Month: October 2023

Start: 1959.8

Stop: 1985.3

Today’s miles: 25.5

Total PCT miles: 1837.5

Whew buddy, today threw me for a loop. A horrible, “I hate this and want to quit and go home or to a beach or literally anywhere where rattlesnakes are NOT” loop. But, it didn’t start out that way. Actually, the rattlesnake didn’t happen until the last 2 miles of my hike, but the negativity about the trail in general had been there for a few hours, and the snake was the icing on my frustrated cake.

I woke up late, both Strider and Hobble-it were gone when I finally woke up to pee at 6.. and then as I was peeing I could hear coyotes in the pretty close distance howling to each other-so, I got back in my tent and slept another 30 minutes. Why not? Ha. I didn’t want them coming over while I was packing to investigate the noises I was making.. at least, that’s what I told myself so I didn’t have to pack.

At 6:30, I finally started to pack and I was mad at myself for not just doing it when I was already up earlier. Without the bear can, I’m back to my old routine, which is nice and had me walking out of camp by 6:50. Not too shabby. And the coyotes were still howling and yipping, but they sounded farther away, so I was hoping I wasn’t about to round a corner into their pack-luckily I never spotted them.

The terrain definitely feels like the start of the desert: sand, heat, bushes and shrubby trees.. reptiles instead of marmots and chipmunks. So. Many. Lizards. Maybe I’ll try to count them tomorrow for giggles-because today had to be over a thousand, easy. And there was even a HUGE one that darted across my foot that had me screaming.. naturally.

The start of the day was a 7 mile climb that I actually enjoyed. The trail was easy to follow, it wasn’t overgrown, it was around and across the mountains easing up out of the valley instead of straight up and over. I got hot half way up and took my fleece off, but otherwise I was content the whole time. The other side: sucked. It started to get overgrown in areas, my legs getting scraped no matter how hard I tried to avoid it. There were down trees to climb over, the trail itself got rocky or washed out.

The trail went down to a stream, where I filled up, then I started climbing the next mountain of the day. Around 12:30 I stopped and ate lunch.. bites taken in between moving my headnet, because the gnats were out in full force, massively swarming me constantly from about 11am until I got in this tent around 7pm. They don’t bite, which, thank God, but they do dive bomb your eyes, nose, mouth every single second they can. I think they’re what caused my irritation to begin with, not so much the overgrown trail.. but that definitely didn’t help.

At the top of that second climb, I got service and called my mom. Man, something about chatting with her and hearing about her day really helps my mood. I was starting to lose service when I walked, so, I stood still for about 15 minutes on a hillside getting gnat swarmed so I could chit chat with her. How do moms always make everything better? Even when you lie to them and tell them everything here is fantastic? Simply the best.

Anywho. Coming down that long descent, I encountered my 3rd snake of the day. The first 2 were garder snakes that were small and fast and happy to get away from me. This 3rd monster was HUGE, as in very round and very long.. it was rattling at me while sliding down the hillside above me TOWARDS me on trail below.

When I tell you I started screaming.. I mean I screamed so loud and so long as I ran past that devilish demon that after I got to camp, Strider and Hobble-it told me they heard me. I never saw them, not once all day! Not only did I scream as I ran past it, but as I turned to look back, I saw it turned towards me on trail, almost like it was going to come at me-still rattling-and I screamed and ran even farther down trail. My heart was still beating in my ears over 25 minutes later-after I stopped to fill up my water bottles. Even now typing this my adrenaline is starting to spike again!

I was so scared to turn any corner with the sunlight shining on the hillsides ahead. I was panicked and walking fast as hell, jumping at small branches and limbs laying on the trail, shrieking at the lizards and overall completely over this day. My fear of snakes is a real one, clearly, and I wonder if the more I think about it the bigger that bastard will seem to get. I swear it was massive. I’m definitely going to have nightmares.

It was maybe 30 minutes later when I got to camp and Strider and Hobble-it told me they heard me scream and that they weren’t that far ahead of me, because Strider saw me run, too. This makes me laugh now, because I did so much cussing and talking to myself out loud during that last 2 miles to camp that I’m sure I looked and sounded like a raging lunatic. Too bad they didn’t get it on camera.

I set up my tent and unpacked inside it, because.. bugs. And we all chit chatted for a few minutes before everyone got into bed. Strider started to get a migraine today, so she isn’t feeling all that great. That makes me super sad for her, since tomorrow is her finishing day, and this is her very last night on trail. I hope it passes and she sleeps well, so her hike can end on a good note.

I’m a bit stressed out about tomorrow. It’s 16.6 miles to the road at Walker Pass and then I need to get hitch into town to resupply before getting a hitch to where Marquis is.. and I really don’t know how easy that will be to do. I haven’t heard from him and when I tried to message him today, I lost service before the text went through.. so hopefully he’ll be there tomorrow afternoon and we can get started going south. He’ll be clean and laundered, I’ll be 4 days into my stink, so I need to look into when I’ll get to shower and do laundry next, too.

So stressful. Especially without service. Hopefully I’m able to get more than 1 bar tomorrow so I can get some stuff figured out. I also let Margot know my plan, so hopefully she gets service soon and can check in and maybe she’ll be willing to jump down to meet us too! Ok, I’ve done enough panicking and worrying today. Only so much “planning” I can do from my tent. Goodnight y’all.

Start: 1985.3

Stop: 2002

Today’s miles: 16.7

Total PCT miles: 1854.2

Well, my reptilian tormentor joined me in my dreams. Stupid damn snake. I was startled awake, dreaming that the demon was trying to get into my tent-then realized it was Strider! She was telling me that her and Hobble-it were packed and heading out. It wasn’t even 5am! No way I’d be catching them now.. I told them bye and tucked myself back into my quilt, both sad that I’m a lazy turd and wouldn’t just get up and start packing, and happy that I could maybe get a little more snake-free dreaming in..

I pressed snooze until 6:45! Jesus Christ! I left by 7:15, irritable with myself and absolutely terrified of every bush and twig and lizard on the trail. I had to poop pretty early on, and I was seriously so freaked out by that huge nope rope from yesterday that I waited until the very last second to get off the trail and dig a hole. I was also right out in the open. I’m pretty sure anyone within a mile could see my behind, but I was NOT about to go walking around in scrub brush that’s doing nothing but hiding snakes. Nope. No thank you.

Anyway. The trail wasn’t terrible.. the views were great and it was mostly downhill. There weren’t many climbs at all and I saw not one snake. I did however count 85 lizards by 10am and then gave up on the counting because I’m lazy and keeping up with the count was making my head hurt. Ha. Oh! I also saw my very first Joshua Trees! They remind me of palm trees after Edward Scissorhands got ahold of them. Sharp, odd, but remarkably neat to see.

I made it down to the two lane highway by 2:30pm. Strider and Hobble-it were long gone of course. The road crossing was at the top of Walker Pass, so it took a few minutes to get in a good hitching spot to be seen early enough for the car to pull over safely, but also have enough room so big trucks could get in the pull off lane to slow down for their descent. It was brutally hot on that asphalt. I was dumping buckets, with my thumb hiked out and trying to be bubbly and happy so someone would stop for me.

So many cars passed. And so did tons of tractor trailers. They all got into the far lane, so many times I would think they were stopping for me, but they were just preparing to slow down for the other side. It took roughly 30 minutes before a sweet mid 50s Romanian man stopped in his massive tractor trailer, hauling stuff for the military base in town where I was headed. He helped me lift my pack in between the two seats, then gave me a soda from his cooler, and peppered me sweetly about the trail and told me all about truck driving for the whole 45 minutes to Ridgecrest. I feel like I could get a job driving now..

My new friend dropped me off at the corner of two main roads, Taco Bell to my right, the military base he was headed to on the left. Perfect! I walked the half mile to Taco Bell in the heat, and then absolutely demolished an ungodly amount of bean burritos. I have loved those things since childhood, I don’t foresee that ever changing. I also drank two huge Mountain Dews. Lord, please be with me.. and my stomach when all of this hits.

When I left Taco Bell and headed towards the grocery store (about a half mile away), I chatted with Marquis. He would be getting back to Hickertown from playing in San Pedro first thing tomorrow morning. He’s been helping a man fix up his vintage cars. Pretty neat stuff, Ferraris and Rolls Royces. The man, Richard, arranged a place for me to sleep inside tonight at Hikertown, so now I just have to get there.

I resupplied from the grocery store and also bought a black marker and a poster board. Outside, I packed all my stuff into my backpack and wrote “PCT HIKER TO HIKERTOWN (HWY 138)” on the poster board-in hopes someone would stop knowing I wasn’t homeless or something. I made my way back to the busy intersection I got dropped off at and started my hitch hiking attempts. It was after 5pm, the sun was dipping, and I was worried no one would stop.

I’m not sure how long I was out there, but it was long enough that I was starting to contemplate walking to a motel and trying again in the morning. That would be my plan if the sun started setting, for sure. But, to my surprise, a car pulled over for me! It was a father and adult daughter, headed home with dinner they just picked up. They originally said they could just take me to the next town, where it would be easier to get a hitch, which was totally fine.

Close to the next town, the two decided that they’d drive to the house, the dad would stay and the daughter would drive me to Hikertown and come back. They had me laughing the whole way to their house, hilarious banter and all around good vibes. The woman got to the driver’s seat, and I moved up to the passenger’s seat and we took off-non stop comfortable chatter the whole time. We sang along to the radio and laughed-and I swear it felt like I’d known this girl forever, like we’d been friends out on road trips before.

The problem arose when I pulled up the GPS again and we realized we were still 45 minutes away.. and my new friend dropped one hell of a bomb: her headlights don’t work. Whoops. Well. That changes things. We were coming up to Mojave, a small town along the main two lane highway cutting through California. I told her she could just drop me off in this town, preferably at a motel, and I’d be more than grateful. She’d have time to get home before the sun was completely gone (if she hurried), and I’d just sleep in a motel and try to hitch the 45 minutes to Hikertown first thing in the morning.

She agreed. I offered her gas money, either in cash or at a pump, and she accepted. We popped into a gas station and I put $20 in her tank before she drove me to a motel right along the road I’d need to be on in the morning. She waited for me to confirm they had a room for me before hopping out and hugging me bye, like old friends.. then she drove off-literally-into the sunset. I hope she made it home alright.

The motel is -well- a motel. No shampoo or conditioner, only a tiny bar of soap in the room, otherwise it was clean and the air conditioner worked. I walked down the street a little to a Family Dollar, got shampoo and conditioner, then walked next door to that to a McDonald’s. I got my food to go, came back to the room, and showered before eating. I thought I’d be starving, but I guess when you eat your weight in bean burritos it curbs your appetite for awhile.

I talked with Mom and with Marquis. I’ll get up at 7 and make sure the sun is up before starting to hitch.. this town isn’t along the trail, so it’s mostly truck drivers and people passing through. It doesn’t give off the safest of vibes, but it is what it is and I have to get the rest of the way to my friend.. so, what can ya do? Ha. Ok.. time to sleep! I’m worn out! Today has been a long one, it’s hard to believe I hiked 16 miles before all of this town and hitching business! Sweet dreams!

Start: 2137.6

Stop: 2157

Today’s miles: 19.4

Total PCT miles: 1873.6

I slept amazingly well in that motel bed.. even if I did wake up a couple times and tossed and turned. Since I’ve been hiking, when I sleep in a bed it always looks like I’ve been fighting people in my sleep by the time I wake up. I’m always sideways and the covers are twisted and knotted and half on the floor.. but I swear it was restful! Ha

I packed quickly and walked to the McDonald’s from yesterday. I got a biscuit, ate it quickly, and then walked across the main highway to start hitching. I still had my sign, and the road was busy with tractor trailers and tons of cars flying past. I was out there for 40 minutes before a man stopped for me. He is a retired military man from Tehachapi, but he coaches boxing certain days of the week in Palmdale.. where he’s headed today.

We talked while he drove, and he got me to the intersection of 138 before letting me out. I only had 20 more minutes to get to Hikertown now! I stood on this smaller road for less than 10 minutes before a man in a convertible BMW pulled over. It was comical trying to fit my pack in his pristine trunk, but we got it in there. The two of us chit-chatted about hiking and camping the rest of the way to Hikertown. His car looked too nice to be an avid hiker’s car, but what do I know?

When he dropped me off, I all but ran to Marquis! I had missed him so much! We walked inside the house at the back, where the older man, Richard was and introduced me. We ate breakfast (second breakfast in my case) and caught up a bit before getting our shoes on to hike out. Richard brought cake and we had steak and egg sandwiches. Talk about luxury-it put the McDonald’s biscuit to shame.

Hikertown is really just a property along this two lane road out in the middle of nowhere. The trail goes right by it, so Richard made it for hikers. He’s got it set up like an old western town, super cute, and there’s places for hikers to camp and shower and eat.. really neat.

We started hiking around 10am. It was already hot, both of us sweating within the first few minutes. The trail was overgrown and every single plant or bush that we walked past was sharp and scratchy. I was frustrated pretty quick, and if I had been alone I know I would have been much worse. But, Marquis has a way to make you laugh, even when you’re beyond irritated with the surroundings. He was just as miserable as me, and we cackled and complained for close to that whole 20 miles we hiked!

We had some pretty views after a big climb. The desert feels very open, with the views going and going for miles upon miles. That makes the heat and bushes bearable I think. Water was a pain to get, out of a concrete cistern that required a Marquis. He’s 6’3” tall, and if I had been alone, I would still be thirsty. He tied string around his smart water bottle and we had to put my trekking pole in the bottle, hold the string, and shove the bottle under the water.. the thing is, the water was so far down that I wouldn’t have been able to reach it with my trekking pole! It’s a little nuts, and beyond creepy.

He filled his bottle several times, pouring it into my dirty water cnoc bag and into his other water bottle until we both had 3 liters of drinking water. What a mess. It took for damn ever. We finally started hiking again, just after 5:30pm. It gets dark so early now.. it’s real annoying.. BUT Marquis gave me the new headlamp he ordered for me, so I was excited to get to use it soon. We walked until sunset, and then camped in an empty campground.

All of the campsites were covered in broken glass. Like people had been shooting beer bottles or something. It was absolutely everywhere, and both Marquis and I have expensive tents that we didn’t want to get ripped.. so, we cleared us spots in the middle of the dirt road loop that all of the campsites surround. We were the only people out here, so, hopefully it stays that way tonight and we don’t get any late night visitors driving around. We set up and watched the end of the sunset-glowing hot orange over the city lights in the town below. It’s pretty gorgeous.

We both ate our dinners from inside our tents, thanks to being too lazy to walk over to a glass covered picnic table. I’m really not trying to tear my feet up, and although my shoes are practically still new, I don’t want to put them back on. Something tells me that glass will slice right through my crocs-so-tent dinners are A ok with me!

Y’all. I’m really so damn happy to have my friend back. I didn’t realize how lonely I was on the few days where I’d hike by myself all day, even if I did catch up to camp with people most nights. It just didn’t feel like this-that knowing someone well enough to cut up and crack jokes and just laugh. Even if I’m currently not a fan of the desert terrain, I’m happy as hell to be walking through it with Marquis.

Ok, that’s enough of all that. Time to get some sleep and see what tomorrow has in store for us! Goodnight y’all.