In preparation for this trip, I talked with many past PCT hikers. They all said that in the desert section, it’s incredibly hot and that it never rains. I was really nervous about this, as I’ve always greatly preferred cold weather, and I really despise being hot. I’ve said before that it’s been raining on me pretty much every week so far, and in this week, Mother Nature turned it up a notch and sent several atmospheric rivers my way, which caused us to have plummeting temperatures, and a lot of snow. It’s been frustrating, as I want to hike miles since that’s the only way to get to Canada, but I also want to have fun. Hiking during storms can be absolute misery (the combination of wind and precipitation is especially mentally taxing), but if I sit and wait out all this bad weather, I’ll never get to Canada.
Day 30: 20 miles hiked. We left Cajon Pass feeling very well rested, which was good because we had a giant mountain climb ahead of us. I spotted my first poodle dog bush within the first 20 minutes, and it was all over the place for the next 15 miles. It’s a little disconcerting being surrounded by it for such an extended period of time, as I freak out anytime anything touches me. It’s difficult to fully enjoy walking when you’re constantly having to be on the lookout for a plant that likes to hang over the trail, and also on the lookout for rattlesnakes, but enjoy myself, I did! The noise of the trains and cars were quickly drowned out as I climbed, and it was so nice to be back in the peace and quiet. The night before, we went to Dunkin’ Donuts and got 4 donuts apiece, then we stopped at McDonald’s on our way out of town and got some hash browns. The donuts and hash browns propelled me up the mountain… breakfast of champions! The views as we climbed were gorgeous, and I also saw several new flowers :). It was incredibly windy as we got higher, which was fine, since it was also incredibly hot. We didn’t have much water today, and had to hike 16 miles, uphill, with no water sources. Despite this, we still managed 20 miles today, and my ankle felt great! We set up tent, and once I got in, I really struggled to get out to make some dinner, as the temperatures had dropped with the higher elevation and incoming storm. Eating food helps you feel warmer, as your body produces heat while you digest, but even though I knew this, I couldn’t stop shivering anytime I even thought about putting a finger outside of my sleeping bag. It was an hour long battle between my brain and body before I finally was able to will myself out of my sleeping bag for long enough to make some warm food! And so begins my journey where shivering, numb fingers, and mental wrangling are my constant companions.
Day 31: 7 miles hiked. We woke up today with the first atmospheric river going on outside of our tents. Lots and lots of rain means I stay put in my sleeping bag. Gravy and Merlin made their way into the town of Wrightwood, while Beast and I decided to stay put and take a nap and get caught up on Game of Thrones, respectively. At around noon, the temperatures dropped enough that the rain turned to snow, and we decided that it was time to leave to hike the couple of hours to town. The trail was along a ridge, and it was, again, insanely windy, which meant that it was also extremely cold. I didn’t get many pictures from today, because despite my phone being in my pocket, the chill still managed to drain my battery almost immediately after getting out of my tent. We eventually made it into town and got some pizza and beer. We found Merlin and Gravy at a trail angels house, and we spent the remainder of the night huddled around a fire, playing with the trail angel’s kitten.
Day 32: 3 miles hiked. I woke up this morning with trail angels’ donkeys hee-hawing and roosters crowing. Due to all the projected storms, Gravy wanted to go back to REI to get some more extensive rain gear. It wasn’t too far away, so Merlin, Beast and I hung out at the trail angels house (re: played some more with the kitten), and then went into Wrightwood and waited for his return. In the meantime, we resupplied on food, ate some meals at the cafe, and relaxed in the sun. By 5pm, we were ready to leave town, and hitched a ride back to trail. We hiked the 3 miles to Jackson Flat Campground, but decided it was too crowded for us. Instead we made our own campground with a great view of the mountains around us, including Mount Baden-Powell which we were planning to summit the following day. It was close to being a full moon tonight, and it was a spectacular sunset across the valley below us, with clouds rolling in.
Day 33: 11 miles hiked. Beast woke up early and made everyone eggs and bacon. Merlin had the excellent idea to turn those into breakfast wraps, using our tortillas, spinach, and cheese! It was an amazing start to the day, as we usually are stuck with oatmeal or bars for breakfast! The big breakfast was needed, as Mount Baden-Powell was looming over us. The climb was constant and seemingly never ending, with approximately 40 switchbacks to get to the top. It’s one of the steepest climbs of the whole trail, with approximately 2700 feet gained in 4 miles. For the first 2 miles, we managed to have no snow, and the 3rd mile had some snow fields, but was still following switchbacks along, so it was nicely graded until that point. Then, the snow trail switched to going straight up the mountain for the last mile, so it was extremely difficult, and I needed to stop frequently to catch my breath. Towards the top, we came upon an amazing tree (named the Wally Waldron tree) that is thought to be at least 1,500 years old and the oldest in the San Gabriel mountains. We pushed on, and eventually summited the peak! At the top, there was a marker commemorating the founder of Boy Scouts, after whom the mountain is named. We ate some snacks while admiring the view up at the top, and then went back down to the beautiful tree in order to have our lunch. From there, we pushed on along the north facing ridge. For those that aren’t aware, north facing sides of ridges and mountains are the last to melt, due to the fact that the sun is to our south. This meant that we had about 5 miles of sketchy snow along this ridge that we needed to go through before crossing over onto the south facing side of the ridge. I’m comfortable enough in snow that I was pretending that I was skiing for much of the downhills, and it was quite a bit of fun! We made our way to Little Jimmy Campground, where we set up tents and tarps, and made a nice fire ring, in preparation for another atmospheric river heading our way.
Day 34: 0 miles hiked. We woke up to snow covering our tents, and a blizzard going on all around us. I had not slept much and instead shivered through the night before, as my feet had been too cold, despite my down booties, sleep socks, and sleeping bag liner (stolen from Beast). Thankfully we knew a blizzard was possibly in the works, and had set up for an on trail zero if it was necessary. Beast and Gravy started a fire, and had set up the tarps so that we had some shelter from the storm. A bunch of fellow thru-hikers were camped nearby and they came over to get/stay warm. We had a great time just hanging out and chatting with everyone we’ve been leapfrogging with for the past several days. Everyone went to bed early, as it was frigid out, with howling winds and snow blowing. Beast, knowing that I had been struggling to stay warm, offered up his Nalgene bottle, filled with hot water, for me to put at my feet. This did the trick, and I was able to get some rest.
Day 35: 15 miles hiked. I was able to get some sleep, that is, until 2am when the Nalgene bottle was no longer warm. At which point, I woke up shivering, again, and cursing myself for not bringing my warmer sleeping bag. With 1-2 bars of service, I texted my dad and asked him to overnight me my bag that is about 14 degrees warmer. There may or may not have been several f-bombs about the weather in these texts, but my phone probably autocorrected them to ducking for me. The average sleeping bag rating for PCT thru-hikers is somewhere around 20 degrees, but my 25 degree bag was just not cutting it for this crazy weather we’d been getting! I was not able to fall back asleep for the remainder of the night, and greatly appreciated it when the sun finally made its appearance. We eventually all got out of our tents and began to hang up all of our wet gear (tents, tarps, etc.) in the sun so that we could pack. Gravy and Merlin decided to hitch into town, as they both needed some supplies after the unexpected on trail zero. Beast and I decided to hike onwards. After hiking for about an hour, we crossed a road to start our hike up towards Mount Williamson. I was leading as we began our climb, and at some point I realized the trail I was walking along was most certainly not the PCT, and was probably a deer trail. I looked up, and saw Beast below me on a trail that looked a lot more like a hiking trail and I started to follow him instead. The only problem with this new trail was that it was going downhill, which was definitely not the correct way to climb a mountain. We looked on our maps and realized we for sure not on the PCT, but that it looked like the wash in front of us went directly to it. We decided to go up the wash, and not turn back to get unlost. This was a big mistake! The wash definitely intersected the PCT, but it was a very steep climb up. The ground was loose, so every step we took meant that we sunk down at the same time. Additionally, we were going straight up the side of a mountain, which is a lot more difficult than the nice graded trail we were used to. After an hour of climbing we managed to get back on trail, and after all of that effort, it turned out to only be .7 miles of trail. Not worth it! Exhausted, we started the rest of our climb up Mt. Williamson. We eventually came into a cloud, which sealed the deal for us deciding not to take the side trail to the summit, since we wouldn’t be able to see anything. We came out the other side and began descending back down. We came upon a part of the trail that is closed due to an endangered frog species and had to start a road walk to where the PCT resumed. The road walk was super eerie and made me feel like I was in the beginning of a horror movie since we were still in a cloud (limited visibility) and there was no one around (except for 3 cars that zoomed past us as we walked) despite the fact that we were on a highway. We came into a campground that offered us a trail back to the PCT, and it’s here we met back up with Gravy and Merlin. They brought us some hot dogs for dinner! We continued on, and passed by a sign that let us know we were at the 1 million step marker! Beast had been wanting to night hike with the full moon the previous night, but the storm had made that impossible, so we decided to hike 5 miles tonight with the almost full moon lighting our way. It was beautiful to see all of the mountain ridges lit up by the moon, though my camera is not good enough to show you!
Day 36: 19 miles hiked. We had camped at mile 399 the night before, and decided to walk the 1 mile together to the 400 mile marker. I keep saying this, but it’s crazy how quickly the trail is going by. We’re over halfway thru the desert, but it feels like we started a week ago. Anyways, today offered a lot of walking in a cloud and poodle dog bush. Not my favorite combo. Gravy was not feeling well today, so after the 400 mile marker, he pushed on hard in order to get to camp quicker. Beast went with him to make sure he was doing okay, which left most of the day to Merlin and me. Much of the day was ridge running, but due to the clouds, I couldn’t see much until the clouds finally parted around 5pm. The scenery below was stunning, with valleys and mountains surrounding us. We got cell phone service for the first time in awhile, and I used it to get pizza delivered to our campsite for dinner! As I got into camp, the temperature again dropped. I had been hoping that it would be a bit warmer, since we were dropping in elevation, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case! I again struggled to eat with everyone, as it was too cold out, and for the first time in my life I was actually wishing for hot weather.
I'm happy when I'm hiking 