The choice of sneakers was working out well as I hiked on the virtually flat trail leading north towards the boundary of the Emigrant Wilderness. Beyond the boundary, the PCT started its well-graded, winding descent down towards Sonora Pass. Although the straight line distance down to the pass was perhaps less than a mile, the along-the-trail distance was more than double that, owing to the extensive switchbacking and winding down and around the head of the basin. All of that excellent engineering and grading of the trail comes at a price, of course.
I had underestimated my overall hiking speed (probably due to the excellent trail and moderate elevation changes), and I arrived back at Sonora Pass quite early - just after 11 am. Lots of time to make my way back west towards San Francisco.
In all, this was a very easy, very gentle bit of PCT to hike. In fact, the 15km/9.5mi out-and-back hike I had just done would be fairly suitable even for fairly young kids (provided they can remain interested for the five or six hours it takes to hike). Doing this kind of trip on such a nice day makes one feel as if knocking off the entire PCT might not be so hard after all. I attempted to remind myself of the harsher realities by watching the movie Wild on my return flight home the next day.
Interactive trackmap with photo points - PCT Sonora Pass to Lake Lakatopie - click map to view
PCT - Sonora Pass to Latopie Lake (and Return)
Start Time:
5:26a.m.
End Time:
11:10a.m.
Duration:
5h44m
Distance:
15.06 km
(9.36 mi)
Average Speed:
2.6 km/hr
(1.6 mph)
Start Elevation:
9624ft
(2933m)
*
Max Elevation:
10866ft
(3312m)
*
Min Elevation:
9621ft
(2932m)
*
End Elevation:
9650ft
(2941m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Total Elevation Gain:
1909ft
(582m)
*
Total Elevation Loss:
1887ft
(575m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Elevation Graph
