Category: Pacific Crest Trail

Hiked 17.3 miles today.At mile 444.3.

Last night while sleeping I had sore feet. They really ached! It’s strange because they only hurt a little and on occasion while I hiked. I’ve had the same experience earlier in the hike, but with my knees and legs. No problem during the day, but at night, another story. I think it is like when your fingers get cold. They don’t really start hurting until you start warming them. As long as my feet are being used they are okay, but when resting they begin to hurt.

As for physical ailments, I’ve been lucky. All blisters and sore toes went away. The shin splint went away before it really got started. The only thing that continues for now is the sore left shoulder. I think it might really be neck related so I remembered the Ergonomics training we had at AT&T. Yes, you AT&T folks, Corporate Compliance Training can really pay off. 🙂 These were stretching exercises you can do at your desk. Chin tuck, roll head in circular motion CW, then CCW, and most importantly, shoulder rolls. Let’s see whether this regimen helps my sore left shoulder.

I figured out that if I average 18.2 miles per day, then I could reach Kennedy Meadows by May 4th, plenty of time to get back for Maura’s graduation. I’m also coming back for the birth of a grandchild, but I can’t predict that date. My plan is to return to the trail later in May. It isn’t wise to enter the Sierras any sooner, it would only be a slog through snow and cold.

Okay, here is the hike. After seeing Mario early in the day, I didn’t see anyone else on the trail. It’s amazing how you don’t see others, but when you reach a town there are 30 or so people. I’m sharing the the KOA campground in Acton tonight with about 30 other thru-hikers.

It was a clear and warmer day, in fact as I descended to desert it became quite hot. Here are the early last remains of clouds hugging distant mountains.

Growing through the asphalt in the driveway of the Ranger Station, would you believe? A Poodle Dog Bush. They’ve closed parts of the PCT due to this plant. I stopped at the Ranger Station to use the picnic table for lunch. They were also accepting $1 donations for soft drinks. I had a Coke and a Mountain Dew. You might think the P in PCT is for Pepsi, but you would be wrong. All I see being handed out on the trail is Cokes. Not one Pepsi so far. Guess the C in PCT is for Coke.

 

Vasquez Rocks. Tomorrow I’ll get close to these.

The trail

Flowers on the trail.

 

Hiked 17 trail miles today not including trail detour and jaunt to top of Mt Williamson. At mile 400.7

Yes, I’ve hiked 400 miles.

Today the trail detoured down Highway 2 to help save the Yellow Legged Tree Frog. I walked the entire reroute, but that was only because no cars came in my direction during the entire time I was walking 2.7 miles on Hwy 2.

Here is the trail closure.

Here is a lame ski resort named Snow Crest I walked by. The lifts had one seat. It was across the ateeet from the protected area. They can put in a ski resort, but they can’t let us walk through on a trail.

Here is Mout Williamson. I climbed it in the morning.

Tree on a rocky crag on Mt Williamson.

 

Here is a cool plant that seems so geometrically perfectly spherical.

Another Tree with blue sky.

 

Hiked 14.5 miles today. At mile 383.9.

Today I was leaving town so I didn’t get started hiking until 11.30 AM. The big hiking event of the day was summiting Mt Baden Powell.

Getting back to Inspiration Point was easy. A trail angel had lent Wallet his old Ford Bronco and Wallet had been driving all over and taking hikers around town and back to the trail. Cricket and Chaucer were getting in the Bronco so I asked if I could come along. Wallet said, “Come on”. I felt a little bad because Wallet was the guy that I decided not to let share a room at Pine Lodge with Nuts and I. It worked out for him though because he got a free room, board, and car. What a town!

Here is Baden Powell.

It is 4 miles to the summit. There is a climb of 3000 vertical feet over that distance. Making the climb more challenging is the fact that I am carrying new food supplies.

Here is the sign.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a 1500 year old tree near the summit of Baden Powell. The Wally tree.

 

Here is a view back toward Mt San Antonio.

 

 

Here is snow on the trail on the way up Baden Powell.

Hiked 12.6 miles today. At mile 369.3

At Pines Cabins in Wrightwood. Resupply and hiking day.

I think it is funny when the weather forecast is variable winds. What is that supposed to mean? Should I go outside? Today on the PCT, varible winds varied from the two-step-sidestep to the “gravity defying, hey look at me, I can walk on a wall!”

Here is a link to a YouTube video of the wind I experienced.  Video opens in a new tab.

Winds on PCT near Wrightwood

In town resupplying and sharing a room with Nuts. Nuts actually got pretty chilled up on the windy trail. I called Carol the trail angel and she arrived in her pickup truck. After being blasted by cold wind all day we were a little surprised when she said that we would need to ride in the back. At that point we would have considered riding on the hood if it got USB’s into a warm town room. After the wind we had already endured, the pickup ride didn’t seem bad at all.

Nuts is interesting because he uses a blue tarp for shelter. He’s 24 years old and already seen much of the world. Two things we have in common is that we both use tarps and that we both worked at Copper Mountain Ski Resort. We went out to $1.50 taco night and a big PCT thru-hiker crowd was there. They were all getting into town with their wind stories to tell. U-turn sat at our table.

U-turn is a young guy from Belgium who got his name by hiking down the wrong trail for 5 miles before correcting his mistake by doing a U-turn to hike back to the PCT. As he pulls out an assortment of coins to spend on another taco,  He tells me that he learned about the PCT from the movie Wild. He has Euro coins along with dimes and nickels. I joked that he was carrying some unnecessary weight there and that maybe he could get the guy to take a Euro for a taco. He asks me how much of a dollar is his dime and asks the same about his nickle. He finds it strange that a nickel is worth less than a dime even though it is a bigger coin. Before the PCT, he had never hiked or camped a day in his life, yet here he is in a strange country and at mile 369.

Here are the few photos of the day.

 

Hiked 21.1 miles today. At mile 356.7

It was tough miles in the afternoon. I began a 27 mile stretch without water that also climbs from under 3000 feet to over 8000 feet.. Today I completed 3500 feet of that climb while carrying over 7 liters of water. It was down to 5 liters by day’s end. Here is my water layes out at the El Cajon McDonalds.

My left shoulder has been bothering me and I’ve tried a lot of different positions to get more comfort Today I figured out that it helped to hold the arm slightly bent across my front just like the famous Napoleon portrait. In this position I can’t use my poles to assist on the uphill. I focused on relaxing my arm and moving forward so much that I think I was in a trance while automatically climbing the trail.

When I finally reached the first tiny tent site in the side of mountain, I was really feeling the pain. Legs, shoulders, feet. Here is my campsite.

Here is the view in the other direction at my tentsite.

Here is the sunrise this morning. I started hiking at 6 AM and finished later than 6 PM. Long day even with a lot of time spent at McDonalds.

The trail this morning followed sandy washouts. It appeared that the trail could crumble down one of these deep sandy gorges at any time. Wouldn’t want to be there in an earthquake.

In the afternoon I begin climbing mountains shown in distance. Mt SAn Antonio is the one with snow.

Here  is the spooky tunnel under I-15 that the PCT uses.

 

 

Train on the PCT

More flowers