This morning I wound up sleeping in past my first couple of alarms. Either that or I just didn’t turn all of them on last night. I couldn’t be sure. But I eventually got up and turned my stove on. Then slowly but surely I began packing everything inside my tent. The wind had calmed down a lot in the early morning. Now for the first time in maybe 15 hours, it was nice and still out.
Even though I took my time a bit this morning, I was still was packed up and hiking right around 5:45 AM. Today I’m hoping to do about 40 miles. I could definitely afford to do a bit less if I want to. But there’s a super nice tent site 40 miles out, which is actually a BLM land campground. So there is a privy and picnic tables and stuff like that. If I made it to that site tonight, then I only have 21 miles tomorrow to Kennedy Meadows. Which would mean I would definitely be early for my ride. Then I might have some time to get organized, shower maybe, and eat some food. But even if I did a few less miles today, I would still get there in time for my ride tomorrow. I’ll just have to see how I feel and how the day goes.
Another stunning sunrise to start the day!
It was really nice setting out without any significant wind. Obviously the open and exposed desert environment tends to have wind pretty frequently. But it was nothing in comparison to yesterday. Yesterday I hiked for about 24 miles in 50+ mile per hour wind. This morning my body is a little bit sore and I think a lot of it has to do with pushing through the strong wind. They just added a lot of additional exertion to the hiking. It’ll be nice today to just be able to walk and not have to deal with that, hopefully.
Within the first mile or so of the day, I got out onto a dirt road and stayed on that for a few miles. There were some amazing views of mountains off in the distance as the sun was coming up. I called my mom and we talked super briefly before I wound up losing service again. That always drives me crazy. It just makes me wish that my phone wouldn’t even tell me that I had service at all. My family always understands that there’s a risk my calls might cut out randomly. But I still feel bad every time that it does.
I enjoyed a brief 2-3 mile road walk to start off the morning. I’m so glad I camped at my site back in the wooded area and not out here!
I did try to look at some weather stuff for New Hampshire while I had service. But I know that’s something I’m just going to have to take day by day once I get there. My biggest hope at this point in time is that the weather is good Tuesday and Wednesday. Then I can just get as many miles in as possible and maybe even hike a little bit into the evening on Wednesday, so long as the weather is good. Then if I’m lucky, the weather might hold out for the first half of Thursday. I’m just basing this off of very loose weather updates. So I completely understand that this is in flux and anything is possible. But if weather holds off for the first part of Thursday, then I can hopefully get a couple 4000 footers in. Then bail out at the road and either stay at the hostel for the night or stay with my buddies who I hike the AT within 2023. It seems very likely I’ll see them either Wednesday or Thursday, or both. They live local to that area.
At this point, I would hopefully say that the worst case scenario is taking one full day off due to weather. And the best case scenario would be doing a couple shorter days, but at least being able to get some mileage in. The weather looks a bit better toward the weekend. So hopefully by the time I’m doing Franconia and the Presidential’s the weather will be more clear. Because of the colder temperatures and higher elevation there is definitely a chance to get some snow up there. But at least it seems like all of the previous snow has been almost completely melted out. I’m just hopeful it’s not too bad.
I definitely did consider canceling my flight and changing my plans around. But I’m going to have to head back out east sometime soon no matter what. It seems like this is just such a perfect opportunity with being able to get such a crazy ride and taking overnight flight. Heading back to the East Coast likely would’ve burnt a day and a half due to travel, under any other circumstances. I just got super lucky with this guy Mike offerer to give me such a long ride. So if push came to shove, I could afford to take the day off for weather. It’s also very common to have to do this in the whites. I’m trying to positive about all of this. I only have about 450 miles left to go from New Hampshire to the Canadian border. It’s going to be over in the blink of an eye. So if I have to pivot around bad weather for a few days, it isn’t the end of the world. This likely would’ve been the case just about any time that I tried to hike through the white mountains. I had planned to account for at least one zero in the whites originally any way.
A neat cluster of rocks which the trail went right past.
After the first hour of the day, I went past the junction to a cabin. I figure a lot of people camped down there last night because there was a Spring nearby. And I never saw another hiker between the water cache yesterday and the site that I tented. So within an 11 mile stretch of trail I didn’t see even one person. I figured that means I’ll see a bunch of people today! Unless many hikers are getting off at walker pass to go into one of the many towns nearby. I’ve actually never gotten off trail near Walker pass in 2017 or 2022. The funny thing was in 2022 everyone around me bailed off at Walker pass because of the incoming snowstorm. And I just wound up getting dumped on and had to hike in snow for about 50 miles.
Walker pass is going to be my first water source of the day. There’s a large cache there and it’s about 10 miles into my day. The trail was really nice and easy as I made my way there. I wouldn’t have to do my first climb of the day until after I went past Walker pass. I got a bit of service as I was getting closer to there and was able to send some messages to a Trail Angel and my AT family from 2023. Everyone is being very positive about the weather situation in New Hampshire. The guys were reassuring me that weather in the whites changes very quickly. So I can’t put too much stock in a forecast that is almost a week out. I’m attempting to change my mindset to be as positive as possible. I truly believe that everything is going to work out perfectly, and I won’t have any regrets about my choice to go back out east.
Arriving at walker pass this morning.
When I got to Walker pass, I chugged a bunch of water and filled a couple liters up. I saw two hikers when I was there, but both of them were sitting far away from the trail and water cache. So I didn’t wind up talking to them. Then I continued along the trail which crosses over the highway. This is where hikers have the option to hitch into a variety of different towns from this highway. You could go into Inyokern, Ridgecrest, among a few other places. There was actually a Trail Angel hanging out by the road seeing if anyone needed a ride. Which was super nice of her.
I didn’t need anything and had plenty of water so I just continued walking from there. The road marked the start of an 8 mile relatively gradual climb. Initially I thought it was only 6 miles long, but I was definitely wrong about that. I threw on a podcast to help pass the time and just began making my way up. The switchbacks were pretty nice and easy for the first handful of miles. It really wasn’t until the last couple miles that the grade picked up significantly. I was surprised that I passed by a trail runner on their way up. Usually trail runners are a whole lot faster than hikers because we’re carrying so much weight.
Starting the gradual portion of the climb out of walker pass.
It was a really pretty trail heading up toward the top. There were great views of the valley off in the distance, and the trail weaved along a narrow rocky cliff. All in all it was just really beautiful. This is one of the longer climbs so far on the PCT. Because I initially thought it was only 6 miles long, I was definitely caught off guard when I checked my watch. It had been a couple of hours, but I could tell that I wasn’t at the top yet. It was very obvious that the trail was going to continue weaving up the side of this mountain for a while longer.
It’s been a real treat watching the environment around me change as I get closer to the sierra!
When I finally did get up to the top of the climb, I decided to check the distance back to Walker pass. And everything made sense once I saw that I’d actually gone 8 miles instead of 6. Once I got up top, I slowed down a bit to eat some snacks and stuff like that. Then I had about a 5.5-6 mile descent down off of that mountain.
The lupine has been in full bloom recently along the trail.
Once I got towards the bottom, there would be a few natural water sources. And these would be my last options for water sources until I got to camp for the night. So it’s very likely I’ll be stopping off there to fill up before I continue on to camp. When I was a couple miles from the bottom of the descent, a hiker came up quick behind me and passed me. I’m always surprised when people blow by me out here. This guy is only the second hiker to physically pass me on the PCT. And there were two other guys who left water sources just before me who were super fast and hard to catch up to. But in the end I’ve caught up to every single hiker on this trail so far. It might take 20 minutes, an hour, or maybe even over two hours. But because of the consistent pace that I maintain, my lack of breaks, and the far distance I’m going every day, I pass everyone in the end. Or at least that had been the case so far.
Making my way across a particularly rocky stretch of the trail.
This guy was flying, easily going over 4 miles an hour. My new COROS vertix 2S tells me how fast I’m going, so I was able to check my own speed. He flew by me and I was hardly gaining on him at all, and I was going about 3.5 mph at the time. But then the next segment of my favorite game began. Catch up to the fast guy who thinks I’m never going to catch up to him. Understandably there are some people out here who are moving particularly quickly. This is probably only the fourth guy of seen all year who’s going at such a fast pace. So they’re used to passing a lot of of people, but not getting past. Which makes it all the more satisfying when I can eventually catch up to them. Oh the little joys I create out here in my own mind. This is one of the many things that helps to occupy my time out here.
Every now and then there were brief segments where the trail went across loose, crumbly, rock. It would have been brutal to hike across if it persisted much longer.
When I got down to the bottom of that mountain, there was a gradual climb up to the next water source. It was a really nice spot with some great tenting options. Even though it’s super earlier, there were some people set up there by the water. I was feeling pretty jealous about that. It would’ve been such a nice place to call it a day. There was a girl sitting by the creek, soaking her feet in a nice cool pool of water. And here I was, with maybe 13 more miles to go for the day.
Stunning views as I began descending toward the next natural water source.
I wound up checking my water and realized I still had over 2 L left. Which should probably be enough to get me all the way to camp tonight. Pretty soon I’m going to begin another climb which goes on for a little over 4 miles. But besides that the trail is just going to roll along some hills, before eventually descending down to the campground I’ll be staying at. I don’t think I’ll need a lot of water for the rest of the day.
When I got to one of the next water sources an hour or so later, I saw the fast guy sitting there. I honestly hadn’t expected to catch him that soon. I could see him off in the distance because of the way that the trail curved along the hills. But I was eating snacks and drinking water, slowing my pace a bit. Honestly, I was not in any kind of a rush. I had hours left to go for the day regardless.
Beginning my next climb up from the natural streams.
I was excited though to catch up to him and be able to chat with him for a minute or two. I was just curious what he was doing and where he was coming from. But it looks like he was actually going super fast because he slept in late at Walker pass and didn’t get going until closer to 10 AM. So he was just trying to keep it moving to make up some mileage for the day. But it sounded like he planned on stopping at a tent site up toward the top of the next climb. So it didn’t seem like I would be seeing him again. Unless he sped past on this next climb like he did before.
At this point I had completed most of the remaining elevation gain for the day. Then just had to make my way up another small hill or two.
When I left that water source, I was nearly 30 miles in for the day, with about 11 miles left to go. But at least I was able to get the remaining elevation gain for the day out of the way right off the bat. It was fairly hot out, but not too bad. The climb had a lot of switchbacks and for the most part was fairly gradual. Though the climbs have definitely gotten a little bit steeper over the last hundred miles. I feel like the trail makes some attempt to prepare you for the steeper, longer, climbs of the Sierra Nevada mountains. There’s been a handful more climbs without switchbacks recently. I guess in a way it’s preparing me to get back out on the Appalachian Trail.
It didn’t take long to get up to the top of that final climb. I got some nice views there and was pleasantly surprised by a lack of wind. Then the trail just rode up and down some smaller hills along the top of the mountain. I passed a couple decent tent sites. But as I approached the upcoming descent down to my camp site, I went by one really nice site. That’s where the guy Josh who I met earlier is planning to camp. It was only a handful of miles from the next water source. And it was really well protected from wind. There were loads of sandy spots and at least one tent was set up.
Making my way down to my camp site for the night.
But I had my mind set on the designated BLM site with the privy and picnic tables. That will make my day tomorrow ridiculously nice and easy. And I’ve already come so far. I might as well keep going! The rest of the day was all down hill. I threw on some music and just cruised on along the trail. That last hour or so went by pretty fast. I knew I’d be getting in around 7:45PM, which was perfect.
Just before I got to the junction for the camp site I went by a water source. I filled up to capacity there and then headed over to the site. But unfortunately I didn’t realize initially, but I left my CNOC bag on a rock by there. It is the cute bag with a map of the PCT on it too. My water filter has been giving me some issues so using the CNOC bag has made my life easier. Every O ring that I use just gets warped and the seal doesn’t fit perfectly for some reason. Which has been causing a drip for literally weeks. I’m switching to a new filter any day now though.
The sign for the chimney creek camp site where I would be spending the night.
Then I headed over to the camp ground which was a little ways off the trail. There were two other hikers there when I arrived which was nice. I love seeing other hikers at camp. And I actually had seen these guys before! I passed them in a hurry as I was making my way to the road into Tehachapi. I had a ride set up so I wanted to get there on time. Those guys went into town but didn’t zero like I did. So they got up ahead of me. And have been doing about 30 miles a day, which is pretty dang solid! That’s more than most of the folks I’ve been chatting with recently. I talked to the two guys for a bit which was really nice. One of them has ran ultras before such as Tour de Mont Blanc, among other races.
Then I got my tent set up for the night and boiled water to make a mountain house dinner. I was pretty exhausted so decided to just do a little bit of video work. Then just rolled over and called it a night. I had a visitor pretty early on in the evening though! A cute little mouse. So I moved a couple things around outside my tent to deter him from nibbling on anything. Then he never seemed to come back again.
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