Day 49: I woke up very grateful to know today would be a short day. Our plan was to hike only 7ish miles to be in a good position for Forester tomorrow, the tallest point on the PCT. We left around 5-6am and headed on our way. We took our time and just basically hung out and walked casually it seemed like. My body is pretty tired from yesterday. Hefty decided to detour to a small mountain summit other hikers had told him about. Claiming the views were as good as Mt. Whitney’s. I in no way wanted to join, so he went off. We watched him get across a snow field as we went through our own almost to camp. I had no fear with Hefty going alone. He is a great navigator and really smart. I’d never go alone, that would be suicide. But I’m happy he’s getting some alone, peace, time in the mountains. It’s not easy being with people 24/7. The 4 of us, Meg, Scotty, Stats, and I, got to camp at 10:30……what??? So weird to end the day this early but it’d be far too sketchy to summit Forester this late in the day. And we don’t want to camp too high up. Our campsite wasn’t really a campsite. So to explain there’s an app called Guthooks that almost all thru hikers use. It coordinates our GPS at all times even when there’s no service. It tells us where we are on the trail or how far we are from it. It says where water sources are, tent sites, milestones, etc. it’s what makes it so possible for us to be able to plan our days so easily. But in the Sierras nothing is what it seems. Water sources may be frozen over, or there’s just a million anyways so you don’t even have to look for water. And campsites rarely exist because it’s all snow covered. We got to ours but drifted a bit off from it to find bare dry spots that surround trees. We were all together as not all of our tents would fit but just a short holler or walk away. While there Stats told us stories, like tales that he heard growing up. I didn’t have any. But they were fun to hear. We do a lot like this with Stats, he may only be 19 but I swear he has memorized anything he ever read. We once had a history with Stats day. Scotty had his own adventure of using an ice axe to dig out a hole in the snow for shade for his face which he learned in his years in the army. It took awhile and seemed like a lot of work. Again no thanks. I’ll lay here and do nothing. We left Hefty a written sign with his name with pine cones and an arrow down near the foot tracks so that he could find us. Which he did! We hung a bit more and all headed to another dry spot to all cook dinner. A nice family dinner. Hefty with his massive amounts of Ramen is all I ever remember from dinners. Then with our snow walls surrounded each of us. We went to sleep. Ready for Forester mañana.