Day 28

Start: Stealth Site, mile 443.7

End: Tentsite, mile 470.5

Miles hiked: 21.6 miles, 26.8 trail miles

After our headache of a night last night, Sun and I slept in a bit and didn’t leave camp until around 7:30. The mosquitoes were a bit better this morning; they didn’t attack us with as much fervor as yesterday, even when we stopped for water at a lake.

The lake, Junction Lake, was such a serene place. Little baby ducks swam in groups across the water while the morning sun warmed the air. At one point, the mother duck came squawking in, flying this way and that way across the pond, throwing water in all directions. I’m not quite sure what the drama was about, something to do with the baby ducks, but eventually it was resolved since the squawking stopped.

This morning, Sun and I were moving pretty slowly. We were both tired from the night before. My pack felt unusually heavy and I missed the spring I had in my step on that first day out of town. A couple of miles later we reached Blue Lake, but it was a bit too early, cool, and windy for a swim. It was a beautiful spot though. The NOBOs we passed said it was an excellent swimming spot.

Sun and I climbed slowly up, taking a lot of breaks, almost one every 1.5-2 miles, which wasn’t really our style. I guess we had bitten off more than we could chew yesterday. We topped our climb of the morning and enjoyed the snippets of cell service and the warmth of the sun.

Then it was miles of downhill, passing a few NOBOs on the way. Our progress was further slowed by the huckleberries that lined the trail; I got a bit behind because they were so good!

We finally reached a parking lot with picnic tables and a pit toilet and decided it was the perfect place for lunch. Sun was hoping that we would find trail magic again, but no such luck despite all the cars that passed by on the gravel road. Lunch felt a bit more civilized this time since we had real tables to eat at instead of a bare patch of ground. Out big debate was whether to continue 12 miles on the trail to reach our goal campsite or take the 10.5 Panther Creek road walk alternate. If we walked the trail, we would have to climb with a long water carry and dry camp. But if we took the road, we could save a few miles and camp with water. We couldn’t decide what to do, so we decided to leave it for after our lunchtime rest.

Sun allocated 30 minutes for a nap while I relaxed in the shade. When nap time was up, our answer was clear: the road walk!

As we started down the road, we were immediately sidetracked by all of the big, juicy huckleberries that lined the road. We lost at least 30 minutes because there were so many to pick. We also found blackberries that tasted like candy. Yum!

As we walked, cars passed in either direction, but we still didn’t find the magic we had hoped for.

After a number of miles and a number of breaks, we reached Panther Creek Falls, one of the attractions of this alternate. A quick detour, they were worth the walk. Eventually, we were pooped and more than ready to be done with our long day. As we passed the Panther Creek Campsite, full of casual hikers and campers, the smell of hot hamburgers wafted over to us. If only we could have one!

After a few more minutes, we found our site and squeezed our tents in with a couple who were almost done with their section. After dinner, we had just enough time to get a few camp chores done before the daylight started to fade.

And that’s a day in the life of a PCT SOBO hiker!

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Kyoto may be the historical heart of traditional Japanese culture, but current conditions are making it a less attractive placer for locals to visit.

Aside from maybe Tokyo, there’s no other city with more of a “must-visit” reputation than Kyoto for travelers to Japan, who flock to the country’s former capital to tour its historic temples, beautiful gardens, and otherwise get a glimpse of Japanese traditional culture. For a growing number of Japanese travelers vacationing in their home country, however, Kyoto is becoming a city they feel like they can leave off their itinerary.

Tokyo-based data/research organization Blogwatcher recently released the results of its analysis of travel patterns during Japan’s 2025 Golden Week holiday season, which straddled the end of April and beginning of May. Examining mobile phone location data, Blogwatcher determined that there were significant drop-offs in the number of Japanese visitors to five of Kyoto’s most famous sightseeing spots compared to just two years prior. Japanese visitors to Fushimi Inari Shrine plummeted by 40.4 percent compared to 2023, and both Kiyomizudera Temple and Kinkakuij/the Golden Pavillion’s numbers of Japanese visitors fell by roughly 25 percent. Shimogamo Shrine and Byodoiin Temple both had slight upticks in Japanese visitors in 2024, but reversed course in 2025 and had approximately 10 percent fewer domestic visitors than they’d had at Golden Week in 2023.

▼ Byodoin’s Phoenix Hall is so famous that it’s even depicted on the 10-yen coin.

It’s not hard to imagine what’s discouraging Japanese travelers from visiting Kyoto. The weak yen continues to make Japan more affordable for foreign travelers to visit than it’s been in a generation, and with so many of them including Kyoto in their Japan travel plans, the city’s attractions are crowded and its hotels expensive. The Kyoto Tourism Association’s data shows that through the first five months of this year, the average price per night for a stay in a Kyoto hotel is around 50 percent more than it was just two years ago. Those cost increases are relatively easy for inbound foreign visitors to soak up as they leverage the favorable exchange rate, but for Japanese travelers, who are already getting hit in the wallet by rapidly increasing consumer prices without equivalent wage increases, the idea of paying inflated prices to go someplace clogged with tourists is no doubt feeling like a less enjoyable way to spend their diminished disposable income.

However, as Kyoto is looking like a less attractive destination for Japanese travelers, they’re becoming more drawn to Nara. Blogwatcher tracks domestic visitor numbers for 33 of Kyoto Prefecture’s top temples, shrines, and historical tourism sites, and 37 in Nara Prefecture. During Golden Week in 2023, Japanese travelers showed an overwhelming preference for Kyoto, with its top sights receiving nearly 70 percent more Japanese visitors than Nara’s. In 2025, though, more Japanese travelers visited Nara’s major sights than Kyoto’s.

Japanese visitors to major temples, shrine, and historic sites during Golden Week
● Kyoto 2023: 746,000
● Nara 2023: 446,00

● Kyoto 2025: 559,000
● Nara 2025: 561,00

It could be argued that Japan is still in the middle of the initial wave of its inbound tourism boom. Residual pent-up international travel demand and the weak yen are doing a lot to make the country a trendy and affordable choice for visitors from abroad, but it’s still not entirely clear whether their intense interest is going to be permanent. As a result, it’s likewise too early to say whether huge crowds and high prices have turned Japanese people off to the idea of traveling to Kyoto entirely, or if they’re simply putting their Kyoto plans on the back burner for the time being. After all, if the shrines and temples you’re going to see are already centuries old, holding back for a year or two to see if the tourism congestion has settled down doesn’t seem like all that long of a wait. For the time being, though, it really does look like Japan’s travelers aren’t nearly as excited about the idea of visiting Kyoto as they were just a short while ago.

Source: TBS Cross Dig with Bloomberg via Golden Times
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso
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• Hiked Today: 21.1 miles

  • Appalachian Trail (2,012 – 2,033.1)

• Total Hiked: 3,966.3 miles
• Total Paddled: 99.5 miles

Weather: 52 – 75°F, mostly sunny, some clouds

Elevation: 1,150 – 4,145 feet

Cranberry Stream Campsite to West Carry Pond Shelter 

For some reason the charge on my power bank seemed to diminish quicker than normal over the past couple days. I still have a few days to go before my next stop, so today I went into extreme battery saving mode. I even went as far as turning my phone off whenever possible, but afterwards I wasn’t sure if that was helping or causing it to drain just as quick/even more quick.

Thus, you’d expect not as many photos for today, but I struggled to stop myself. It was an all-time wonderful day and that causes me to want to have the phone out documenting all the fun stuff.

Bodacious: “very large or important, or something people enjoy or admire.”

– from the Cambridge Dictionary (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/bodacious)

Leaving camp, straight away I was hiking up. The end of the day yesterday was more downhill and flat-ish and set me up at the foot of the Bigelow’s. The climb was ok, definitely lots of trippy roots but not as steep as some other spots…

The photo above was taken right before popping out to a marvelous viewpoint. I got a kick out of the giant monolith type boulder and then was blown away when the view of Horn Pond and The Horns presented itself…

I thought the trail took me over both of the Horns, but just South. To get to North Horn it was a 0.2 mile side quest. I stuck to the white blazes and got some views looking back on the way up.

Atop South Horn there was another spectacular overlook and I sat down for second breakfast. Hikers Bookends and Ain’t Right joined too. The weather was once again premium and I soaked up the moment…

The next few miles were top-notch. Some of my favorite of the entire Appalachian Trail. It was down and then up to a ridge line topping the West Peak of Bigelow Mountain and then Bigelow Avery Peak. The massive Flagstaff Lake sat to the north and demanded my attention.

Sitting with the other hikers at this summit, I said something along the lines that this is more than a view, it’s a whole experience. What I was trying to get across was that it was 360 degrees, a whole scene, and as much as I try with photos and vids, being there in person is the only way to sense the grandeur. Sorry y’all. But alas, I did try to showcase the beauty nonetheless.

The rest of the day’s hike was less glamorous, but after Little Bigelow it was more cruisy. I came close to getting a good slow-motion vid of this giant Pileated Woodpecker, but pretty blurry…

Around 6:00 pm or so, I was internally thinking maybe I’d be able to push on further than my original goal. It never happens haha. Especially when I’m stopped for wonderful trail magic! Walking into a parking area, which later I’d find out was not even on the trail, I met Lebowski. He’s a 2021 (?) AT hiker that planned to set up the next day and chef tasty foods up for hikers. For me, he offered a beer, a chair, and some honey buns! It was nice resting and chatting with him.

Moving on from that, I was thinking I had about 6 miles of flat left to hike. The mileage estimate was accurate, but I underestimated the grade and there was not one, but two blips uphill I had to get over. Hence, I was exhausted and spent like normal by the time I reached camp at West Carry Pond Shelter.

In my tired and hungry state, finding this glorious sight at the shelter was almost too much for me…

I mean, don’t they look like the most pristine and delicious chocolate chip cookies ever? I am a cookie monster and devoured several in quick succession. 

I was the only one at the shelter and I still went for the tent. I set up and ate in record time. Going back to the cookies though… I didn’t feel right leaving them out for the bears to munch on. So, I ate them all! J.k., j.k. haha. I did eat a lot, but at least for the evening, I kept them safe by putting the whole Tupperware in my food hanging bag…

The loons sang me a lullaby as I drifted off to sleep. What a day! Another in the top 201 of the ECT I’d say 😎.

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