Pacific Crest Trail Photos Day 3

My third day on the PCT was the hardest day I had all week. The physical part is a given, but I mentally messed myself up. Thank goodness I had beautiful scenery.

Day 3 we started out at Marquette Lake in the Sky Lakes Wilderness area. We thought we only had half a mile to get back onto the PCT trail. We read the map wrong. We climbed and climbed and climbed for 3 miles to get out. 1100 feet in 3 miles of switch backs. Once we got to the PCT I thought we would have a relatively flat 10 mile day. Wrong again. We had to climb over a mountain! Devil's Peak is 7800 ft and as we were climbing over the face, the trail was covered from a rock slide and straight down on one side. I wasn't mentally expecting such a hard day and lost all mental toughness and wanted to throw a 2 year old tantrum. But I kept going. It was worth it. That night we went off the PCT again to Ranger Springs and found a magical campsite!

Day 3
Marquette Lake to Ranger Springs
Total miles: 12.79
Total time on trail: 09:36:26
Calories 5,432