Scott Williamson and Tattoo Joe Kisner

Scott and Joe ste the speed record for an unsupported hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. Just under 72 days. It is an amazing feet. You will not catch me hiking an average of 37 miles a day. Nope not going to try. The Sierra Sun has a surprisingly good article about their hike this summer.

TRUCKEE — After another long day’s hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, Truckee’s Scott Williamson sat down next to a High Sierra creek in the darkness and began to fill his water bag.

Minutes passed as he scooped water from the snowmelt-driven rivulet when the tall, wiry, long-distance hiker looked down to see he was pouring each cup over his maps and guidebook pages — not into a container.

“With the lack of sleep I had minor hallucinations and altered perception,” Williamson said. “A lot of the hike seems like a blur now.”

37 mile days will do that to you. Scott who has hiked the trail since 1992 has seen some changes.

With 11 trips on the Pacific Crest Trail over the last two decades and more than 40,000 miles of Pacific Crest Trail in his legs, Scott Williamson has witnessed some changes in the west.

Fire has stripped many of the shade-bearing trees in the first 700 miles of trail in Southern California, Williamson said.

Likewise pine forests are retreating to higher altitudes, Williamson said.

“My first hike on the Pacific Crest Trail in 1992 there used to be some reliable streams. They’re no longer reliable,” he said. “And the last few years every summer hikers are running a gauntlet of fire.”

Smog has found its way into the High Sierras, Williamson said.
“There has been a little magic lost,” he said.