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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

5/27/14 Tuesday. One Last Zero in Mojave

It's lovely sleeping between sheets, not searching for water, waking whenever we want and having breakfast with family. Ed and Linda are leaving today after breakfast, I'm so glad to have met them. Last year Peggy met my family & friends as we hiked Washington and this year I've met her family and friends through California.  We had a wonderful visit and now Ed & Linda are part of our story. 
Ed & Linda Rice you refreshed us!
Peggy, her Dad & Linda.  
We will finish our chores today, call around to see if we can get a ride back to the trail tomorrow morning, walk to the post office to mail our new resupply box to Lake Isabella, buy me a paperback book as my 1 luxury item that I carry.  Peggy & I trade my book when I'm done for her Kindle and whatever I want to read from her extensive list. Mostly today we need to rest with feet up and rehydrate. 
I covet your prayers and thoughts as we push on to the next section, I am anxious to see Robin who will be coming to pick us up in early June just inside the Sierra Mountains.  We've almost completed the 1st leg of California hiking 566 miles.  Robin will pick us up in another 250 miles or so. 

5/24/14 Saturday Hiking in a Wind Farm. 5/25/14 Sunday Enough With the Wind! 5/26/14 Monday Hiding Under Bushes Waiting to be Rescued!

Our tent placement worked well last night and we were comfortably shielded from wind. While packing up this morning we caught this gorgeous sunrise with Joshua trees in silhouette.  
We set the alarm for 4:45, trying to catch the cooler morning weather to hike in, we were walking by 5:55.  Skies were slightly overcast and much cooler than we expected with a slight breeze.  There are small groups of hikers on the trail this morning, some that we recognize from being at Hikertown yesterday.  There are two men doing a thru hike together, one is from Medford so we exchanged phone  numbers to catch up with each other after September.
The aqueduct has become a concrete covered roadway so we walk beside it on the maintenance track.  Every now and again vehicles pass us and I wonder what brings people  out here, it feels inhospitable, desolate and harsh but there are homes sprinkled about.  We passed one man walking his dogs in the evening, wind blowing like crazy, he and his dogs were out for a stroll!
This morning we found a cooler marked PCT that had tea and water in it. 
Four of us stopped for a drink chatting and resting.  We later found out a vacationing family was having fun stocking it.
I'm wearing my sun clothing, the hat has a drape to keep the sun from burning me and it also has kept wind from driving grit into my face.  
I've been told here's a safety on the wind turbines so they don't turn if the wind is over 65 mph. 
There is a water cache we are aiming for this morning, it's supplied by Bob from Hikertown.  He pulls a trailer with a 50 gallon drum on the back and stations it beside a bridge where the PCT intersects. 
This is the PCT on the cement covered aqueduct that runs through the wind turbine farm.  Eventually we will cross this flat valley and climb the hills beyond it. 
We thought this sign was funny, such danger and hazard won't affect the PCT hiker!  By this time we've been 1.5 days in the wind and getting tired of fighting to stay upright, getting sandblasted, living with grit in our teeth.  Putting sunscreen on over grit is disgusting, trying to find a place to rest gets harder.  We arrived at the water cache and got 1 liter each then scooted down the embankment to the wonderful shade the bridge created. Except it was windy down there too.  Peggy wrapped her Tyvek tent footprint around her to try to get a nap.  Other hikers came in, sat against the pillars to eat a snack and rest.  We all looked like dirty hobos.  Peggy & I decided that all these hikers were going to the same place, the only water in 17.5 miles, Tylerhorse Canyon.  So in spite of the heat, we left at 1:00 to get some miles done.
The rest of the day was a constant climb in the relentless wind, once we sat on the base of a turbine in it's shade and made reservations for a motel in Mojave, our next stop.  Peggy called her Stepmom and made plans for she & Peggy's Dad to meet us at Hwy 58 and take us to Mojave for our resupply. iPhones are a wonderful invention!
 I did see 2 white tail deer trot out of a small draw and go over the hill directly across from me.  These are the  only animals except a rabbit I've seen in days.
Finally we reached the lip of the canyon and dropped over it, winding quickly down.  I saw groups of colorful clothing and tents down where a 12" wide trickle of water ran.  We'd finally gotten to our destination.  There must be about 20 of us here,  most are staying but some only got water and moved on. I had thought the canyon would be shielded from the wind but no such luck.  We anchored our tent stakes with the biggest rocks we found and it was fortunate that we did.  All night long the wind howled, our tents bent and twisted in the onslaught and by morning we were covered in a fine layer of grit.  I finally slept with a bandana over my face.
 Our hair is caked with salt, our hands are dirty and even the tips of our fingers are getting brown, we have to remind each other to put sunscreen on our fingertips because they stick out of our sun proof gloves. We have dirt and sweat rings on our clothing, moleskin and KT tape on our feet, we sit for a time each night and make sure our feet are in good enough shape to carry us the next day.  Shoes get inspected for gritty rocks that could make a blister. We actually have conversation with our feet and toes: "how are you doing?  look at all the dust in that sock, let's get you cleaned up."  By now I'm sure we're both a little loopy. 
We put in 16 miles today.

5/25/14 Sunday.  17.5 miles
Not much sleep was had last night, the wind suddenly stopped at 4am and we were up packing at 4:45, it's going to be a long hot day much like yesterday. 
I topped off my water for the climb up out of the canyon and over this range of mountains.
This is Peggy coming down the trail, the landscape is what we've been hiking in for days.
 It's a cloudless, hot day and all of the hikers are moving out,  as I looked at the back trail they look like little dots of color moving along the hillsides. Most will eventually pass us.
Topping the range I looked back on what we'd come through in the last 2 days, 
the flat valley, the wind turbines and all in between. 
After 10 miles we arrived at a water cache supplied by two men from Tehachapi,  it was located in another burn area, they had lawn chairs, cases of bottled water,  garbage bags and a trail register.  The water was very welcome and we sat with three young men for awhile before we moved on.  There was virtually no shade so we had our umbrellas up.  I watched a ground hog emerge from his hole, buck- teeth first and peer around.  He disappeared again when anyone moved. I'm never sure what inhabits the holes all over the landscape.  Could be snakes or lizards but now I know some are gophers!
The burn area is sometimes very stark and black but there were lovely carpets of colorful flowers in a few places. Their scent was wonderful.

This side of the mountains had more evergreen trees.
A flower we've not seen before.
This is the Mojave area we are hiking down into, it looks much like all the other desert we've been through, wind turbines and all.   We watched two gliders catching thermals, wheeling higher and higher in the sky while we rested near a downed tree. 
Our goal is to make the next water cache  where there may be a campsite. Due to the exposure and heat it's going to be a tough hike but it will put us into position to meet Peggy's Dad & Stepmom at the highway crossing going to Mojave. 
We rested or napped in whatever shade we could find, one has to be creative in this environment, a downed tree, a bush you can crawl under, anything works. 
Around 5:30 we stumbled into the canyon leading to the Tehachapi Willows Road where there was a water cache and this big shady oak tree.  One young lady was fast asleep in the dirt when we arrived but after we'd gotten water she was awake and hiking to the road to hitch to town.  We had the tree all to ourselves.  Once the tents were up we each collapsed and lay still taking stock of our sore, wind beaten selves.  Eventually dinner was made & consumed, beds were made, etc and without much conversation we drifted to sleep to the dull roar of wind turbines overhead.  We have 9 miles to hike tomorrow to meet Peggy's family. 

5/26/14 Monday 
Up again at 4:45 we are hiking at almost 6am.  I'm having trouble keeping my thoughts positive. I think I've reached my limit of wind, sand and sun. I'm looking forward to respite, water, sheets, water, food, water. You get the idea. 
Peggy is descending into a small valley, with turbines all around us,  I liked the contrast is size.  She's the dot below the greenery in the center of the frame.
It took us a couple of hours to get to the Highway, here's Peggy looking down on the interchange.  Also note the next set of mountains we have to climb to get out of here. More wind, sun and desert.
We found a bush with shade underneath where we waited for Linda & Ed Rice.  While waiting we once again met Salt & Pepper, a gentleman from Montreal doing a thru hike.  We've been seeing him for the past week but as we take two zero days here, he'll be hiking north.  We took photos and shook hands goodbye.
One if the pleasures of the hike is meeting so many really nice, interesting people. Enjoy your hike, Salt & Pepper!
 
Shortly after 11am Linda & Ed Rice drove up as we leaped from the roadside bushes like vagrants!  In a flash our packs were stowed and our dirty selves were in the back seat flying down the road with air conditioning going, it was 93 degrees outside. Linda had put together care packages for us, full of fresh juicy fruit, cookies, drinks, all of it right out of our food fantasy!  We dug right in once we'd checked into our Motel.  We then collected our resupply boxes, showered, did laundry and off to lunch we went wearing an odd assortment of whatever we had that was reasonably clean & not being washed!
Back from lunch we organized our food, washed cooking implements and water bottles, made a list of supplies needing to be purchased and went shopping using the Rice's car.  We've decided to add another resupply stop between here and Kennedy Meadows.  We had planned to carry 9 days of food but the need to carry 4 L (8#) of water had us concerned.  We've decided to split our food, carry 6 days and hitch into Lake Isabella to pick up the 3 days of food that we've repackaged. We'll mail a box to ourselves from here in Mojave. 
Many of our chores finished we had a delightful  dinner with Linda & Ed, it was relaxing, full of good food and conversation.  The plan is to meet for breakfast tomorrow, after which they will drive back home to LA. 
We went to sleep to the sound of our air conditioner instead of wind turbines.



Monday, May 26, 2014

5/21/14 Wednesday. Goodbye Hiker Heaven, 5/22/14 We're Headed For a Road Walk 5/23/14 Maybe a Meal at The Rock Inn.

Last night I was tucked in my tent when Saufley's gathered along  with the bulk of hikers around the campfire.  They related the story about how they began being trail angels, there was lots of laughter.  In the morning around 7am we got a quick ride to the trail head, this is one town that celebrates the PCT, it goes right through town they named the road Pacific Crest Trail Rd.  We got dropped off where the pavement ends and began our hike up out of the valley. Overcast and cool we considered the weather a huge benefit, usually it's a killer of a hot, dry climb. We were up and over the mountain range by 11:00am hiking 10.5 miles, and down the other side to a cache of water maintained by another family of trail angels named the Andersons.  We actually napped a bit in the shade until more people came by and it got crowded.  We're hiking with what is called "The Herd"  which are faster thru hikers that are just now passing us.  They have to hike 20 mi/day, at least, if they want to make Canada before the snow falls. While it's fun to see them all, we really enjoy hiking with less of a party and more quiet.  They should all pass us in the next few weeks.
Both of us are tired, we didn't rest really well during this last town stop, we still pitched our tents instead of having a bed to sleep in and it was noisy with lots of people. But staying at Hiker Heaven is an experience we didn't want to miss, theirs is a very popular place.
Starting out after resupply, we feel the weight of our full packs, I know my feet & shoulders hurt and we have 5.5 miles to the next water cache, also supplied by the Andersons. 
Once there we saw about 10 hikers sitting under trees just off the trail. There was 5 gallon jugs of water, a cooler filled with soda, plastic chairs, bags for garbage and everyone filling their water bottles.  We found a campsite nearby under canopy of live oaks with leaf litter forming a soft mat and we set up out tents.  Soon a handful of hikers decided to camp by the water cache and all along the trail.  I thought it would be a noisy night but everyone quieted down by 9:00. 
Today, as we reached the crest of hills outside Agua Dulce we could look back at where we'd come from.
We climbed from Agua Dulce which is in front of the far mountains.
We climbed around Bouquet Reservoir and camped above it after 17.5 miles.
Camped under the oaks I was asleep before anyone else, when I awoke at 9:00pm all was quiet. 

5/22/14 Thursday. About 19 miles (7 PCT miles & about 12 road miles)
Today we know we have a reroute around the Powerhouse burn from last year. 
We were up and hiking by 6:30 in the cool, overcast morning.  This is ideal hiking weather!  Mostly gentle ups and downs until we came to the Ranger Station on San Francisquito Rd.  No one was at the Ranger Station but we used their hose to fill our bottles and started up the road. We're not sure how many miles this road walk will be. 
Officially closed.
We sang every song we knew,  walked side by side and talked, all of it helped the time go by. 
At last we broke out the umbrellas because the cloud cover disappeared and it got hot. We must have walked 8 miles.  Then we saw it, the Rock Inn, built in 1926, destroyed by fire and rebuilt with rock. 
A known biker hangout, it became a hiker hangout and we had a salad and BBQ pork sandwich with lemonade.  We rested about 1.5 hours then filled 3 liters of water each and continued walking the road.  Finally we decided to stealth camp under a big oak tree at a turn around about 5.5 miles up the road from the Inn.  We heard thunder and put up our tents quickly, we were well camouflaged so no one could see us.  A small rain shower left the tent flies wet but we were very snug. This was a long day, feet are sore from walking on asphalt and tomorrow is more road walking. 

5/23/14 Friday Memorial Day, 14-15 miles
We walked for a few hours this morning and finally reached Hwy 138 by 10:30, turned left at the intersection and fought traffic and a headwind for a mile until we could see the PCT coming down off the hills and crossing the highway.  We turned into the driveway of Hikertown.  A man has built all sorts of fun buildings on his property including a post office for hiker resupply boxes.
Those are hiker's boxes in the window.

The lounge used to be his garage but now his old collector car (a Rolls Royce) is parked outside.
and the garage has easy chairs, sofas, a small kitchen and a bathroom/ shower (for a $5 donation) for hikers. It was a very welcome place out of the fierce wind that will characterize these next days.
If we wanted to stay the night we could have slept in one of these little huts but we napped, read books, ate our dinner and went off into the desert to walk on the Los Angeles Aqueduct. 
(We actually walked the road to the edge of town and found the open waterway, turned right and followed it.)
A strong wind was blowing so we cinched down our hats and started off. We crossed a small bridge over the open water and a pipeline diverted the flow off into the desert.  We began by walking on the pipe but the wind was so strong we jumped off and followed the maintenance road straight into the desert. 
We fought the wind for about 5.5 miles and as it was getting dusk we chose a tent site among the Joshua trees using two large bushes to shield us from wind.
The Joshua trees are growing all over this part of the desert and in the gathering darkness look eerily human.  There are houses and small ranch type homes out here, it seems so  inhospitable to me.
We set an alarm for midnight so we could catch the meteor shower and we did see 2-3 streak through the sky, then zipped our tents up and drifted off to sleep to the sound of the howling wind.




Tuesday, May 20, 2014

5/18/14 - 5/20/14 Did You Say Swimming Pool? Hiker Heaven is Calling to Me. Now It's Raining!

4:45 am and hiking at 6:00! 
 I woke once last night and the moon was bright.  This morning hiking in the cool day feels so nice.  This is still a road walk but it has become a dirt road now.  
Flowers along the way were pretty.

This is the trail, kind of clogged with ceanothus which comes in various shades of purple, this one's white. 
Yucca
There was water at the Ranger Station and a cache for sodas and granola bars. We bought a soda and rested then took off for the Acton KOA and a shower, swim and laundry.
Leaving the Ranger Station by 10:00 we had 2 L of water each, our umbrellas up & we were glad to be off the road and walking on the PCT again. We met a guy from France named Happy Pants, he wore patchwork pajama bottoms and a plaid shirt, he hiked fast!
This part of trail is white granite that had sloughed off into the white sand that we were walking on, it's pretty but blindingly bright. I put on my sunglasses and sunscreen. 
Can you see Peggy to the left of the dark bushes in the center? She's pretty tiny in this photo. This is a good example of the rugged white granite.
We wound all day among hills like this, see the trail?
Resting in the shade of a scanty bush we had a snack. Who could believe we are only 30 miles from L. A.?  A few times we used extra water to wet our sleeves and hair to cool us off. We can see the KOA far below us, it teases us because around every hill the trail keeps winding, never getting to the KOA.  Finally we found a dirt road and took it down, that's where we met Midnight Rider, a girl doing an equestrian ride on her black horse. 
Midnight Rider. 
She told us that last week another rider and horse had to be helicopter rescued after falling from the trail we'd just hiked. She asked us about trail conditions.

This is Jose, owner of the Acton KOA, who was generous to us hikers, giving us fresh towels for showers and bringing us a tray of watermelon, pineapple, melons & grapes from a previous group meeting. We all fell on it,  fresh fruit being something we all long for. Peggy & I ordered food delivered as there was nothing at the concession.  We showered, did laundry, ate and talked to other hikers camping there. We never did get to the pool but we didn't care. 
I had my first blister from all the downhill, heat and dirt so moleskin and KT tape are my friends.  We want to get to Agua Dulce tomorrow, 10 miles from here and a 2 mile road walk through town to Hiker Heaven and the Saufleys'.  Peggy had calculated we've hiked 1,000 miles together since we met in Oregon in 2012, we only have 1300 more to go to finish our hike this year!  
We put in about 15 miles today, PCT plus road walk. 

Funny that my choice of camp site tonight put us right under a halogen light! No worries, we both thought it was the moon at first so we just rolled over!
I heard trains rolling by tooting whistles all night and I heard some weird roaring noise that I later learned was really a lion from an animal rescue! 
Once out of the KOA we crossed the RR tracks, yep,  the trail is over the tracks!
Then just over the tracks is the monument where the 2 parts of the PCT joined.

We hiked by unusual rock formations today, metamorphic rock that looks like boulders stirred into a slurry soup then baked.

Some are stuck up high on the hills. 
A group of these were called the Three Sisters. 
Peggy standing beneath to give an idea of size.

We had 10 miles to hike to Agua Dulce so the trail had to get over Hwy 14.  Here's how it was done:
That's a truck on the freeway above the culvert.
The PCT sign guides you into the culvert and then you're into Vasquez Rocks which are stunningly beautiful.
Peggy and I by Vasquez Rocks.

It was a few miles into Agua Dulce and Hiker Heaven. Some wound through the rocks and some were road walking. Finally we were there.
Orientation, bicycles to town for food, a ride to Northridge (LA) for supplies took 4 hours (only 45 min or so driving) back to Agua Dulce to open resupply boxes and pack food up, making dinner and to tents by 8:45. There are easily 40 hikers here resting, soaking feet, favoring injuries, resupplying and either partying or working hard to get back to the trail. The organization here is amazing and that's how they handle the influx of people coming every day plus all their needs.  
5/20/14 Tuesday
We showered, had breakfast, purchased lunch to bring back, blogged, used the computers and had decided to hike a few miles tonight sleeping just down the trail....That was before the clouds rolled in and now it's pouring rain.  Peggy and I have tents up so we aren't worried but we're thinking we should stay here tonight because we don't want to pack up wet and then try to set up two hours later still wet. 
It's cold but hikers are sitting all over the place doing chores or chatting.  The 5 port a potties are getting cleaned out right now, they were pretty darn full so we will have clean potties tonight!  For those who usually dig holes in the dirt we're pretty excited about this!
Not a great photo but this is taken through the porch fence looking at the yard.  To the left is a horse trailer where some hikers stay, our tents are to the right of that.  Many screened tents and cots are in the yard but hard to see in the trees. Far right are many bicycles. 
We'll stay the night and be gone early tomorrow 5/21/14. 




5/16/14 - 5/17/14 It's Hot, Hot, Not Enough Water & Too Much Poodle Dog. I Just Want To Get Out of Here!!

Up and out without waking others we had a pretty big climb right off. My muscles feel shot and not responding to my requests, very frustrating.  I'm so ready for whatever the next phase of muscle development is!
On a different note;many of the trees we're seeing are pines, Ponderosa, Sugar & Coulter. Their cones are so different that I thought a photo would be fun to show the differences in them.
The top is Sugar, they're longer and have a stem that hooks them to the end of the branch.  Bottom left is a Coulter cone, really heavy, sharp and dangerous if they fall on you.  They grow on the tree limb and break off when they get too heavy, the tips curl up to a point.   The right cone is a Ponderosa, smaller, sharp tips point down, they are flatter on the bottom.  I enjoy seeing the different trees growing and being able to recognize them. 
Meanwhile:
Crossing and recrossing Hwy 2 today we came to a Boy Scout Camp where there was a spigot, water needed to be filtered so we sat in shade snacking with a few others as we filtered 2 L each.  
Camp Glenwood I think. 

Later crossing the Hwy for the last time we came upon Trail Magic!
Inside were bananas, apples and oranges.  Such a treat, the fresh fruit was so good!
The descent to Sulpher Springs began, we all needed the water, hiking down into the canyon it got hotter and hotter.  We came to a tiny trail side water pool just before the actual spring and all the hikers filled up.   Peggy & I got 2 L each then hiked a few yards to sit under a Ponderosa and snack, nap and wait out some of the heat.  The plan is to hike in a few hours from shade spot to shade spot and try to make miles 1-2 at a time. The heat is hard to deal with.  Finally at 2:00 we started out with umbrellas up.  I had problems pretty quickly so we literally stopped in every decent shade we found so I could cool off.  I knew if we could just get higher we'd catch breezes and get cooler.  In the middle of our climb we came to a big downed tree and in the muddle of the branches and debris we lost the trail, PDB was all around us, we were surrounded by the noxious plant.  Seth, our dinner companion from the Copper Canyon,  came hiking by.  He was trying to find a way through the PDB too.  The 3 of us went different ways, Seth waved at us from above indicating he'd found a path of footprints.  I followed calling for Peggy. She'd gotten into a thicket of the stuff and had brushed one side of pants & shirt up against it.  We all struck out 'off road' up a hill, fighting against sand,  gravel & PDB, finally reaching the top Peggy and I could look down on the actual trail, Seth was nowhere in sight.  We scrambled down a gravel & sand slope fairly free of PDB until we were on the trail again.  We decided to hike a short distance and stop.  Having been exposed to PDB,  Peggy was wanting to get the clothing off her and decide what to do now. 
 Uphill for about 1/2 mile we found a camp spot beside the trail with a guy named Chupacabra resting there. 
We decided to set up tents since he was moving on.  Seth showed up and the two guys hiked further that evening while the two of us were beyond our level of tolerance.  We had 1 L of water each for the 8.5 miles to our next water tomorrow.  This was a tough day and I've been having a defeatist mental conversation with myself,  that's not a good thing.  

This morning the spring was within 1 mile of where we'd camped so I filtered 2 L for myself and drank 1/2 liter there. I'd been so thirsty last night. We were headed for water at the Mill Creek Fire Station. We had cool morning hiking until about 10 then it started getting hot and we deployed umbrellas.  We arrived at the Fire Station in the middle of the AMGEN bicycle race, a training ride for those wanting to compete on the Tour de France. We located the faucet at the station, sat under the picnic awning and had lunch, drank up water and rinsed hair, face & hands. 

I saw a Sheriff car and talked to them about the upcoming road walk we were to do next and about the weather. This reroute is around PDB and poison oak growing in the burned areas after the last fire. This is a huge burned area, as far as we can see there are skeleton trees, blackened dirt and new emerging greenery, lots of that being PDB. 
Lupine smelling like grape soda, growing in the burn. 
Oh yeah, the weather that day was record breaking triple digits. Great.
We put up our umbrellas at 12:30 pm and ran across the road in a lull between bikes.  The asphalt road was closed to vehicles and we hikers had it all to ourselves, the sheriff had told me it was 10-12 miles to the North Fork Ranger Station which was our next water source.  Because the bikers could use the road there were mileage markers for about 6 miles.  We stopped after 1.5 miles and rested. Then after 3 miles we had lunch,  enjoying the wide views from the mountain top. 
Resting under a big oak tree. 

 We could see the bike race below us,  they looked like ants we were so far above them.  Two young hikers came behind us playing music on their iPod,  as they came abreast of us we started dancing around and so did they, all of us laughing and enjoying the moment, what fun!   Peggy and I hiked on and up until we came to a place where we thought we could keep going and get to a campsite in 1.5 miles. This would help get us into town sooner the next day.  We arrived at Messenger Flats Campground where other PCT hikers were camping also.
Messenger Flats Campground.
Today was a 17.5 mile day, we were vey happy with our progress!