Author: Courtney

Start: 2369.3

Stop: 2399

Today’s miles: 29.7

Total PCT miles: 2115.6

I woke to something tapping me on my hip around 2:30 in the morning. I was curled up, sleeping on my side, and kept feeling this tap, tap, tap.. I opened my eyes and realized it was my trekking pole hitting me and that half of my tent had come un-staked! I pulled out my earplugs and could immediately hear the howling and whistling of very intense wind.

I had to figure out how to get out of my tent without the rest of it toppling over, then search the ground around our tents to find my lost stakes and then re-do it all.. before I even got back inside, one had already blown loose-so I then searched for large rocks and put them over my stakes, praying they’d hold.

Thankfully, that worked and I was able to go back to sleep. When I woke to my alarm later this morning, there was dirt blown into my tent from the wind, and my eyelashes were coated with it! At least the views at sunset were great I guess. I yelled to Marquis to tell him about my tent collapsing during the night, and he had to get out once during the night, too! While we were packing, one of his stakes came loose. Come to find out, the wind sawed the guy line in half against a rock he had holding it down-crap!

Thankfully, no one ever showed to make us pay for the night, and we didn’t go looking, since we had such a rough go of things. We walked to a breakfast restaurant in the neighboring town and loaded up on all of the calories. I got a breakfast enchilada. Weird, but so great all the same. We resupplied and I got my Aunt Kathy a birthday card. We stopped by the post office and I sent her the card and some moon flower seeds.

We got back to trail by the afternoon, and by the time we got to it, I was actually happy with the dirt and sand instead of the asphalt. I’m going to look at it as appreciating everything instead of never happy with anything, haha! It really does require some adjustments in your thinking out here, because it’s very easy to get in a negative headspace and stay stuck in it. This trail is hard, and focusing on that makes it miserable, making you forget how incredible it truly is. It could also be the temperatures are a bit lower today, so you know, I didn’t sweat buckets or get swarmed by bugs.

The views were pretty and open with lots of hills and tons of scrub brush. We didn’t see any snakes and ended up camping in a wooded area with actual trees, so that was nice. The stream we followed along for a good while smelled awful, like sulfur or rotten eggs.. thankfully right before camp there was a different stream coming in across the trail, higher and away from the smelly creek that we were able to fill up at.

It’s cold tonight, like, I’m in all my layers cold. Marquis and I ate dinner sitting on a nice little wooded log that some Boy Scouts of long ago turned into a bench. Marquis actually used my JetBoil and had his first ever hot meal on trail! He’s considering buying a stove for when he jumps up to Northern California, because it’s going to be pretty damn cold when he hikes through. This really makes me happy. Nothing warms your body up and protects you from hypothermia like a hot meal.

It’s not even 7:30 and we’re both tucked into our quilts and ready for bed. Well I am, he might already be asleep-I think I hear a faint snore over there! Ha. So, with that, it’s bedtime and earplug time! Sweet dreams!

Start: 2341.8

Stop: 2369.3

Today’s miles: 27.5

Total PCT miles: 2085.9

We got started around 6:30 this morning. It’s staying darker later, so it’s either start at 6:30 when I can see, or start the day in my headlamp, and I’m really just not a fan of that. It was a cold night and a very chilly morning, but surprisingly my tent was dry, even being that close to the creek.

The trail climbed up out of the canyon and then went along the mountains following Deep Creek. The views were beautiful and I was really enjoying it. Pretty early on we passed a hot spring.. there were locals camped around (you know because of how heavy and large their tents are-no backpacker is toting those big mamas).. and there was so much toilet paper, stranded around all the bushes the trail passed by. There was trash, too. It would have been gorgeous if people didn’t ruin it.

It got hot fast once the sun was up. Then, naturally, the bugs followed. I started the day gung-ho and loving every step and by lunch time I was irritable and ready to quit. The water had a nasty taste to it, I was getting swarmed by bugs and I was sweating like crazy. We ate our lunch sitting in a nice spot down by the creek, but even this spot was littered with trash. It’s sad. We talked and considered going to the malt shop everyone talks about, since we’d be passing the road crossing for it within the next hour.

When we started hiking again and I got startled by a snake, it was confirmed: Malt Shop here we come! Ha. The trail was more sandy dirt and eroded trail after we descended down to where we ate lunch. Even with some climbs, it just wasn’t pretty anymore. There were no views and it just sucked. The dirt roads we took to get to the malt shop were all closed for some reason, there was a little wash out here and there, but it looked like the area used to be a fun place for locals to come to.. maybe it was closed because of all the trash? Who knows?

We got to the Malt Shop in Cedar Glen and got a booth to relax at. The restaurant was decorated as a 50s themed diner, with pictures of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, records on the walls and cool classic cars all over the place. Even the burgers were named after cars. I ordered the Edsel and a caramel milk shake. And y’all. Holy hell was it all absolutely delicious! I know I always say that, but this burger had so much flavor! And I usually never get milkshakes or ice cream, so this one was really flipping good!

When we left the malt shop, instead of going back to trail, we road walked through Cedar Glen to an RV campground.. because it raved about the epic views, and we were both over the nasty water on trail-actually we were over the trail itself if I’m being honest. We walked by stunning homes, built into the hills and in a way that the snow in the winter wouldn’t demolish them. Most seemed to be 3 stories tall.. they were massive and beautiful and we were pretending to be on House Hunters.

This whole area is a winter ski destination, and the campground we got to is right across from an amusement park called Santa’s Village. Since we came wondering through in the off season, it was pretty empty all around. The campground itself was very nice. They had fire boxes with chairs laid out around them, a wash house, an area that you can rent an airstream for the night, then all of the RV spots, and a section for tent campers way up on the hill.

I called the number for the camp host, so we could pay and get the bathroom code-but no one ever answered or called me back. We wondered around looking for someone, no luck there either. So, we went and picked a campsite and started setting up our tents.. assuming they’d see us and come over. The two of us had to put up one tent at a time because the wind was absolutely insane.

We got them both up while watching the sunset, which really was something special.
We are set up with a view of the big city lights down below, and the orange glow of the disappearing sun just makes the lights and darkness surrounding them stand out so much more. I was fascinated by it. I took pictures and stared for a while before getting inside tent.. the wind was so nuts that I had to lay my stuff out in all corners so it would stop lifting up my tent in a way that felt like it was going to snatch my stakes out.

We’re laying here, yelling to each other over the wind, and still no one has come over to us.. so, no bathroom code for us. I think I’m going to put in my earplugs and say a prayer that my tent stays standing tonight.. I don’t think I’ve been in wind this strong before. It’s a little unnerving! Goodnight!

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!