PCT day 25 - mile 517 to mile 546

"I will be silent for a bit, when I'm going uphill I can't talk" David.

"I started hiking on March 1st, but I'm living in Big Bear so I already took 44 zero days" David.

Today I walked through the infamous section of the trail along the Los Angeles aqueduct. It was a long stretch of flat, baren land with very few features, but it's precisely that what made it interesting. It was a definition of a desert section and before starting the trail that was what I thought first 700 miles will look like.

Nugget had to go to the post office to bounce her laptop and excess food to the next convenient point along the trail and since she didn't plan to hike until evening I decided to head out by myself. Weather was supposed to get hot tomorrow and since today was relatively cold day on this stretch it was a perfect time to go through it during the day (a lot of people hike it over night).

I put my earphones on and I was listening to the music most of the day, the nearest water cache was 17 miles away, so everyone was rushing to get there before the midday. I met a couple of interesting folks today, for some reason they were very 'marine' themed (the irony of meeting them on the dryest stretch of the desert didn't not escape me). First of them Sea Gypsy spend last 32 years of his life sailing around the world, docking his boat wherever he could and making money by doing odd jobs at the places he stayed, until covid imposed restrictions brought him back home to California. Second person: David also sailed to many different countries (he even visited Gdańsk and Saint Petersburg) but on the cruise ships, it ended when his ship experienced an outbreak of covid while docked in Australia and he had to return home. He's also from California and leaves along the PCT in Big Bear.

After stopping for lunch around 1pm I made a push towards the hills and gained some altitude until I arrived at the second water point of the day. To my surprise I was greeted there by the one and only Field Trip family! Those boys and their mum were still pushing insane tempo, we talked and they told me that their plan is to finish PCT by the early August! (my plan is to finish it by the end of August and I thought it was fairly ambitious, haha). I should be meeting them again tomorrow in the town called Tehachapi as they might be taking a NERO there.

I walked for a couple more miles and around 6pm my legs had enough, luckily a campsite wasn't far away and it turned out to be quite picturesque as well. I had a packet of salmon and mash potatoes for dinner, both of which I pulled out of a hiker box. For a rehydrated, packaged and lightweight meal it wasn't bad at all.

I can't hear no wind so hopefully it will be a peaceful and warm(ish) night.

It's 3am now and the wind has definitely changed its mind, my tent is shaking like it was having a seizure. Wind blows where it wants though, so there's no reason to be upset.

Aqueduct:
Wind farm:
Glasses I found in the hiker box :)
Trail register:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Appalachian Trail (day 77) - Hikers Welcome Hostel to Eliza Brook Campsite / mile 1816

Image
"After hiking in White Mountain's everything else seems easy" Sue First day in the White's, I can confirm now that terrain here is unlike anything we faced on the AT so far. In the morning I had a coffee and a breakfast muffin at the hostel, surprisingly despite the early hour Tum Tum, Iceman, Yukon and Gutsy were up as well. Weather was supposed to be a mixed bag but we were all determined to climb Mt Moosilauke today. I headed out and started the 4000 feet climb first, it was a long, steady uphill going through well maintained terrain, problems only started at the top. Day was quite windy, combined with the rain and exposed, alpine environment, it became a recipe for a very wet, cold and uncomfortable time. At the top wind was pushing me left and right and rain was cutting across with great speed, I was completely drenched in just few moments. Luckily exposed section didn't last too long and the AT dived into the pine forest soon after. ...
Read more

Appalachian Trail (day 12) - Icewater Sorin Shelter to Cosby Knob Shelter / mile 231

Image
Today could be described in one word - windy. And it was not your refreshing summer breeze, it was the kind of wind that chills your bones and the moment you feel it you want to turn around and go back home, except there's no home and you can't turn around. The food I hanged last night was completely frozen, it was funny to crunch on a solid snickers and granola bars for breakfast. At least it was sunny, I've put all my layers on and started hiking. Trail looked really good, I could see small patches of snow and icicles probably formed last night hanging from the bushes. Later during the day you could see the damage last years hurricane has done, fallen trees, layers of uncovered rock showing that there was not much trees could hang on to beneath, trail was trying to manoeuvre around the blow downs and disturbed earth. I haven't met many people today but I hiked alongside Blazer, a friendly, older American guy. He also hiked PCT, so w...
Read more

Appalachian Trail (day 76) - Lambert Ridge to Hikers Welcome Hostel / mile 1799

Image
Hot, humid, stormy day. My goal was to place myself withing the short distance before the climb to Mount Moosilauke. AT in New Hampshire definitely prooved from the very begining that it means business. The first and second climb of the day:  Smarts Mountain and Mt Cube were steep and rocky, the path was muddy, overgrown and not very well marked, combined with the hot and humid weather I was moving at a snail's pace. Views were quite rewarding though and after the initial struggle trail got easier for the rest of the day. I've seen yet another two bear cubs, no mother in sight this time around which got me a bit spooked. Cubs climbed so high up the tree I could hardly see them from the trail, they were so incredibly agile! I've taken a blurry video of the couple as I thought it was fairly safe to do so, that's 10 black bears I've seen so far on Appalachian Trail.  At one point I took a break  by the road and tried to dry my feet a...
Read more