Day 24: mile 566.5 - 577.3

Family time
Healthy(!!!!) eating
Raindrops?!?
New faces: Big Bear, Salsa

I ended up showering before my family arrived. After two nights of hardly any sleep, an afternoon nap in a clean hotel bed was too much to pass up. And I wasn't crawling into those sheets dirty. That makes four showers in ~550 miles, and a new appreciation for hot running water, shampoo, and soap.

I didn't have clean clothes to change back into, so I threw my stinky hiking clothes back on when the fam bam pulled in. I made it a special point to stick my armpit in my sisters face when we gave each other a hug. Gotta love siblings 😈

It was a quick visit, with them showing up on Friday evening (close to everyone's normal bedtime) and leaving by noon the next day. My mom brought a cooler stocked with all sorts of awesome stuff - garden-fresh salad from home, pounds of baby carrots, and at least one cut up watermelon - so I felt like all I did was eat while they were there. Even with my mommy-induced snacking we managed to sneak in a card game, a breakfast run to a local cafe (more eating), and a trip to the grocery store to grab a few things. And the sister and I had plenty of time to pick on one another, be dorks, get songs stuck in each other's head, and generally act about half our age. I don't know how our parents can put up with us...

They dropped me off at the Tehachapi airport (arguably the best place for hikers to spend the night - a huge shaded grassy area is incredibly peaceful), snapped a few selfies (courtesy of Darby's selfie stick that I was constantly giving her crap about), and then headed on to enjoy the rest of their weekend in Kings Canyon National Park. Short visit, but sweet.

That left me to decide how to proceed. I could easily spend two more days in Tehachapi, between the restaurants and familiar faces that are in town. But I have a hell of a hard time sitting still. And it is going to get HOT in the next few days, so getting this last desert portion knocked out sounded like a good idea. After filling up 5L of water, grabbing a few snacks for the road from the German bakery, and taking the bus to the trailhead, it was go-time.

Given the mid-afternoon start, the heat, the elevation gain, a heavy pack coming out of town, and a new pair of shoes (same model as before, but the shoes can only make it about 600 miles before they start coming apart at the seams) I was only looking to get about ten miles knocked out. The first few were along the freeway, and had the lingering smell of asphalt/tar. Yuck. Once the trail started climbing it was back to cleaner air, and I couldn't help but smile when thinking about all the fresh air that the next three hundred miles has to offer.

The climb from desert cacti and Joshua trees to pinyon and sage-covered mountains was quick, and saw everything from sweltering heat in the desert to a few raindrops up on the mountain (produced by the one cloud in the sky). This sleeping pad isn't quite like the bed I slept in last night, but at least I don't have to listen to my sister snore 😜

Day 25: mile 577.3 - 608.9

Extra protein
Out past my bedtime
Cowboy camping
New faces: Serenity, Woodchuck

After another later-than-expected get up, I was on the trail by 7am. With how dry this section is, I should be more diligent about getting easy miles before the sun comes up and it gets hot. I'll have to do that the next few days, but more on that later.

The trail spent the morning meandering through more windmills, through pinyon thickets, sage openings, and even another burn area, where the Poodle Dog Bush returned (this time not as well maintained as it was last time, and requiring some contortionist skills once or twice). By the time I stopped for lunch, the scenery had given way to green trail and oak thickets, and I enjoyed lunch and a brief break under the shade of an oak.

With the green came the bugs. I was surprised to be dealing with bugs given the heat, but they were out in force. I swallowed probably a dozen and snorted at least two. Extra protein, I guess? I have a sneaking suspicion that by the time I get to Oregon, unintentionally swallowed bugs might be like half of my protein intake. I'm sure I'll be bitching about bugs in the future...

Pretty soon there is going to be a lot more white than this...

The afternoon was buggy and hot, and most of it was spent under my sun umbrella, which I managed to break today under normal operation. Duct tape and superglue aren't going to fix this one, but it should still last me until the Sierras. I won't be writing a glowing review of this specific product.

The feet were feeling good today, so I just kept walking, passing mile 600 in the process. With my later start, this meant walking until dusk. Normally I am passed out in my tent by 8pm, but today I didn't roll into camp until around 8:30. Which meant I finally got to see a sunset! The last mile of trail was slow because I was looking at the sky instead of the ground, but I made it to water/camp just as the bats were starting to fly (which meant the bugs were no longer flying). I'll be cowboy camping tonight (no tent) in part because after 31+ miles I don't feel like pitching a tent. The sky is also beautifully clear, so I'm going to stare at the stars and think about the next few days.

The common theme with this section is water, or lack thereof. There are waterless stretches of 17, 18, 6, and... wait for it... 42.4 miles. I'm through the first three of those stretches, and am camped at the spring that kicks off the 42 mile stretch right now. This is by far the longest dry stretch of the trail, and is one of the more remote sections of the trail so far. Sweet.

My strategy for tackling it isn't anything novel. I can carry 8L of water (that capacity was chosen specifically for this stretch). So it's get up early, top off every bottle and bladder, and start walkin'. I'll stop for the day when my body says "enough", and in the meantime will ration my water to 1L per five miles. Part of me aspires to do the full 42 miles tomorrow, but that part of me will probably shut up as soon as I put my fully loaded pack on in the morning...

Started in the desert, to the forest by mid-afternoon

Day 26: mile 608.9 - 635.3

Tabata
Such a tease...
New faces: Lou, Van Gogh, Joe, Torrey

Thoughts of a 42-mile day were exterminated within my first half an hour on the trail. 8L of water is heaaaavy. And my pack wasn't really meant to carry 40 pounds. But hey, it's only going to get lighter as I drink more water.

Before getting on the trail I did a mini-workout. After seeing myself in the mirror in Tehachapi, it hit home that after another two thousand miles of this, I could have some jacked legs but a scrawny upper body. I haven't found any barbells and benches lying around out here, so that's out of the question. Fortunately there seem to be a thousand different types of push-ups you can do, so each of the past two mornings I have done a quick four-minute Tabata push-up workout. The hope is that by mixing up these little workouts for another three months, I'll have at least some meat on my upper body. We'll see...

But the rest of today was all about the legs. And the desert. After climbing into pine forests and meadows yesterday, this morning's descent into Joshua trees, snakes, and rocks was a harsh reminder that the desert isn't quite done. Seeing your first snake at 8am doesn't bode well, and by 9am the sleeves were rolled up, shorts were on, sunscreen was applied, and the sun umbrella was out.

Before noon I passed the "1000km" mark, which was denoted in sticks much like the century markers have been. I guess all the international folks hiking the trail wanted to get in on the fun as well.

The view for the majority of the day, courtesy of my sun umbrella

Just before stopping for lunch I caught up to Rabbit. I had seen her in towns, but hadn't hiked with her on the trail since around mile 210. Chatting with her made the next handful of miles fly by, but eventually the heat stifled the conversation, and we kept trudging along.

Just when you are getting tired of the brown monotony 🌺

I knew the 8L of water could get me the 42 miles, but expected it to be a bit uncomfortable. 21 miles in, and I was very uncomfortable. I was through exactly 4L, but feeling a bit more dehydrated than I would have liked. Just as I was thinking about calling it a day, and getting up at midnight to night hike the rest of the stretch, we came across a water cache. I don't know who has the time to lug hundreds of gallons of water down miles of dirt roads to place at the trail crossing, but whoever they are, they freaking rock. The next 21 miles just went from "this is going to suck" to "what's so hard about this?"

After downing my fair share, it was five more uphill miles to tonight's campsite. At this rate, Kennedy Meadows is just over two days away. The Sierras are so close...

Day 27: mile 635.3 - 669.5

I spy with my little eye... Snow!
Mysterious as the dark side of the mooooooon
High score
New faces: Fea, Boom

If I was dragging yesterday, today I was skipping. It could have been the lighter pack to start the day, the higher elevation (cooler weather), my earlier start and the awesome sunrise, or the glimpses of the snow covered mountains a hundred miles to the north. Whatever it was, the morning miles flew. One of those mornings where you tell yourself you'll stop in 10 minutes, then another 10, then another... Kinda like hitting the snooze button, but in a good way.

Once I finally got out of bed, the sunrise was with it

Despite the cool start to the morning, I was under my sun umbrella by the time I finished the sixteen miles to Walker Pass - around 11am. I felt kind of like the proverbial frog in the pot of water: if you slowly heat the water the frog doesn't notice the increase, and he ends up boiling to death. My morning was going along and then all of the sudden I caught myself saying "Shit, when did it get so hot?!?" Fortunately my blood was still a long ways from boiling, so my fate was different than said frog. That bodes well for me finishing this hike.

I caught Rabbit at Walker Pass, ate lunch, loaded up on what I thought would be enough water, and we headed out. Doing a long climb in the heat of the day typically isn't much fun, but the conversation made the miles fly. We kept ourselves entertained by playing a "game" that one of my college friends introduced me to on a hike. Really simple. I ask you a question. You answer the question. Then I answer the question. Then you ask me a question. And we go back and forth until the conversation gets derailed, we run out of questions, or we learn more than we want to about each other... So we spent the afternoon talking about favorite books, what living person we would most want to have dinner with, what the meanest thing we had done to our siblings was, was the stupidest thing we were willing to admit was, etc.

In the middle of the afternoon we were passing a campsite and heard familiar voices calling our names: Mighty and Metronome! I hadn't seen them in like three hundred miles (only their names in the trail registers reminding me they were a day or so ahead). So the four of us hiked together for the remainder of the afternoon.

At some point we started asking questions again, and I wanted to know what everyone's favorite Disney movie was. Lion King was the winner (as it should be), but as we were talking about other favorite Disney movies we hit Mulan. And I can't think of Mulan without thinking of the song "Be A Man". Turns out Rabbit can't either. So we serenaded Mighty and Metronome with a few choruses, and I proceeded to get the song stuck in my head. I know what I'll be singing for the next fifty miles...

Late in the afternoon we passed mile 662.5. The significance there is that we have completed one-quarter of the trail. I still don't know if it feels like it has been longer or shorter. All I know is that we have already come a long ways.

I decided to push on later than usual today to get to the next water source. Turns out I should have taken another liter from Walker Pass (the celebratory whiskey that Mighty and Metronome shared at the quarter way point probably didn't help). I was rewarded with an awesome sunset, and three liters of cold water, even if it came at the expense of some sore feet, and what will be a short nights sleep. At just over 34 miles this was my longest day so far, but between the conversation and sneak peak of the Sierras, it may have been my best day on the trail so far. We'll see if I still think that tomorrow when I get out of bed.

Day 28: mile 669.5 - 693.5

How many uses does a bandana have?
Siesta
Wildfire
New faces: Vulture, Melonhead, Vaughn, Topo

Even though I woke up sore, I didn't wake up thirsty. I'll take sore feet over dehydration, so those extra five miles were worth it.

But those sore feet made the morning just draaaaaag on. Instead of stopping every 4-5 miles like I typically do, I found myself stopping every 2-3. And I also found myself battling what seemed like a never ending swarm of bugs. After swallowing and snorting more than I wanted to, I decided to use my bandana the same way I had in the desert to deal with dust. Between that and the sunglasses (before the sun was up) the bugs were manageable. Looking forward to that head net that is in my resupply box at Kennedy Meadows. I'll be such a fashion statement 😎

About 9am I was looking to sit down again, when I came around a corner and found the perfect spot. A shaded rock, large enough for me to completely lie down on, and perfectly flat. I was asleep immediately. I woke up about an hour later to someone singing as they came down the trail towards my spot. Rabbit had caught back up! I figured I had napped enough, and drug myself back on to the trail.

The sun umbrella was out for the rest of the morning. It was down down down, break, then up up up up. Once we got near the top, around 8,000' elevation, the views were spectacular and the flowers were gorgeous. But when I turned east I was met with a wrenching sight.

I was just on the other side of this hill...

Growing up in a dry desert I know all too well what a thick plume of black smoke means: wildfire. It looked like one had started just a few miles back. As I watched ever larger clouds of smoke billow over the ridge line, I felt a little sick. I'm not sure who else would be out here in the middle of nowhere on a Wednesday, and there hasn't been any lightening, so I would bet that a hiker started this fire. Probably one of the folks who I had passed last night or this morning. I kept walking and the plume kept expanding. First the spotter planes started circling, and it wasn't long before the tankers were rumbling in and dropping loads of retardant. And so the 2016 fire season has begun...

I caught up with Cashmere and we hiked the last four miles of my day together, learning a lot about one another in the process. She is more of an evening hiker, so continued on when my feet started telling me to stop. By the time I pitched my tent, the sky had turned a smoky brown, and the planes were continuing to do their thing. We'll see if this holds up folks behind us, but I'm kind of glad I didn't decide to take an extra day off in Tehachapi...

Day 29: mile 693.5 - 704.7

We made it, we made it, we made it!!!!
Cheering squad
Just in the nick of time
Shit that got heavy
New faces: Kate, Short Shorts, Ryan

With only a handful of miles to Kennedy Meadows, it was an early morning in an effort to beat the heat. I was rewarded with more than just cool temperatures - it was also gorgeous, bug-free, flat walking along the eastern side of a valley, watching the sun's reach slowly move from the highest peaks to the valley floor. Between stopping to take pictures and wandering off the trail as I was looking for deer my pace slowed a little bit, but I still managed to make it to Kennedy Meadows (KM) before 9am.

As I approached town I tried to relish how nice it was to walk with a light pack. Only two days of food (I'm still not very good at estimating how long it will take me to hike from point A to point B) and no water, made for a light pack. It's going to be A LOT heavier leaving.

I finally made it to the General Store, and was met with a raucous round of applause and cheers from the fifty or so hikers who were already there. Once I got settled I learned that the trail was closed by yesterday's fire, likely for the rest of the year, meaning everyone on the other side will have to hitch from Walker Pass to KM. I'm glad I decided to not take an extra zero in Tehachapi. Or sleep in yesterday morning for that matter.

I hope everything isn't as expensive as the fuel...

The fire also closed the one road to KM from the eastern Sierras, meaning that mail and supply deliveries are on hold for at least a few days. So there are a bunch of hikers in KM, waiting for boxes, with nowhere to go. They haven't managed to empty the town of alcohol yet, and with literally truckloads of hikers showing up who already hitched around the closure, it was fixing to be a loud night.

Fortunately my resupply box was delivered already, so I was full steam ahead. Or rather, I was until I laid down in my tent around 10am. I proceeded to pass out for a solid five hours, made all the more surprising by the fact that I didn't have my sleeping pad, or sleeping bag, out. I was literally lying on the hard ground, and completely conked out. I guess I needed some sleep 😴😴😴

I decided to hike another 2.5 miles to the KM campground, a less crowded, quieter place to spend the evening. This will mean a shorter day tomorrow, as I'll be waiting for Mighty, Metronome, and Rabbit so we can take on the first leg of the Sierras together. And man it was a slooooow 2.5 miles. Between a bear canister, ice axe, microspikes, and seven (at least) days of food, this is definitely the most volume my pack has taken up. At least I don't need so much water. And the food will only get lighter from here 😋

The next several hundred miles of the trail are what many people consider the best part of the PCT. It is remote, rugged, and absolutely beautiful. Creek/river crossings, green meadows, snowy passes, and the tallest mountain in the continental U.S. await. One hiker I spoke with yesterday called the first seven hundred miles the proving grounds. Now that we have shown we can get through the desert alive (and our legs and lungs are stronger than they were at the start) it is time to dial up the difficulty, and the fun. Heeeeere weeeeeee gooooooo!!

Day 24: mile 566.5 - 577.3

​Day 25: mile 577.3 - 608.9

​Day 26: mile 608.9 - 635.3

Day 27: mile 635.3 - 669.5

Day 28: mile 669.5 - 693.5

​Day 29: mile 693.5 - 704.7

Day 25: mile 577.3 - 608.9

Day 26: mile 608.9 - 635.3

Day 29: mile 693.5 - 704.7