The Unpolished Princess

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: 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: 1944.5

Stop: 1959.8

Today’s miles: 15.3

Total PCT miles: 1812

Today was a fun one! The whole waking up bit sucked, of course. It was cold and very windy-but no one else was moving at 6am, or at 6:30.. I finally heard someone packing around 6:40 so I started, too. As I was getting out of my tent, I saw Strider! I went over to talk to her and she was planning to go into Kennedy Meadows South for a little while today too, so I told her I’d meet her there.

I finished packing and was the last to walk out of camp by maybe 5 minutes. The trail was easy going, but cold-even in my new gloves my hands stayed numb for quite a long time. The sun did shine on the valley way sooner than when I was high in the mountains, so I was happy about that.

It was a quick 7.5 miles to the road and then almost a mile to the general store everyone was going to. I got there around 10:30, everyone clapped when I walked up-it’s what you do when any hiker shows up there, like with Reece Witherspoon in “Wild.” It’s the same place. I congratulated the folks I camped with last night, because now their hike is complete, I said hi to Strider and her tramily member, Hobble-it, who reconnected with her in Independence and they’re finishing the trail together in a few days at Walker Pass.

Then, I went inside and got a Mountain Dew and a beer. I had to wait until 11am for the restaurant to open for food-but that was ok. We sat at talked and laughed a lot, then a line formed at 11 to order.. food is very serious hiker business after all. I ordered a double cheeseburger, fries, and jalapeño poppers. When it all came out 30 minutes later I devoured every single bite. My burger was gone before I had even realized I ate it all.. how is that even possible? Like, I went for a napkin and forgot while I was gone that I ate it already, as I was looking for it. Weird.

I ended up sitting awhile longer, enjoying the atmosphere, then got another beer and Mountain Dew and hung out some more. Close to 1pm I got my stuff together and said my byes to hike out. Hobble-it and I hiked together for a few miles before she got ahead of me. It was easy terrain, but the bushes of the desert were scratching at my legs and I was walking slowly through the real overgrown stuff so I wouldn’t rip my skin open. I still have a ton of scratches, but only one opened up. Why is my leg skin so fragile? Maybe I need to get pants again soon if the whole desert is going to be like this.

I made it to our stopping point by 5 something, and at first almost just kept hiking. I need to get to Walker Pass sort of early on Tuesday to help my odds of hitch hiking all the way to where Marquis is. But I’m torn because I’d like to be there when Strider and Hobble-it finish, too. So, I set up camp with them and decided I’ll figure that part out later. They both hike faster than me, so even if I camp with them, they’ll probably be at Walker Pass and get a ride before I’m even there to congratulate them. Ha.

We ate dinner together and now it’s dark before 7:30. I think I’ll try to fall asleep here soon and then get up when they do at 5:30 to start packing.. well, they get up earlier than that, but leave by 6, I can leave by 6 if I wake up at 5:30.. soooo, we’ll see. That’s my plan. And I want to get 25-27 miles tomorrow so I have less to do on Tuesday morning before all the hitching madness. Man, I hope that goes smoothly. Sorry it’s a short one, just lacking the words today, I guess. Goodnight y’all.