I think I have some insight now into the pull of the trail. It all comes down to a very simple equation: Time Walked = Distance Traveled. And since distance is a big part of it, every minute spent walking is progress. Every step! You get a little pat on the back every minute you keep moving. Which is awesome, and addicting.

Of course, there is the dark, other side of that. Taking a break is not progress. Stopping to mess with your pack is not progress. Stopping to eat, stopping to take a pebble out of your shoe, stopping to take a picture: Not Progress.

It gets to where you don’t want to stop for anything, and as soon as you do, you feel it. What’s wrong? Why are we stopping? We should get moving again soon. Only when I am in camp am I released from the Pull of The Trail.

The other thing I’ve been thinking about and meaning to mention, was last weekend in Big Bear was about 266 miles. Which is to say, I’ve hiked over ten percent of the trail! But I have very mixed feelings about it.

I’m glad that I have come so far so fast. It certainly seems like I have a good chance of actually pulling this off. Ten percent is nothing to sneeze at.

But I’m also like, what? One whole tenth down and only nine tenths to go? Maybe it sounds crazy, but it’s like the beginning of the end somehow. I’m not ready for this to end by a long shot!

Maybe I’ll feel different in a couple months. Guess we’ll see.

Here’s a look at my boulder camp looking west:

BTW, if you’re wondering what the background music to the Pacific Crest Trail is, it’s a jet flying over at 30,000 feet. I seem to be constantly under some flight path.

(I was going to call this post A Good Day until the end part)

I had a great night in my little stealth camp. It was super quiet and safe feeling. I slept in until 0630 and took a whole hour to pack up. I had no place to go and plenty of time to get there, so I just started walking real casual like, and the morning was beautiful!

Then after about an hour, I started walking into an old burn.

But the trail was cruiser so I just glided along. I walked six miles in two and a half hours, then 12 by 1330. Much of the trail was down Holcomb Creek, which was kind of pretty.

Up until then, I hadn’t had to carry much water, which was probably why I was feeling so good and making miles. At mile 12, I had to load up for a 16 mile stretch plus camp/dinner. Opted for five liters and some change. That extra 12 pounds or so was incredibly noticable, to eschew profanity. My feet hurt almost instantly. My pace dropped to “plod”. And I was tired. And the worst part was slogging up out of that canyon with all the gnats! Buzzing in my face. It’s a miracle I didn’t hit myself in the face with a trekking pole trying to wave them off.

I was planning to hike until five, but I could barely make it to 1630. Also, there were some nice boulders for stealth camping there, and it looked like camping up ahead in the next few miles might not be as good. So, bird in the hand and all that.

I’m near Mile 297, so 17 trail miles today. I’ve been walking west toward this mountain range all day. The San Gabriel’s? I’m not too good at my So Cal geography and I’m not learning much out here in the woods. What do you think?

Anyway, I’m hidden away in a clump of boulders. Not quite as nice as last night, but it will do. Here’s a view from camp looking back to where I was this morning:

Going by Deep Creek Hot Springs tomorrow. We’ll see how many drunk naked local people are there. I should probably take a soak, but if it’s crowded at all, I think I will pass.

I got up about 0730 and had a leisurely pack up. I have diarrhea again (I had a touch in Idyllwild), but at least I have a toilet. I’m always so much healthier in the woods. I don’t know what it is about town. Too many people too close together!

I walked 1.2 miles to the Post Office to get my bounce bucket and package. Glad to see that bucket! I was out of one of my prescription medications. I also scored some good backpacking dinners I was hoping were in there. I bounced the bucket up to Wildwood which means I will have another forced zero while I wait for the Post Office to open on Monday. Not that I probably won’t need a zero by then, but I’m thinking the bounce bucket will not bounce all the way to Canada. We’ll see.

After the Post Office I went to the grocery store and got some supplies including some huge apples and oranges. I know I will love them later this week, but man, my food bag is heavy with six days of food! My longest leg yet. The rule of thumb is two pounds of food per day, and I’m sure I have at least 12 pounds. I’m not super scientific with my food. I get a dinner for each night and a bunch of snacks and throw it all in my food bag and hope for the best. Usually, I have a pound or more left when I get to town. I’m just not that hungry. I don’t know where my hiker hunger is, but I seem to be doing fine.

After loading up with food, I walked a half mile or so to get to a better place to hitch. I got picked up in about ten minutes by a local who was headed to my trailhead for a day-hike. When I got picked up there to go into town on Saturday, just as I picked up my pack to throw it in the bed of the pickup, my favorite pink hankerchief broke loose and blew across the highway into the weeds, but I was too cold and tired and glad to get a ride to care. It occurred to me to look for it when I got back today, and there it was hung up in the guardrail!

I hit the trail around 1030. It was nice to be back.

For a while I had a view of the desert off to the east.

The trail was pretty easy today, and I just took an easy stroll all day. My left heal hurt from the time I got out of bed, and my right heal wasn’t too far behind. But I walked until six and got 14 trail miles in.

Mostly the trail was on the other side of the mountain from civilization, which was nice and quiet. Around four the trail turned to the other side and I took a nice break overlooking Big Bear Lake.

Then I walked until six and found a nice stealth spot on this knob of a ridge. Should be nice and quiet. If I stand up, I can see the lake!

I think tomorrow I go through a big burned area with the dreaded Poodle Dog Bush. I had never heard of this plant before reading PCT blogs, but apparently it can give you a bad rash similar to poison oak. Unlike poison oak, I don’t think it spreads by nasty oils, I think it’s tiny spines more like stinging nettle. I think my long pants and shirt will protect me. I’m not too worried.

(Post Trail Edit: “two pounds a day”…”usually a pound or more” when I get back to town. So, what? A half a day’s food? That actually seems about perfect. It’s really not good to run out of food or water, and you never know if you might get delayed.)

I did some magic for a thru-hiker named Lucy, aka “Busted”, and all that karma came back to me in spades today when she taught me how to imbed photos into my blog! Check it out!

  
Pretty cool! I spent so much energy and stress over the photo thing, and I couldn’t be more grateful to Busted for showing me the way. Turns out there is an app for that. Good to know.

Anyway, hopefully I’ll have more colorful blog posts from here out. Thank you Lucy!!!

Honestly, I could be having more fun.

Of all the many reasons I left my comfortable life and headed out to hike the PCT, now that I am out here two reasons in particular seem to be the most important for me. The first is to spend time alone in the wilderness. The second is to push myself hard physically.

If you’ve been following along you know I’ve been doing great on the second one. Three 20’s in a row! Clearly, I’m not dead yet and my body is capable of athletic achievements not unlike the days of my youth. I’m hoping the pain and fatigue will diminish over the next few weeks, and this will certainly make me a happier hiker. I’m still pushing this old body all the way to Canada.

The first desire, to be alone in the wilderness has been a lot harder to satisfy. Mainly, I don’t feel like I am in the wilderness at all with so many people around. Even when no one is in sight, there is always the expectation that someone could come around the corner at any moment. This is very different from the wilderness areas near where I live where you can go a week or more without seeing anyone. I also work in the woods a lot out in the middle of nowhere. It’s not technically wilderness, but there’s no people, that’s for sure. It’s a whole different mind-set when you know you are totally on your own and there is not anyone to help you if something bad happens. Totally different.

So, I know two things: one, the crowd should gradually thin out as I get closer to Canada; and two, there is a huge herd of hikers behind me. Both of these things make me want to hike fast and stay in front of the pack to enhance whatever wilderness experience I can find.

But hiking full speed doesn’t allow for breaks and leaves me a little stressed like I’m being pushed down the trail. I either need to hike faster, so I can get in the miles and still have time for reflective moments, or do fewer miles and let The Herd gain on me.

For sure this next week I’m going to ramp it down a little and let my body rest a little. It’s 104 miles to Wrightwood. I’m planning on six days, which is a casual 15.5 miles per day. I could try for five 20’s, but I don’t think I’m quite up for that. I’d much rather hike for time than distance. I’d rather hike for, say, 10 hours, at whatever pace and with however many breaks and get where I get, than have to hike to a certain point no matter how long it takes (like last week).

Now, it could all come together wherein I am feeling good and hiking fast and just happen to cover huge miles by the allotted time. We’ll see. The pull of the trail is strong and there is always more miles begging to be hiked. And I can’t deny that the urge to stay well ahead of The Herd is strong in me. I’m really not happy about this competitive aspect of the trail. It’s not something I’m used to in the wilderness, but I know if I get overrun and start seeing 20 people a day on the trail it will really diminish my enjoyment of the experience.

So, it’s kind of tough. My goals and desires are even in competition with themselves. I’m trying to figure out how to get what I want from this hike. Maybe my desires will change as I get farther along, which is fine. For the immediate future I’m going to try a little more relaxed pace and see how I like that. I’m honestly hoping that an easy week will be just what I need to get my trail legs under me and then I can hike some big miles without painfully slogging down the trail 12 hours a day just to stay ahead of everybody. I think it’s a good plan, and will hopefully lead to the fulfillment of all my PCT desires. It’s worth a try.

I’ll get this figured out. A thru-hike is what you make it. I hope if I can be honest with myself about what I want, I can make it happen. Looks like I will need to let go of the solitude in the wilderness thing. There’s too many people for that on the PCT. Ironically, I can get more of that at home. But maybe if I stay fast, stay a little bit ahead, it will be enough.

I think these last three days should be covered in a single post, since it was all pretty much one big effort.

I woke up Thursday still on the lowest flank of Mount San Jacinto. I started hiking before sunrise and it took me a half hour or so to reach the valley floor, where I met the wind. Lots of windmills around here and I can see why.

By nine I was at Ziggy & The Bear’s (a Trail Angel house) to get some water. I didn’t stay long. I had an orange, got my water, signed the registry (hiker 319 this year), and hit the trail. I felt the need to get some miles in, and I was glad I did.

About and hour later I entered Section C, and there was a sign with distances on it. I realized that despite the six miles I had already done, I still had 54 miles to go to get to Big Bear by Saturday. I haven’t been doing big enough miles the last two days. I need to do 20 miles today, and tomorrow, and the next day to make it. And if I was really good, I’d make it to Big Bear by two o’clock on Saturday to get to the Post Office before it closed. I didn’t think I could go that fast but I decided to give it a try, and thus began my race to Big Bear!

Thursday was pretty hot and the trail had a lot of elevation (up and down), and my feet hurt most of the day. A slow slog, especially the last few miles, but I got my 20 in. Camped in the streambed of Mission Creek not far from the water. My feet hurt really bad for a few hours after I stopped and I wasn’t sure how I would make it tomorrow.

But when I woke up around six, a miracle had occurred and I could walk again! It was a nice morning and a gradual uphill up Mission Creek for nine miles or so. Then the climb began. The rest of the day was uphill, sometimes steeply so. Now my feet were hurting and my legs were tired and it was slow going. But I just kept walking.

Around three I was back up in the trees and there was a cold wind blowing. I put on my long johns and kept walking. Soon, I was in the clouds too, whispy fog blowing sideways through the trees creating fog-drip.

I passed a tent pitched right on the trail around 1600, which was odd. So, I asked if anyone was home and were they alright? Turns out they were not alright, having been puking for most of the day. An older hiker, he said he thought the puking was over but he was having trouble eating any of his trail food. I gave him some Nilla wafers, which I use to nibble on when I’m feeling sick, but need to eat. I saw him later in town and he said they were just the thing he needed. I was glad I could help him.

It began to get late, and I was very tired and stumbling down the trail. All I wanted to do was camp, but there was nowhere, and it was cold. Too cold to stop. I kept thinking, “Just go down! I don’t want to camp up here!” But the trail kept going up.

Finally, after 12 hours of hiking I made camp right about 20 miles from where I started. It was close to freezing, winds 40 with gusts to 70, and not much cover, but I found a clump of bushes that blocked the wind at ground level pretty well. I don’t have a tent, so at least that wasn’t sticking up in the wind. I bedded down quickly and had a small meal.

It was really cold that night. I would say that my gear was “adequate”. I mean, I lived right? I certainly wasn’t that comfortable. The winds died down to 20 with gusts to 40 around ten and the clouds disappeared so I could see the moon and stars. But it was bitter cold.

The other problem I had was my feet and hips were hurting so bad when I lay down that it was downright distracting. I couldn’t find a way to lie that didn’t hurt, and it made it hard to get to sleep.

I woke up at 0535 and peeked through my little breathing hole and saw that the wind had picked up again, and the clouds were back with the fog drizzle thing. I had just one thought, “I need to get the fuck off this mountain now!” Fastest pack up ever. I just shoved everything in my pack (no stuff sacks) and I was on the trail by 0550. No gloves, my fingers were so cold and stiff. I was glad I didn’t have to deal with taking down a tent.

I walked about two minutes when I came upon a Forest Service cabin. It looked locked up and I was too cold to check it. But it would have been nice to know about last night. Maybe I could have got inside somehow, but at least I could have used it to block the wind. I’m sure it would have been better than the bushes.

My feet had rejuvenated again over night, which was good because even with all my clothes on, I was freezing and needed to hike fast just to stay warm. The PCT provided me with a nice early morning climb, although I was still thinking down might be good to. I wanted off the mountain bad, and I hiked as fast as I could.

As I was pondering whether since it was very windy, yet there was still frost on the ground, that meant the air temperature was still below freezing, it started to snow. Not real heavy or anything, but it was snow, and it was blowing in my eyes, which was bothersome.

Twenty miles, around 4000 feet of climb and 7000 of decent today. Very cold and VERY windy all day with temps in the 40’s. Hypothermia weather. This more than anything made me move fast all day. I got ten by ten and 20 by 1440. That’s right, 20 miles in just under nine hours with one half hour break. I had to get out of there!

Had to hitch into Big Bear City, which sucked. As soon as I got to the highway this other guy showed up and then this woman, and I thought my chances of getting a ride were getting slimmer (a single hiker is more likely to get picked up than a group). The thing was, it was still in the 40’s with ripping wind, so it was very cold waiting for a ride. Plus my feet hurt like hell and I could hardly stand up. Finally, a local couple stopped for us. They only had room in the bed of their pickup, but it was actually less windy riding back there than where we were waiting.

So, I got driven to the Motel 6, where my Dad had made me a reservation, and am now safe and dry. Even here in town it is very cold and light rain, so I am very glad to be off the trail!

I can’t believe I just pulled three 20’s in a row! I’m not sure what this means for the future, because I can’t say the last three days were exactly fun. I pushed myself to my physical limit pretty much every hour for the last three days. All you folks back home thinking I’m on “vacation”, yeah, not so much. Something’s got to change.

I’ll have a more introspective post tomorrow. For now, I need to get cleaned up and get a burrito from the place across the street.

A very cold night up on Fuller Ridge! In Idyllwild, I sent away all my tent and bought a bag liner and bivy sack instead. I don’t know what the net change to my base weight was, but I’m really glad I did it.

I don’t know how cold it got, I don’t have a thermometer, but it was probably in the mid-twenties. I had a nice crop of ice on the outside of my bivy, and a layer of “snow” on top of my bag (between my sleeping bag and the bivy sack). I brushed the snow off my bag and it was otherwise pretty dry. All my water bottles were frozen solid. I left camp with four liters of ice.

All downhill today. I thought it would be Cruiser Trail but no. As the guide book says, this part of the trail is 4 miles as the crow flies, but 16 miles on the PCT. The trail drops 6000 feet. Plus all the ups. Why ups when you’re going down? Well, you couldn’t fit in as many switchbacks, silly!

Feet felt good until about noon. Afternoon was a slow slog like always. Got to the water fountain at the bottom in the late afternoon. There were a few hikers there but I hiked a ways off trail to find a quiet spot away from everything, except the wind. My desert companion.

I slept in until 0730. It was a nice bed in a nice room, I didn’t want to get up. But I did, and my German neighbor and I got a ride at 9 to the trailhead. On the way we picked up Andy & Alison, so I started Devil’s Slide Trail with three friends and three others.

Naturally, I went really slow and everyone was ahead of me, but as the day wore on, because I don’t take much breaks, I ended up passing almost everyone.

That’s when I realized I still had the room key in my pocket. A key with a big brass fob. I was thinking of not carrying that to Canada, and where I could maybe mail it back. But then I saw a guy, looked like a day-hiker, and yes, he lived in Idlywild and would take the key back to the Silver Pines. The Trail provides.

Seems like it was uphill all day. You would think that you were up, even go down a few hundred feet, and then go up for another hour.

I found a campsite on Fuller Ridge about 1730. It was cool, I could see off to the west over a sea of clouds below, and off to the desert to the east. I could see the hikers on the trail, but they wouldn’t see me unless I said, “Hi”.

A nice quiet camp in the mountains. MP 188.44 for those of you keeping track.

I’m posted up at the Silver Pines Lodge in Idyllwild and this place is just lovely. I can’t imagine a better place to take a zero. The facilities and grounds are wonderful and the staff has been extremely helpful. I got some reading glasses for free (apparently, this is a common item left behind by guests). They let me do a load of laundry for free. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a quiet place to rest.

I would love to say that I sat on the porch all day and watched the squirrels and bunnies, but a zero isn’t like that. A zero just means you hike zero PCT miles. It was still a busy day.

I slept in until 0730. Naturally, I left all the windows open overnight so it was kind of cold  inside when I woke up (50F?). After I got up, I went back under the covers to check all my emails and Internet stuff I had missed.

Around 0900 I headed down to the Red Kettle for breakfast. Within two blocks I was flagged down by some hiker friends and we talked trail for a few minutes. Then when I got to the Red Kettle there were six more of my trail friends. And I proceeded to see them again and again all day at the gear shop and the post office and the pizza place.

The Post Office is less than a quarter mile away, but I had to go there three times today. Apparently, they lost my Bounce Bucket. This required quite a bit of “out of the bucket” thinking, but I did manage to mail off my tent and rain pants to a safe home, and send a new bounce box with the maps, guide book, town clothes that I just bought, shampoo & conditioner I just bought, and some food I don’t need to carry. Feels like that was a close one and I’m glad I figured it out so well.

Tomorrow, Silver Pines Lodge is going to give me and my German neighbor a ride to the trailhead. We have to take Devil’s Slide Trail up to meet the PCT. I think it’s like five thousand feet in 2.5 miles. And we might have to carry 20 miles of water plus our full food resupply.

And then, the top of Mt. San Jacinto is only two or three miles off trail. I think I might go up there too. Sounds like a lot of up tomorrow. And there’s weather coming in too. Maybe thunderstorms. Maybe snow on us if we don’t get over that mountain fast enough.

Hopefully, all the town walking today will still feel like a rest day to my feet tomorrow. Whatever happens, this was a great zero, just like I pictured it, and I’m ready for whatever lies ahead.

Let’s do this!

I woke up at Tunnel Springs around 0530 and hit the trail by 0610. It was cold (fingers were cold and stiff) but I wanted to get that climb back to the trail done before it got hot. Once again the restful night had done a miracle for my feet and I was surprised how good they felt. Turns out I needed everything I could get…

The climb back up to the PCT was just the start. The trail proceeded to climb for the next three hours. I’m constantly amazed at the trail’s ability to climb. You think you can’t go any higher, and then you turn the corner and there’s more. I don’t let it get to me. Some people talk about pointless ups and downs (“PUDs”), but for me the trail is what it is. When it goes up, I go up, and when it goes down, I go down. It just IS. This is the PCT. This is the trail to Canada. If you want to say you hiked from Mexico to Canada on the PCT you have to go over that hill, or down into that canyon and back out. No sense complaining about it.

By the time I got to the top there was a spectacular view.

A lot of people skipped this section and hitch-hiked to Idyllwild from the Paradise Valley Cafe. I don’t understand this. Why come out here to hitch your way ahead? Why not hitch all the way to Canada, if you want to make it easy on yourself? I came here to walk.

That said, part of the PCT is closed for Fire rehab, so I took the official detour. Down down down everything I had climbed and more. And very rocky and slow going. Then I found myself walking down this paved road toward the highway. I had no idea if I was even on the right road (Turns out I was not. I didn’t have a map for the detour and went the wrong way). Cars came by about once an hour, most going the wrong way to hitch. Nothing quite like walking a desolate road in the desert, not sure where you are, where you might find water, or how far you need to go. All that rocky down and now 4 miles of pavement was hurting my feet. Finally, some older women took pity on me and gave me a ride to the highway.

I had planned to walk the whole detour, but the road walking hurt me. Also, I had directions for the detour, but no distances. I didn’t know how far I had left to go, but I knew I wanted to sleep in Idyllwild tonight. I decided to try hitch-hiking for a half hour and see how it goes.

That was a really good idea! I thought I was four or five miles away, but it was closer to 20! And within 10 minutes a vehicle pulled over to give me a ride. It was Dan from Mike’s Place party! So glad to get that ride! I had to squeeze into the back with the packs and the dogs, but whatever. I want to say I walked from Mexico to Canada, but if the trail is closed and I skip the 20 mile road walk? Yeah, I think I’m cool with that.

Got to town around 1330. Took me a while wandering around but I found a nice quiet room on the edge of town, but still close. I think this will be a very relaxing place to rest for two nights. I ventured out and have aquired town clothes, beer, pizza, shampoo, conditioner, foot powder, Darn Tough socks, reading glasses, and some DVDs from the hotel library, so I’m ready to chill. Really, I did over half my town chores already so tomorrow should be very restful.

I’ve got a nice room with a small deck where I can watch the squirrels and rabbits and listen to all the birdsong. There’s a small creek at the bottom of the yard. My neighbor is a cool hiker from Germany who also likes to drink and smoke on the back deck, so I get to practice my German ein bischen. Life is good.

See that paper sticking out of my pocket? That’s my water report. Before I left town I would research where I would get water for the next section and make a little cheat sheet to keep handy in my pocket. In this case, I probably had directions for the detour on the other side. Directions, but no distances or map.