After doing the 12-mile road walk to connect the Bishop and Piute Pass detour around the San Joaquin bridge, I ended up hiking 41 miles to get around 25 miles of trail. For this section, I hiked over Piute, Seldon, Silver, and Duck Passes.

Just as I was completing the road walk to the Piute, two vehicles pulled up and parked next to a lake. About a dozen young men and their leaders piled out and I'm thinking to myself these are my people. Sure enough, one of the adult leaders asks me if that's a Cougar hat I'm wearing? Yes sir! And one of the other adults that I briefly chatted with is a famous CBer. So that makes two famous CBers I've met in the last week.

As the snow continues to melt, the mountain passes are getting easier, but the river crossings are getting tougher. Not sure which of the two I'd trade for the other.

Two days ago I had to make a couple mile detour around Bear Creek. Even then, I was fortunate enough to team up with six other hikers (four men & two women) where we combined our respective skills to first get everyone across the tributaries that fed the Bear, and then find the quickest way back to the PCT. It makes me very happy and relieved now whenever I'm approaching a roaring river (you can hear them from a long ways off), and then unexpectedly see an intact bridge over it.

Lakes are also at high levels and have flooded over the trail in several places, but at least that water isn't trying to knock me down.

But still happy to be doing this, and the scenery has been stunning. I've just completed 900 miles.