From chilly in the mountains to blazing in the desert! I continue to lose the weather lottery game on this adventure, but at this stage it’s simply a central part of the story. Sitting here at my home computer and knocking out these letters with a keyboard in a climate controlled room where I’ve spent thousands of hours, I just revel in every aspect of this of this arduous 65 mile push. Maybe easier said then done here, but wow have I entered unprecedented growth headspace during the long bouts of suffering and eagerly look forward to more.
But first: yes, I’m back home in Issaquah, WA for a hiatus before beginning the second Big with a capital B chapter of this adventure shortly after June begins and we leave spring, drift through the solstice and into summertime madness. The master plan had my flipping north in mid May to do NorCal to manage the impossible snow of the High Sierra’s and so that is what I’m doing. I hadn’t planned to come home, but really glad I did. I look forward to doing as many PCT miles as I can this year (current over/under for those wagering is 2,000 miles), but ultimately, this is a Walk About, nonlinear and seeking transformational intrinsic growth. Which I’ve already achieved beyond my dreams so far, and it’s only 1/3 complete (time) and 1/4 complete (miles), I hope.
This leg began on a VERY hot midday start with Ashley giving me a ride to the Indian Canyon crossing near Acton. After an incredible time with Marquez family who generously hosted us in Santa Clarita (and I shared a bit more about in the previous post), it was back to it. Ashley had driven out from Las Vegas after a conference she had there and flew home from one of the LA airports (I think it changed 3 times as we adjusted timing – ultimately she had to high tail to John Wayne/Orange County after dropping me off). We had a time together no words can do justice, in part because the trail experience (suffering, reflection, joy) and the intensity of our parting a month earlier yielded some profound conversations and connection. So needless to say, I’m trying not to cry all over my keyboard here as I remember the second parting on this adventure. She hiked with me a mile and then we did a bawling goodbye and it was back to the heat of the desert afternoon. At least that first day was just an 11 miler to the town of Aqua Dulce where I joined a pack of PCT hikers at the Serenity Oasis, a private homestead that hosts hikers (meaning we set up our tents scattered across a dirt lot on the property). I had an incredible Mexican restaurant meal with fellow travelers, which helped ease me back in to trail life, given I was feeling a bit anxious about the heat.
So yes, the weather: Leaving my last pitstop in Wrightwood, CA, (the day after 4 to 6 inches of fresh snow) the weather had been unseasonably cool for most of that week. Since the elevation was higher, there were some frigid nights and reasonably pleasant hiking days. As I started this section, the switch flipped to unseasonably hot, more like mid-June weather instead of mid-May. Of course, my elevation was lower during this stretch so that meant temps pushing 90F midday and into the afternoon with most of the pockets of remnant forests around just burned trunks from forest fires over the years. I made some choices, ostensibly to suffer more. Since I didn’t die, I guess the choices worked out. These included: 1) Continuing to wear my black Fjall Raven trekking tights that are central to my on-trail uniform. Generally these are comfortable between 20F and 80F (while moving), but going over 80 they start to be not-so-great. I packed shorts, but prefer not to waste my precious sunblock and there was A LOT of heavy brush thought this fire-scarred landscape, and it was nice not to expose knees and shins to that. 2) Not starting particularly early. While usually up at 5:30am, I embrace the morning rituals in camp and rarely am underway before 7:30. Which means, to cover the miles for the day, I was moving between 10am and 3pm when the day is the hottest. Wiser PCTers did 4am starts during this section (only needing a headlamp for maybe an hour) and then napped in the shade 10 to 3 and resumed until after dark. I did hydrate until my body couldn’t take it and still I ran out of water twice, coming into water sources bone dry. Most memorably: I dipped my dirty water bag into a concrete cistern that was full of stagnant yellow/green pond water that I eagerly drank a liter of. Run through my filter, it was definitely less yellow/green, and honestly tasted great (and was vaguely cool!) That particular day, I drank 8 liters of water, used two hydration amplifier powders and STILL felt dehydrated at day’s end. But the strange punch line: When I woke the next day after the two hottest days, I felt INCREDIBLE. Maybe it was just that my conditioning was reaching new highs, or I was euphoric coming into a home visit and break, but I embrace it, for whatever reason.
This part of the trail contained some pockets of beauty, and frequently had peek-a-boo views of the Mojave desert, including Edwards Air Force Base. But it also was largely a brushy, burnt landscape, further away from the LA population centers, and not easily accessible from the highways. As a result, during the 5 day stretch after Aqua Dulce, I don’t think I saw a single human on trail that wasn’t either a PCT hiker, or doing brush/tree removal maintenance. Amazingly (given the massive human population about), this was more of a wilderness experience than I typically get in the deepest parts of the Washington Cascades or Olympics during July/August backpacking season!) Truly incredible. One 15 mile day (which continues be about what I average), I didn’t see a single human being, NOT ONE, over ~8 hours of hiking with water and snack breaks.
This section also had the greatest concentration of Poodle Dog Bush thus far, one of the Big Three Fears that are on PCT Hikers minds during the SoCal section of the trail (in this order: Rattlesnakes Poodle Dog Bush, Ticks). You may ask: What on earth is Poodle Dog Bush. Good question. I haven’t encountered a single person who has every heard of this fearsome plant, including those who grew up in and around SoCal or the Central Valley. Unlike poison ivy or poison oak, which nearly everyone is familiar with. Essentially it is a bush that loves fire-scarred landscapes at this elevation/latitude/climate environment and secrete a toxin/irritant much like the more common ‘poison’ plants. But I also think there is some mythological exaggeration since apparently it interacts with people’s skins differently, some with only a mild itch, others with painful blistering. Despite the preponderance of the bush on this section of the trail and much chatter at gathering points, noone had witnessed even mild irritation from incidental contact… While I doubt the veracity of the rumors of the severe end of the spectrum, I wasn’t keen on finding out where my skin might lay and so successfully avoided all contact.
The last few hours on the trail were pretty magical, a beautiful sky meadow and forest untouched by fire, a descent towards the Mojave and mile 511, floating on air. I had achieved the fabled mile 500 (a combination for me of miles on the PCT and additional pack-weighted workarounds and break training hikes, almost exactly in line). And I decided to book this break time at home to see my family, both some extended family that was in town and some incredible and intense time with my wife and my daughters. Logan Marquez again generously drove to pick me up from a trail crossing at a lonely road, this time over an hour from their home in Santa Clarita. I enjoyed a bonus evening in their guest room and then one more ride to the pleasant Burbank airport and back to Seattle. Given I thought I might not set foot back in my home in Issaquah until September, it was a fabulously surreal experience to be home after 2 months away in California, as the weather had moved from cold dark March to lush, 72F late May.
As I finally finish catching up on the blog, my plan is to return over the next day or 2 to the trail, including a lovely bonus adventure with my parents who are driving me back down to Northern California before they do an impromptu road trip themselves! I expect to rejoin the trail around mile 1,300 (near Chester, CA), a full 800 trail miles north of where I left. I’ll be back to more snow, but significantly less than the massive volume of snow that still encases the Sierra’s to well north of Donner Pass/I-80. There is still a chance I might try and knock out some of these miles in October or November, but I’m also perfectly fine if I cobble to these together over section hikes over the coming years.