Category: PCT 2018

Mile 496-517The wind howled all night! Thankfully I had my best pitch to date on the Duplex so she was standing tall when I woke up at 0630. Where we had camped was on a forest service road. When we got there at a little past 10 PM, there were two cars parked. This morning when I woke up I met a lady named Diane. She and her husband section hike the trail whenever they get a chance. Diane came over and said hello to me. She asked about our adventure thus far and where we were all from. I wish I would’ve gotten her last name. She also asked if she could take a photo of me. I’m sure that’s going to be a good funny one for sure. I was all sorts of a mess this morning.

Fireman was the first one to leave camp. He didn’t have much food in his bag so he’s pretty lightweight. He said he was definitely going to HikerTown to resupply. Which was our planned stop for the day. Hiker Town is a Hostel in Lancaster. If you were driving by, you’d probably do a random double-take but never stop to take a look. I’ll leave it at that. What it did provide for us was a cheap place to stay out of the wind and we met a nice section hiker named Jimmy.

The miles to get here seemed to last forever. We left our stealth camp at 8am. I cross the 500 mile mark just before 11 AM. Pretty crazy that I’ve made it this far! With the weather being slightly cooler today, the hiking was easier but the miles (again) last forever. We only saw one other hiker all day today and that was Shrink. We arrived at HikerTown just before 6. Not really knowing what the situation was here, we found an empty ‘room’ and dropped our bags. Jimmy was looking to crash here as well which is how we got to talking with him. We finally found Bob who is running the place — he was out stocking the water caches on the trail– and asked if we could stay in the ‘sheriff’ room. He said sure but wondered how we’d get 4 people in there. We didn’t care, we just wanted out of the wind. It was hurting over 20mph last I looked.

So Jimmy drove us to the store to get some food at a cafe. The cafe unfortunately was closed so we had yet another round of junk food for the night and some beers. Jimmy is waiting for his buddy to show up tomorrow. They are going to section hike a hundred miles in the next 5 days. He said prior to 3 years ago he’d never hiked a mile in his life. Then (as I like to say) LIFE happened, he went through a divorce and lost his job. He found himself hiking one mile at time, building the stamina to get out and do more. He says since then he’s hiked 1200 miles all around San Diego and the surrounding areas. He’s got aspirations to hike Whitney in the next few years. He’s currently crashed in his car as he didn’t want to stay in the hut with us. (That’s right Bonhams…. it feels like I’m in the hut right now!)

The forecast for Monday is looking slightly better. The wind looks like it will continue to blow through our next section. LA Aqueduct here we come. The aqueduct is a notoriously known section for its boredom and heat. You cannot camp on the aqueduct so you pretty much have to get it done as fast as you can. Most people usually night hike it to escape the heat but fortunately I don’t think that will even be a concern for us tomorrow.

We ended the evening with Justin and Laura on the couches. Tyler and I took the floor space. Justin let me use his sleep pad — which I ordered days again and should have order a year ago. We laughed over random questions I like to ask from a book that I have on my iPhone. It’s a fun way to ask random things to people you don’t know well and wouldn’t normally ask. There’s always one question that gets answered and then just leads to giggles of laughter. This evenings question: What side of the bed do you sleep on and why? You always have admire people’s honesty and tonight was one of those nights.

Until tomorrow.

Mile 478-496Ahem… someone doesn’t like mornings! We started the day with coffee and pancakes made by Coyote and Hustler (I didn’t get a photo!) They are former thru-hikers who are volunteering at Casa de Luna this year. After breakfast, we slowly packed up our gear and listened to the morning trail chatter before we headed out. Another volunteer showed up last night, his name is Loner. He was the one who eventually gave us a ride back to the trail.

We were back on the trail by 11am. We hiked for about 4 miles before stopping for lunch. Fireman, Justin and myself took break while Laura hiked on. We caught up to her before Lake Hughes Road where she was then taking break. It was just after 1pm and guess what, we had to climb to look forward to. So we decided to take an extended break during the heat of the day. Tada! Sometimes we do the right thing. I agreed to night hike but only with the help of this larger reflector I found. **Darn. I don’t have the photo!

Anywho, after the afternoon siesta, we departed again at 4pm. It was soooo much cooler. The wind picked up as well. We needed water for the day and night of dry camping so we filled up at a spring. You never know who does these things but man they sure help out. Genius. I carried 4 liters as I wasn’t sure what my night hike water consumption would be. New experience, yay! We stopped one last time for a quick dinner on the trail. We found a old trail camp bench tucked in some trees. It was a great spot but I had a tick on me (on my shorts) within 5 minutes of being there. That’s the 2nd one for me–had one yesterday on my arm that I quickly removed before he completely latched. Fireman said he’s had 4. Not sure why THATs a competition but he’s winning.

It was a chilly dinner so we quickly ate, packed back up and I mentally prepared myself for my first night hike. The boys laughed at me as I made sure my head lamp was ON my head before the sun was even setting. I like to be proactive when I can!!!!

It was beautiful to hike while the sun was going down. Today was the first day I could see the windmills near the LA Aqueduct that we will walk though in another day or two.

It was kinda creepy to hike at night but I also really enjoyed it. The wind proved challenging as always. We also didn’t have a campsite to hike to so we are stealth camping once again. I think the miles were definitely worth it though. I would totally do it again. And plan to soon!

I think the better part of the new experience was that it kept my mind off how heavy my pack was. Honestly, I was hiking at such a good steady pace it didn’t even phase me that I was carrying a full load of water. Strange how things happen like that. So all in all, another great day out here. No rocks on my stakes tonight…. let’s see how windy it gets.

Plan for tomorrow is Hiker Town 21 miles away.

Miles 358-378

I awoke this morning to find my tent covered in condensation. I had even left one of the doors open. It happens with these single wall tents I just don’t think any of us thought it would slow as bad in that little spot though. Laura and I packed up and Justin kept sawing logs which is usually the norm. We woke up just enough to tell him we were headed out and went about our day. Laura and I were hiking by 8am. I think he caught up to us about an hour later.

I had heard only a handful of hikers pass by as we packed up. Early birds!!!!! I asked Laura if she could do a ’20’ today and she said she could. Since camping and water are still scarce I saw that we could get to a spring in 6 miles and then a place called Casa de Luna in a town named Green Valley. It’s basically like Hiker Heaven but with a slightly different feel. It just one of those places hikers is a “must stop”. So we set our sights here.

We took break around 10( my first lunch). Then again at 1pm (my second lunch). In the middle of that scorching hot part of the day we climbed a 2 mile hill with an elevation gain of almost 1,000 feet. Nothing in comparison to some of the other things we’ve climbed but I’m pretty sure I was going to die. Okay, so that’s being dramatic but I’m pretty sure I wanted to crawl under every manzanita tree and wait out the sunshine before I finished climbing.

I tried to ration my water today which is never a good idea. Thankfully before I started the climb there was a water cache at the road crossing of Bouquet Rd. I grabbed a liter of water so I wouldn’t go into panic mode as I hiked uphill. Most hikers have some sort of anxiety about what they carry. Laura says hers is food. Mine is water, then food. Shrink said his is definitely food as well.

So after the climb we had 9 miles left to the road crossing in Green Valley. I had taken my shoes off for about 30 minutes and all was doing well. I wish I could have kicked into ‘power hour’ as Justin and Laura call it but I wasn’t feeling it. I was gentle in my shoes all day as I was concerned my feet would blister with the new socks and shoes combo. I hadn’t planned on breaking shoes in on a 20 mile day. Whooops!

When the day was complete I met up with Fireman and Justin who were waiting for us at San Frisquito Valley Road. I quickly threw my pack down and took off my shoes and socks. The boys laughed at my concern as I didn’t have any blisters. Fireman had told me at one point he had counted 18 blisters on his feet! All I had been feeling was a little bit of tenderness on the balls of my feet! I made it through another day of no blisters. Whew!

So Laura made her way to the road and we stuck our thumbs out for a few minutes with no luck. Since it’s usually easier for girls to get a hitch, we went to the road and the boys hung out by the curb–cause that’s not a creepy situation to roll up on for a driver. Before we know it, a Subaru coming from the direction we need to go pulls up and the driver opens up the back hatchback. In the back she had a cooler with sodas and also offered us some candy. Her name was NannyPants. She said she had already dropped off 15 other hikers to Casa de Luna today. She also said she’d been doing the shuttle rides just on her time off whenever she can. She had her dog DJ with her so we all got some doggy snuggles in too.

When we arrived at Casa de Luna, Terri was not home. So we read the rules and made ourselves at home, I mean at camp. We grabbed a Hawaiian print shirt and walked “through 2 gates” and down the trail. The trail leads you back into the manazita trees where we setup our tents. I know the photos ant do it justice but there’s at least 30 hikers here all tucked in her backyard forest. Terri leaves out paints if you want to paint a rock message and just asks that you have fun for the night. She feeds all the hikers nightly with nachos and evidently tomorrow I think we will be having pancakes. I’m not sure how long they’ve been hosting hikers like this, but it’s been quite a few years.

The four of us walked to the grocery store for beer and snacks before dinner was finished. It’s hard to chat with so many hikers and especially since we all have a tendency to gravitate to only a few other people. Justin had hiked with Fireman (and Shrink) earlier in the hike but hadn’t hung out with him until Hiker Heaven on Wednesday. Shrink joined us a bit later for beers as he was one of the later arrivals at Casa de Luna. We all stayed up past 9pm which is usually too late for hikers but the 5 of us had fun. Shrink is from Miami, he actually used to be in mental health but now he’s an arborist. And Fireman is from Vale, Oregon where he is actually a fireman during the summers. Us girls walked back to our tents slightly before the boys did. I had no problem finding the spot, but Justin was all giggles as he and Fireman got lost in the dark maze of trees.

Overall a great little stop. Lots of hikers but I guess I’m getting used to that. After coffee and pancakes I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. One day at a time!!! The days of night hiking are potentially coming up. The moon is almost full again. It could be tomorrow for the first night hike.

oh yeah…. saw this snake. Not sure if it was injured but it just hunkered down when we all moved past it.