Month: April 2023

As we get ready for sleep we are 22 miles west of Lancaster. Which made me wonder how Hikertown has a Lancaster address.

It turns out the address dates back to a developer with big plans back around Arnold’s stint as governor.

The development fell through (lack of proper preparation, water rights, etc.) but the address remains.

The hikers we spent the day with after hiking in are hiking out. ~10 headed out to evening/night hike the aqueduct NOBO.

But what is Hikertown? They were having public hearings on the project and it came up that no one had actually bought the land involved.

So someone did. There was a house on it.

When it all fell through the guy ended up living in the house for a bit. Woke up to a huge “homeless” encampment on it one morning. Goes out to talk with them. Some of them look too young and healthy to have given up.

So he tries to encourage the two Stanford students not to despair and they explain the PCT to him. So he sets up six water spigots. It grows from there.

Now it has flags from many countries including Brazil and Greece, old west flavored buildings, a couple of caretakers and a new one planned to go in where the PCT reroute is planned.

As for us, we are resting and taking a zero tomorrow.

Then on to Acton.

Hikertown is 2137.6. Acton is 2210.9.

73.3 miles. Or about four 18 mile days.

2157 has water and the Sawmill campground. But that is 20 miles.

Obviously still thinking as we continue SOBO towards Paradise Valley Cafe.

San Jacinto report—the place we are watching to prepare for conditions to the south.

Happy on the Trail describes our day.

I was so tired last night. Got water ready and fell asleep around 7:30. Then up at 2:00, eat some and drink two liters of water and leave in the dark.

Took us less than two hours from 2:53 to 4:50 to do our first six miles by headlamp.

My video of this morning.

It was colder than I expected but I didn’t need any of the three liters of water I was carrying until around 8:30ish when we stopped and ate a little.

We slowed down towards the end. That had us at still over 2.5 mph for that stretch including stops.

After we got to Hikertown we caught a shuttle to the store to share a PCT burger and sweet potato fries. We got our resupply box, rented the trailer with air conditioning for the night and are about to take naps at 3:00 pm.

At Hikertown a trail runner dropped off one of my missing crocs. Now the other one just needs to surface. We got showers and did laundry. My gear is drying now.

Great day.

Win’s planning was perfect. We need tomorrow for our first zero on the trail but it is well earned.

Video

8.4 miles but we left the trail head at almost four o’clock.

Yesterday we saw about 11 NOBOS. Today the same, including a trail family at six at the campsite with us.

Rather than update the posts I made where I could not do pictures, I thought I’d link some of videos that compiled pictures and such from the last few days.

Headed south from Walker Pass

Into the desert between water caches

Out of the desert and into the trees

Another long water carry.

We got on the trail by 5:53. Made the bridge in time for the 12:50 bus which appears to have skipped us but then these very kind people stopped to give us a ride.

But let’s start with last night when we got to the twenty-two mile mark and water. We hiked above golden spring (a piped spring feeding a cow trough).

There were some younger hikers who camped right at the spring. They were funny. The guy then demanded to know how I would ever of heard of a Triplex.

Then we talked about our hike and flip. They had also flipped—but up to Acton and then hiked north. They suddenly realized they had been on the trail almost two weeks longer than we had and had not hiked quite as far.

Today was another long carry. I wanted to drink almost two liters and carry two liters. Win was all for an early start. Which is great for cooler and shadier.

The trail today had several parts.

First the trail up and through the trees.

Then a few miles of blowdown.

Then about five-six miles of really bad dirt road. It had about 100’ of nice surface (where there was a forest service campsite and two speed limit signs) and the rest was a mess. Barely passable by a dirt bike kind of messy dirt road.

Not fun to hike on. Slower than good trail. Win and I both had falls, hers came as part of the road just popped up from under her.

Then over the saddle, out of the high scrub into desert and almost seven miles of down hill through that desert to the freeway and an overpass.

The picture is before the saddle.

The overpass is far up from the highway. I was surprised anyone could see us up there. Someone did and stopped to offer us a ride. Which was good because apparently the bus decided to pass on us.

But we did 2.4k up and 4k down over just under 17 miles. We had eleven NOBOs pass us and the day went from cold to rather warm at the end.

In town we had Mexican food and it was grand. Tomorrow we recover and resupply. I’ve ordered new shoes to pick up down the trail.

It was strange how Amazon and REI kept indicating next day delivery would be possible until check out when suddenly the soonest was sometimes a week or longer. Finally got a seller that would deliver in days rather than weeks.

Wonderful to sleep in a bed.

Will be our first true zero (in town from a hard day, spend night and stay and rest for an entire day and night then on our way the day after). But we need the recovery time

Happy on the trail on the day

The place we are staying at is beautiful.

We had a stretch in the middle with about 60-80 blowdowns. That made the day rougher.

Fewer people NOBO than yesterday but still a fair number.

I need to flesh this out but I’m going to sleep. I’m so tired.

Win’s post. Covers everything

Today starts at 10:00 pm last night. We were sound asleep when strobe lights and techno synth pop music blasts out. ATVs had come to the cabin. They realized it was occupied and pulled back.

I’m sure they thought they were quiet. They drove off at about 10:30 and we went back to sleep.

We got an early start to beat the heat and the trail took us up into trees and some shade. There was also a lot of blow down. Win slipped going over one stretch and luckily I caught her and she was not impaled. We walked around that and the rest.

There is a water cache by the same guy who does the cache at Windigo Pass. Water. Books. Power banks (mostly Anker 10s). Power cords. Most people tent at the cache then hike to the next cache. After a nap we decided to hike on.

We would carry water and camp dry. The next cache is about eight miles from where we have camped. We are 59 miles from the next resupply.

Today we saw a total of nine NOBOs and we were the only hikers some of them had seen for a day or more.

The trail is a mess. Until recently you could not go SOBO from Walker Pass because of the snow.

At PVC we met a number of March starts who had run out of trail to hike. They had flipped everywhere.

I started to develop serious pain in my feet/ankles. Removing my gaiters solved that.

Had 2-3 minutes of cell access. Responded to an edit question and posted yesterday’s blog entry.

Ready for a nap.

Today is April 24 and we got to 2049.6. We passed 20 NOBOs, including Dutch, Norwegians, French, German and a guy from Washington State. Three of the NOBOs passed us in the middle of the night.

The first eight miles or so out of the desert were pretty desolate, not even many flowers —just low bushes and Joshua Trees.

We eventually came to the second cache and got water and started the climb out of the desert floor. Eventually we crested into the burned out remains of a forest. That led to a forest.

It is drying out. The two water crossings prospector claimed were drenching wades we were able to cross with dry feet.

After a twenty mile day we have a great campsite with water. I have two liters treating and am going to treat three more.

Tall pines and hillsides provide us some shelter from the wind.

Tomorrow looks rough. Twenty-two mile water carry. I’ll camel up and then carry four liters.

We treated and filtered water. Had potato soup for dinner. Our 21st NOBO came through (Jello) but he took off to pink blaze a girl about fifty years younger than he. He is English and she is from Austria so maybe it is different.

Well. San Jacinto is still snowed over, now with wet snow and avalanche risks. Experienced mountaineers are making one mph with Baden Powell to go.

The “bypasses” are really bail out points that don’t connect outside of 19-20 mile roadwalks. Rinse and repeat.

We were planning on using the bypass routes but they really are a mess. Too much to be bypassed.

A lot of the March starts flipped up to Tehachapi or Walker Pass. We ran into some because they had flipped around and run out of trail now that the 150 mile stretch north of Paradise Valley Cafe is still snowed over.

So we thought and planned and talked with people.

The best solution for us looked like we should flip up to Walker Pass and hike south.

It is still cool up here and there is still water. The caches are freshly stocked. The bubble is not quite here. The San Jacinto, etc, melt will have time to progress more. Then we can flip up as we planned and hike Saied Valley to Ashland and the family reunion.

The big thing will to hike Lionshead in Oregon.

Trail days near Bridge of the Gods and the parts of Washington we missed—especially the terminus. Our real goal is to consume some time.

Then Lassen and the Sierra section. We will hike through to Walker Pass and the bus service stop there.

As we are now SOBO I’m probably going to record locations by the SOBO distances (how far from Canada) instead of the NOBO distances (how far from Mexico).

Today we caught a ride and drove up from PVC to Walker Pass at Mile 2002.0 and then started hiking and got to McIver spring at 2010.2 (and then a quarter mile to the spring and cabin).

We ate a light meal and got water. I started chemical treatment and Win filtered some.

Some snow patches but nothing that needs spikes or an ice axe.

No cell service so no pictures in the initial draft of this post and no video yet.

Did not sleep well last night. Lots of interrupted sleep and lots of cold breezes in the metal shed we slept in. Made oatmeal for breakfast and shared the extra with the Scottish guy who was bailing out and going home.

We were driving at lunch and didn’t have time so I ended up with cookies for lunch and a diet root beer. For dinner an extra pastry and some lifesaver gummies rather than cooking a meal.

I’m going to go to sleep early I think.

Tomorrow we hike to the water cache and camp there with plans to hike to the next cache the day after. Our plans will be driven by where the water is.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/786681059242963?fs=e&s=TIeQ9V&mibextid=0NULKw

https://www.facebook.com/reel/768346448112668?fs=e&s=TIeQ9V&mibextid=0NULKw

Out of cell service so this post covers two days.

We left Warner Springs and at 117 we camped about a mile up from the last creek crossing.

That means we made it to Mile 117.3 (Tuli Springs) on day one (nineteen miles plus two half mile trips to water).

There was a lot of water in the first part of the trail. There were also a lot of water crossings.

However they have gotten much easier over the week.

On our second day we got up early, drank our water, had breakfast and hit the trail by 5:45.

Over the day we went from Tuli Springs to Paradise Valley Cafe. That puts us now at mile 151.8.

On the way to PVC we stopped at Mary’s Oasis which has a water tank, tiny library and a shade pavilion right on the trail. That was a great place for a mile 9-10 stop, meal and lots of water.

The trail was really dry today.

The flowers just keep proliferating. This flower is a Scarlet Bugler.

And these are some Wild Canterbury Bells.

I was glad we had stopped for the night right above Tuli Springs. That put us above the condensation and got us an early start the next morning. We put our long/hard day in the middle to make the last day easier.

During day two we hiked to Mike’s Place. According to an editor at Newsweek, Mike’s business is worth over $100 million. Mike provides a privy, snacks, food and sodas when he is in. When MP is out of mothballs it has a pool table, quite the hiker box and more.

In mothballs there is still power and a water cache to reward your half mile round trip from the trail. Mike also has a number of Venmo links posted—which helps reduce vandalism.

For us there was the water tank water.

That was another half mile round trip for water.

We met Bluey who is a strong hiker and a lot like Lady Di.

We also met Until Six, a retired Forest Service guy who was very pleasant.

Lizards attempted to slow us down.

The snow on San Jacinto loomed over us in the distance.

But we made it to Paradise Valley Cafe and then to Richard’s for showers and laundry. I was glad we checked in at Richard’s first because the beds fill up fast. We got two of the last three.

But starting at 5:45 paid off as we passed people still camped and beat the rush.

We had a resupply box and are trying to figure out what to do about the snow and the coming passes.

My Facebook post.

Happy’s Facebook post.

Happy’s other post.

We had slightly over sixteen miles today. It was great.

Last night we spent at the Montezuma Market’s hotel room 4. That got us out of freezing temperatures, wind and fog.

This morning we started after the mist and wind changed to just wind and the first shuttle to the trail was available.

The first three miles we did in less than an hour on beautiful almost flat trail with a perfect breeze. We got roughly nine miles by 12:00.

Video of the morning’s hike.

Of course we hiked up to Eagle Rock.

And we had beautiful hiking. Pause had talked last night about how this was his favorite part of the trail and it was easy to see why.

After crossing a creek (down four feet, jump three and a half feet, climb out four feet) we made it to the Warner Springs Community Center.

Since it was/is spring break it was open to hikers before 4:00. We caught a trail Angel shuttle to the gas station a mile away.

There we bought some snacks and burritos and Diet Coke. The driver didn’t want money, just a $3.00 beer. I checked his age (he is 42, trail name “off trail”) and he was golden.

Back to the community center to eat our burritos and drink our soft drinks. It was a great hour

Then we were off again.

The trail quickly turned wet.

But then we started climbing and when we weren’t crossing streams it was beautiful desert.

We carried six liters of water to a campsite and I made us dinner out of more of Jesse’s freeze dried stew.

Video of the afternoon hike.

Facebook post explaining water and weather.

Happy’s post for today. https://www.facebook.com/100063652746343/posts/pfbid02H3c8pH1P9UbYmeuostF6djHqowveAJBNh23aRS9bKzikRe44ZbeHinAzJhMXcewtl/?mibextid=cr9u03