Setting Out:  The feeling of starting out a five month PCT hike includes excitement; and, I was also asking myself, "is this really a good idea?"  This song is focused on the feeling of getting on trail.

Desert Stride:  Now on trail, the focus shifts to the excitement of moving through this foreign, challenging, and also stimulating landscape.  The song focuses on five specific experiences that I had on trail in the desert section.  The chanted background is called a vocal ostinato; this technique is not especially common, but appears in "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega, some world music, and in less extreme forms in a lot of popular music.

Call Me Pickle Jar:  A light-hearted song about trail names, and my theory of why they are popular.  My trail name, Lickity Split, was a joke name given to me by Grim to note that I'm a slow hiker, but take short breaks.  Of course I had to put my trail name in the song.

Cathedrals of Snow:  Moving up into the high Sierra mountains, I felt an overwhelming sense of awe, gratitude, and humility.  This song rests in that profound, wordless experience.

Light and Fast:  A light-hearted song about how thru-hikers obsess about gear, me included of course.

Every Color:  From Sierra City to Cascade Locks the trail moves through a wide variety of terrain, a lot of it influenced by volcanic activity in that region.  This song celebrates the diverse landscapes and also mentions how hikers typically feel a lot of comradery by this point.

Sweet Surprise:  A light-hearted and sincere appreciation of trail magic, trail angels, and all the many people who help hikers along the trail.  Of course it's a great adventure, but it would be so much harder without the generosity of people offering rides, gallons of water, and other help to hikers.

Many Footsteps:  Hiking with so many people helped to broaden my appreciation for how we can all be different, and still appreciate and learn from each other.  In this song I'm speaking from my own positive experience and understand that negative experiences also happen.  

Moving With the Sun:  In the 500 miles from Cascade Locks to the Northern Terminus the trail crosses a series of beautiful high ridges.  If you have hiked up from the border with Mexico, your fitness is so developed that there isn't much question of being able to finish, but often we want to finish, but we also don't want the experience to be over.  Hidden in the song are at least 10 yin/yang type contrasts that relate to holding opposites together.  In a way the journey will always be with you.

Hand Built Paths:  Building and maintaining the PCT stands out as an astonishing achievement of cooperation, volunteering, hard work, and love of the outdoors.  This song celebrates all that goes into it.

Each Step a Note:  This song simply focuses on paying attention while on trail and in life in general.  The refrain is an homage to the sprung verse of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the phrase "walking's the answer" refers to a long line of teachers and philosophers who recommended walking to resolve problems.  The musical style has roots in the Appalachian region.

Lyrics:  Moving With the Sun Lyrics

Donner Pass to Sierra City, Aug 11-13, 2024 (38 PCT miles)

 

Bridge near Wild Plum Turnoff

In the 1970's the Wilderness Press guidebooks divided the PCT into 29 sections that were suggested as hike-able bites of the trail.  At 38 miles, Section L, from the Interstate 80 crossing at Donner Pass to California Highway 49 at Sierra City is the shortest of all 29 sections.  While short, climbing from the pass, which is already at 7,057 ft., this section is at a fairly high elevation, and late snow on the ground is part of the reason for the tragedies that befell the Donner Party, from which the pass gets it's name.  High snow levels also explains why I missed hiking this section in 2017.

I did hike this section southbound in 2018, and even on June 10th of that year I still had to find my own trail on the snow-covered hillside south of the Peter Grubb hut as well as deal with meadows flooded with snow melt.  In contrast though, in August of 2024 this section was an ideal combination of dry trail and plentiful drinking water from running streams.  

The last bit of PCT trail before Hwy. 49 was closed due to a bridge being damaged, and the Wild Plum trailhead at Sierra City was on the official alternate route. To get on trail, my wife Christine and sister-in-law Carol helped me drop off my car at the Wild Plum trailhead then once my car was parked, Christine and Carol gave me a ride to the I-80 Donner Pass Rest Area and dropped me off so I could start the hike back to my car.

Since my last backpacking trip was so exhausting for me, I was quite worried about how I would manage on this trail section.  As it turned out, my earlier hike had helped my conditioning, and this was easier trail as well, so it was tiring, but not too hard.

I did the hike over three days.  The first day I hiked in about 8 miles and then I did the rest split about evenly over the next two days.  I think the Wild Plum alternate cut over a mile off the scheduled hike, but I didn't try to calculate that exactly.

Northbound, the first major landmark on the hike is a ridge that divides the I-80 corridor from the backcountry.  Once you get over that ridge there is a descent to a meadow where the Sierra Club's Peter Grubb hut is located.  The hut is intended for winter use, and I stayed in the hut in 2018 when there was still snow on the ground.  This year the hut was locked up tight in August with just a sign explaining that it could be reserved in advance.

The trail is beautiful, although in a more subtle way than most of the Sierra range.  There are quite a few traverses where I was treated to panoramic views of forested hills.  The Forest Service and PCTA must have been working hard as the trail tread was almost perfect and I only had to step over a couple of downed trees.

I saw a "no mechanized vehicles" sign for the first time, which seemed like the most expansive way to express the idea of a trail meant for hikers and pack animals only.  Arc'teryx recently started talking about their powered exoskeleton pants and I pondered how that new technology will be incorporated into backcountry regulations.  It seems like they will inevitably be allowed for day hikers and probably not practical for backpacking due to the need to be recharged.  Eventually though when energy storage becomes lighter weight, who knows what the future holds.  I'm sure that there will be many people bemoaning the "good old days" of muscle-powered locomotion in the future.  

The only other hikers on the trail were weekend hikers or section hikers (like me).  The third day I was on trail for about 8 hours and didn't see a single other hiker, which I think might be a first for me on the PCT.

Here's the photo album:  Donner Pass to Sierra City, Aug 11-13, 2024

Timberline Lodge to Cascade Locks, July 28-31, 2024 (50 PCT miles)

 

Twister Falls

In 2022 I tried hiking this section but had to give up due to knee pain.  I'd started with friends Georgia and Laurie at Santiam Pass and by the time I got to Timberline Lodge it was clear that my knee was simply done.  Georgia had dropped out at Pamelia Lake, where we had to detour due to a fire closure.  Laurie and I got back on at Ollalie lake in a burned out forest.  After hiking up to Timberline Lodge, Laurie and I had their famed breakfast buffet, but then I took the bus back to Portland, while she continued on.  I had a "total knee replacement" (TKR) on my right knee in May of 2023.  This was my first backpacking trip on my new knee.

Christine and I drove up from the Bay Area and stayed one night in Portland with friends John and Mary before going up to the trailhead.  The drive to Timberline Lodge is fairly scenic and not a long drive from Portland.

The first day I hiked in just six miles and found a beautiful campsite.  My plan was to cross the Sandy (Wild and Scenic) River at about 10 am the next morning as a wet crossing when it would still only be moderately high.  My clever plan was to dry out on the other side while having a snack.  The flaw in this plan was that 24 hours of light rain started literally as I reached the Sandy River, and then that transitioned into another 24 hours of damp fog.  So while I did get wet crossing the river, I didn't really get dry until the last day of the hike.  Luckily the crossing wasn't too risky.  Even so, I asked a couple of other hikers to watch my crossing for safety.  True to the river's name, my shoes each had a sprinkling of small rocks in them after I waded across.

I put in around 14 miles each of days two and three, and then camped at the junction with the Indian Springs trail.  The only notable challenge after the Sandy River was crossing the Muddy River on day three.  The crossing is on a smooth log that simply fell over the river and is probably at least 8 feet above the water level.  If it had still been raining I'm not sure how I would have handled the crossing since the log would have been too slippery to simply walk across safely, and wading the river at the trail crossing did not look appealing or easy.  Even as it was, the crossing was a bit nerve wracking.

The Indian Springs trail will likely be renamed as part of an ongoing effort to remove names that simply use the word "Indian," but for now that's the name on our maps.  The Indian Springs trail is a PCT alternate that leads through an astonishingly beautiful gorge, with many trail sections blasted into the side of the gorge, some sections with steel cables for safety.  There are more waterfalls than I tried to count with "Twister Falls" and "Tunnel Falls" the most iconic and dramatic.  This is one of the most beautiful sections in Oregon and makes a perfect conclusion to a northbound hike of the state.

When I had hiked this section in 2018, I took the PCT main trail and the Indian Springs alternate was closed.  This time the PCT main trail was closed due to fire danger and I ended up on the alternate without needing to make a choice.

The drawback of the Indian Springs trail for my knees was that the trail was quite steep and rocky over large sections, stressing my knees and leg muscles.  By the time I made it to the trailhead at Cascade Locks, I was in moderate pain and ready to take an Uber instead of road-walking the last three miles on a paved path ... but it was not to be.  Uber (perhaps wisely due to hiker stink) "does not serve the area you wish to be picked up from."  So events conspired to keep my "connected steps" intact at Cascade Locks.  Once in Cascade Locks I only needed to wait 45 minutes for the next bus to Portland.

I spent the next few days in the home of friends John and Mary, whose two children were also home for the summer.  I needed the recovery days as that first backpacking trip after my knee surgery was exhausting.  It didn't exactly seem like I had injured myself, but I had hiked more than ideal, and it took several days to really recover and feel normal again.  I was pleased though to have completed this section and considered it a good example of "type two" fun as a result of the rain, pain, and exhaustion.  I flew back down to the Bay Area on Alaska Airlines.  They upgraded me to first class since they needed my coach seat to sell to someone else, and I admit to enjoying the excessively fawning service that accompanies the front of the airplane.  What a contrast from backpacking.  

 Here's the photo album:  Timberline Lodge to Cascade Locks, July 2024