Day 26:

Date: April 27, 2015

Progress: 14.4 miles - Acton KOA at mi 444.2 to dirt road crossing at mi 458.6

Got a late start this morning because I was enjoying the picnic tables at the KOA. As I let my breakfast of Mexican Style Chicken and Rice hydrate, I used the KOA wifi to post some blog stuff. I drank some nice hot chocolate / instant coffee mixture, then got going for the day. 

It was ridiculously windy on the 10.5 mile walk this morning to Agua Dulce, CA, a town through which the PCT travels. So much so that I had to brace with my trekking poles to keep from being blown off the trail at times. I was feeling a little cranky because my hydration bladder was leaking, and my left ankle was hurting. Fortunately, there was some really pretty walking through the Vazquez Rocks Park. 

I got to Agua Dulce, had some lunch, then went to a mexican restaurant for a few piña coladas with some other hikers. I had originally planned on pushing on another 10-11 miles today after Agua Dulce. However, the buildup of fatigue from the large miles I'd done into the KOA and the fact that my ankle wasn't feeling 100% made me change my mind. I joined Thunder Thighs (Nick) and Ice Cream (Laura) and did the 4 miles out of Agua Dulce and called it a day. 

Tomorrow we'll cover the miles to San Francisquito Road and Casa de Luna, Terrie and Joe Anderson's house. They're veteran trail angels, and run a self proclaimed "hippy daycare."

Day 25:

Date: April 26, 2015

Progress: 25.6 miles - Mill Creek Fire Station @ 418.6 to Acton KOA @ 444.2

Today the weather was nice for the first time in what's felt like a while. 

I did a road walk detour around an area known to be infested with large amounts of poodle dog bush (an evil bush that gives some people a painful rash, and is bad enough that you have to go to the hospital). The road walk had some nice views, but the pavement is definitely harder on the feet than the normal trail and I was glad when I rejoined the PCT. 

I covered the last 14 miles of the day a little slower than I've been walking. The past three days I've done 74 miles and I definitely felt the aggregate fatigue set in at the end of my hike today. 

I finished at the Acton KOA campground, where I took a shower, bought some vanilla ice cream, and collected my food package.

Day 24:

Date: April 25, 2015

Progress: 23.1 miles - campground @ 395.5 to Mill Creek Fire Station @ 418.6

After I finished writing my post last night a church group camping trip arrived loudly. They had 27 kids and some giant 15 person tents. They woke me up around 10 or 10:30 and again with their morning hymns or some other singing at 7 am. 

There was a fair amount of climbing on today's hike but overall the miles went by fairly easily. The difficulty was in the cold temperatures because it was so overcast and then the rain later in the day.

I arrived at the fire station wet and tired. Luckily a past year's hiker had brought some trail magic that afternoon. World Peace, Magellan, and Dead Weight arrived one by one and we feasted on tortilla chips, salsa, strawberries and PBR. We're sleeping underneath an overhang on the back patio of the fire house. 

Poodle Dog Bush!!^

Apparently I didn't take many photos today. I think partly because of the cloudy and rainy weather. 

Day 23:

Date: April 24, 2014

Progress: 26.0 miles - Highway 2 crossing @ mi 369.5 to Cooper Canyon Trail Camp @ mi 395.5

Today I woke up in Wrightwood and got my pack together to get ready to go. I got a hitch to the trail from a nice lady named Tracy and her dog. I was at the trailhead and moving by 8:40 or so.

This morning I climbed Mt. Baden Powell, named after the founder of Boy Scouts and admirer of Hitler and Mein Kampf. What an honor. It was quite steep. 

After that I pushed through a thick fog and some light rain to finish my day's hike. I didn't get into camp until about 7 pm. It was still light out then, so I quickly grabbed water from a nearby steam, set up my tent, cooked dinner (chicken teriyaki mountain house), cooked second dinner (instant garlic mashed potatoes), and climbed into my sleeping bag for the night. 

The hike today was long and tiring, but I feel good about the way I paced it. It was my longest day yet and only just short of being my first marathon. Tomorrow hopefully I'll manage 20+ miles again, but I'll just see how much I feel like walking then. 

Day 22:

Date: April 23, 2015

Progress: 0.0 miles - stayed in Wrightwood, CA

Today was a lazy day. I did some productive things like revise my ETAs for the upcoming town stops and go through my pack to get rid of anything I haven't been using. 

I drank lots of water and ate lots of snacks. I also did a lot of not moving. 

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get some good mileage in, making use of my rested body. 

Day 20:

Date: April 21, 2015

Progress: 18.6 miles - campground at 328.5 to tentsite at 347.1

Today began with ominous clouds rolling in as Nick and I exited the campground. They spilled over the mountains in a way that I only remember seeing before in Alaska. Hopefully I somewhat captured it in a photo. 

We were almost out of the campground when a state park ranger stopped us. I thought she was going to charge us $5 for the use of the campground last night, but instead she just gave us an orange. I learned that some rangers are much nicer than a certain one in the Catskills. 

With a pack empty of food, I made quick time over the 13.6 miles to I-15 and Cajon Pass. Once there, I made a stop at McDonald's for a vanilla milkshake and some chicken tenders and a chocolate milkshake. I then walked further down the highway to the Best Western, where I collected my overfilled food package and brought it back to the McDonald's to sort through. 

When I was planning, I thought I'd be hiking slower than I am, and that I would be eating way more food each day than I am, so my maildrops have had way too much food. Not wanting to waste it, I only gave away a small amount of it, and had a very very heavy pack for the ascent out of Cajon pass this afternoon. There is a lot more climbing tomorrow, which will be made more difficult by my giant food bag. I tried to eat some of the heaviest items in my bag tonight to lighten my load. 

It drizzled for a bit today but there wasn't any real rain. However, tomorrow and the next day we ought to get some actual rain. 

I have a trail name now! I actually have had it for a while but I've forgotten to put it on the blog. It's "Mista Blista," and I definitely earned the name. I enjoy the name much more now that the condition of my feet has begun improving. Thanks to Tucker for coming up with the name. 

 

The PCT ran straight through this tunnel, whose end you can't make out when you enter it. Creepy. 

Day 21:

Date: April 22, 2015

Progress: 22.4 miles - tentsite at mi 347.1 to Highway 2 at mi 369.5

Hit my 3 week mark today! I got up early because I knew I had a tough day ahead of hiking ahead of me. My pack was heavy from my food resupply yesterday and from the 6.5 liters of water I started with (there were no water sources on all of my hike today). I had just under 5000 feet of elevation to gain, and 22 miles to cover. And for the first time on the trip we were supposed to get some real weather. 

The "marine layer" of clouds rolled in as soon as I woke up, and it was overcast and cold all day. As I climbed the switchbacks, those clouds eventually surrounded me. At times I was even looking up at blue skies and looking down at the clouds below me. 

At around noon and after about 14 miles of hiking, I'd finally entered the dark and threatening clouds that had loomed in the distance all day. There were a couple minutes where I thought it might be raining, but then I realized that it was actually hail that was coming down. With no way to stay warm in a hail other than to generate my own body heat, I just picked up my pace and kept walking. It was quite cold and it was hailing quite hard. 

I hurried through the last miles of the day and made it to the Highway 2 crossing at about 2:45, where a very nice lady named Megan and her three kids picked me up and brought me into Wrightwood. The town is small and amazingly hiker friendly, with many trail angels around offering places to stay and restaurants and motels offering PCT hiker discounts. 

I am splitting a motel with two other hikers tonight. I took a glorious shower and ate a glorious meal of questionable Chinese food. Tomorrow I'm going to take my first zero mile day, which will be great. 

Day 18:

Date: April 19, 2015

Progress: 15.5 miles - tentsite @ 294.6 to tentsite @ 310.1

Today I walked the 13 miles to a hot spring that is a big day hiker attraction, then hung out there for a few hours. There were a lot of people there which was sort of strange after going long days hardly seeing anyone who wasn't a thru hiker. 

I left there late in the afternoon, found a little beach next to a creek to camp by, and made myself some buttery homestyle mashed potatoes for dinner. Now that I've written this blog post, I'm going to put in my headphones and fall asleep listening to Sufjan Stevens, even though it's only 7:15 and the sun is still up.

Tomorrow I'm hopefully going to make it 20-23 miles. 

Day 17:

Date: April 18, 2015

Progress: 19.6 miles - tentsite @ Van Dusen Canyon Rd. (mi 275.0) to Bench Camp (mi 294.6)

Today I woke up and avoided the cold for a while by staying in my sleeping bag. I knew I had just under 20 miles to cover today and that they weren't super difficult, so I didn't need to hurry out of camp.

At about 9:20, I said goodbye to Tucker who was jumping ahead to see some friends who were driving from LA to visit him. At 9:35 I finally got to hiking, a long time behind two other hikers who had left at 6:30 but were doing the same miles as I was. 

During my lunch break at a dirt road crossing and a stream, I was eating some herb and garlic tuna when about 12 different Subarus rolled up at once. A girl came up to me and offered water, saying that helping out a PCT hiker was on her bucket list. The group was "just a bunch of Subaru guys and Subaru girls going for a cruise in the dirt." They took off hurtling down the dirt road which ran next to the PCT for a few miles as fast as they'd arrived. 

I had hiked quickly and made it to camp just after 5 pm. I had some yummy instant mashed potatoes and a snickers bar for dinner. 

Day 19:

Date: April 20, 2015

Progress: 18.9 miles - campsite @ mi 310.1 to campground @ mi 328.5 + 0.5 mi walk off trail

Today was the fastest and easiest 19 miles I've walked so far, despite the fact that 16 of it had no water sources to speak of. 

I almost stepped on rattlesnakes on three  different occasions, one time actually making contact with it with my foot. I let out a yelp despite the fact that only the snake was there to hear me, and sprinted 30 or so yards before checking back to make sure that there was indeed distance between me and the snake. 

I had some of the ugliest walking so far today (along a highway) and some of the prettiest walking so far (along a big lake). 

Tonight I'm camped at a campground that has potable water! Tomorrow I will cover the remaining 13.5 miles to Cajon Pass, where I'll pick up my food package and get a big milkshake from McDonald's before heading off for a long 27.5 mile stretch of trail without water.