Miles: 549 to 569.9 Mileage: 20.9 Day: 27 The morning was cold up on the mountain and we were reluctant to get out of our sleeping bags. Yet we did, and left camp with many layers on that had to be removed soon after we started walking. The first nine miles to Tehachapi-Willow Springs road […]
Miles: 517.6 to 549 Mileage: 31.4 Day: 26 The alarm went off at 4 a.m. Worst. sound. ever. I was not ready to get out from behind my eyelids. Fortunately for me, Richard felt the same. We reset the alarm for 4:30 a.m. What a difference half an hour can make. We got moving out […]
Miles: 476.7 to 502.3 Mileage: PCT: 14.5; roadwalking: 4; hitch hiking: 6; bushwhack: 1; PCT closed due to fire: 12 Day: 24 Today we had to find our way around the last current fire closure (if there’s another one in the future, it will be for an active fire; this was the last closure from […]
Miles: 448.1 to 476.1 Mileage: 28 Day: 23 The cave was definitely a cool place to sleep, but I woke up suddenly when I noticed I’d been pooped on by a bird in the middle of the night. Not cool, bird. It was a cool morning as we hiked 6 miles to Agua Dulce, California, […]
Miles: 426.9 to 448.1 Mileage: 21.2 (plus .4 to the KOA) Day: 22 Let’s talk Poodle Dog Bush for a minute. With all the time I have to think, I have devoted much of it lately to what I would call the hype around PDB. In every guide book I’ve seen, there is a lot […]
Miles: 400 to 426.9 Mileage: 26.9 Day: 21 It all started off so well. We got up and started hiking before 7 a.m. The night had been dry, so the tent and sleeping bags were in fine shape. My feet felt great. And then the winds started. The terrain was varied, without big climbs to […]
Miles: 374.8 to 400 Mileage: 25.2; plus an extra 1.1 from the road walk Day: 20 Hiking Mt. Baden-Powell was the first order of the day. It was 40 switchbacks to the top. Most were gentle; some were fiercely steep. At the first drifts of snow, Richard and I paused briefly to throw snowballs at […]
Miles: 351.8 to 374.8 Mileage: 23 Day: 19 The view was gone by the morning. Our sleeping bags were wet again and so was the tent. Fog was everywhere. Cold and wet to start the day. The weird part of it was, the higher we climbed the drier it got. We had ten miles of […]
Miles: 325.5 to 351.8 Mileage: 26.3 Day: 18 The sun hit us early on the lake shore. We woke to find dew on everything. Even though we woke up around 6 a.m., we didn’t start hiking until after 7 because we let our sleeping bags dry in the sun for a bit. Our first […]
Miles: 298.7 to 325.5 Mileage: 26.8 Day: 17 Okay. So, not all of the PCT is in the designated “wilderness,” but whether we wander through National Forest, state land, Bureau of Land Management or whatever, it’s still easy to tell if it’s Monday through Friday or the weekend. During the week, it’s rare to see […]