Pacific Crest Trail, California, USA - Thru-hiking solo
Two hikers Rica Morita, 32, from Japan, and Chaocui Wang from China, died last month while attempting to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. While not related, or even traveling together, they shared the call of the wild and the ambitious goal of completing the 2,650-mile hike from the U.S.-Mexico border to Canada. They died attempting solo crossings of treacherous High Sierra streams, swollen to dangerous levels from extremely deep winter snowpacks that are now melting. Morita’s body was recovered from the King’s River in Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park after she had not been seen in nearly two weeks. Wang was found in Rancheria Creek in Yosemite after being missing for 12 days. Their deaths bring attention to the dangers of this year's hike, due to a winter that left behind unprecedented amounts of snow, ice, and rushing water. Many hikers have died this year on the trail, because of snow-melt-swollen creeks, rivers, and streams. Pacific Crest Trail forms tight network