The one where I walk my first marathon!

The longest run I’ve ever done was a half marathon. Lately I’ve been running all of the downhill sections of the trail, as it seems easier on my joints to not try to slow my momentum down. Therefore, I think technically speaking this marathon here broke that personal run record.😁

Day 37: 26.3 miles hiked. After another sleepless night due to the cold, I was more motivated than ever to get to Acton, the town where my warmer sleeping bag was shipped. It was 26.3 miles away, and at first we were only going to do 20 of those miles today, since Gravy was still feeling sick and Merlin’s feet were bothering her (her new shoes were in Acton too). As we packed up, both Merlin and Gravy decided that they were in rough enough shape that it would be better if they didn’t hike, and instead called a trail angel to drive them to town where they could get the remedies they needed to get better. That left Beast and I to push on, and we left early enough that I realized that we had enough time to go the whole way if we wanted. The plus side of this would be that there was a campground with a hot tub in Acton, and to someone that’s been constantly shivering for over a week, a hot tub sounded like the most glorious of glorious things. The day started off beautifully and with great weather. I started hiking very quickly right out of the gate, to which Beast asked what on earth I had for breakfast, since I was basically running up a hill. Today’s breakfast of champions was cold pizza and Reece’s pieces. 🤣 We had a 4 mile climb pretty early on, and we decided to try to do it in one go with no breaks. While in the midst of my ascent, it began to lightly snow on me, which I initially enjoyed. Once I summited, we began our downhill trek on the other side. I was looking forward to our lunch break, as the climb had tired me out. We got to where we were planning to eat, and at this point the weather turned it up a notch, because of course it did! The snow turned into hail and the wind picked up to at least 40 miles/hr. This was now my 12th day of some sort of precipitation since I started (reminder: most years have only 6ish days of precipitation for the entire thru hike – typically about 5-6 months). We grabbed all of our stuff off of the picnic table and went to the pit toilet entrance wall to get some shelter from the wind while we ate the rest of our lunch. It was at this point that I decided that I would spend the evening in a hot tub, regardless of how my legs felt about a marathon. After inhaling our food, we started to walk again, just so we could keep warm! We were leapfrogging with our friends Savior and Rocket all day, mainly because none of us wanted to stop for breaks due to the cold. The snow eventually stopped, and we ended up being in a cloud for awhile after. Occasionally the cloud would break and we’d see an amazing view around us. We climbed up to a ranger station, where we were able to get some sodas and a hot dog. From there it was nothing but ridge running and down hill. By this point the clouds broke, and the scenery below us was absolutely amazing with mountains and rock formations everywhere. We continued down, and I got scared to death by a snake sunning itself across half the trail. I screamed, turned around, and pushed Beast out of my way so I could run away! I’m not even afraid of snakes, but seeing one out of the blue really startles me! It was not a rattlesnake, but instead some other kind of unidentified snake that I didn’t get a picture of before it moseyed along. We eventually got to a road crossing where we could see the campground below. We were then faced with a dilemma: take the road directly to it, or take the pct, which was an additional 1.3 miles (there are lots of indirect switchbacks on this trail…). Though the road was tempting, we opted for the pct so that we could get a marathon in. I was pretty proud of the fact that I had done my first marathon ever! We checked into the campground and immediately showered and went to the hot tub. I got into the hot tub, and it was actually more like a lukewarm tub in that I was shivering (again) within a few minutes. What a let down!!! I showered again to warm up and made my way back to my tent to get dressed in my pjs. By this point I was shivering again, and, being completely demoralized, I cried in my tent for awhile while texting my parents about how tired I was of being cold. (Looking back now, I laugh that the only time I’ve cried on trail so far has been because of a cold hot tub 🤣😂.) I wasn’t expecting this kind of constant cold weather on the trail, and it is different from anything that’s been seen by any of the locals I’ve talked to. It’s been an extremely cold and wet spring/summer, which is very unusual since it’s normally hot (100+) and dry by this point. I was happy to be getting my warmer sleeping bag the next day in the hopes that at least I would start to sleep again!

Day 38: 8 miles hiked. I woke up this morning excited and ready to go to the next town, Agua Dulce, which was only 10 miles away. First I needed to get to Acton to get my sleeping bag. There in lies the problem… towns are difficult things to leave because they offer sooooo much! A roof over my head plus real food? What luxury! After taking yet another shower, I packed up and slowly made my way to town with Beast and Savior, who were both looking forward to real food too! First things first, I picked up my new sleeping bag and I literally hugged it, shoved my face into it and said “oh my god, I love you” as it was coming out of the box. Savior and Beast looked at me strangely, but then said, yea, new gear is the best! We then went and got the best burger I’ve had so far in the trail. It was half bacon! We had a few beers and then made our way back to the trail, where we found a man doing trail magic. We chatted with him for awhile, and before we knew it, it was 5 pm, and we still had not left Acton! We said our goodbyes to the angel and started to make our way to Agua Dulce. We almost immediately came upon the completion monument, which is essentially the golden spike of the pct (where the two ends came together). From there it was a climb back into the wilderness to get back into the mountains from yesterday. The trail was surrounded by fields and with the late evening sun, it was beautiful. Since it was so late in the day, many of the flowers started to close up, and it was cool to see all the different shapes that they were making in the process. We crossed the 450 mark, and eventually made our way to a place called Vasquez rocks. This place has very strange rock formations, and since it’s so close to Los Angeles, it’s actually been the set of many a tv show/movie. By this point the sun had set and the three of us decided we really wanted to see the rocks in the day, so we set up camp under a giant ledge. I fell asleep listening to a bunch of frogs while snuggling with my new favorite piece of gear.

Day 39: 2 miles hiked. We woke up just 2 miles from Agua Dulce, which is home to the legendary Hiker Heaven. We excitedly packed and made our way through the crazy rock formations to town. We ate a huge breakfast in town, and who should walk in but Morley! (For those that don’t remember, I hiked the first week or so with Morley and Merlin, but I hadn’t seen him since we were blown off of Mt. San Jacinto!) It was great seeing him again, and as we were catching up, Merlin and Gravy arrived too! Reunited, we all made our way to Heaven. This is an aptly named place, with anything and everything a hiker could want. Strange clothes to change into while you’re doing laundry? ✅ A laptop to write your blog on? ✅ Epsom salt foot baths? ✅ Charging ports galore, a gear repair station, laundry machines, showers, a huge hiker box (where hikers donate items they no longer want/need), WiFi, and a tv to watch the finale of Game of Thrones? ✅✅✅✅✅✅✅! Suffice it to say, it was a great place to stay! We did our chores and then made our way back into town to get some pizza. Merlin’s friends came to visit from LA, and we all had a great night!

Day 40: 4 miles hiked. Heaven is a very popular destination for most PCT hikers, and we woke up the next day with 2x as many tents as when we went to sleep! We are in what’s called the hiker bubble. The most popular start date is in mid April, and this year is no exception (my start date was April 16). As we get closer and closer to the Sierra Mountains, more and more people are slowing down because the Sierras keep on getting snow (all these storms that are hitting me in the desert are also dumping loads of snow in the mountains). There’s no rush to go into them, since hiking in the snow will be difficult and possibly dangerous. As a result, more and more people with later start dates keep catching up to those of us trying to chill out a bit to wait for the snow to melt. This is the hiker bubble, 100s of people, slowly making our way to Canada, wanting an outdoor and mostly solitary adventure, only to be surrounded by others. The bubble is not my favorite place to be! Case in point: a group of hikers started a full volume conversation right outside my tent at 6am, waking me up and continued to have this conversation for at least an hour, making it impossible to get back to sleep! I resolved to try to camp at less popular places, if possible, for the remainder of my time in the desert. Gravy, Beast, Morley and I went into town to get some breakfast (Merlin had decided to go back to LA with her friends to spend some more time with them and give her feet a longer break) and then we continued doing chores. We caught a Lyft to a bigger city nearby in order to go grocery shopping and eat at In-n-Out burgers 😍. With our chores completed by the afternoon, Beast and I decided to leave heaven, in the hopes of separating from the bubble a bit. Gravy was still not feeling well, so he decided to stay behind in heaven for at least a few more nights. We got back on trail around 5, which unfortunately was a road walk for the first 3 miles. Road walking is difficult… the ground is hard so it hurts your joints, and it usually is slightly angled, so it doubly hurts your joints. After what seemed like an eternity (it was actually an hour, max) we made our way back to trail life. We didn’t get very far before the sunset, and we were happy to set up camp, this time with far fewer people around!

Day 41: 7 miles hiked. When we hiked out the previous day, we looked at the weather forecast. A rain storm was going to roll in, but it was going to be over with by 10am. Beast has a motto of hiking only in blue skies and sunshine (this is despite the fact that I’ve hiked with him in hail, rain, sleet, and snow many many times at this point…). If you hike with Beast, rain is a 4- letter curse word that can only discretely be referred to was the r-word. I appreciate this motto, because hiking in the rain is no fun. With the weather forecast in mind, we didn’t set alarms, and decided to wait until the blue skies and sunshine came out before setting out for the day. As promised, the weather cleared around 10, and tho the skies were not yet blue, we headed out anyways. The trail continued to climb, and as we headed up, we eventually found ourselves in the middle of the rain cloud we had hoped to avoid. At first it was just misty everywhere, but eventually the wind kicked up and started to blow us off trail. I’d guesstimate that it was blowing around 40mph with gusts up to 60. It was incredibly, and beyond description miserable. We eventually made our way off of the ridge, and down out of the rain cloud before finding some shelter to eat lunch. Usually for lunch we just cut up some hard meats and cheeses to throw into a tortilla… not today! We were both freezing, so we actually cooked for lunch in the hopes that it would stop our shivering. It definitely helped buoy my spirits a bit, but it was still absolute misery outside. As we continued on, Beast relayed that we had 2 options for the night and asked me my preference. 1) push some miles (a 20 mile day in this misery) and get to the next town that had a trail angel that hosted hikers. This would mean that we would have to go back up into the cloud, as the trail climbed back up in elevation, or 2) set up camp early while still in the valley (re: not in the cloud) and wait out the rain storm that was supposed to have already ended several hours ago but that had no end in sight. I didn’t like either option, as the thing I wanted most in that moment was a warm and dry bed, but told him I’d think on it. Ten minutes later, we rounded a corner and saw a road below. This wasn’t the usual dirt road we crossed, but a real one, with pavement! I told Beast, almost jokingly, that if that road led to anywhere with a hotel, that I would be paying for it, and that that was my preferred place to spend the night as opposed to the other 2 options. I pulled out my phone to discover there was no service to look up towns or places to stay, but I was not going to give up on my dreams of dreaming in a bed that night. I figured we looked sad enough, soaked and shivering, that someone might pull over to help us out. As we neared, we saw a car pull over, and out came 3 hikers who were choosing the oddest time to get back on trail. I approached the man who had driven them and had the following conversation:

Me: excuse me sir, does this road lead to a hotel in either direction?

Him (looking at me strangely): come again?

Me: is there a town in either direction? And if so, does it have a hotel?

Him (still looking at me like I’m the oddest person alive): yes, the city of Palmdale, where I live, is in this direction. And there are lots of hotels.

Me: excellent! May I have a ride to any one of them? I don’t care which.

And just like that, we were off! Beast now thinks I’m some sort of wizard because I put out into the universe that I wanted to stay in a hotel, and not 10 minutes later, we’re in a car, being driven to a hotel. It’s not true though, I just looked so incredibly sad that no one could possibly turn down my pitiful request of a ride to the nearest city. As we drove away from the trail, the clouds parted and the sky turned blue… apparently it was only a storm on the ridge we were hiking as the cloud got stuck on the mountain, and it was a beautiful day 10 minutes away! We checked into a hotel, began to dry our stuff, and eventually made our way to the nearby Target where we spent a good 10-20 minutes deciding which pint of ice cream to each buy for the night (one of life’s toughest choices). It was amazing sleeping in a bed for the first time in over a week!

Day 42: 13 miles hiked. With a belly full of real food, we headed back to the trail to hike the remaining miles to the trail angel house, known as Casa de Luna. As we left the road, we climbed up the ridge that had yesterday had a storm cloud hovering over it. Today it was perfect weather! We were able to see a lake off in the distance that we had apparently walked nearby the day before, but couldn’t see. I was happy that we had quit when we did, because it made it so we could see the beautiful views of the valley below. I saw sooo many people today that I had never met before. It was basically a traffic jam on the trail, and I was getting annoyed with the lack of solitude. I’ve pretty much resigned myself to hiking and camping with a bunch of people until I reach the Sierras. We got into the town of Green Valley and hitched a ride to Casa de Luna, a trail angels house that hosts hikers. This was one of my most anticipated stops along the way, because they give out these really cool PCT class of 2019 bandannas that feature the trail on them. In order to receive one, you have to dance in front of everyone. Dance I did (tho no recordings of it were taken 😉)! Also at Casa de Luna, we found Gravy who had jumped up to meet back up with us. I had a great night chatting with my friends Savior, Lightning, and Hollywood, and enjoyed the taco salad that they make every night for all of the hikers they host.

Day 43: 15 miles hiked. Casa de Luna was a magical place to stay. They have tent sites cleared out amongst the manzanita bushes, so despite there being a ton of people there, you can’t really tell because you’re surrounded by manzanita! We packed up and I explored the grounds a bit more. They had a rock painting station, so cleverly painted rocks decorated the manzanita forest as well as around the house. They also had two sheets where people could sign their names, and it was fun to look through all the names that had come before me that year. Eventually Savior, Gravy, Beast, and I were able to get a ride back to the trail (all of us were crammed into a tiny sedan, that offered no trunk space!), and started back up the hill. It was finally starting to be warmer weather, so it was a tough climb up in the heat, but Green Valley below was absolutely beautiful. We found out Merlin was ahead of us, so we were pushing to catch up to her. She let us know that there was trail magic ahead of us, so we all didn’t stop for breaks and really pushed to get to the next road. Unfortunately, when I got there they said that they were just finishing up, so no magic for me! Beast and Gravy had gotten some of the last of it, and were nice enough to save me an ice cold Diet Coke… cold soda on a really hot day is the best! By this point I was tired from not taking any breaks and decided to eat lunch at the first shady spot. Beast and Savior joined me, and Gravy pushed on, in the hopes of catching Merlin. After lunch, the three of us continued on up the hill, and it was pretty slow going because of the heat. We were eventually rewarded with views of the Mojave and Sierra foothills to our north. We stopped at a log to eat some dinner, with the intention of continuing afterwards to catch up with Gravy and Merlin. As we ate, we got very cold (the wind picked up on the ridge we were eating on) and decided to just sleep where we were and catch them in the morning.

Day 44: 19 miles hiked. The wind stopped in the middle of the night, which made for a very pleasant morning! The trail was very strange today. I was basically walking amongst oak trees, surrounded by green grass. It was very odd since I’m supposed to be in the desert where everything is brown, spiky, and wanting to kill me. The lushness was very odd but lovely! We eventually made it to the 500 mile marker! It’s hard to believe I’ve made it this far. I sang in my head for the last several miles the following on repeat: “Now I just walked 500 miles, and I’m gonna walk 2100 more, just to be the woman who walks 2600 miles to get to Canada”. After taking a break to revel in our accomplishment, we continued on, hoping to find some shade for lunch. We walked a few more miles, when I heard a familiar voice around the corner. Merlin was back! With her was Gravy, and two other friends (Game Over and Mangy Carl) from another tramily that we’ve been leapfrogging with since the beginning of the trail. It’s really funny, because I actually rode to the Mexican border with both Game Over and Mangy Carl, so I’ve been leapfrogging them for 500 miles, but never really hiked together before. We all caught up and discussed plans for the next few days. The 4 of them moved on, and Beast, Savior, and I sat and ate our lunch in a nice shady spot that had hummingbirds buzzing all around us. We continued our trek through the oak wonderland after lunch, with views of the notorious Mojave desert section below us. Beast and I eventually made it to the agreed upon campsite for the night, where we found everyone set up and hanging out for the night. Unfortunately, by the time we had gotten there (I’m pretty slow when it’s hot out…), all of the good campsites were occupied and the only ones left had broken glass all over them. We hung out with everyone for awhile and then started walking again once the sun went down. We only had to go about a mile before we found a wash that we could set up camp for the night. The stars at night in the desert are amazing to behold!