This morning I woke up around 5 AM and did not want to get moving. I wasn’t that tired, but just everything about the atmosphere was trying to keep me in place. I knew I could sleep in as late as I wanted, and I would still wake up before a bunch of people there. Which, at times, could be a pretty dangerous energy. But I have plans in place to do either a nero or a zero on my birthday on Thursday. So I had to get up and get moving.
I didn’t make coffee or anything so that saved some time. I just packed up and then headed over to the bathroom before leaving. I saw a few people this morning who I was hanging out with last night. It was nice to have an opportunity to say goodbye to them. I wish I could’ve seen everyone one last time. This bubble of hikers is incredible. It’s exactly the type of group that I would absolutely love to hike with. I just feel so grateful that I got to spend any time at all with such a massive group of incredible humans.
Right around 5:45AM I was all packed up and hit the road. Quite literally, because the PCT follows along a paved road for a mile or two, then a dirt road for a little bit as well. Over the next couple of hours I wound up walking past a bunch of people who I met yesterday as well. They had all hiked out a little bit earlier than me this morning. It was such a nice change of pace to see familiar faces for ones. It’s nice seeing people in general, but there’s just something really special about seeing someone you know and being able to have an interaction with them.
Walking the road out of Agua Dulce this morning.
Eventually, the paved and dirt road ended, and I was just walking along regular trail for the rest of the day. I had a bit of a climb coming up, which would go on for a few miles. I was feeling really good though and had plenty of energy. I just sat with my thoughts for most of the morning and didn’t listen to anything. It’s funny, this morning I have the same “after Christmas” feeling that I had when I saw my buddy Road Soda in Pennsylvania. The day after he left, I just felt kind of sad and gloomy. Even though I knew I had no reason to be sad. It’s just that seeing him had made me so happy that his absence made me feel sad.
Last night made me so happy that now this morning heading off alone once more felt a little bit sad to me. I love hiking alone and I don’t feel lonely out here. I’m actually having a ton of interactions with hikers and such a great time on this trail. I’m also loving doing the mileage that I’m doing and setting such ambitious goals for myself. But last night was an absolute blast. It would be so incredibly fun to hike out of town with that group of people. I can completely picture it in my mind.
The trail today was really beautiful and the weather could not have been better.
Another version of me on a different thru hike would probably spend the entire rest of the year hiking with some of those people. And I would have a good time doing it. But that’s just not in the cards right now. I’m really not meeting anyone who’s doing more than 20 miles a day. Let alone 25 to 30 miles a day. And right now I’m doing 35 to 40 miles a day! The only people out on trail doing miles like that are the other people doing the calendar year triple crown, the hikers going for FKT attempts, and one guy I know Geo dude who’s doing the great western Loop. Which is another 7000+ mile thru hike so it requires you doing bigger mileage.
Most of the day was spent walking along narrow ridges, such as this one. You definitely have to watch your footing.
I spent a lot of time this morning thinking about how all of that made me feel. And at the end of the day, I definitely didn’t feel sad about hiking out by myself. I just had so much fun hanging out with literally 50 people yesterday. So understandably today I feel a little bit low. But now I’m just excited for the next time that that happens. There are so many hikers up ahead of me. And I have the incredible luxury of moving quickly enough that I get to meet most of them. That’s a blessing on its own as well. There are so many people who I met a week or so ago that will probably never get to meet the amazing group of people that I camped with last night. Moving quickly enables me to see everybody, even if it’s just for a little while.
Today I’m feeling very grateful for all of the wonderful people I’ve met so far along the PCT.
Eventually, I got up to the top of that next climb and I ran into a group of three or four hikers. Then the trail leveled out for a while and eventually brought me past a very small piped spring. I didn’t really need water per se, but there’s a good chance the upcoming water cache is empty. The Trail Angel Summer who I met yesterday told me that she intended to fill it today. But she truly wasn’t sure if she’d be there early enough to fill it before I got there. Past there it’s another 12 miles to the next water source. So I’d rather not risk it. I don’t think it’s supposed to be as hot today as it was yesterday, but I’d rather have extra water than not enough.
The trail winding up one of the next climbs.
After I got water, it was all cruisy flat and downhill to the next road. The time was going by really quickly and I was feeling very good. I was just trying to maintain a nice steady pace and not go too fast. I think it’s very tempting to walk fast when the trail is nice and easy. But I’d rather go a bit slower if I’m going to be walking all day long.
When I got down to the next road, I vividly remembered this section of the trail. There were some chairs set up by the water cache. And there were probably a few gallons of water. More than anything there was just a ton of trash because the trashcan was completely full. There’s also a box where people can cache snacks and soda. I tidied up a bit and sealed the almost overflowing trashcan up. But I didn’t need water, so I decided to leave it for the next hikers, who may not have taken any from the previous source.
Views of the beautiful valley below.
Leaving there I had another climb up from that road. Looking at the map it didn’t seem like it was going to be particularly big. But it wound up being about 1000 feet or so. The temperature today is really perfect though and there are some clouds in the sky. I just cruised on up to the top and enjoyed the nice views along the way. Somewhere near the top I saw a couple hikers sitting and eating. Then maybe an hour later I ran into a few other hikers. I’m curious how quiet the trail is going to be today. After going through such a massive bubble yesterday I wonder if I’m going to pass another bubble soon. Or if the trail is going to be pretty quiet between here and Tehachapi.
it will never get old hiking through the desert with so many beautiful wildflowers.
When I was about 17 miles into the day, I passed a hiker who I met last night! I’m so sorry, but for the life of me I cannot remember his name. But him and I were talking yesterday because he was storing his film in the refrigerator. I don’t know a lot about photography so I was curious about that. He was really nice and we talked a few different times over the course of the night. Apparently he got up really early this morning and started walking before 5 AM. At this point, he was already about 17 miles in for the day too. There is another water source maybe 7–8 miles ahead which he’s probably going to camp by. Because he’s waiting for a box to be delivered to Hiker town.
A water cache that I passed toward the end of the day. There was hardly any water inside, but I didn’t need any.
When I’m doing mileage like that, I love to get up early and get it all out of the way. It would be so fun to get to camp around 3 PM and just get to relax for the rest of the day. Especially with such a big bubble behind you. It’s a given that a bunch of other hikers are gonna show up to camp with you. That way you can get there first and grab a great tent spot. Then just relax for the rest of the day and wait for all the other hikers to arrive. That sounded like a really nice day to me.
I continued on after that just heading generally towards this next water source. Which is a fire station that has picnic tables and allows hikers to camp off toward the side. I’ve never camped there before, but I have stopped off there a couple different times to get water. On my way there I passed one other hiker who was stopped off eating a lunch. He also looks super familiar and I wondered if I had met him yesterday. But we didn’t really talk. I just walked on by.
A little while after that, I met another hiker who I definitely did see last night. He was hanging out and then wound up hiking out sometime after I got my tent set up. I wanna say his name was Jeff, but I’m sorry if I’m wrong. I know for a fact, it starts with a J though. My brain is just completely jumbled right now with names. I don’t think I’ve ever met more people in a 24 hour period in my life. That guy though was super nice and basically just told me that he was rooting for me. It’s too bad that pretty soon I’ll be completely passed this group of familiar faces.
There were a bunch of people hanging out last night that wound up hiking out in the evening. Just because it was so busy and they wanted to get a bit ahead of the Bubble. It’s also been super hot so hiking in the evening sounds great. I would imagine within the next couple of hours though I’ll probably be past that threshold and won’t be seeing any more familiar faces. Though I do know of a few people up ahead of me who I’ve met on other thru hikes in the past, so I’m excited to hopefully cross paths with them. It really just depends if I wind up going straight through the Sierra or if I flip back out east in a week or so. I haven’t decided yet and I’m just waiting to see how snow levels are by the time I get to Kennedy Meadows south.
A warning sign just along the trail.
Those next couple of hours heading down to the fire station were really nice and easy. I listened to music and sang to myself. Then tried to drink a bunch of water so that I could fill more up when I got there. From the fire station, though, it was only going to be about 7 miles to the next water source. And there was actually another water source just past there as well. I have to fill up at one of those two for the night. Which means doing a little bit of elevation gain with full capacity of water. But the climb actually looks pretty gradual.
It was around 2 PM when I got down to the next road. The fire station is visible from the trail and only may be a few hundred feet away. While I walked over to there, I passed another hiker who was walking back to the trail. Then I filled up a bottle and a half to get me through to that next water source. At this point in the day, a ton of clouds have rolled in and the temperatures were super comfortable. Which was nice because I had a bit of a climb coming up off of that road. Though it was short and sweet and surprisingly, not very steep. If the climb later in the evening is anything like this one, then it’ll be a nice way to end the day.
When I was making my way up this climb after the fire station, the wind had really picked up. And the sky was pretty dark and cloudy. I was getting whipped around by the wind, but it didn’t seem like it was going to storm or anything like that. I got up to the top pretty quick and then crossed over a road and the trail leveled out for the next couple of miles. I wound up passing that hiker who I had seen by the water source. Then just continued walking along a pretty flat ridgeline for the next few miles.
The rest of the day was fairly nice and easy. The biggest struggle was looking out for a dog bush, which was ever present throughout the area. Poodle dog bush is just a plant that generally pops up after fires pass through an area. Some people can have very severe skin reactions to it. It can cause blistering reactions much worse than poison ivy. I just tried to avoid touching it and basically every other plant. But without having ever touched it, it’s hard to say if I would be reactive to it.
After riding along the ridge for a while, eventually the trail drops down to the next water source. I got there around 5 PM give or take. This should be the last water source for the day besides a very slight stream a mile and a half ahead. But I figured this source looks so good I would just fill up and not have to worry about it later. Even when I’m dry camping I really only ever fill up 3 1/2 L at most. That typically gives me enough to cook dinner and have a hot drink in the morning. And still drink water over the rest of the day and the next morning. If it was a lot hotter today, I might have carried more for the climb from the water source. But because the temperatures have been so cool today, I really haven’t been drinking a ton of water.
The climb coming up from the source was pretty steep at times. I think it started very gradual and then picked up a lot towards the middle. It went on for about 3 miles but wasn’t too bad. Especially with how tame the temperatures were today. I was just excited to make my way up to the top, because that meant I was getting closer to camp for the night.
Once I got up top, I had another couple of miles before I came to the first tent site. This is the only one which was described as having any decent spots. But it’s 3 mile short of my goal for the day. And honestly, when I walked by, there were so many people set up there that I wasn’t even sure I could have fit my tent in. That made things simple and the choice was made for me. I was just going to push on to the next site and hope that there are actually places to set up. Even when people complain that the tenting throughout an area isn’t great, there’s usually always one small tent site here in there.
The sky looked beautiful as the sun slowly began to set this evening
And as I continued along for the next couple of miles, I saw a bunch of sites just off the trail. Sure, there was a lot of poodle dog bush in some places. But it would’ve been very easy to set up far enough away from it that you didn’t have to worry. I didn’t really start contemplating picking a site until I got closer to my original destination. Then once I was about a mile out from there, I kept my eyes peeled. There wound up being a really nice flat spot surrounded by some higher hills.
The wind was actually really bad as I was getting closer to camp for the night. My biggest concern no longer was if I could find a tent spot, but if I could find one where the wind wasn’t whipping. Lucky for me this spot was just protected enough to make it work. I was only a half a mile from the spot I originally intended to make it to today. That’s only the difference in 10 minutes of walking, so I decided to just stop and not risk having to go even further for the day.
I got my tent and everything set up. Then it got inside and boiled water to make a mountain house meal. I made the beef lasagna which is one of my favorites. It hits every single time. Then I did my stretching and managed to do a little bit of writing and video work.
I’m hopeful to be very productive tomorrow because of all of the flat hiking in the aqueduct portion of the day. I would love to be completely caught up with at least my blogs and short videos by the time I get to town two nights from now. That way I can really fully enjoy my day as much as possible. And keep actual work to a minimum.
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