Start: 2314
Stop: 2341.8
Today’s miles: 27.8
Total PCT miles: 2058.4
What a long but rewarding day. I woke up during the night to a damp quilt and condensation on my tent. When I woke up to my alarm, that condensation was frozen. Sheesh. It didn’t seem cold enough to be freezing, but I guess it was. My quilt kept me nice and toasty, so I was never cold during the night, once I initially got warm, even in just my shorts and hiking shirt..
We left camp at 6:30 and honestly, besides the damp dew on the grasses, it was nice. The trail wasn’t too overgrown and it was a little wider than it has been.. no crazy erosion to slide on. It was cool out, so I started in my fleece and gloves.. and was very happy about that choice. I was out of both within an hour, since the trail did climb uphill-but they were gentle climbs.
The sunrise wasn’t very captivating, just a bright sun coming up into blue skies with very few clouds. I wasn’t upset with that either! Nice weather, yes please! It was more of those cirque type views, being able to see the mountains rolling all around. I was enjoying every bit of it, especially the part where it felt too cold for snakes to make an appearance.
When the trail started to parallel a dirt road, you know we took it. It’s just nicer that way! We can walk side by side, talking the whole time-my legs don’t get scratched, Marquis doesn’t walk face first into branches.. it’s like a mini reprieve. And the views don’t really seem to change out here.I’m not saying the desert doesn’t have its own unique beauty, because it definitely does.. and maybe it’s the “itching to be done” now that I’m getting so close, but the views all basically look the same to me.
The mountains, while gorgeous, are all brown and dead and covered with those scrapey ass bushes-and snakes! I haven’t seen a snake since I’ve been with Marquis, but they’re always in the forefront of my mind since that huge one “chased” me back near Walker Pass. By the way-I’ve been told by some locals that the one I described sounds like a Mojave Green Rattlesnake, and apparently one bite will have you dead within 6 minutes. DEAD. And they wonder why I run like a lunatic when I see any of them! How am I supposed to know which snake it was? It rattled and came towards me-I ran! I’m not going to stand there and figure out what type it is!
Anywho. We got to a tree with shade and a flat spot to lay out our very wet tents, and ate our lunch. We took a good 45 minutes sitting there, to make sure everything was dry before packing up and moving on. While sitting there, we realized less than a mile from where we wanted to camp was a road junction that had comments saying this little bar down the road would send someone to pick up hikers! What?!
When we got there we called the number and Allen came to get us. We had burgers, tater tots, and a couple beers for me and a milkshake for Marquis. We hung out and chatted with the locals (the ones telling me about the snakes and getting a kick out of my reaction. God I hate those things). We sang along to country songs and eventually got Allen to drive us back to the junction to walk that last mile to camp.
We were originally all gung-ho at the junction, saying we’d go 4 miles to a bridge and yada yada-when we had to take our shoes off to cross Deep Creek, we changed our tune real fast. It was starting to get dark and our feet were wet-so, we set up camp at the dirt roads above the creek but on the side of the concrete barriers that looked like it didn’t get road traffic. All of these dirt roads seem to get locals in jeeps, 4 wheelers, and dirt bikes mostly, and it being a Monday night, I’m sure we’re fine here, but we still attempted to find the safest place available.
This area feels odd, lots of strange birds making stranger calls, and some crunching of animal activity down by the water, but it is what it is. As I type this, I just heard something splash into the water below-creepy. Something tells me I’ll be in my earplugs soon. What I can’t hear can’t terrorize me, right? Ha. I also have a feeling we’ll be waking up to condensation again. The temps really drop at night.
For what it’s worth, I’m ready to be done. I know I’ll have some miles to make up next year, before I can say I really completed the PCT, but when I get to Mexico, I’ll only have 284.9 miles to complete: One section being the jump to get to Marquis, the other being the fire closure business from Etna to Dunsmuir. However you want to look at it, I’m saying I finished my thru hike of the PCT in 2023, and I’ll do those miles when I can so I can then call my hike complete. The random thoughts that keep me awake at night, lol.
Anyway, I’m going to try to fall asleep before I hear anything else from down at the creepy creek. Sweet dreams!