August 19th - Charlton Lake to Elk Lake

Transcriber's note: Tom writing.

Our new progam/schedule is working like a charm. By hiking faster and taking more short breaks to eat, we've been able to cover some serious ground in shorter amount of time than our previous program. Tori really likes it because she's able to refuel more often and I like it because we walk faster and cover more ground at the end of the day.

Our pace today hovered around 3.5 miles per hour. The relatively flat terrain makes our hiking much easier than expected.

I took a bath last night in Charlton Lake. Gosh that felt great. The grime from 8 days w/o a shower was starting to get on my nerves. The quick lake bath made it all better.

Arrived at Elk Lake Resort at 6pm. Just in time for burger, fries, cold water and beer. We planned to get 3 more miles in after dinner but our butts wanted nothing to do with a post-meal hike.

Luckily we got a ride to Devil Lake campground. The camp was roughly 2 miles away from Elk Lake Resort but its proximity to the trail allowed us to shave 8 miles of PCT miles. In layman's terms, we found a grat short cut.

I love these short cuts.

~Tom