Category: PCT

Not too much to report today. Basically we spent the day lounging and clapping for hikers as they came in. In the morning Yote and I went to breakfast and got trapped at the Grumpy Bear, a breakfast joint about 3 miles from the general store where we were staying. We took one of the first shuttles out and then they were apparently cleaning the truck so we didn’t get back till late in the afternoon.

A couple games of hearts, Coors Lights, and burgers later it was evening. I had been waiting all day for the shade to reach the large driveway so we could play frisbee. As soon as there was just enough shade for me to stand under on one side and someone else on the other, I asked Yote to play. He agreed and we started tossing it around. Before long we had a rotating group of players having fun running around the dusty parking lot. The highlight of the day was when Vice put a beer bottle on his head and Yote send a disk flying and knocked it off! It was hilarious. Vice is a brave man willing to sacrifice his body for a little entertainment.

Sherpa went to bed as soon as it started getting dark and I spent a few minutes talking with Vice, Boathouse, Bam Bam, Tofu, and two other hikers then we all made our way over to the fire where people were sharing the best moment of the day. I walked up after Vice had just gone and shared the frisbee bottle story and apparently he had just done the same so we got a laugh.

I listened to a few more stories and then headed to my tent where I met Sherpa and before long we were asleep like little hiker babies.

We had an easy day of under five miles today until we reached the big milestone of Kennedy Meadows. Kennedy Meadows marks the end of the 700 mile desert section of the PCT and also is the gateway to the Sierras. After Kennedy Meadows is when we encounter one of the most beautiful yet also potentially most dangerous sections of trail. It is where the “real” mountains begin. It is a big milestone for all PCT hikers and it is tradition for hikers to be greeted by applause and cheering by the hikers already at Kennedy Meadows. We were all excited to reach this milestone today!
The morning hike was easy and quick. We passed the 700 mile mark and took a quick selfie and the five of us walked most of the way together. As we approached the road that goes to the general store (the general store is 0.7 miles down the road from the trail), there was a trail register. We stopped and signed our names (these appear randomly along the trail and are nice to be able to see how far ahead other hikers we’ve met are) and as we did so we noticed a guy in a white pickup truck sitting parked at the road. We dawdled a bit but the guy stayed parked looking at us. When we finally walked out to the road the guy asked if we wanted a ride for the 0.7 miles to the store. We said ok and hopped in the truck, glad to avoid walking any off trail miles. 
We pulled up to the general store and felt a little cheap and guilty to reach the milestone in a car rather than by foot. The driver shouted to the hikers at the store, “what do we do when new hikers arrive?” and everyone clapped and cheered. Not the exact tradition but we will take what we can get. Many of the hikers were actually waiting for the truck because it also shuttles hikers from the general store to Grumpy Bear Restaurant a couple miles down the road. 
There was a bit of chaos as we were arriving and other hikers started jumping in the truck to go to the restaurant. I started getting out but heard Wolf Bird saying he wanted to stay in to go get breakfast. The other three didn’t hear and jumped out only to discover there was now not enough space for them to get back in and go get breakfast. They said they’d catch the next ride and off we went in the truck. 
Grumpy Bears serves all you can eat pancakes, but for almost everyone that amounts to one pancake. The reason for this is that their pancakes are over a foot in diameter! We also got eggs and potatoes and bacon. Tofu and Yote and 2.Toe came along shortly and we had a nice breakfast with them along with an Australian couple we just met, Flash and Sam. 

We hung out for a while until we could get a ride back to the general store. There we spent the rest of the day relaxing and eating and drinking and catching up with other hikers we hadn’t seen in a while. It was cool to have all the hikers in one place, sitting on the porch of the general store for the day. We plan to zero tomorrow as well so we have time to sort out our gear and food from our packages and also so we can get to our next time on a weekday when the post office is open. 
While hanging out we managed to convince Vice and Boathouse, two guys who started the same day as us, to take an extra zero and head out with us on Friday. We had a fun lazy day and drank lots of beer and laughed a lot and played some card games. In the evening we had a fire under a big teepee structure, except it was just the wooden poles of the teepee lacking the actual canvas. It was nice to hang out and hear people tell funny stories etc. We went to bed past hiker midnight at 9 or so. 

We slept in this morning and the rest of the gang went to grab some breakfast while I stayed at our hotel and caught up on our blog and showered and relaxed. We finished up our chores before meeting Far Out at the cafe downtown at noon. He was very patient waiting for us to get our fill of coffee and ice cream before heading back to the trail. We were so grateful that he was willing to drive us back to the trail because it was a 45 minute drive away!
When we arrived at the trailhead we snapped some group photos and gave Far Out hugs goodbye before setting off on our uphill climb to start the afternoon. Luckily it was breezy and cool, making the climb a bit easier. We didn’t have a set destination for the day, but planned to stop and assess at a spring about ten miles ahead. Well actually it was 12 miles but we somehow did our math wrong and thought it was ten miles away until we got there. 
The terrain was already changing into rocky mountains instead of bare sandy desert hills. It was strikingly beautiful and we snapped a lot of photos. We passed Bam Bam on the way to the spring and found out Pebbles is nursing a chronic leg injury and they may be getting off trail, which we were sad to hear. 

We got to the spring around 5pm and debated whether to camp nearby or go another 5 miles to the next water and campsite. We decided to press on and the next five miles went by pretty quickly. We saw a snake too!

We got to the campsite to discover many tents already set up in the woods but luckily found enough space for the five of us. We cooked dinner and chatted. I eventually went to fill up my water at the nearby creek and when I came back I discovered a Smirnoff Ice in my pack!!! I had been betrayed. You see, back in Kernville Tofu had secretly bought a Smirnoff Ice and told me she wanted to “ice” Wolf Bird. If you aren’t familiar, “icing” someone was popular 5-10 years ago and is when you hide a Smirnoff Ice for someone to find and if they find it they have to immediately take a knee and chug the entire drink. I told Tofu that I’d help her get Wolf Bird so I was appalled she would turn the tables and ice me. 
When I discovered the drink, rather than chug it, I made a proposal. I suggested we continue the icing (hiding it in each others’ packs) until town and whoever ended up with the drink in their pack when we get to Kennedy Meadows would be the one who has to chug it. Everyone agreed and so began the distrust within our group! 
After that fiasco we soon went to bed and I already plotted to hide the Smirnoff Ice in Wolf Bird’s pack before setting out in the morning so I could avoid carrying the extra weight. 

Today was an easy day. We only had 8.2 miles to Walker Pass, where we planned to head to Lake Isabella. We had heard good things about Lake Isabella and we were looking forward to a town stop and a resupply. Some people skipped this resupply because it is known as a long hitch. The closest town is over 30 miles from the trail. Some hikers carried enough food from Tehachapi to get them all the way to Kennedy Meadows. We, on the other hand, love light packs and so of course we planned on stopping.

8.2 miles flew by in no time with much of the same desert conditions that we had been experiencing. It was a bit windy, but nothing like the passed day or two. A quarter mile from the road at Walker Pass, we found some hikers and a bunch of trail magic with tons of donuts. This has been an abundant trail!

While Sherpa, Tofu, and I were waiting for Yote and 2.Toe to show up, a Hungarian hiker walked up. He was a hiker I met a couple days ago because he had dropped his water bottle and I chased him down to return it. He was very grateful as we were in supposedly a really dry stretch. Of course there were water caches so he was in no real danger either way. Regardless, he was very scared and now we were good friends.

I could tell he was still not having a good time and he told me in broken English that he was getting off trail at Kennedy Meadows. He said that the PCT was too hard and he was done. It is interesting how different people have such different experiences in relatively the same environments. We all have our own struggles and there are more and more people leaving the trail for this reason or that reason. The snow in the Sierra Nevada is an excuse for many people and I don’t judge  anyone for making the decision to leave. I know it is one of the hardest decisions to live with after the trail.  As a hiker, you have invested so much time, energy, and money towards one aim and you are deciding to give it up. That has a cost of its own that likely weighs on everyone differently but it is significant.

Yote and 2.Toe showed up and the five of us headed to the road.

We were really excited to be at Walker Pass and 

It was SOO windy last night all night long. We’ve had some windy evenings but usually the wind had died down overnight. Not the case last night. Our tent was flapping around and swaying all night long. The wind was so strong that the stakes in Yote and 2.Toe’s tent came out overnight! Luckily ours stayed but we definitely had a restless night of sleep. 

Tofu and Yote and 2.Toe all got up early and were hiking by 4:30AM to try to beat the heat (we’d soon find out it was a surprisingly cool day actually). Wolf Bird heard them stirring and asked if I wanted to get up too and I of course said no at this ungodly hour. We slept for a while longer and set out around 6:30AM. It was still soo windy out. I am not great at estimating wind speeds so I really don’t know how hard the wind was blowing, but we were literally getting blown off the trail by the wind. It took a lot of work to walk into the wind and fight the wind to walk in a straight line. To make matters even more challenging, the trail in this area was all loose sand underfoot. It felt like walking on a beach with our calves burning. That, combined with leaning all our body weight forward to make forward progress as we walked into the wind made for slow going. Wind also makes me uneasy and feel rushed so I felt like I couldn’t even stop to catch my breath or take a break. It was tough mentally but also I had to just laugh a couple of times at how insane these conditions were!

We headed to Bird Spring Pass, 6.5 miles from where we camped, where there was a water cache. We didn’t know if the cache would be stocked (trail Angels from the area leave gallons upon gallons of water there every few days), so we’d packed enough water to get us through a 30 mile dry section just in case. The cache ended up being full but we didn’t even need water since we were carrying so much and drinking so little since it was a really chilly day, especially with the wind. 

After the cache we had a climb that looked intimidating on the elevation profile, going up to about 7000 feet. Thankfully, it turned out to be easier than expected and the hill we were climbing blocked a big portion of the wind making the walking easier. Once we got to the top of the mountain and started descending the other side, the wind was much less intense much to my delight. There were some beautiful views from the top as well. 

We descended down the other side and eventually came upon Yote and 2.Toe napping on the side of the trail. I found it hilarious where they chose to take a break because it was one of the windier spots and they were also laying on a super big slope. It was good to catch them and we stopped and chatted and snacked with them and another guy, Glass Half Full. We hadn’t stopped for a break except for at the water cache because it was so windy and cold, so we’d made good progress. We only had 4.5 miles or so until where we planned to camp… And it was only noon! We obviously could have pushed on further and gone into town tonight (another 7 miles past) but I was in no rush. 

We had a leisurely last 5 miles to the cabin we planned to stay at. Part of it was on a dirt forest service road and some dune buggies drove by us which was crazy. Right as we were nearing the cabin, five 4×4 jeeps passed us, also heading toward the cabin. 

The cabin was a quarter mile off trail and also had a nice spring at it. The cabin itself was dirty and gross with trash and graffiti everywhere. The area around it was nice though, with some shade and also a fire ring and even some chairs (quite the luxury!). Tofu had gotten to the cabin around 1 and was restless since it was around 230 now. I felt bad because we were holding her back… Hopefully she doesn’t hate us too much for being lazy. 

There was about 6 or so guys from the 4x4s milling about and we sort of felt like we had to compete with them for flat tentsites. But luckily four of the six cars decided to leave since it was still early in the day and we didn’t have to worry about it. We set up our tents and had a long and leisurely afternoon. I cooked a mid afternoon meal and Wolf Bird went and chatted up some guys who came in on dirt bikes and scored a couple beers from them, one of which he generously shared. Two of the guys from the 4x4s planned to stay overnight and started building a fire, which was a welcome sight since it was still pretty chilly. We went and hung out by the fire and chatted with the two guys. They were so nice and interested in our hike and also let us wash our hands in their hand washing station and also shared moonshine with us. We met two other thru hikers, Tinkle Master and Totem, and eventually some other thru hikers we already knew also showed up. It was our first campfire of the trail and it was a nice change having time to sit around and relax and chat in the afternoon and evening. We went to bed excited for an easy day to town tomorrow. 

Today was the day of Joshua Trees. Though we started in a beautiful pine forest we eventually descended to the hot desert with Joshua Trees everywhere with large clusters of fruit all over them.

Sherpa and I woke up around 5:30 and I packed up and walked a couple miles into a pine forest and caught up to the three of them at a stream where we filled up our bottles and then moved on. A couple miles later the trail led us to a road crossing where we noticed a can parked oddly and we thought it had wrecked.

When we rounded the corner we saw that it was trail magic! Santa’s Little Helper was there taking time off his hike to do trail magic out of his rental car. He had sodas and snacks and we pigged out for about 15 minutes.  Santa’s Little Helper was telling us he got out at Walker Pass and was waiting for the conditions to improve. He also said he would take a siesta every day under a Joshua Tree.  Both Sherpa and I were thinking to ourselves , “those trees are so small, how can you siesta under those?”

We were on our way and I spent some time chatting with the Jew Crew from Israel. That made the miles to by quickly and it was nice because the heat was kicking up.  After a while Sherpa caught up and we left them under the shade of a large rock.

We hiked a few more miles in the zone and came to Kelso Road where we heard there was a water cache. We all met up and and sure enough the only shade there was a Joshua Tree, where ironically we spent a few hours in the shade.

Sherpa and I were watching a movie when a hiker rolled up with a Mojave Green Rattlesnake in his hand. He said that the snake charged him and he stepped on its head. He was afraid it would bite him so he cut off its head!

I could tell from his tone and my tramily agreed that he was sad and felt he had to do what he did. All in all I am happy he didn’t have a $100,000 medical bill and have to leave the trail. I am sorry that the snake had to die but the outcome was respectable considering the circumstance.

After admiring the Mojave Green we packed up and were on our way. Pretty soon the wind picked up significantly. It was a bit of a grind dealing with such fierce, dry wind.

We arrived at camp pretty early and it seemed at first that our site was out of the wind. After we had spent a few minutes there it was apparent that it just felt sheltered because we had endured such a blustery climb. It turned out to be a very windy spot and it was hard to cook because our stoves kept blowing out.

Tofu and then 2.Toe and Yote showed up and made camp as well. They seemed pretty annoyed with the wind as well. We did our usual heckling of each other and then got into our tents.

Sherpa and I watched the rest of our movie and then switched off our phone and slept like little hiker babies.

We had 10 miles to go this morning to our first water source. The morning was a bit cooler than usual which made for nice walking. We passed the last of the wind turbines and I was so focused on taking a video of them that I almost didn’t notice two deer standing within ten feet of me! It is pretty unbelievable to me that deer live in the desert, since I associate them so much with woods and trees. 

We got to the spring probably around 9 or 930 and hung out for a bit waiting for Tofu, Yote, and 2.Toe. We were debating how much water to carry. The next water source was 18.8 miles away, so usually we’d carry maybe 3 liters for that far. However, if we planned to camp before the next water source we’d need to carry more water so we have enough to cook dinner and drink overnight when usually we get thirsty. Wolf Bird floated around the idea of walking the entire 18.8 miles today–which isn’t too far, but we’d already done ten miles for the day so that would make almost 30 miles for the day! That would be our longest day yet and I was not feeling it, especially since we are trying to slow down a bit to allow the snow further up the trail more time to melt. Wolf Bird asked Tofu when she arrived if she’d be up for walking to the next water source and she said yes, although Yote and 2.Toe were more in my camp when he asked them. For some reason I have to start the day knowing I’m going to have a big mile day. I really struggle with changing my plan to include higher miles when it’s midday. We didn’t really have a set plan when we got back to hiking after getting our water, but I sort of knew that now I felt obligated to do the big miles because it’d been discussed. I was really not happy about it and felt pressured into it and pouted about it for a while. 

I put in my headphones for most of the rest of the day which helped the miles go by more quickly. I listened to almost all of the podcast S-Town, which I had started before trail but never finished. It was a nice change listening to a podcast so it took my mind off my frustrations. Wolf Bird and I walked together the rest of the day with Tofu and Yote and 2.Toe not far behind. We only took two breaks the remainder of the day–we both prefer getting the walking over with so we can have maximum relaxation time. 

It did get hot later in the day and we had some uphill sections, one of which was steeper than most and really exhausted me! At one point we rounded a bend and saw “600” written in sticks on the ground. My immediate reaction was wondering why someone would write that as a joke-it seemed cruel! I really didn’t think we were already at mile 600! It seemed like we were just at mile 500. We snapped a quick picture and I was happy to know (after Yote and 2.Toe pointed out) that finally I had fewer miles than the entire Appalachian Trail remaining. 
We kept pushing to the next water source and finally arrived around 5:30. There were a few people there packing up to hike a few more miles after apparently taking their afternoon siestas. It was nice to arrive at camp earlier than usual and we took advantage by cooking double dinners. Soon Tofu and Yote and 2.Toe showed up and we hung out in our tent (it was cold) and chatted with them as they cooked their dinners. It was a big mile day today but felt doable, although we probably should have taken more breaks so it would’ve felt more leisurely. We went to bed exciting for a more relaxing 20 mile day tomorrow. 

Today was pretty straight forward, or maybe it seems that way because I don’t feel like blogging that much.  Our plan was to neero out of Tehachapi and so we really took our time getting out of town.  I woke up early and ate breakfast at the hotel. We had some time to kill and I needed to do my blog so Tofu, Sherpa, and I went to the bakery and sat and drank coffee. Sherpa and Tofu worked on crosswords with eacbother. Afterwards Sherpa and I went to the pool for an hour or so. Luckily Snoop, Hikerpedia, and Kristen were taking over our room so we were able to hang out in the room until we were ready to go. 

We hung out until 5 and then headed to the road for a hitch. We got a ride within minutes from a guy in a truck. In a classic PCT coincidence the guy that picked us up was the same guy who heckled me for standing up like an old man at the Mexican restaurant the day before. He was really nice and we had a really enjoyable ride out.  He was an avid biker and was telling us about the many nearby mountbiking trails. 
We arrived at the trail and Tofu and Sherpa took off. I turned around and saw Yote and 2.Toe! I waited for them and we chatted for a couple miles until Yote had to pee then I took off and started hiker Excite Bike. I passed a lot of hikers that were carrying enough food to make it to Kennedy Meadows. They were carrying 7 days of food and it looked painful.  I guess we will have to do that soon in the Seira. 

We started out with a pretty steep hike and after a few miles I caught up with Sherpa. She yelled down to me to watch out for the snake. A few switchbacks later I came upon a beautiful and calm King Snake. I shot a quick video and was off again. 

Soon after we came upon Hobo and Caddyshack and they asked what pin I was wearing.  I showed them the pin I made for our trail family shortly after the AT. It says “Vote for Sherpa. She’s the worst!” They thought it was so funny and were so excited. It made me really happy!

When we got to a nice tent site out of the wind we stopped and set up our tent together next to some Canadians just as Tofu, Yote, and 2.Toe showed up. We all joked around ate dinner and went to bed. Sherpa and I, we slept like little hiker babies. 

This was our first zero since taking time off in Idyllwild, so it was a welcome day of rest and relaxation. We slept in a bit later than usual and didn’t do anything too exciting all day. Mostly we just ate (shocking!) and hung out chatting with other hikers. We also went to the post office and a nice local woman drove us there and even waited for us so she could drive us back. Later, we got Thai Food at “Thai Hachapi” (I got a real quick out of the name) and saw Wonder Woman at the local theatre. We went to bed much later than usual at a wild 10PM!