Major dew at dawn! Cold and windy. Broke camp by 0540. It was a nice day, pretty, but I had various foot pains that made me really wonder if I could do six 20 mile days in a row.

I passed by Goulet and Space Kitty around 0700 as they were breaking camp. Good to see them and lifted my spirits.

I felt better in the afternoon and made good time to Willow Spring. At one point I had to down climb this steep (dry) stream channel. It had some seriously sketchy parts where I was a bit concerned about my safety. Cliffs and loose dirt.

Then when I was down, I walked down the wash, following mostly cattle trails, until I came upon a dirt road and a fenced off area. I was thinking the fence was to keep the cattle out of the spring and I walked around until I found the “human hole” in the fence.

The spring was a cement cylinder sunken at ground level with the water about two feet down. I found out later someone had left the lid off (which is big, concrete, and heavy) and a dead rodent had been fished out of it a few days ago. I didn’t filter it, and I’m glad I didn’t know about the dead rodent until later.

I knew I couldn’t go back to the trail the way I had come, up that dry stream canyon. There was a long way, but in the end I made my own route. I saw some sort of trail going straight up the ridge, heading toward the PCT, so I charged up that.

Once I got up top, and started going down the other side to meet the trail, I started looking for camp spots.

It was getting late and I was very tired, but it was cold and windy and there was nowhere to take shelter. I finally found a tiny spot behind some bushes and Joshua Trees that turned out to be surprisingly good.

That night I realized I had planned a 27 mile day tomorrow to give myself an easy day on my birthday. I had failed to consider needing to go an extra 1.4 miles off trail for water or the huge climb. But I consoled myself that I could still make it to Kennedy Meadows on time if I could do 20 miles a day. I’m worried that I can’t fall behind, and yet the pace is too fast. I wish I could slow down, take more breaks and enjoy it more.

Another pair of socks has holes. My gloves are falling apart. I don’t have much food. Looks like I might be hungry on my birthday. Sad face.

Up and on trail by 6. I spent 15 minutes looking around the spring for the snow basket I somehow lost yesterday, but no luck. There were lots of people camping there. I was quiet as a mouse but someone did stir and I quietly asked if anyone had found a snow basket? He said no, but agreed to spread the word that I was missing one when people got up.

Not quite another forced march today, but close. I felt ok the first hour, then the pains started creeping in.

About half way through the day I walked into some pretty, unburned country that reminded me a bit of Castro Valley where I grew up.

Still pretty hurt, pretty “head down plodding” until I got to the spring at 1720. I have a short water carry at first tomorrow, but I wanted to have plenty of water to rehydrate overnight. I spent about 20 minutes hiking around looking for a stealth spot to camp but ended up camping on a road with a flat spot and a leaning rock. I hope it’s not too windy here.

I’ve got company on the road, but it was CatWater, so that’s all good. I told her about a nice grassy spot just down the road that I had only rejected because this spot has a nice leaning rock. She was a nice quiet neighbor.

I felt like crap leaving Tehachapi, but I loaded up with 6 days of food and 16 miles of water (4 liters, 8.8 pounds) for an all-day, uphill climb.

Fortunately, it was a nice day, around 80 with a nice breeze. I called a cab for me and my Humboldt friends (Space Kitty and Goulet) to take us to the trailhead. I think we got picked up around 9 and hit the trail at 9:30.

I was soo tired, I just wanted to sleep, and the trail kept taunting me with lots of great spots. But at 1330 I realized I had just enough water to make it to the next spring, and at the rate I was going, I would get there right around dark. No time for naps. No time for anything except to keep walking.

I made it to the spring around 1930, got some water and walked another five minutes before heading off trail to sleep under some windmills.

Hello everyone. Tonight I am safe at a hotel in Independence. Sorry about the delay in posting but apparently there is no service between Tehachapi and here. I really want to do a nice post about each day, for you and as a record for me to look back on, but I just can’t keep up when I’m hiking 12 hours a day and have no service.

I’ve thought about it a lot and I have decided to do a bunch of really short posts, dump the photos, and I will come back and fill them out when I have time (probably after I get home). I want to keep the blog as current as I can so y’all can follow me in real time. I don’t think you get a notification when I edit a post, but I will let you know when the edits are done so you can go back, if you wish.

I will do a more complete entry on today in the appropriate spot, but I would like to say that I left camp around 0640, climbed the dreaded Forester Pass by 0930,

Then down down down through the snow fields to Vidette Meadows then up up up over Kearsarge Pass

And then down down down down to Onion Valley where I happened to run into a day hiker just in time to give me a ride to town. A great end to a great day. This was probably my hardest day on the trail so far, which is saying something, but I’m proud of my accomplishment and very glad to be clean and sleeping in a bed after such a long day. Did I mention I hiked 20 miles today, 20 yesterday, and 23 miles the day before? Yeah, I’m tired. Anyway, I’ll try to catch you up before I hit the trail again on Sunday.

Here’s the short posts to catch you up…

Yes. I’m still alive. I have had no service, can’t even get a text out. I will try to catch up with my posts, but know that I just went through Walker Pass and am at mile 657 or so. I should be in Kennedy Meadows on Friday.

I’m really glad I decided to take a triple zero here. I don’t know how I would have done all my chores and still get some rest in less time. Zeros mean you don’t hike any trail miles, it doesn’t mean you don’t do anything. Between the planning, the shopping, the packing, the mailing, and the eating and sleeping, there is a lot to do. Basically, I tried to arrange/plan everything from here to Tahoe, which is over 500 miles away. I’m thinking I will be there in 37 days and have portioned out my food and medications accordingly.

I slept poorly last night, maybe trying to digest the huge dinner I ate. Last night I got a nice top sirloin steak with au gratin potatoes and a salad, but was still feeling a little peckish and got a whopper, fries, chicken nuggets and a shake from Burger King. Yeah.

Or it’s my nose. Being in the desert has somehow clogged my nasal passages to where it’s difficult to breathe with my mouth closed, which is how I usually (try to) sleep. I’ve been waking up in the night gasping for air. It can’t be good for me, but it should go away once I get back up in the mountains.

My main issue is trying to get everything mailed to Kennedy Meadows for my entry into the Sierra. I’ve got my tent coming from one place, my pile pants from another, and seven days of food mailed from here. It will be a miracle if I don’t have to wait a day or two in KM waiting for my stuff.

But the good news is, a friend of my Dad, who has known me since I was about five, was able to drive here from Bakersfield and bring me some backpacking dinners (which I can’t get here), take me to the Post Office (over a mile away), and a ride to the drug store. That was such a huge help! Here’s a crappy photo to protect our identities:

I’m a little nervous about the trail ahead. The next 100 miles is some of the driest (i.e., big water carries) and then I’m in the Sierra, where apparently, it keeps snowing. I’m going up there with no crampons, no ice axe, so, wish me luck. Obviously, I think I can make it with that. I am bringing the snow baskets for my trekking poles.

But yeah, I think this next part might be the hardest. I’ll carry six days of food and 16 miles of water out of here. I shipped 7 days of food to KM, to get me to Bishop in about two weeks.

I’m just barely walking normally after almost three days off. My heals still hurt. Maybe they will hurt all the way to Canada? Whatever. I’m going to keep walking.

I’m grateful for the third zero because it gave me time to do stuff like find the hole in my pad and patch it, and go in the hot tub again. Honestly, it was cold here in town all day, and I feel worried for those who left today. Can’t wait to hear their stories.

Now, if I could just get a ride back to the trail…

Sometimes, you don’t realize how tired you are until you stop. Waking up this morning, limping to the bathroom on the nice carpet, it hit me how beat-up I am. Definitely time for some rest and it boggles my mind that, tired and sore as I am, under different circumstances I would have woken up today and walked twenty miles. I would have done it too.

But thankfully I got to sleep in until after six. I also wasn’t feeling that hungry, but sometimes you don’t know how hungry you are until you start to eat. I almost didn’t go to the breakfast buffet, but I know I need to eat so I went. Once I got started, I couldn’t stop. I had eggs, sausage, and biscuits with gravy, then a egg/sausage/biscuit, with toast and jam, then yogurt, then two bowls of Fruit Loops (with whole milk), a bowl of Raisin Bran, all washed down with four large cups of orange juice. Maybe I was hungry after all?

After that I consolidated some laundry with my Humboldt friends and hung out with hikers for a bit. I hope I convinced “Lost & Found” not to leave tomorrow. Looks like bad weather the next two days.

And after all that, man, I was wiped out. Came home and took a nap!

But, no rest for the weary. I need to make plans for the next section all the way to Tahoe. I am going to meet my Dad there and we will hike through Desolation Wilderness together again (and all the way to Donner Pass) just like we did back when I was a boy in the Seventies. That’s where I learned to backpack (I was 8 or 10 or something), and that’s where I first learned about the PCT. I think it’s so cool that he wants to do this and I’m really looking forward to that part of the trip.

But naturally, he wants to make plans (like plane reservations), and wants to know when I will be at mile 1093 (I’m at 566 right now). That’s a lot of planning! So, I spent the day checking weather reports, water reports, trail reports, guidebooks, and maps trying to figure out where I will be and how will I get water and food for the next 36 days. It was a daunting task, and not something I particularly wanted to do today, but I do feel a lot better now that it’s done.

Now, I just have to make it happen. Buy the food and make up packages to ship for the next 200 miles. Fortunately, my Dad’s friend from Bakersfield is going to come over on Friday, bring me some hiker food I can’t get here, and help me get to the Post Office (which is about a mile away from town). This makes my life 1000 times easier than it could be, so I am very grateful and hopefully I can relax a bit tomorrow.

Which should be easy here. I have a very nice room. Ground floor. At the end of the hall so I can step right out for a smoke. Laundry across the hall (I’m going to keep washing my shirt until it’s clean, dammit). Short walk to breakfast and the hot tub. What more could a hiker want? Oh yeah, I have a nice view of this tiny landscaped part of the property that’s not paved. It’s got some trees that are full of songbirds all day. Very nice.

It’s getting about hot tub time again. I think a daily soak is pretty much required at this point. After a largely sedentary day, I can walk almost normally now. I can’t wait to see how I feel tomorrow!

Pretty routine day. I had an “easy” 16 mile hike into Tehachapi, but that didn’t stop me from getting up at first light and hitting the trail by 0600.

The first eight miles was mostly up, but I don’t mind climbing in the morning when I’m fresh and it’s nice and cool, and I got to see what I hiked across yesterday.

Around eleven I was hungry, but not interested in any of my trail food. I figured I could be to the road by two if I pushed it, and it was cruiser trail, so I pushed it. I think this is the first time I’ve done that, but I figured I have a double or possibly triple zero coming up, so I can afford to hurt myself a little bit.

And I certainly did that. Both yesterday and today I’ve been feeling new aches and pains (like now my arms and elbows want to hurt), so I am definitely ready for some rest. And to get clean! I don’t mind being dirty too much, but nine days is pushing it. Must Get To Town!

On the other side of the ridge was an even huger wind farm than yesterday. Hundreds of them as far as the eye can see. Wow.

Toward the end I got cheered on by my German Friend from Idyllwild! He had an injury and travel deadlines and was hiking SOBO. Good to see him again.

I actually got to the road about 1330, and I called a couple of Trail Angels on the list provided to see if I could get a ride to town (9 miles?) but had no luck, so I decided to hitch. I hate hitching, especially into town because my feet hurt and I can hardly stand there, but despite the sparse traffic a nice retired couple picked me up within about 15 minutes.

It was a great ride too! Not only did they take me to the Best Western where I had a reservation, but they took me to the post office first so I could get my bounce bucket and new shoes. The post office is over a mile outside of town, so this was really huge. I don’t know how I’m going to get back there to bounce the bucket (or mail it home, was more my thought), but that’s a problem for another day.

For now, I have an awesome room, I’m about to get cleaned up and go find the hot tub, and I’m stoked to be staying here for the next few days. The forecast for Friday is some kind of freezing precipitation event, so that sounds like a good day to not hit the trail. The word is there’s been lots of snow in the Sierra lately, and probably more coming, so all of a sudden I’m not in as big a hurry to get there right away. If I need to wait out some weather, this is a good place to do it! I think my Humboldt friends are here too. I told them this morning on the trail, “See you in the hot tub in eight hours!” That doesn’t leave me much time.

Cheers

I had a nice camp in the dry arroyo, except for the Rodent Of Usual Size (ROUS) who, before I could find my light, had my bag of RitzBitz half way down its rat hole (I got it back). Little bugger. I peed on his hole when I left but he probably liked the salt.

I hit the trail at 0620, and it was a nice morning, although strangely quiet with no birds. Road walk again today, but at least it’s dirt road.

It was a nice day, probably in the 80’s. Absolutely no shade for miles, so I really lucked out. I think this stretch is often near 100 degrees or more. A lot of people hike this section at night.

Around mid-day I walked into a wind farm. Pretty amazing to be so close to such huge machines.

I had to go about twenty miles to get to the next water. I got there around 1630 and was thinking of walking on another hour, but as I was going down into Tylerhorse Canyon I could see the trail ahead and it looked like this:

Now, I’m pretty good at finding a place to camp pretty much anywhere, but that burned over landscape looked particularly challenging, I was hurting, having already hiked 20 miles, and I only had 16 miles to go to get into Tehachapi tomorrow, so I decided to camp there by the stream instead. Everyone else was camped right where the trail crosses but I hiked downstream a ways and found a nice spot under one of the only trees I had seen all day. And it was good.

Big road walk all day.

It was hot. In the upper 80’s, but that’s not too bad. What was bad was the gnats! I got a lot of arm exercise waving them off. Almost put on my head net, but it was too hot.

I was making good time on the road. I did 18 miles in 7 hours. I only had an hour or so to go to get to Hikertown, when Terri Anderson and my friends from Humboldt drove by and offered me a ride. Hell yes! When I walked out of Green Valley I thought I would walk until my feet hurt, and then maybe hitch. Well, my feet were definitely hurting, so, mission accomplished there.

Well, Hikertown was kind of weird and I hate sleeping cheek to jowl with other hikers, so I rested for a few hours, had some rocks for my whiskey. I hung out with Space Kitty and Goulet. Space Kitty showed us her special powers with chickens (she grew up on a chicken farm, or something). She’s lucky her trail name didn’t get changed to “Space Chicken”. Then I headed back out into the desert.

I was hoping to walk for an hour and camp but, yeah, nothing. Ended up walking for three more hours. But I did find a nice spot in a dry streambed. I am a Hydrologist.

The road walk and my other efforts today have me almost a whole day ahead. I can slow down and take my time into Tehachapi. Except this is no kind of country you would want to spend time in.

Oh yeah, all day my pack has been really heavy because for some reason I have about 8 days of food for a 4 day walk, plus all the water.

There was a scale at Hikertown. I think I have lost about 5 pounds (140), and my pack with all the food and water was 37 pounds leaving. Ouch.

But after two hours rest I felt alright and limped for another three hours! This might be the hottest, most exposed part of the trail so I’m hoping to get up early again and do as many miles as I can before it gets hot.