Waffles

Day 38-June 15

Walker pass to Joshua Tree Spring

12 miles

Sleeping in a bed with a soft pillow felt blissful last night! Physically resting our sore feet and aching muscles. Emotionally getting recharged from seeing old friends! We had a restful morning with sleeping in, breakfast with friends, and grocery shopping. Our friends let us take their car to Grocery Outlet. I love Grocery Outlet, not quite as much as I love Aldi but close. We were able to get just the couple of things we needed and then I bought some ice cream and waffles for lunch. So delicious.

We also learned a few interesting things about this area. The aviation naval base where part of Top Gun Maverick was filmed is near Ridgecrest. And from town we could see the ridge of some hills that are in Death Valley. No wonder it is so hot here! When we were leaving town it was 100 degrees and at the trailhead it was 91.

We headed back out to the trail at 4pm. The heat was still intense but parts of the trail became more shaded as the trail wound around the mountain to the Eastern slopes. Our friend runs this section of the trail often so he had given us a play by play of our afternoon. A mile and a half of sand, six switch backs, up to the ridge, rocky trail between rock outcroppings! Along the way we stopped for dinner and then tried to hustle to camp so we didn’t get in too late. There were so many people camping at the spring. It was hard to find a campsite on level ground but we made do. A lot of people have been skipping the section we just did from Highway 58 to Walker pass so the trail seems more crowded now. I am hoping Kennedy Meadows isn’t too crazy with dirty hikers. We are all dirty but when we gather-that is when I get cautious of germ spreading.

Either way, we are excited to get to Kennedy Meadows and finish up the desert section of the PCT! Kevin has been saying goodbye to the cacti that we see along the way! (even though we know other places will be deserty and high desert later in)

Marathon day

Day 36- June 13

Campsite to Bird Spring Pass

26.4 miles

We started hiking around 6am. We have a few miles to cover today. Part way into our morning, Kevin realized he had miscounted the date when planning this section so we are actually getting to Walker Pass a day earlier than expected. Not a problem but I am carrying extra food. I think I’ll have to accept I will probably always have extra food now because I get essentials like protein powder sent to me in every box to last for a long while between many towns. Usually we like to roll into town with little food.

The beautiful shade trees lining the trail turn into tall pines and continue for a few miles. We go to an off trail spring that is gushing clear cold water! Even so, we are double treating our water since people in front of us have gotten sick. So I filtered the water then treated it with iodine. After a few more miles, the tall pines give way to short bushes. We descend to the desert again and the sun is intense. Our next water source is a giant cache of probably 45 – 5 gallon water containers. We load up for the next 15 miles to where we are camping near the next water cache. One trail angel manages both these caches and I am so grateful. Without these caches it would be probably 40 or 50 miles without water. Siesta includes an exercise in contortion to rest in the shade of some Joshua trees. Joshua trees are narrow and curved.

After siesta, we head out into the sun that still feels hot. There is no shade and the wind begins to pick up. For a few miles of the trail it is sandy like walking at the beach. Not the night kind of beach sand where the waves lap on your feet and cool you down. But the gross kind where you are dragging a heavy bag with the sand burning your feet while trying to get back to the car after being sunburned.

We did see the full moon rise while the sun was setting and it was beautiful! Once we made it around the other side of the mountain the wind calmed down too. When we rolled into the water cache most people were already settled in for the night. We had to walk around for awhile to find a flat campsite. I was super annoyed that the first two places we found, people had peed in them and hadn’t gone farther away from camp. Our spot was tucked between a wire fence and a tree, very slanted but we weren’t getting pummeled by the wind so we can actually sleep.

The end of a long day

Day 31

Water cache/bridge along the aqueduct to Tylerhorse spring for siesta then to campsite 8 miles up the hill

15 ish miles after 17 miles overnight = 32 miles

I cursed at my alarm this morning. How dare it wake me up after only two hours rest. But the sun was already in my face and heating up my sleeping bag. It would just keep baking me throughout the day.

I crawled out of my sleeping bag because my legs were yelling at me they were so sore. We ate breakfast in the shade and then began the climb up to Tylerhorse canyon and stream. It was about seven miles and we got there around 11:30am. It was already so hot by that time. So we got our water and found a tree to sleep under. I am so grateful that this stream was still running. Someone has built up a little dam so the water collected in about a foot wide puddle and a few inches deep.

Kevin and I set up our ground tarp and sleeping pads and had another nap from about 12:30pm to 4pm. The we ate dinner and walked the next eight miles to a water cache. The trail was mostly sidelining for about four miles and then went a steep down into a valley so you are standing at the bottom looking up at a huge hill to climb. Actually I was sitting down looking up because it seemed so tiring. One of our friends decided she had walked enough and she camped there. The other four of us made our way up the hill.

The sunset was phenomenal! I love hiking between 4pm and 9pm and seeing the sun setting. These desert sunsets have been sensational and the cool air that comes just after sunset is life giving. Because we had been going hard for about 24 hours at this point with two naps, I was so ready to be done and at camp. I crested the final hill and saw a row of twinkling white Christmas lights strung up. At first I thought I was going crazy, then I realized that the trail angel who stocks this cache string them up on the water barrels! We had made it! We filtered our water and then went to sleep for a full nights’ sleep. It was blissful.

Hikertown and the LA aqueduct

Day 30

Bear Camp to Hikertown through the aqueduct

13.3 miles in the AM

17 miles in the PM

We gave ourselves a bit of time in the AM to sleep in and then head out. At this point, sleeping in is until 6:30.

It got hot very quickly into the day, around 8:30, as we dropped onto the flat plains of the Mojave desert. We could see the next couple of days trail stretched out before us. The descent into Hikertown, the flat stretch of the aqueduct, and the ascent into the mountains towards Tehachapi.

We arrived at Hikertown around 12:30pm. Hikertown looks like an old western movie set with two rows of small buildings facing each other with clapboard fronts painted to represent various enterprises of the olden days. A couple live there and offer camping, showers, and let hikers ship resupply boxes there. A hiker can rent out one of the shed/shelter buildings which has no electricity or running water. There is an outdoor shower which felt very refreshing as well! We picked up our boxes and got some showers then tried to stay cool beneath the one tree on the property.

For the past couple of days, we had been strategizing how to best attack this section of the trail. Hikertown is famously the final place to get water before a 17 miles stretch of trail that follows a dirt road next to the Los Angeles aqueduct and then enters a wind farm that will do its best to blow you off the trail. The water in 17 miles is a faucet that sometimes gets shut off by the LA water authorities. Ironic that we follow the aqueduct for this whole section but have no access to the actual water. Because the water gets shut off sometimes, there are some trail angels who keep a cache stocked with water jugs. I was so grateful for this!

Because the aqueduct goes straight across the desert in the full sun, many hikers try to hike this section during any hour other then when the sun is out. There are many strategies, but ours was to leave Hikertown at 8:45pm after an afternoon of trying to rest and sleep after resupplying and hiking in that morning. We hiked by the surprisingly bright half moon for 17 miles. It was flat until the very end when we began creeping our way towards the hills and wove our way through a wind farm. As we were far off we could see the red blinking lights on top of the windmills. Then we could see the blades by the red lights and finally we could hear the giant whooshing sound like a freight train or jet engine just above our heads.

We hiked this section with the group of friends we have been with the past couple of days. It felt more jovial and lighthearted to walk through the dark with a group of five rather than just Kevin and I. We had some great conversations and worked to keep our spirits high and at times just fought to keep each other awake enough to walk. Occasionally, we would all stop for a break on the concrete barriers along the road. We would try and identify various constellations and gasp over the shooting stars! I saw so many shooting stars! At one point, we saw a huge shooting star fly across the majority of the horizon while sending out a tail of green, red, and orange streaks! It was phenomenal.

We arrived at the water cache at 4am and crashed into our sleeping bags. It was the first time Kevin and I cowboyed. Meaning we didn’t set up our tent but just laid down our ground tarp, sleeping pads, and sleeping bags. We slept for a quick nap until 7:15am and then got up to push to the next water which was 7 miles up the hill. We had to get up into the hills and away from the heat of the plains before the late morning heat set in.

These miles and days are blending into one giant hike with some naps but technically this is continued in the next days’ journal.

Trail Magic!-Day 25

Copper Canyon Trail Camp to first camp site after Mill Creek fire station

25.6 miles

This morning began with a chilly breakfast while talking to three other women who rolled into camp after we had gone into the tent. I must say, it has been so wonderful seeing more women on the trail this year. Just three years ago on the AT, I was often the only woman at a campsite or one of a few while there were many men. Now those stats are changing just a bit and it is wonderful! I hope many more women continue to find how they like to recreate outside without the general public questioning their abilities and safety.

The first few miles of trail flew by and we were hoping our day would continue that way. But after we had said this, we round a bend and saw a car at a trailhead just getting set up to do trail magic!!! We were so excited and practically danced down the trail to meet them. When we arrived and were saying hello, I had this feeling that these two people seemed very familiar and how did I know them? One of the people doing trail magic was Tip Tap, she did the PCT in 2019 and then made some amazing vlog videos on YouTube which Kevin and I consumed as we tried to get through the last few weeks before heading out in the trail! I would highly suggest her channel to anyone. Her videos are beautiful! (Her name is Elina Osborne). Also she is from New Zeeland and had just flown in the day before which is why it was wild to meet her in a random trailhead in CA.

The other person doing trail magic was a hiker named Prodigy. He did the calendar year triple crown in 2018. I have followed him on Instagram for quite some time and have learned many hiking things from him!

It was so neat to meet these two inspiring people who filled us with good food, tips for the trail, and positivity for the rest of our day!

About half way through our day, Kevin and I decided to push some miles and get within 24 miles of our resupply box pick up location. We must have been hyped from the trail magic and people interactions. This is essentially resupplying one day sooner than planned. The day ended up being our second longest mileage day so far. It ended in us carrying 5 liters of water up the last hill for a long dry stretch that will start our day tomorrow. We will start our day with a 15 mile dry stretch and one water source between us and the campground where we will get our box. Finishing off our miles walking west into the sunset was a lovely way to put a bow on an already great day!

Trail data:

-Copper canyon had a great water source.

-Camp Glenwood may not have water for hikers anymore, their tank was broken by a hiker and hasn’t been replaced.

-Hill out of mill creek is very sandy, like beach sand to walk on and the beginning of the 19 mile water carry.

-We got water at the Pony Park day use area.

-Lots of burned areas and puddle dog bush today.

Mount Baden-Powell

Day 24

Camped one mile below Baden-Powell summit-to Cooper Canyon Trail Camp

19.2 miles

Last night I thought I heard a bear investigating our food! I heard some scuffling near the tree our food bags were tied to and some rustling which sounded like our bags. Then I sat up and made some noise on my sleeping pad since it is crinkly sometimes. This made the animal run down the hill and it made a big crashing sound part way down the hill like either it or a rock was rolling down the hillside. I got my headlamp on and made sure our food was still there and the animal was gone. Kevin slept through all of this commotion!

This morning we had planned to get up and see the sunrise on top of Mount Baden Powell which is a prodominant peak in the San Gabriel mountains. However, it was kind of chilly this morning so we moved kind of slow and just watched the sunrise from our tent site. It was less windy there anyways.

After a mile climb upwards, we summited the peak. According to the sign on top, it was named after the founder of the Boy Scouts and is a part of a trail some scout groups do often. I don’t know the mountains original name before the boy scouts named it. I’m sure the scout program has been really helpful for some. In my experience, they are just not always the nicest groups to encounter in the great outdoors.

The miles this morning seemed to drag on. We had done about 7 miles by 10am which we usually have 9 to 11 miles done by then. Finally, we got over our long climb of the day and it seemed to move faster.

We had to do a three mile road walk as well today. The trail is rerouted around the nesting area of some endangered frogs. It was a short road walk and it is always so important to protect every part of an ecosystem. Even the smallest parts, such as a beetle or frogs, are vital parts of the trophic cascade of an animal ecosystem. As we hiked that part, I was thinking about how the author of “Braiding Sweetgrass”, talks about every vital organism that was made to nurture and help every other part of a system. Without the mutual support of even the smallest part, entire ecosystems fail which leads to food chain shortages and changes in the land around us. Needless to say, we were fine walking a couple extra miles for the frogs today.

One section of the reroute took us through a campground and on some national forest trails. One of the day hikers here stopped us to ask if we were PCT hikers. Then she gave us two bags of fresh strawberries that she brings on her hikes for PCT hikers. She tries to hike three times a week to give fruit to the PCTers. She asked if we were married and hiking together. Then she told us about how she and her late husband loved doing similar things together and now she treasures the memories she has of their adventures. I loved meeting this woman and her kindness but also her reminder to treasure every moment we have to make memories with those we love.

We are camping tonight in one of the trail camps that have been spaced throughout the San Gabriel National Forest. There are usually picnic tables, pit toilets, and a spiket or stream. I have enjoyed the convenience of the pit toilets and having a table to make dinner on was fantastic!

I think this is in the Mount Phlox family

I can feel the wind in my leg hair

Day 22

Cajon Pass to Guffy Campground

22.5 miles -6917 feet elevation gain

That line along the hill is the trail we just came up!

Today we began the climb out of Cajon pass and up towards Mount Baden Powell. The trail takes its time across many switchbacks to get up the hill. This meant we were steadily going up for about 19 of today’s miles. Thank goodness there was a cool breeze since there was little to no shade during most of the miles. Near the end of the hike today, we got up into the pine trees at the top of the mountain. I was very glad to see them again!

I finished listening to my book today since listening to something always makes the uphill miles go easier!

We are back hiking with a few people we know and a few we have just met.

Trail notes:

-the cache five miles out of town was well stocked and maintained.

-the Cajon Pass Inn was a good stop if you want a cheaper option than stopping in Wrightwood.

-the guffy spring has a steep access trail but good water

300 miles!

300 miles

Waterfall in Holcomb creek to seasonal stream

22.6 miles

Today began with a kind of bushwack scramble out of the Holcomb creek valley. Once we got to Deep Creek, we sidelined the canyon hill for nearly all the miles today. The trail felt like a roller coaster careening down the hill because it was sidelining a canyon and sandy while sometimes being eroded. You had to watch your step at all times.

During this roller coaster, we came upon the monument for 300 miles! I didn’t even realize that we would hit this mile marker today! Kevin’s quote at this marker was “okay let’s keep going, we still have thousands more miles to go”. Well. Yes. He is right.

We wanted to get to the Deep Creek Hot springs to have our siesta today. That was 15 miles into the day. By 11:30 am it felt blistering hot. We had to stop by a pool of water from a seasonal spring to cool down, then continue on to the famed destination of the day!

Finally we made it, and we could hear the day hikers music blaring about a quarter mile off. Kevin and I often play games to see if we can guess how many dayhikers we will see on the weekends. Today I won the bet. It felt sooooo good to swim in the cold creek and dunk our feet in the hot spring.

We waited out the heat and sunshine for a few hours then started hiking again.

Our intended campsite was under a bridge about two miles from the hot springs but it was on a trail that gets a lot of use from the nearby town. So we went four more miles than planned to get away from some sketchy vibes including a van that was being lived in, a smashed and abandoned car, and old clothes strewn about.

Both our feet hurt and we were really tired and grumpy in our last couple of miles. However, we did get to see the sunset over the mountains from a ridge and it was absolutely beautiful! This helped remind us why we are out here and make the last few miles more enjoyable.

Meeting people

Day 11

16.6 miles plus 2 miles off trail to collect water.

Hwy 74 (Idyllwild) to Spitler trail turn off

This morning began with a ride to the trail from a kind friend. Then we started hiking around 8:15. It was rolling hills at the beginning but quickly became more aggressively uphill.

Kevin and I had some good talks as we started uphill and it made the first miles fly by. I am always super grateful for our conversations and time together out here on the trail. I really love it and know this time together will be a treasure for the rest of our lives.

After a bit, we met and learned the names of a group of three guys that we had seen a few times on trail. I called them the three stooges, which Kevin later informed me could be found rude. I don’t know if I have ever seen the show so I thought it was just three funny guys and not three guys acting stupid. Well, sorry guys!

Then we caught up to another couple on trail whom we had met a few times. We then spent the rest of the day hiking with them and talking about life. This included a mile off trail to get water at a spring. I really enjoyed their company and conversation and it made the miles fly by.

Our campsite is perched just over the ridge of a saddle with good wind protection and an awesome view of the desert off in the distance. Tomorrow’s first climb is looming in the forefront of our northern view. We will climb up 5,000 feet of elevation tomorrow so I’m off to get some rest to prepare.