Month: May 2023

Happy for May 6

Happy for May 8 and the memorial.

Happy for May 9 and twelve hours of hiking.

Happy for May 10 and headed into Wrightwood

I was really fatigued. Woke up late. Didn’t start hiking until 6:45 or so.

But we were much closer to Wrightwood than I expected or planned and we got a hitch (thanks to Win/Happy) within five minutes.

Video, including Bear boxes at messenger flats and the firefighters memorial.

Sulfur Springs and further to our road walk and camping 33 miles down the trail. Brutal last six hours with no place to stop. So much snow and wind towards the end.

Where we camped then down towards town.

Happy for May 10

May 8. This was a day. Including distance to and from the trail we hiked about 25 miles.

Amazing Grace that saved a wretch like me…

We passed the firefighters memorial. Hiked some on dirt roads because the overgrowth was interlocking with inch long thorns. Preferred the trail where it was passable because it was softer on our feet.

Met hikers we had met before. Gave them the secret to using hiking pole loops to get better volume on a Triplex. They were dealing with condensation problems too which made me happier with the Durston. We are drying out the tent and our sleeping bags every day.

My feet are sore. Just normal sore though.

Far Out (Guthooks) is giving Win and I different Mile numbers. That is weird. Same amount of distance between them and to them but her Mileage for Messenger Flats and Sulfur Springs was about 2.5 miles different than mine.

Same for city mileposts, etc.

No service so this will be a combined post.

May 9.

A fair amount road walking on Highway 2 (The Angeles Crest highway). We used our micro-spikes and the report was that parts of the trail are really not safely passable. About six in the morning, shaking ice out of our tent (frozen condensation) and arrived here about six. Two breaks, especially the second to dry things out.

Win made pad Thai yesterday (I’m not a fan of Sirachi sauce). tonight we had macaroni and cheese with some candy and then I gave Win my king sized payday bar.

I carried five liters of water the last .4 miles to the campsite —Vincent Gap. There were a lot of hikers here and more came in. Wall to wall. No one is camped around the corner with the parking lot and privies. Just too much wind.

And there was water at Vincent Gap. Ouch.

I did see four hikers cooking their dinners in the entranceway because it shelters from the wind.

At the campsite we saw the family with kids we saw earlier at a real campground. The kids are real troopers.

No siesta nap and no set up the tent and sleep at 4:00. Looks like I’m going to go to sleep around 8:00 and then we will head to Wrightwood in the morning and take a zero.

We would have stopped sooner but there really were not any good alternatives.

That tells the tail.

So we hiked to Aqua Dulce and had lunch and then did ten more miles to Action KOA for our resupply box, new shoes and a new NeoAir pad for me. It stayed inflated all night. Hurrah!!

In Aqua Dulce we had lunch with some hikers that are using two vans to slack pack the entire trail. The restaurant we wanted to have open is one Win kept mentioning. Mexican food makes for great meals and something other than hamburgers and pizza.

Video

There is a park leaving Aqua Dulce that has rock formations that have been in many television shows and movies. Aqua Dulce is a city of mothballed movie props and sets and such.

Once we hiked through the rock formations we then we did the long tunnel under the freeway. It had a small stream flowing through it but not enough our feet got wet.

The miles were easier because of the long lunch break though we’ve needed new shoes for about the last fifty miles so the breaks have been nice.

I’ve really been anticipating Action. 350 miles or so but the trail really has torn up both our shoes. I’m learning to deal with the abrasion and shoes not lasting as long.

In addition to our boxes we were able to get showers and laundry at the Action KOA and left some extra food in the hiker box. We are four twenty mile days to our next resupply.

In the morning things were soaked with dew and the Lion sanctuary next door was loud and proud. The tent was as wet as if a hose had bee turned on it. I packed it away glad the bag is waterproof.

Im the morning we left Action and it was all uphill. For Fitbit users that means over 510 flights of stairs climbed. Rougher than any day on the Appalachian Trail for vertical ascent.

Our climb was interrupted at the forest service station where the ranger was celebrating his twentieth year of providing trail magic.

Cookies and fruit and soda and breakfast burritos and water and more. It was great. A nice break but we decided to hike on before we dried out all our things. it also gave us the extra half day of food we needed for today being less than twenty miles.

The first part of the climb out of Action had native grasses. Some were as tall as I am. We hiked through about eight miles of grass. After the ranger station there was a lot of scrub, much of it overflowing and overgrowing the trail with a mess of inch long thorns.

Paired with some blowdown it made for trail that was slower. We only got fourteen miles and called it a day when we reached Messenger Flats. To camp at that forest service campground we had to pack water a mile and a half to the campground. The next place to camp is 5-6 miles from here.

My legs started to cramp after a nap and sitting up. I think they have had a long enough day—especially with all the steady climbing. We’ve done a string of twenty+ mile days but the climb today was brutal. That means today is done.

Our tent and sleeping bags dried out but we stopped for the day instead of heading on. Tonight’s low will probably be 42 degrees.

Made up some electrolytes and drank some. Still full from the trail magic so I are a protein bar. That will hold me until morning. Food is safely in the bear box and my teeth are brushed.

Other hikers have arrived at the campground and are setting up their tents. Saw a Tarptent Li.

We spent two days in the AirB&B as the wind blew and the rain fell (and snow fell at higher elevations). Milk and cereal and returning to Rock Inn and the general store.

We even walked down to Lake Hughes which had been gone for eight years. We also watched some TV. Saw some more Coach Laso and a what was supposed to be a romantic comedy.

Got to bed early, arose about 5:00 am, cleaned up and got ready to go.

We started an ascent as we began the day just after six in the morning. There really was not a good place fourteen mile break with the wind and cold. That made the twenty harder on us.

We got to the chair in the shade at Bouquet Canyon Road around 3:00. The trail magic box was empty. The trash can was full.

But our hike today was mostly through terrain not scorched by fire and drought with plant life exploding from all the rain. We even had a small waterfall and our destination was empty when we arrived. Still empty at 5:31.

We set up the tent, I filtered water for Win and I, and I had a bacon burrito for dinner.

Comfy campsite though there is a lot of road noise we are sheltered some from the wind and have water. As rush hour passes the cars are further between.

We saw so many NOBOS today. 47 with 30 before lunch. The news is that the SOBOS are tapering off though two of the tents at the Green Valley fire station looked familiar. We had water so we did not get closer.

I’m looking forward to new shoes. The new shoes for Win and I are only twenty miles away with lunch in Aqua Dulce for a good mid-day break at the halfway point. I also have a new, hopefully not leaking, Thermarest pad waiting for me.

We have about 300 miles left on the southern/desert section after Acton. We are a till planning and trying to figure out what to do once we finish the desert. Maybe the Oregon Coast Trail while we wait for Washington to melt.

My weight loss has slowed down. I was down 14 pounds when I weighed in Tehachapi. I don’t think I’ve lost any weight since then. Win continues to shrink daily.

Looking forward to internet so I can add in pictures and expand this entry.

Post script. Three more hikers to put the total to 50 for the day.

Video Lake Hughes to Aqua Dulce.

Aqua Dolce

https://www.google.com/search?q=cheap+backpacking+pads&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

Or go to Costco for sleeping pads —they often have an inexpensive pad on sale.

Good $30 hiking poles:

Review: Cascade Mountain Tech Quick Lock Trekking Poles | Shockingly awesome performance for $30

Pack liners (keeps gear dry in the rain). $2.50

https://www.litesmith.com/nylofume-pack-liner-bags/

The truth is that outside of thePacka.com most pack covers will soak through. You should use a pack liner even with a good cover and a mostly waterproof Dyneema pack. I did on the Appalachian Trail and do on the PCT even without the cover but with a Dyneema pack.

Nylofume is tough, light and pretty much perfect.

Price leading backpack. https://www.backcountry.com/granite-gear-crown-2-60l-limited-edition-backpack. Packs can run from $500 to close to $100. The Crown 60 is usually on sale somewhere.

Cheapest cook pot.

https://www.staples.com/stanco-metal-products-grease-strainer-gs1200/product_1596943

Ultralight too. What we use. For just one person the aluminum cup works well too though it isn’t as flexible as the pot.

There are lots of BRS clone canister stoves that are $10 or less. The BRS is a cheaper clone of the Pocket Rocket.

Super cheap tent: https://www.instructables.com/Ultralight-clear-tarp-tent-2P/ In my tent posts I’ve discussed less expensive tents that you don’t have to make yourself.

More discussion of super cheap gear can be found at https://whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php/127062-Cheap-gear-dirtbagging-come-as-you-are-hiking. Lots of people are out there discussing how to gear yourself for cheap.

For lightweight camping in warm weather consider a summer weight bag.

Pair it with a quilt for colder weather. I’ll note that my wife and I have some (different from the one in the link) Aegismax/Naturehike bags for warm weather. But if you just need summer weight bags that don’t zip together these aren’t bad.

Especially if you remember the advice that you can expand the temperature range by adding a down quilt for colder weather.

Caveat: there is lighter gear and better gear but this reflects some of the decent cheapest gear—and some I actually use in spite of basically using the best gear we can find. Some of the cheapest is the best too.

https://www.postholer.com/snow/Pacific-Crest-Trail/1

Ugh. Snow since March 1 has not been good in Oregon. That is, it has been high. Really high. Now higher than last year.

I last gave the snow levels a good look closing on March 1. At that time it was close to average. Meaning you could hike north from Ashland around June 10. Since then you can see it just grew and grew.

Snow is now higher than last year. Which means you can swim through 8-9’ of snow at a rate of 40 miles every 14 days. That is, if you are like our friends from last year you can get snow shoes and post hole through extremely deep melting snow.

As for California to the south, unlike last year, California is high snow all the way. So the SOBO flip we did won’t work this year. Instead of 2-3 sketchy stretches the entire trail is snowbound.

Places that would have been passable by May are blocked. It looks like they will be blocked for a long time.

On the other hand, Washington is normal. That means June 18 or so might be a good time to get to Stehekin, hike to the northern terminus and then head south. That would give lots of things until July to melt.

https://www.pctsouthbound.com/startingsouthbound

To do this you might need local permits, but those are possible. A hiker could switch to lots of local permits and probably be ok. Especially since this is looking like a low trail density year. Places that usually have 50-60 hikers a day are having twenty to twenty five.

How to hike trail with local permits.

https://thetrek.co/pacific-crest-trail/a-complete-list-of-individual-permits-needed-to-hike-the-pct/

?‍♂️

If you want to hike and not sit until mid-June there is The Oregon Coast Trail.

Win’s post

So. Wind chills below freezing. Snow and rain in the forecast. Lots of wind advisory gusting wind.

The ostrich farm was nice, but the booming of the ostriches was pretty loud.

We caught the shuttle to Lake Hughes. Wikipedia article.

The AirB&B we are using

We stopped by the store, picked up some food, walked over to Rock Inn for breakfast and then to the AirB&B.

Mostly rested today, watched the weather reports. Finally bought milk & cereal and some microwave meals and got ApplePay working on my phone (again—after years) because my wallet got left back at the apartment due to laundry.

Now watching Coach Lazo while charging batteries and airing things out.

So far heading south from Walker Pass to Green Valley the largest number of NOBOS I’ve seen in a day has been 21. Last night there may have been three more (five more tents were there in the morning beyond the number I saw when I went to sleep but two of them belonged to SOBOs I know).

At Hikertown we had a “huge” raft of hikers leave to do the Aqueduct together one evening but that was about ten hikers who accumulated over two days.

I’ve been expecting to see more like 50-60+ NOBOs a day. And to hear reports of 30-40 SOBOs from them instead of reports of 5-6 a day from them.

But then I didn’t expect freezing rain on the way from Sawmill Camp to the Ostrich farm. Little did I know we would have significant wind chill as well as gusts up to fifty miles an hour and all that fog and mist.

I really thought the poodle dog bush forests were going to be the real threat along with too hot of days.

Anyway. Our current plan is to ride out the rain/wind/snow at the Ostrich farm. Then we have a few days to Acton.

We went from Sawmill Camp the .25 back to the trail instead of climbing the hill to the dirt road. There we had some shelter from the wind which was reduced to about 20% of what it was in the more exposed areas.

So we did from 2157 to 2169.5 today. Our resupply is at Acton at mile 2210.9 or about 41.4 miles.

Twenty miles in there is a camp site with water reported. That would leave us a day and a half to Acton with a walk through Aqua Dulce.

I am looking at food and the time to resupply. Especially since there is a wonderful restaurant with a nice grocery store in Green Valley.

We are camping in “the garden” at the ostrich farm.

Not to mention an Ostrich farm with sheltered camping and rest rooms.

Video of today to ostrich farm

And it is now raining (on a forecast of 0% chance until much later).

19.6 from Hikertown. I got water. Win made spaghetti.

Video of Hikertown to Sawmill Camp

Correction. It was 4,860 feet of vertical ascent. That is 486 flights of stairs in Fitbit.

We set up our tent with as much shelter from the wind as we could find. All I can say is that everything else was a lot worse.

Then I got water.

So very much wind, driving mist and uphill ascent. With the water and the .25 miles to the campground we hiked over twenty miles.