Category: Pacific Crest Trail

Date: May 26 & 27, 2017
Miles: 630.8 – 643.7 & 643.7 – 651.3

The wind was calmer the next morning when we packed up to leave Bird Springs Pass. The water cache there had plenty for us all, and while we were filling up, we met a hiker named Santa’s Little Helper who was staying at the Pass for a couple days to help maintain the cache.  After a chat, we headed on through the Mojave. 

We ran into Caleb (aka One Strap) along the way and he joined us as we made our way to McIver’s Spring and cabin, where we set up camp for the night. 

We were soon joined by Byline, who found some cans of vegetables in the slightly horror story-ish cabin and decided to add a can of corn to his instant mashed potatoes. He was pretty excited. 

Later that night, a dune buggy of sorts with flashing red and blue lights came roaring in to the campground, driven by a man and a couple ladies from the Los Angeles area, and coated everyone’s campsites with a cloud of dust. Apparently the Spring is a popular place for off-roading and they were out for an evening drive. They were really nice people and they chatted with the group for a while. Katie informed them in a good-natured way that the next time they came up here, they better bring some trail magic for the hikers. They assured her that they would. 

The next day was an easy 8 mile stretch to Walker Pass campground, where Gringo and John had been staying for a few days. The campground had little to offer other than a pit toilet and some picnic tables, so they were anxious to get going as soon as I was able to get there and keep an eye on a bag of food that Matthew’s brother was going to pick up soon. There was a water cache at one of the picnic tables, with a bunch of butter horns and an inexplicable amount of bread loaves. 

I was also anxious, since my boyfriend Tim was on his way to Walker Pass to meet me and stay for a few days with us in the nearby town of Lake Isabella.  One of the hardest things about being out here is being away from loved ones and I couldn’t wait for him to arrive. He pulled in to the campground later that evening with a cooler full of food and beverages and he couldn’t have been a more welcome sight. We stayed the night in the campground and I slept better than I had for a long time. 

Date: May 25, 2017
Miles: 607.3 – 630.8 

“Always take your breaks by a road.” ~ trail angel

I woke up safe and sound today, having had no encounters with a man, deer or bear, but my dreams of being home were so vivid that I had absolutely no idea where I was when I first opened my eyes. Nothing looked familiar. It took my brain about five minutes to separate dream from reality and then it was time to get up and get walking. 

It was a pleasantly cool morning for the walk to a water cache at Kelso Road, where we found a cooler with beer, strawberry dacquiris and water.  Morning magic!

After a break at the cache, we hiked until it got too hot to keep moving and found some boulders to nap behind for a few hours. When we woke up and got moving again, we realized that we had slept about a quarter mile from a trail angel’s surprise barbecue (with ice cream sandwiches!) and missed the whole thing. There were a few cans of root beer left as consolation. 

We took another break for the pop (you can’t have too many breaks, really) and then headed up into the hills. It soon became so windy that we had a hard time walking straight. We stopped at Bird Springs Pass and tried to find the least windy spots to camp. I managed to position my quilt in such a way that the wind funneled right into the hole in the foot box and out past my head, turning my sleep system into a wind tunnel. I was too tired to change positions though, so that’s how it stayed as I fell asleep. 

Date: May 24, 2017
Miles: 587.3 – 607.3

“Fruit snacks are still not fruit.” ~ Me

We actually managed to get up and hiking by 5:30 this morning.  This waking up before the sun and hiking in the cold in running shorts thing is not my favorite, as I am not a morning person and I don’t like being cold. One of the best things in the world is to have a couple cups of coffee in bed while scrolling through the day’s headlines. But out here the desert sun dictates the schedule – at least it does if you have the desire to avoid carrying a ton of water and the potential for heat stroke. It is hot by 7:30 in the morning so the smart thing is to hike during the early morning and later evening hours and siesta during the day.

Today’s siesta was at Robin Bird Spring, where we met Byline, a journalist from Ohio. Byline had to take a few weeks off trail to recover from a serious infection that affected the whole lower half of one of his legs. He thinks he picked up a nasty bacteria at the Deep Creek hot springs. But now he’s back, and interviewing people for his podcast, ‘Between A & B.’  Connor, Katie and I, along with two other hikers, One Strap and Alexia, talked to him about life on trail versus life off of it. Hopefully we’ll get to hear the podcast soon!

After we left the spring, we had a really pleasant walk through a portion of the Sequoia National Forest. We’re all getting tired of the desert, and although we know that we have quite a bit of it left, it was a noticeable boost in everyone’s spirits to walk on pine needle laden paths under big trees along Landers Creek.

We camped alongside the creek and just before we went to bed, Connor saw a shape in the dark that he thought could have either been a man, or a bear, or a deer. I had set up camp a little ways away from them so I wouldn’t bother them with my nighttime coughing and sniffling, but at that point they helped me drag my stuff over to their campsite because I was a little freaked out at the thought of sleeping somewhat alone with a man-bear-deer wandering around. I guess I’m not as fearless as I thought!

Date: May 23, 2017
Miles: 573.3 – 587.3

“Keep the Vibram side down, kids.” ~ Jimbo

Our plan to beat the heat today: wake up at 4 and be hiking by 5. Reality: wake up at 6 and start hiking at 7.  I felt like death when I woke up, so sleeping in was fine by me. 

As soon as we got up, a section hiker named Jimbo came walking out of the trees and said to us, ‘Good morning!  What’s your plan for the Sierras?  If you go, you’re all gonna die out there!”  Shortly after we left Jimbo, we met an older gentleman on a dirt bike who stopped to ask us the same question. “You’re crazy,” was his response, “you’re all gonna die out there!”

I paraphrased all of that a bit. They actually mentioned something about postholing and breaking limbs, and how much snow is in the mountains, and how they would never attempt it this year, which is a similar message that we get from at least one person a day now that we’re getting closer to the Sierra Nevadas.  We assure people that we will turn around if we don’t like the conditions, but that we want to see it for ourselves. 

The uncomfortable heat of the morning sun made us forget the doom and gloom, and we decided to stop at Golden Oak Spring to eat and nap until the afternoon. There were about 10 to 15 other hikers there doing the same thing. It reminded me of nap time in kindergarten, but much dirtier. 

We hiked on for a few more miles until we found some nice campsites tucked into a stand of trees with a view of the sunset that signaled it was time for another day to come to an end. 

Date: May 21 & 22, 2017
Miles: 556 – 573.3

I loved opening my eyes this morning to a sunrise between windmills at the foot of my bed.  I loved less the realization that I had woken up with a sore throat and plugged sinuses. ARG.

I had some medicine left over from the cold that I had during my first couple weeks of hiking, so I took it and reluctantly dragged myself out of my quilt so I could get ready for the day. It was a quick two miles to highway 158, where we could hitch a ride in to Tehachapi and get cleaned up and resupplied.

It didn’t take long to flag down a car, but when we grabbed our packs and turned to run down the road after it, I saw another hiker slide in and the car drove off. I got hitch blocked! You’re welcome, man, jeesh.

It took another ten minutes, but we did get a ride in to town and got a room at the Best Western Mountain Inn, which was full of other hikers.

The first order of business was to eat as much of the hotel breakfast as we could, and then to find the barbecue restaurant that our driver told us about.  They had fried okra!

The rest of the day was taken up with laundry, the hot tub, and a gathering in my room for late night pizza and Talladega Nights.

The next morning, Katie, Connor, John, Allen, a new friend Ginny and I met for breakfast to hash out our Sierra resupply strategy, and then we spent the rest of the day hitching to and from the grocery store, the UPS store, and the post office. Everything in Tehachapi is spread out, at least from a walker’s perspective, but people there are so friendly that they would often offer us rides before we even threw our thumbs out.  A lot of people also stopped when they saw us just to chat about the trail.  Some would ask questions, or tell us about a relative’s hike, or ask if we knew that the massive amounts of snow in the sierras meant certain death to all of us if we continued on. One gentleman offered us a ride from the post office to the hotel, but then stood outside the door and talked to me about Abraham Lincoln and log cabins for twenty minutes while everyone else was mailing their packages.  People can be such characters.

Katie, Connor and I decided to head out of town for the trail after sundown since the area was experiencing a heat wave. Two railroad workers from out of town took pity on us trying to hitchhike in the dark and agreed to drive us to the trailhead.  We climbed up a hill for about seven miles, and I coughed, wheezed and blew my nose all over that hill until I was exhausted and couldn’t breathe.  I was a pathetic, sick mess by the time we made camp. At one point, I had stopped to go to the bathroom and ended up accidentally blowing my nose on my left shoe, and, due to a sudden change in wind direction, peeing all over my right shoe.  I’m glad that I had the company of Katie and Connor, who were patient enough to wait for me and make sure I was doing ok, otherwise I might have wheezed my way back down the hill and found the first flight home.

 

Date: May 20, 2017
Miles: 534.9 – 556

This morning we woke up early and left the Cottonwood Creek bridge for the wind turbine occupied miles ahead. The trail goes through the Manzana Wind Project, which is owned by a company that is known for being very hiker friendly.  This was obvious from the signage posted throughout the property.

I had plenty of water and wanted to get some miles in before the temperature climbed even higher, so I skipped the wind farm office experience and kept going until I reached the creek in Tylerhorse Canyon. I spent the afternoon there with the others until the hottest part of the day had passed.

The hike out of the canyon was an hours-long climb, with a slight detour down a hillside to avoid a stubborn rattlesnake. Toward the top of the mountain, an unexpected bit of magic called the Mile 549 Bar & Grill was settled in to the bushes right off of the trail. A local couple had just dropped off a pot of stew and a bag of cherries, which made me completely forget about the ramen I had planned to make for the 10th dinner in a row.

After dinner, most everyone decided to stay and camp since the rumor was that the same couple was going to bring coffee in the morning. I really wanted to get closer to the road in to Tehachapi so that I could get an early hitch in the morning, so I did some night hiking with Allen and we ended up doing another seven miles, bringing us to a spot about two miles before the road. I wanted to stop earlier, but once I had made the decision to find a campsite we hit a long ridge with no space to camp for miles. I was so tired by the time we finally found a spot that I didn’t even care that we were next to a giant garden of wheeling wind turbines or that I had set my ground sheet on a bunch of dried horse poop.  Nothing was going to keep me from falling asleep.

Date: May 19, 2017
Miles: 517.6 – 534.9

“The hobble will be strong tomorrow.” ~ Gringo (Paul)

Matthew, Orange, John, Paul, Roi, Katie and Connor all arrived at Hikertown at various times today and we all spent the day there and at the store, waiting out the heat.  

The exceptions were Roi and Allen, who both decided to hike out in the middle of the day and were rewarded at Cottonwood Creek bridge with root beer floats and burgers that some trail angels brought out for the afternoon. I, on the other hand, just managed to finish the jar of peanut butter that I’ve been carrying since Campo.  I thought I would have been eating it like crazy since I like peanut butter so much at home, but it was often the last thing I felt like eating in the hot, dry desert and I’d end up trying to swallow it forever, looking like a dog does when you put a big glob of it on its nose. I kept chipping away at it only because I wanted to use the empty jar to cold cook noodles and mix my morning Instant Breakfast / coffee powder drink, but when I was finally done and I filled the jar with water, I realized that the lid leaked. These are the tragedies I deal with today. So bummed. 

Once it got a little cooler, the rest of us took off for the trail and soon hit the LA aqueduct. 

We walked on top of and alongside the giant pipe for several miles and then road-walked the rest of the way to Cottonwood Creek bridge, which was the next water source. And when I say ‘walked’, I really mean ‘death-marched’ – I had gone ahead of Katie and Connor and hiked with the rest of the guys who like to hike fast because I wanted to make it to the bridge before midnight and it felt like a race to see who could finish first. My ego wouldn’t let me slow down to my usual pace, so I kept up until the end and got a good blister on my heel along with the likely beginning of plantar fasciitis in my right foot to show for it.  I also ended up taking very few pictures. Lesson in ‘Hike Your Own Hike’ philosophy learned. 

It was nearly 11 pm when we reached the bridge and I was an exhausted mess with wrung-out legs, so I quickly set up camp by the dry creek bed under the bridge, had a snack and a giant ibuprofen and passed out. 

Date: May 18, 2017
Miles: 504.5 – 517.6

I wandered down from the woods and into the strangest place I’ve yet to encounter on the trail – Hikertown. The story that I got from the local store owner on this place was that a retired movie producer bought the property without knowing that it had long been a PCT pit stop, and figured it out when a bunch of hikers showed up during a family barbecue. From then on, he kept the place open for hikers to stay and get laundry and showers done. The place has a bunch of buildings made up to look like a store, post office, school, etc. The vibe is post-apocalypse wild West.  And there is a desperate need for hand sanitizer. 

I decided to stay the night to wait for my buddies to get in the next morning, so I spent the rest of the day getting clean and eating food from the market down the street and not doing much else. 

As the sun started to go down and the temperature dropped into the bearable range, people set out to night-hike the upcoming aqueduct portion of the desert and Hikertown started to look more like a ghost town. I grabbed a cot in the garage and laid awake for awhile, watching the bobbing of headlamps come up the driveway I was facing as a few hikers wandered in after dark.

Date: May 16 & 17, 2017
Miles: 478.2 – 504.5

The lovely people at Casa de Luna made pancakes and coffee this morning and I loaded up on both before heading to the field behind the house to lay all of my stuff out in the sun to dry. Pretty much everyone was doing the same, so the field soon looked like a yard sale of soggy hiker gear. 

Katie, Connor and John arrived around that time, and after everything dried out, I packed up my things and we all headed to a local diner for lunch and milkshakes. When we were done, I said a temporary goodbye to them again and headed toward the highway to hitch a ride to Lake Hughes where new shoes were waiting for me at the post office. A couple picked me up and as luck would have it, the post office was their destination as well so I got a ride the whole way. 

There was no sign of my shoes at the post office, so I headed down the street to the Rock Inn to get something to eat while I waited to see if they would be delivered later. John had told me that the place was a biker bar – I told him that, if the bikers were anything like Sons of Anarchy, I couldn’t promise that I wouldn’t come out of Lake Hughes covered in tats and as someone’s old lady. The two bikers I saw however, looked nothing like Jax Teller, so I remained a plain old hiker. 

 After a while, the bartender asked if any other hikers would be coming in since a package had been delivered there. I asked if, by chance, my name was on that package and it turned out that it was my shoes. Weird. I’m glad I asked!

I went ahead and got a room there since I had planned to meet up with Katie and Connor there in the morning. It was…interesting. 

But there was a live band to listen to, a place to shower and do laundry, and the comforting presence of an NA meeting right outside my door, so I figured it could have been a lot worse.  Still, I slept in my quilt on top of the covers. 

The next morning, Katie and Connor messaged that they were going to take the trail from Casa de Luna instead of meeting me in Lake Hughes, so I set out and walked the highway for about five miles until I reached a side trail that led up to the PCT. I saw the most wildlife I’ve seen so far on the trail on that highway between some giant dogs that looked like wolves, alpacas, goats that sounded like they were yelling ‘hey’ at me repeatedly, and a lively ostrich. 

I eventually got back up to the trail and hiked until late afternoon (passing the 500 mile mark along the way!). I camped at a windy, deserted campground, ate some bland rice since I have no backcountry culinary creativity, and fell asleep to a show that I had downloaded from Netflix. It sort of almost slightly felt like home. 



Date: May 15, 2017
Miles: 454.50 – 478.2

The Canadians and I set out bright and early so we could make the 24 miles from Hiker Heaven to Casa de Luna, but we were quickly distracted by breakfast burritos at the corner diner and bright and early became cloudy and mid-morning.  We did eventually get back on trail after road-walking a few miles. 

The weather forecast called for some rain and wind in the afternoon, but it quickly became clear from the number of clouds in the sky that it was going to rain for most of the day. Sure enough, after about eight miles, drops started falling mid-morning and wind and rain continued off and on all day. California is starting to feel like Washington and I still don’t have rain pants!  

I ran/walked the remaining 16 miles up and down hills, around ridges and under hissing power lines in soggy shorts and shoes until I reached the San Francisquito Highway, where I planned to hitch a ride in to a trail angel’s house called Casa de Luna. I had been feeling anxious about hitching by myself, but by the time I reached the road I had been joined by another hiker, Bananas, and we found a couple named Luke and Nancy waiting at the trailhead to give us a ride in to town. They had Cokes, oranges, first aid supplies, pop tarts and other snacks, and most importantly, the heater running in the car. Amazing. 

They explained during the drive that they are local ultrarunners who are so impressed by thru-hikers that they wanted to help in some way. I wasn’t sure why people who walk the trail would impress people who run it, but I was so grateful for their time that day that I didn’t spend much time analyzing their motivation.  (If you read this someday guys, thank you again! You are awesome!)

We arrived at Casa de Luna and my first thought was that it looked like any number of house parties I had been to in college and that I could either end up passed out face-down in the front yard with cigarette butts stuck in my hair and someone else’s clothes on, or I could get in to warm, dry clothes and go to bed. My second thought was, ooh, there’s nachos!

I set up my tent in a cozy spot in the forest behind the house, got into my dry wool sleep clothes and loaded up a plate of nachos. With a full belly, I retreated back to my tent and slept soundly all night.  No cigarette butts.