Dear readers- Here’s the third edition of my top-secret weekly trail diary!
I’ve been posting my journal daily, cell service-permitting, On Instagram @alandanielchapman
Please forgive any misspellings, etc. I’m using voice to text and fat thumbs to write this on my phone, while also trying not to fall off mountains.
Day 15 // Miles today: 15.2, Total: 389.2
Woke up in Wrightwood and began assembling gear and food for after my family and I part ways again. I was able to go for a run with my wife, where we were able to share the big feelings that we’ve been having. First cry of the trip.
Got a ridiculously large breakfast at the grizzly Café, and felt gross for a while afterward, but that could’ve possibly been due to the sinking feeling of having to leave my family. We played some card games until it was time to drop me off and I held back tears on the car ride and upon starting my watch.
Started climbing from the Fenner prison about 12:15, 2 bonus miles before regaining the PCT 1 pm and continuing to climb up Mount Baden Powell. Reunited with Nick, chickadee and Natalie who I met walking into Wrightwood two days ago. Hung out with them eating some snacks for about 15 minutes on the top of Baden-Powell enjoying the view.
Worked my way west along the crest of the San Gabes for the remainder of the afternoon. Fantastic parts of the mountains that I had not experienced when I lived in Pasadena. Felt good to be back on trail, but the day was infused with the melancholy of heading back into the wilderness without my family.
Got water for the evening at little jimmy spring and continued another 5 miles to camp where more friends from a couple days ago were already set up: Mustard packet, mugshot, and MJ! Had some cold soaked Cuban bean bowl with m&ms for dessert, brushed teeth, and went to bed at 8:30 with the rest of the party animals!
View from the top of Mount Baden Powell
Day 16 // Miles today: 31.9, Total: 421.1
The thing I love about camping with mustard packet and mug shot is that they are on the same schedule. we were all up at five for coffee (Folgers in comparison to Trader Joe’s instant coffee is trash). Was able to pack up quick and get walking by 5:30 and reached the Williamson rock closure (closed due to endangered frogs) by six, where I enjoyed a nice pit toilet on the side of the Angeles crest Highway. My wife finds it funny that every day provides the circumstances of my morning poop, but I just think it’s a critical and noteworthy part of the day.
Trail Magic at cloudburst Summit – thanks so much, Jing! More Trail Magic – watermelon and cookies – at Camp Glenwood. And the most magical of trail magic was Kelly and the kids meeting me at three points along Angeles crest Highway. They fly out this afternoon and I won’t see them for another three weeks but being with them out here was so appreciated. I did as much as I could to camel up on their presence in anticipation of missing them lots.
Stumbled Westward through the hot and peak sun part of the day. As I did the skin on every finger and thumb tip peeled away – aside from my nose and cheeks this is the only part of my body exposed to the sun. This has happened to me. If anyone has any sunburn prevention tips for digit tips I’m all ears.
At the last natural water source of the day I met a fellow geologist PM (perpetual motion), who I had heard about from others.
Topped up on 3 L of water next to the mill creek fire station and used my second highway-adjacent pit toilet of the day. Continued on to camp at mile 421 (yes, mile 420 was labeled on the trail side before camp). Set up quick between two tents, on the nicest remaining flat area that no fewer than three people had recently peed on, ate rice and beans that Kelly brought me, and called it a day.
Day 17 // Miles today: 33.3, Total: 454.4
I never met them, but I spent the night next to a French couple. The woman would say something and the man would fart. I maybe heard him say one or two actual words the whole time.
Woke up at the usual 5 AM. This time I began the day with care to my right heel, which has not responded well to the new shoes I started wearing two days ago. I painfully removed existing tape, lanced new blood filled blisters, and covered the situation up with new tape then tried to heel lock the fuck out of my lacing system. We’ll see if this does anything to decrease the mobility of my heel in these shoes. It needs to because the situation is getting bleak.
Got moving by about 5:45 with a slight limp. Goal today is to make it to serenity oasis in Aqua Dulce where I hear you can soak your feet in Epsom salts.
After two hours of sidehilling the need to poop overcame me. Finally found a secluded spot off the trail to jettison the feces as the situation became an emergency. Dropped my bidet bottle cap and watched it bounce about 10 feet down slope. I saw approximately where it landed and after a couple minutes of searching, it was recovered. Crisis averted.
Pretty uneventful morning. Foot pain from blisters was surprisingly minimal. Rolled into the North Fork Ranger station shortly before noon. Had a nice lunch of a couple of handfuls of skittles and was about to continue on my way when the caretaker, Todd, poked his head out and gave me a Coke, some rice crispy treats, and some fresh fruit. Amazing. We chatted about the Mexican place in Agua Dulce and it sounds good. Todd was the only person I saw all damn day before arriving in Agua Dulce. Absolutely zero hikers.
Generally hated the afternoon. The sun was intense, I’m missing my family, the rocks were boring, my feet got sweaty and my right heel started feeling tender again. Couldn’t shake the mental image of my foot in a crockpot with its meat falling off the bone. The suckiest few hours on trail so far.
Things turned around a bit by the Santa Clara river, where I got some refreshing new water and started to climb and see the first exposures of the Vazquez formation (of Vazquez rocks fame – you’ve seen these rocks in old cowboy movies, blazing saddles, and Star Trek). Chatted with Kelly and the kids as well. These things broke me out of my pity party as I approached Agua Dulce.
Vazquez rocks was really cool. So many fun canyons, the rocks are amazing, and the temperatures were dropping. And the Mexican place – Maria Bonita – was open, despite being Memorial Day! I was inside with chips and salsa and a Modelo in minutes. Ate probably 2000 calories worth of enchiladas and watched the Timberwolves lose a playoff game in a close one.
When I finished eating I learned from three Australian hikers (tiger, Linda, and Lucy) that we could sleep outside the Mexican restaurant on the sidewalk. So we did. The employees said “buenas noches amigos” to us as they went home.
Day 18 // Miles today: 26.9, Total: 481.3
Awoke, at 5 AM obviously, with my Aussie friends outside of the Mexican restaurant. slowly packed up, dealt with my right heel again (yay it hasn’t gotten bigger or infected!), this time by adding a base layer of gauze, and waited for shops to open up. At seven, I grabbed a coffee and a breakfast sandwich across the street. Then resupplied at the grocery store before hitting the pavement at 8 AM. Tehachapi here I come!
Climbed to the top of the Sierra Pelona, seeing lousy exposures of really cool rocks on the way. Joined my friends from last night in the shade at the top for a snack break. We all filled up on 5 L of water shortly after. While we were all filtering Lucy farted into tiger’s butt – a heartwarming moment to witness. I am back to having fun again. Fully loaded with water, basically fell down the north slope of the range.
Bopped up the next sub-range to the north and in the heat of the day. Took a break, shortly after cresting the range, with a couple cousins – Rachel and Hannah – originally from Michigan (now in California). Talked strategy over the next few days, among other interesting topics.
The day cooled down and cruisy miles followed. Stopped by the Green Valley fire station where I had heard there was a spigot. Not much water on trail today. Filtered water as I chatted with a woman from the Netherlands named “the other vegetable.” We talked about the challenges that the trail was presenting us before parting ways.
Made the final climb of the day, pushing on slightly past sunset to a dirt road where there are flat spots for camping. This golden hour and its complement in the morning have been my favorite times to hike. Beautiful lighting, wildlife behavior changes, and the air feels nice and cool. Wolfed down some rice and beans with Fritos and called it a night.
Waking up outside of Maria Bonita’s in Aqua Dulce
Day 19 // Miles today: 35.0, Total: 516.3
Woke up at 5 am covered in condensation. I cowboy camped high up on a ridge, the night was clear, and there’s no water source nearby. I don’t understand how nature works sometimes. It took me a while to pack everything up wet and get moving.
Flowy morning, linking up for a short while with showstopper (most recently from Maine, but has an English accent). He’s finishing sections of trail that he could not last year due to fire closures and injuries. As usual, I was sweating my butt off by 8 AM. A good chunk of the morning was navigating a burn area that had become a forest of poodle dog bush, a weed that will give you a nasty rash. I had planned to fill up at a cistern late morning, but the access trail was choked with PDB so I had to go on empty for a bit.
The bit turned out to be about three hours. Not ideal, but the terrain was easy and clouds had rolled in so it was pretty comfortable. I did get thirsty though. Eventually pulled up to a different cistern, chugged a bunch of water, ate a bag of potato chips, ate a cold soaked Ramen, and generally enjoyed sitting on my butt for a while. Also chatted with some hikers LP (“liberty pee”) and bear bait about having just crossed the 500 mile mark – woop woop!
After the break, I trodded along in a fugue state, clicking off miles. I snapped out of it on the broad flat top of Liebre Mountain where the environment changed and I was suddenly walking through California Live Oak with a floor of tall grass, alternating with miner’s lettuce. (At least I think it was miner’s lettuce – I ate some and was OK.) Thin clouds had rolled in, taking the edge off of the sun.
Crossed the San Andreas Fault and filled up on water for the night, also cold soaking my – guess what – rice and beans. Devised a plan to poise myself for a night hike across the Mojave later tonight. Plan is to stop around 9 pm, rest for a couple hours, and let it rip. This will get me into Tehachapi tomorrow night as opposed to the following morning.
I’m much happier with this new idea because I feel like I’d be wasting time that I could be hiking if I got to town during the morning and took the rest of the day off. I’ve realized that a psychological trait that I could work on involves feeling like I need to be charging hard constantly. I’ll work on that later though.
Day 20 // Miles today: 42.2, Total: 558.5
My alarm set for 11:50 PM went off, I packed up quickly, and began the aqueduct night- hike adventure surrounded by stars and accompanied by many kangaroo rat friends. This is certainly the dumbest part of my hike so far, but years of running ultras has made things like this feel semi normal.
Topped up on water shortly before 2 AM at the last source in 14 miles, despite walking along the LA aqueduct. Addressed a blister on my second toe – I usually wear toe socks but my toes have been feeling confined so I opted for a pair of darn toughs. Feels better, but the price is friction between my toes.
The wind picked up as I continued north and east, which precipitated my nose into gushing blood for 10 minutes. After getting the nosebleed under control, I turned off my headlamp and walked along the concrete Aquaduct, guided by what little light the stars and Milky Way could provide. Passing silhouettes of Joshua trees and enjoying the subtle aroma of creosote along the way. If Mojave by night could be made into a Febreze scent I would totally buy it.
Nautical twilight hit around 4:30 AM which made travel luxurious. I had gone over 16 miles before the sun poked up above the horizon.
Linked up with a fellow named Craig – a recently retired animator who lives in LA. We hiked most of the way up to Tylerhorse Canyon. I paused at 8 AM to deal with blisters on my left foot -heal and second toe. Did the full treatment of cutting everything back, antibiotics, gauze, and Leucotape. It’ll at least get me through the day today. Considering getting shoes that are my regular size – my feet aren’t swelling as much as I expected them to, and instead are swimming in the shoes – a blister factory.
Topped up on water at Tylerhorse Canyon, the last water before Tehachapi. The sun intensified so I packed out my full capacity of 5 L. The next section was just shy of 2000 feet of climbing over about 6 miles – with the sun straight overhead. It was pretty hard, but I broke the climb up with some mid climb Ramen noodles, which gave me some much needed salt.
At the very top there was trail magic – called the 549 oasis. There I met thread, Frito, mellow, and I Ting. We relaxed a bit and ate some oranges and chips. Mellow, I Ting, and I had tehachapi fever and the final 4 hours of hiking went by fast (though still with lots of foot pain).
Hitched into the Airbnb that I booked with a wind turbine servicer named Nick, ordered a pizza and salad for delivery, and showered. Going to bed early. What a day – first 40!
Day 21 // Miles today: 14.4, Total: 572.9
Had grand plans of sleeping in a little, but by 5:45 I was wired. Spent a good hour wasting time on my phone, which I don’t regret at all. It’s a NERO day after all!
The owner of the Airbnb gave me a ride into town, listening to some cool psychedelic country by sturgill simpson on the ride. Once there I did laundry while eating a breakfast burrito next-door. Afterward, I crossed the street to grocery shop. This little area is total one stop shopping!
I took my sweet time at the grocery store, moving slow slowly, picking out lots of tasty food, slowly repackaging, slowly filling up on water for today’s lack of it, and slowly jury rigging foot solutions. My toe socks were starting to get holy, so I cut the toe portion off, threw away the rest of the sock, and now I’m just using the toes underneath a pair of darn toughs. We’ll see how that works. (Ended up being great.)
Bag is the heaviest it’s been. Got five days of food to get me to Kennedy Meadows plus 5 L of water. Packed to capacity. Also most expensive resupply by far at $115. Albertsons is expensive man.
Touched base with Ken, the guy who rented my Airbnb last night, and we listen to some great jazz on the way to the trailhead (Freddy hubbard’s first light album). Wish I had more time with Ken to get more of his life story (he played jazz trumpet back in the day) and hear more of his music. Got started shortly after 1 PM in the heat of the day. 95° F let’s go baby.
Overall, took it pretty easy today. It wasn’t really an option not to, due to overall fatigue plus heavy pack plus extreme heat. I kept rolling through the day though, eating the leftover pizza that I packed out, but otherwise not very hungry due to the heat. Some notable moments: I had a pet dog who followed me for about a mile and was very interested in pizza. I also came across a mother skunk and three baby skunks right next to the trail. They scattered in all directions when we simultaneously saw each other.
I ended the day with a 2000 foot climb, but it didn’t feel too bad because most of the time it was shaded. Reached an excellent campsite at about 8:30 PM, about 40 minutes after an amazing sunset. About a quarter mile prior to reaching the campsite long needle pines joined the vegetation party. A few of them overhang my cowboy camp. As I write this, I’m looking up through a tree and to the sparkling stars beyond. From this ridge, I can see the faint lights of Tehachapi and Mojave, but all is silent.
