PCT Trail Journal: Southern California
These journals were originally posted on my Instagram between May 10th and June 8th, 2019
Day 1 | 28 miles | 0 to 28
I busted out 28 miles on my first day on the trail, which is a generally inadvisable thing to do, but I felt good and genuinely didn’t know what else to do with my time. This part of the trail is generally known as “the desert”, but it’s quite lush right now because of recent rain.
I think it was a great day 1 for me. I still feel incompetent when it comes to organizing my gear, figuring out how much food I need, and planning where I’ll eat lunch and camp. But I saw some beautiful landscapes, walked with some new friends, and feel excited for what tomorrow will bring.
Day 2 | 27 miles | 28 to 55
Day 2 on the PCT was exciting, tough, and beautiful. I woke up to the unexpected sound of hundreds of runners going past my tent participating in the PCT 50-mile trail run. I would see more of that race later on, but the first few hours of the day were all about the rain. It rained, and even hailed, very hard to the point of soaking my underwear within minutes. I knew I was in Southern California, but if I squinted hard enough while looking out over the hills, I could convince myself I was in the rainforest. It was a little miserable and I met a few hikers that seemed to be having a really bad time, but I could tell it would let up soon so my spirits stayed pretty high.
I enjoyed being on trail at the same time as the race. Aid station volunteers were friendly and always offered me food (and even beer at 8:30am), and I was stoked to cheer on the runners as they went by since I had been in their position so many times and always appreciated the enthusiasm of other trail users for my race. It was comforting to really feel how similar the sport is so far away from home.
The rain finally broke, the skies opened up, and the views all afternoon were drop-dead gorgeous. It’s only been two days and the beauty of this area has already way exceeded my expectations.
Day 3 | 25 miles | 55 to 80
I only saw three other humans on my third day on the PCT, which is many fewer than I had gotten used to. That gave the whole day a bit of a surreal experience, and I found it funny to think about how in some parts of my life, I’m jammed into a bus with 80 other people, but in this part, I get to roam entire square miles of beautiful country all by myself.
Towards the end of the day, I got my first few tastes of the proper desert experience as I accidentally brushed against a cactus (ouch!) and ran out of water in the heat of the afternoon. I wasn’t really concerned about dehydration because I knew the Scissors Crossing water cache was coming up in a couple miles, but I did feel lousy. Then, to my surprise and delight, I found not only water in the cache, but apple pie, donuts, and root beer left for hikers by trail angels. I walked a few more miles to camp, all uphill, very content while sipping my soda and watching the sunset.
Day 4 | 30 miles | 80 to 110
I did a big mileage day today to hike into Warner Springs community centre, enticed by the idea of a shower out of bucket, and also doing laundry in a bucket. It was a hard day in the hot sun, and my feet were pretty sore at the end, but it was through some jaw-droppingly gorgeous terrain. And damn, it feels good to wash the layer of grime off.
Day 5 | 26 miles | 110 to 136
Day 5 was another long and dry one in the Southern California heat, but at a much more leisurely pace than the day before. I woke up to the hustle and bustle of dozens of hikers starting their day at the Warner Springs community centre where I camped the previous night. The first bit of hiking took me through some beautiful groves of oak trees. An older hiker who seemed to know what he was talking about informed me that they were “at least a couple hundred years old”. I saw quite a few seemingly abandoned campgrounds with hitching posts and water troughs, my guess a sign of what used to be a bustling backcountry horse riding culture now long gone.
We eventually started climbing out of the shade of the big trees and onto some hot and exposed hills. Through some poor planning, I ran out of water and was feeling not great by the time I rolled up to Mike’s Place. Mike wasn’t around, but a friendly man named Scott is the current caretaker of this rural house near the trail that offers hikers cold beer, pop, and water by donation. I didn’t stay, but apparently there’s a barbecue in the evening too. I got hydrated, a decent buzz, and hung out with a really friendly group of hikers from Banff and elsewhere.
I gave a generous donation to Mike’s Place when I thought about how much his beer and water helped me out today, and when I thought about the fact that without his Place, it would be 29 miles between water sources on the trail. I loaded up with a truly responsible amount of water, said goodbye to my new friends, and did a few leisurely afternoon miles to camp in the valley below.
Day 6 | 25 miles | 136 to 161
At the beginning of day 6 on the PCT, I walked with a group of four hikers. Chatting with a bunch of people is a good way to make the miles go by quickly, because it’s easy to get lost in the conversation. We talked about jobs and kids and (what else?) how much we like walking.
While my new friends took a break at a water cache, I went down by myself to the Paradise Valley Cafe, home of the supposed best burger on the entire trail. I thought mine was mediocre but did get pretty buzzed off an IPA that I drank way too fast while literally starving before my food came.
The afternoon first took me through some really epic and beautiful boulders, with the trail winding around them so much that I got pretty disoriented about the direction I was walking. I then climbed up some decent elevation to where the alpine wildflowers were in full bloom. I found it neat that almost all the mountain wildflowers here are the same as back home, they just come out a few months earlier. I wonder if I can chase the wildflower season all the way to Canada.
Day 7 | 18 miles+ | 161 to 179
Thruhiking isn’t all sunshine and trail magic. Day 7 on the PCT was my most extreme experience of types 2 and 3 fun in recent memory. What started as a bit of a blustery morning up in the high country near San Jacinto quickly turned into six hours of walking through the worst weather I’ve ever been in in the backcountry. I’m talking driving rain, temperatures around freezing, and wind gusts that must have been over 60mph. I got very wet and very cold and was not particularly happy for most of it.
The main motivator all day was the idea of a hot shower in the town of Idyllwild below. Nearby in the scope of a thruhike, but still 18 miles away. I fastwalked, shuffled, ran, and generally hauled ass into town as fast as I could. I didn’t stop to rest, didn’t stop for lunch, and barely stopped for water. It was too cold to stop moving. I was thirsty and hungry and sore, but those needs were lower on the hierarchy than warmth.
I made it down of course, and quickly found myself forgetting the troubles of the day while I hung out in a heated hotel room with all my possessions scattered around to dry. The room is rustic by the usual standards, but the height of luxury for someone that has slept in the dirt with all their stuff in a bag for the last week.
Clearly this was a miserable day, but I know that it’s an outlier for the PCT, and I don’t expect many more like it during my thruhike. It’s just part of the deal when I decided I want to put myself out there in the beautiful, wild places. While I don’t enjoy this type of experience, the fact that it can happen is kind of what makes the whole thing special.
Day 8 | 22 miles+ | 179 to 201
On day 8 of the PCT, I took advantage of my cozy hotel bed in Idyllwild to sleep in a little. Well after sunrise, the nice man working the desk at the hotel drove me to the trailhead and sent me on my way. I hiked up to about 9000 feet near the summit of mount San Jacinto during the chilly but pleasantly sunny morning.
The miles were slower going today because the trail was a bit more technical than previous sections, and some of it was snow-covered. The trail eventually descended way, way down to the warmer and drier area where I made camp.
The afternoon was a bit of an emotional low point for me. Maybe it’s because the proximity of the trail in this area to a wind farm, interstate highway, and railway means that the usual nature sounds are accompanied by the industrial humming. Maybe it was because my left shin started to hurt a bit after 6000 feet of descending in a row. So I made camp earlier than I usual would to give myself a chance to recharge and sleep off any soreness. Tomorrow is another day.
Day 9 | 28 miles | 201 to 229
Most days in the trail so far, I’ve made some remark about how the hiking was “not what I expected” of Southern California. The morning of day 9 on the PCT was pretty much what I expected: walking on soft sand under the hot sun with the constant droning noise of a wind farm in the background. It’s not the most pleasant walking, but the views of San Jacinto and other mountains all around were beautiful.
I In the afternoon, I met a hiker named Squirrel and we went into the valley of Mission Creek together, and experienced some of the least desert-like hiking I could think of. We followed the creek through a narrow canyon where all the vegetation was incredibly lush because of the flow of water. We had to repeatedly get our feet wet because the valley walls would force the trail into the creek. It was slow going because some recent flooding had washed away sections of trail, but we eventually found our way to a pleasant place to camp with the sound of rushing water to lull us to sleep.
Day 10 | 27 miles | 229 to 256
Day 10 on the PCT started with a rude awakening, as rain and heavy wind before dawn made too much noise to sleep through. I waited until the sun came up to do my awkward routine of packing up camp in the rain trying to keep my things as dry as possible. It turns out that if I had just waited another 15 minutes, I could’ve packed up in the sunshine, but then I wouldn’t have got to hike under this beautiful rainbow.
The hiking this morning started off how it ended yesterday evening, routefinding with Squirrel (that’s a person with a trail name, not an animal I befriended) through a creek where the trail had been mostly washed out in recent floods. It was slow and we got off track a couple of times, but I enjoyed the challenge after so many days of just blindly following the only trail in sight.
We eventually made it out of the creek and started climbing, and when Squirrel decided to take a break, I said goodbye and continued on. Most of my trail friendships end this way, it seems.
The rest of the day was mostly pleasant walking through subalpine forests not too different from what we get in southwestern British Columbia. Finally, the infamous “hiker hunger” has started to set in as my body has realized how much fuel it needs everyday for what I’m demanding of it. I’ve been eating almost non-stop for the last three days, and as I type this in the evening, I am officially out of food. But it’s only 10 miles to the city of Big Bear, so I’ll be there to resupply by breakfast tomorrow.
Day 11 | 10 miles | 256 to 266
It snowed the night before day 11 on the PCT, and pretty hard. I woke up to my tent collapsing under the weight and having to dig myself out a little. Morning camp chores were cold and miserable, but once I got walking and the sun started to come up, it was stunningly beautiful. You know the morning of fresh snow when everything is quiet and shining in the sun? I leapfrogged with a couple of hikers named Jack & Jill through some of the most gorgeous terrain I’ve seen on trail yet, blanketed in snow.
I did 10 easy miles to the road into town, psyching myself up for my first ever real thumb-out hitchhike of my life, but I hadn’t even walked off the trail before a pleasant woman pulled up asking if Jack, Jill, and I needed a ride into town. On the way in, I hadn’t decided whether I would stay the night in Big Bear or only resupply and continue hiking. I just knew that I was hungry. I stepped into the supermarket after days of feeling like I didn’t have enough food, and being surrounded by it was almost overwhelming. I bought far more food for the next 100 miles than is probably necessary, then sat in the parking lot eating cake until I felt too full to get back on trail. That feeling sealed the decision to get a room in Big Bear, making it my first “nearo” of my hike.
Big Bear is a touristy ski resort town, but the woman at the front desk of my hotel pointed me in the direction of a quaint neighbourhood bar, Murray’s, where me being a PCT thruhiker seemed to be a novel concept, for the first time since I hit the trail. My mission for the afternoon is to shovel as much food and beer into my face as I can to subdue this hiker hunger.
Day 12 | 28 miles | 266 to 294
The first few miles out of the town of Big Bear on day 12 were tough. I’m not sure if it’s because I had gotten used to the comforts of town, my heavy freshly-resupplied pack, or that I was just being weighed down by all the food and beer I had consumed in the last 24 hours. Whatever it was, I was just not enthused to be out there walking through the wind gusts that hadn’t let up for the last week.
But of course, I kept walking. And as I put more miles between myself and town, I started to feel better. The sun peaked out, the wind died down, and the terrain was easy walking, all of which led me to have one of the best afternoons on trail so far. Time and distance flew by easily, and when I eventually checked my map to realize I had reached the last marked campsite for 25 miles and so needed to stop for the evening, I was actually disappointed. My body and mindset are feeling strong, and the days are very quickly getting longer, so I’m looking forward to some big days ahead.
Day 13 | 30 miles | 294 to 324
A lot of the hiking on day 13 of the PCT were along the walls of the canyon created by Deep Creek. The wildflowers were blooming in all their glory out of the canyon walls, and it was epic to be way above the creek at the valley floor.
Around lunchtime I reached the hot springs I had heard about, and almost walked right by to go chase mileage for the afternoon. Thankfully, I took the time to check them out and go for a dip in one of the pools. It was actually my first time in a natural hot spring and I loved it. The springs are only a couple of miles from the nearest trailhead, so I got to hang out with some non-hikers and a Labrador retriever named Smokey. Most people didn’t wear clothes, there were joints being passed around, and slacklines were set up; I think you get the vibe. It was the perfect thing to break up my gogogo thruhiking mindset for the day.
I left the hot springs and eventually left Deep Creek, and it started to rain. As I was keeping my eyes open for a flat piece of ground where I could miserably set up my tent in the rain, I spotted this bridge with some people underneath. I joined two couples of hikers from Australia and Los Angeles and we had a wonderfully dry dinner before heading to sleep in our camp under the bridge.
Day 14 | 23 miles | 324 to 347
The shin that was bugging me on day 8 has been giving me a bit of grief lately. At the beginning of day 14 on the PCT, I think I figured out that the source of the issue is my left shoe being a bit too small (my left foot is longer than the right). And because my toes can’t splay out completely, the stress of walking isn’t being absorbed and distributed properly throughout my foot and lower leg. So I took advantage of the 21st century technology current thruhikers have access to, and ordered a larger pair online through my phone, all while walking. As long as I didn’t mess up the delivery address (which I may have) and the postal service is on my side, I’ll have a brand new pair of size 10.5 shoes waiting for me when I get to Wrightwood tomorrow.
Other than the shin thing, this morning was a mission on the outskirts of Silverwood Lake to get to the McDonalds on Interstate 15. That’s where throngs of hikers rub shoulders with roadtrippers and truckers to rest our bodies and shovel greasy calories into our faces. I hung out with Coralie and Sam from Australia who I shared the troll camp under the bridge with the previous night.
The afternoon was tough because of my sore leg, but the sun came out and I managed to have a great time admiring some beautiful rock formations and being treated to ridge-walking through purple and yellow wildflowers. Being way up on those ridges reminded me of the epic montages of Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn on their travels, and I sang the Lord of the Rings theme song out loud while I walked. It was some of the nicest country I’ve ever hiked in, and it seemed like the only people out here enjoying it were the 50 of us per day just passing through on our way to Canada. It could be a major dayhiking destination as far as I’m concerned.
Day 15 | 16 miles+ | 347 to 363
The night before day 15 was probably my best sleep on trail, and the morning hiking was great. That’s because, for what feels like the first time in this lifetime, there was no gusting wind to blow my tent around all night and blow cold air in my face all day. I can’t tell you how much more peaceful life is without it.
I climbed about 5000 feet in the morning to make it above the snow line, and then went right back down on my way into the town of Wrightwood. The sore shin made it a bit miserable, but I picked myself up some roomier shoes, which I think should solve my issue, along with a couple of easier days to heal up. There was also a cooler of cold beer left out for hikers by someone that lives along the route into town, which lifted my spirits.
Because options for affordable accommodations for hikers in Wrightwood are so limited, many local families open up their homes to host hikers for a night. After taking care of my resupply, I made my way to the “Bud Pharm”, where a man named Dave lives on some acreage and lets hikers camp in his yard and make use of his kitchen, laundry, and washroom. I think he grows pot for a living.
There was about a dozen of us staying there, and it was my first time hanging out with so many hikers in the evening. We got to have a barbecue, drink beers, and hang out with Dave’s dogs, kids, and very eclectic group of friends. The whole thing ended with an older man named Mojave Bob reciting about 15 minutes of poetry he had written himself. I went to bed right after and the whole experience doesn’t feel entirely real.
Day 16 | 20 miles+ | 363 to 383
Day 16 on the PCT was a very full one. As I lay in my sleeping bag writing this, waking up this morning feels like forever ago. I guess that’s the intensity of experience we get treated to on a thruhike.
My morning at the Bud Pharm was so unlike my usual routine of cold coffee, packing up, and on the trail within thirty minutes. As everyone I was camping with woke up slowly well after dawn, the group congregated in the main bar area to start their day with hot coffee, cold beer, and bong hits. I stuck with my usual cold coffee and took in the scene. All of us are walking from Mexico to Canada, but the experience is clearly so different person to person. I’m glad I got to hang out with those folks for a day, but it was time to head back out on my own. I continued my streak of getting rides without actually sticking my thumb out, as a woman offered me a ride into town as soon as I walked down the driveway and she saw my pack.
As for the actual walking, I would have liked for today to be an easy day to give my sore shin a chance to recover. But I saw that there was a nasty storm in the forecast for tomorrow, and I decided that I wanted to get up and over Mount Baden Powell today and head to lower elevations by the end of the day. Otherwise, I would have to head up to 10,000 feet in the storm tomorrow, which didn’t seem like fun. There was quite a bit of snow travel, but nothing too sketchy. I did get off trail a few times when the switchbacks were hidden under snow, which was frustrating. But I did make it to camp without having to turn my headlamp on, just barely.
Day 17 | 29 miles | 383 to 402
Day 17 on the PCT was about as wet and cold as I had predicted, and I’m very happy that I put in the time and effort to get over Mount Baden Powell yesterday. As lousy as the weather I got was, I’m sure it was much lousier up near 10,000 feet.
But even with all the rain and wind today, my spirits stayed pretty high. I think part of it was the fact that my bar for bad weather was set so high on day 7 into Idyllwild, today didn’t seem so bad in comparison. But a few really great things happened along the way, too.
A couple of hours into my day, just as the the rain was really starting to come down, I crossed the highway at a parking lot. On my way through, two very friendly women invited me to sit in their heated car while they offered me eggs, hot coffee, donuts, and fresh fruit. They had driven up to do trail magic for all the hikers on this section. After that boost to morale, I met a hiker I got along with really well named Medicine Man, and we hiked together for most of the day, including the few miles of road walking we needed to do as a detour around a section of closed trail. Apparently some endangered frogs are hanging out there and we’re not allowed to disturb them.
My day ended near Camp Glenwood, a youth camp that was unoccupied for the weekend. I made use of their wood stoves to make a fire to keep warm in the rain, and also fried up some hot quesadillas, which were a huge upgrade over the cold wraps I’ve been eating since the border. I set up camp early to give my sore shin (which is getting a bit better ever day) a chance to heal up, and just relaxed peacefully dry inside my tent listening to the rain.
Day 18 | 28 miles | 402 to 430
I woke up to frost on my tent on day 18 of the PCT, and luckily I had fallen asleep in literally all the clothes I had, because I slept through the cold night pretty well. I hit the trail early and crossed paths with a few other thruhikers that had camped in the area. We seemed to all be in a pretty good mood with today’s sunny weather after yesterday’s rain and wind storm. With it being a holiday, I also saw more dayhikers than usual enjoying the trail, which I liked.
I joined a couple of hikers named Bib and Beastie from Australia and Minnesota, respectively, for lunch on a plateau with panoramic views of the valley below. I told them the rumour that it was possible to order pizzas to the Mill Creek Fire Station 3.5 miles away. Beastie made the phone call to confirm that the rumours were true, placed the order, and we quickly packed up to make our way to second lunch.
Second lunch was delicious, especially since I’m only one day away from resupply which means I don’t have any food that I really like left in my pack. I even had leftovers of pizza and coke to pack up for dinner at camp.
The afternoon was easy miles through an area that had been devastated by a big forest fire in 2009, so all the mature trees were either gone or charred. The golden hour heading down into camp was pretty spectacular, and worth slowing down to just soak in.
Day 19 | 24 miles | 430 to 454
Day 19 on the PCT felt a little like the other ones where I was aiming to get into town by the end. A little less of a dreamy walk through the wilderness, a little more focus and looking forward to the ice cream and shower that awaits.
But it was still certainly a great day of walking. The morning took me down from the ridgeline I slept on to the valley floor where I stopped at the Acton KOA campground for lunch. The “campground” was not much more than a big gravel lot where people park their RVs. I’m not really sure what the appeal of driving out to a gravel lot on the side of a road to sleep for the weekend is. But I guess the people that enjoy that think it’s weird to walk all day just freeze your butt off in a tent in the bush, so that’s okay.
I walked most of the afternoon with a hiker named Sinatra from Maine, and we had some really insightful talks. Him and I shared a lot of views about the hike, and I realized that although I’ve done a lot of thinking over the last 18 days, I haven’t taken too many opportunities to really sound them out out loud and make sense of all my ideas until today.
I finished the afternoon walking through Vasquez Rocks County Park, which was full of otherworldly rock formations. The different landscapes I walk through on this trail continue to delight and surprise me.
Tonight I’m staying in the town of Agua Dulce at “hiker heaven”. It’s the home of the Saufley family that has been welcoming hikers with showers, laundry, and a yard to camp in since 1997.
Day 20 | 23 miles | 454 to 478
I got a late start to day 20 on the PCT, taking advantage of the opportunity for hot coffee and breakfast at Hiker Heaven in the town of Agua Dulce. Once I got going, the first couple miles of the day were walking on the shoulder of a road. Obviously that isn’t pleasant, but it made me appreciate the fact that I’ve walked over 450 miles, and this was the first real stretch that wasn’t on a trail. That’s an amazing thing that doesn’t exist in too many places around the world, and not something to be taken for granted.
I hiked most of the morning with a hiker named Goose, who told me about all the long distance hiking he’s done in the past. In my little social circle at home, I’m the most experienced backpacker, so it’s been a treat to learn and hear stories from the people on this trail that have done so much more than me.
The hiking today was hot and strenuous, with a few pretty big climbs. But it ended happily at Casa de Luna in the tiny town of Green Valley. The Casa is the home of the Anderson family, and includes a backyard that looks and feels like a fairy tale forest where hikers can camp. The Andersons also feed us dinner and breakfast, provide free hugs, and give us the “PCT class of 2019” bandana. With the last two nights being these big gatherings at trail angels’ homes, I’m finally settling into the thruhiking culture.
Day 21 | 23 miles | 478 to 501
I woke up at Casa de Luna on day 21 of the PCT for my second late start in as many days. I wasn’t about to wake up at the crack of dawn to start walking while the Andersons were serving up pancakes and hot coffee. A couple of hikers tried to give me the trail name “Dapper Dan” because of my apparently stylish hiking attire, but I resisted because I don’t think it fits me too well.
When I eventually did get going, the sun was already pretty hot. I was sweating a lot and always eager for the next cold water source, but a couple of local dayhikers reminded me that this was a pretty cool day for Southern California. But I kept at it, and the trail finally climbed into some shady tree groves filled with wildflowers.
I was heading towards Sawmill campground for the night, but when I read about some recent experiences there with a persistent hungry bear scrounging for hikers’ food in the night, I decided to do a few more miles before stopping to camp.
I think the evening is my favourite time to hike. It’s because my feet are tired and my pace and mindset relaxes, and the sun lowering in the sky makes the landscape all around turn gold. That, combined with the fact that most people are off the trail, making me feel like I have the whole area to myself to do whatever I want. I mean, all I end up doing is walking in the same direction as always, but the endless opportunities are there. I guess that feeling of freedom is what attracts a lot of people to thruhiking.
Day 22 | 17 miles | 501 to 518
Day 22 on the PCT started on the top of some mountains, where the trail wound its way through shaded tree groves and lush grassy meadows. I eventually made my way down to the hot, dry desert floor where I’ll be staying for the next couple of days. The one constant treat throughout the day was the colourful wildflowers in bloom all around the trail.
I finished up for the day in Hikertown, which is a unique place set up for hikers to rest in one of the hottest and driest sections of the PCT. It’s designed to look like something out of the Wild West, and I loved the look of it. As the story goes, shortly after the current owners moved in to the property, they noticed all these dirty homeless people loitering around. When the went to chase them away, they realized they were hikers on their way to Canada and were looking for water. The owners started by installing a public water faucet, and what is now Hikertown, USA has steadily grown from there.
I didn’t do too many miles today because I wanted to set myself up in the right spot for a very early start tomorrow to walk the infamously hot Los Angeles aqueduct before midday.
Day 23 | 27 miles | 518 to 545
On day 23 on the PCT, I walked the Los Angeles aqueduct. This section of trail is infamous because of its heat, lack of water, and monotony. For 17 miles, hikers walk on a dirt road next to the aqueduct with no opportunity to access the water. There’s no shelter from the desert sun, and it’s almost completely flat and in a mostly straight line. For those reasons, all hikers plan to do that section at some time other than midday. As I hung out in Hikertown yesterday, I saw that the majority were leaving in the evening and would hike through the night. I didn’t really want to do that because it seemed spooky and I didn’t want to mess with my sleep schedule.
I instead decided to wake up a couple of hours before sunrise and walk the aqueduct through the morning. I actually really enjoyed myself out there. I listened to music on trail for the first time since I started the PCT, and I somehow thought it was fun to walk out towards the horizon with nothing but the road and some cacti in sight.
I eventually made it to the water source and found all the hikers that had left last night napping in the shade under a bridge. I filled up water and left the aqueduct to head towards the mountains through a wind farm. As much as I enjoy untouched wilderness, I thought the landscape of windmills was pretty beautiful.
After spending the whole morning and early afternoon baking under the sun, when I finally got up into the mountains I ended up in a rain storm. It was complete with thunder and lightning and hail bigger than green peas. I got soaked trying to find shelter with some other hikers, but eventually gave up trying to stay dry and was able to hike out of it pretty quickly.
Day 24 | 14 miles | 545 to 559
Day 24 on the PCT was an easy, relaxed one. I woke up early to beat the inevitable hot sun on this part of the trail, as most hikers around me did. When I found a water cache maintained be some local trail angels, I was surprised and delighted to find not only water but a cute setup with umbrellas and patio chairs.
I continued on through another epic wind farm and enjoyed the wildflowers surrounding the trail just as much as on previous days; it seems like every day I see one I haven’t seen before.
When I started hiking that morning, my plan was to head into the town of Tehachapi for just a resupply at the grocery store, and then hit the trail again in the afternoon. But as I was heading down to Willow Springs Road, the place to grab a hitch into town, I could feel the allure of an overnight in town pulling at me. During my ride in, I really started to think about a whole day of clean linens, hot showers, cold beer, and cooked food and I knew I was done for. I booked a room at the Best Western and then went to Primo Burger to wait for check in. Back at it tomorrow, after the complimentary breakfast buffet, of course.
Addendum: It was this evening that I was given my trail named “Thirty-Five”, for being the thirty-fifth hiker to get in the hot tub at the Best Western at one time.
Day 25 | 22 miles | 559 to 581
Day 25 on the PCT was a tough one. I didn’t sleep great in my hotel in Tehachapi after partying in the jacuzzi the night before with a big group of hikers until the very late hour of 10pm. But I got up and after breakfast, packing up, and second breakfast, I hitched out to the trailhead to start my day of walking.
The day was tough because my pack was the heaviest it’s been so far on the trail. I left Tehachapi carrying 25 miles worth of water, and 140 miles worth of food. For those of you that don’t know what that feels like, let me tell you, it’s soul crushing. Especially after prancing into town with no food or water the day before. Anyway, such is the rhythm of life of a thruhiker, and I’m excited to eat my way to a lighter pack in the coming days.
The hiking today was more wind farms, wildflowers, walking beside the freeway and eating lunch under the freeway. Before I started this trail, I probably would have tried to pick some picturesque, quiet backcountry spot to eat lunch. But these days, the search for shade is the main concern.
Day 26 | 27 miles | 581 to 608
Day 26 on the PCT was another tough one, mostly because of the heat and the lack of water. I slept in a bit to make up for waking up in the middle of the night to take pictures of the stars, and the sun already felt pretty hot by 7am.
My big mistake was underestimating how much water I would need for the 19 mile stretch between Golden Oaks Spring and Robin Bird Spring. I didn’t carry nearly enough and was a very thirsty hiker for a good part of the day. You would think that I might have figured out how much water I need after 25 days of hiking, but I’m still very much learning.
At least the terrain was beautiful. Instead of the sweeping vistas of wind farms from the previous days, today’s hiking was mostly through grassy meadows and peaceful tree groves. The lunch spots and campsites I saw today were some of the most pleasant I’ve seen on trail.
On the stretch of trail I just finished from Agua Dulce to Tehachapi, I had started to see the same hikers every day, and was finally developing some lasting friendships on the trail. But almost everyone in that “bubble” of hikers was taking a rest day or two in Tehachapi, so it seems I’ve left them all behind. Everyone I saw on trail today was a new face.
Day 27 | 27 miles | 608 to 635
Day 27 was another absolute scorcher in the desert with hot sun, 15 miles between water sources, and no shade to be found, except under a couple of Joshua trees. Those trees were the highlight of the landscape for most of the day, because I had never seen so many growing in the same place, and never seen any as huge and old.
There was a point in the afternoon when I questioned pretty seriously whether I could actually enjoy doing this for another couple of months. But pretty soon, some light thundershowers moved in, the clouds, breeze, and raindrops cooled things off, and I realized it was just the heat getting me down. The day ended with a couple thousand feet of climbing to a ridgeline, and when I finally stood up there looking down at the wide valley I had come up from with the wind in my face and the sun going down behind me, it was almost overwhelming how happy I felt. The highs and lows, literally but mostly figuratively, come hard and fast out here. Thankfully it’s been mostly highs so far.
Other highlights of the day: I passed the 1000 kilometre mark, and I got rattled at by the first rattlesnake I’ve seen on trail.
Day 28 | 27 miles | 635 to 662
Day 28 on the PCT was, you may have guessed it, another scorcher in the desert. But this one was a lot more bearable than the previous few. The morning hours had some peaceful shade, the water sources were not so far apart, and to my surprise, trail magic at Walker Pass where I had lunch.
A former thruhiker named Hobo Joe had driven to the campground and set up a shady area with cold beers and sodas, fresh fruit, and cookies. I was especially happy because I had been rationing my food a bit to get me all the way to the next town. I stopped for an hour to enjoy the trail magic and company of other hikers that had gathered at “Hobofest”, where many of them planned to stay for the rest of the day and night. As for me, I don’t know whether it’s introversion or just compulsive hiking, but I can’t stay at those places for long. Off I went to hike away the afternoon.
I remember a couple of weeks ago feeling like I would be happy if it was never windy again, after those consistent fast and cold gusts around Idyllwild and Big Bear. But now that it’s hot as hell, I find joy and peace in it, even when the gusts are a bit wild, as they were this afternoon going around Mount Jenkins.
Day 29 | 30 miles | 662 to 692
On day 29 on the PCT, I had the surreal experience of walking the entire day and only seeing four other people, all in the morning. It gave me the feeling of having taken a wrong turn, or that all the other hikers had packed up and left me to it.
I didn’t mind the extra space to myself. I actually spent some time wandering off trail today, first to explore some cool boulders and an area with abandoned rusty trucks and other equipment. I also listened to music on trail, which I don’t usually do. And let me tell you, after spending weeks just listening to birdsong and the wind, a good playlist felt like a performance enhancing drug. I also passed the quarter-way mark of the trail this morning, which was cause for a little personal celebration.
A rafting guide named Jim whose daughter is section hiking the PCT set up some trail magic at Chimney Creek Campground and offered me a very cold Coke, which I appreciated, especially because I felt low on energy and hungry. I’m looking forward to getting into Kennedy Meadows tomorrow morning and feasting on tons of food.
Day 30 | 10 miles | 692 to 702
Day 30 on the PCT was nothing but a 10-mile hungry jaunt into town. I had run out of food the night before, so when I woke up (with frost on my sleeping bag) I slammed a double serving of cold coffee and set off for Kennedy Meadows.
When I came within sight of the road leading into town, the happiness and sense of accomplishment hit me harder than I had expected. I had finished the 702-mile desert section of the PCT, it was time for the next thing, and that made me feel really good.
To make things better, I bumped into @pct_people_project, whose work I had been following all spring, and he took my portrait before I went into town. Kennedy Meadows is a community with a population of 200, and all PCT hikers head in for a day or two to rest and prepare for the trail ahead, so we kind of take over the local establishments. By lunch time, I had already eaten far more food than most humans eat in a day, and I was very content.
Well, I made it to Kennedy Meadows, which means that the desert section of the PCT is well and truly done. The days of worrying about dehydration and heat exhaustion are behind me, and those worrying about hypothermia and drowning are ahead (I’m exaggerating a little).
Even though I hiked the section of trail ahead in 2014, I’m still walking into the unknown. The past winter and spring have broken all kinds of records for snowfall in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and the trail I’ll walk this year will be barely recognizable from the one I’ve seen before. Hikers around me are generally nervous.
To get me through these conditions, I’ve picked up some extra gear for the snow and cold. To my kit I’ve added: an ice axe, microspikes, a bear canister, waterproof mitts, extra socks, thermal leggings, waterproof boots, knee-high gaiters, extra socks, and my tent body (I was previously only carrying the fly and footprint). With all that stuff I just listed, I’m honestly more concerned about my pack weight than any snow or cold.
This section is also the most remote of the whole trail, which means that I often won’t have cell service and you folks won’t hear from me for days at a time. But I plan to keep up with the journaling and photography so that I can catch you up with what’s been going on whenever I can.
I’m excited for the challenges and experiences that await me.