PCT Day 47 - Cowboy and Hail

Last night I cowboy camped for the first time, this is when you camp without a tent under only a sleeping bag and of course the stars. The night was clear, moonless, warm in comparison to most nights we've on trail. I laid down at twilight before the first star peeked out of the darkening sky. The first one I saw was in fact the planet Jupiter and it would be 20 minutes at least before another one appeared. By the time an hour had past the sky was full of stars and I drifted off to sleep. I woke up around 1am to discover the Milky Way was now visible as well. Over the next two hours I gazed above and observed Jupiter along with Saturn moving westward in the sky, the planets really stand out if one stares at the night sky long enough. By 4:30am the stars had begun to extinguish one by one for the day as the sun marched towards the horizon. After breakfast and breaking camp we begun the days hike. We are starting to take it slow as we have less than 100 miles before we jump off trail in 8 days. We went 12 miles which included another major incline. We got to our first water source by 1:30pm and relaxed the rest of the day before setting the tent up early, thankfully we did so as a stormed rolled in quickly and it started to hail!

-Joe