PCT Day 27

Day 27

30 miles

I set off at 4am just as the pale dawn light is starting to flare up. Half the sky is a dark blue and other is a red/orange/yellow haze on the horizon. It feels late. I pass Chloe and her cousin who hiked pass me last night. I’m ten miles away from the next supposed water cache. I’m hungry so I eat a poptart and hike on. My stomach rumbles and I can physically feel it. I have trail mix and cereal biscuits to calm it. I ascend the biggest hill of the day in the shade (woop!) and trail the edge of the hill. I pass a couple who then pass me in turn as I stop to take a photo. I see a few tents dotted off the trail. The scenery is stunning up here. Maybe it’s just the aurora light touching everything or the height but everything just looks amazing….

I finish the ten miles to the water cache and chill in the shade. The couple are from the east coast and have taken time off the trail to visit as many baseball games as they can afford here on the west coast. This water cache and the one from last night are maintained by an ex-hiker called Devil Fish and he’s left some food! Amazing trail magic! Sweet food! I eat chocolate spread on tortilla wraps which are awesome and decide to get some myself when I’m next in civilization. The couple hike on and I’m soon joined by Snakebite. She says she hiked for about 12 miles until she needed sleep. I decide to head up this hill before it gets any hotter and acquire another bigger yucca stick! It works really well and I speed up the hill. It’s lots of climbing and switch backs and I get to the top before 11am and before the heat gets too intense.

I walk another 2 miles and stop for some well soaked noodles which taste good for once but I still want some thing else. There isn’t much height to be climbed for the next few miles but it still takes me ages. I have about 15 miles to go before I get to the Walkers Pass - a campsite where water is.

The miles lengthen out.... I descend down to switch backs and hit a dirt road which seems endless in the sun. It goes up and down, up and down and annoys me more than it should. There is absolutely no shade.

It’s 4:30pm and I have about 9 miles to go and I’m so slow, I’m practically crawling. I eat snacks and plow on, attempting to motivate myself. I have one last poptart - thankfully which helps. What helps even more is when I walk into a lovely pine forest and trail it in and out of the trees. It’s a lot cooler in here.

8 miles - I snack

7 miles - I watch the sun fade

6 miles…..

5 miles - so slow…

4 miles - foooood….

3 miles - water break

3.5 miles - snack break

3 miles - pee break

2 miles….

1 mile so close…and then I arrive!

Its twilight now and I know I should put up my tent but I chill with the other hikers instead who’ve just been to town for food. Empty wrappers of a local fast food burger place litter the tables. My stomach rumbles longingly. It gets to 9:30 pm a few hikers hike out and I pitch my tent. Both the inner and outer which makes it hot but I want to sleep in the morning and want privacy. I uncurl my sleeping bag and clean my feet then sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep!

Day 28 here

 

PCT Day 26

Day 26

17 miles

I hear some strange noises in the night like something being eaten alive. I think it was a fox but still it sounded like a mountain lion eating something…..  Everyone heard it and we discuss it at length as we all slowly emerge from our tents - or don’t. Big Boy Scout talks to us through his tent as Atellabun rolls up a cigarette slowly. I met them both back at Hiker Town and have been leap frogging them both since then. Atellabin was stuck at Hiker Town for over ten days as he was waiting for his infected blister to heal. It was pretty bad. I heard Puss head out super early, before dawn. I get some more water from the trickle of the stream which flows into a muddy valley, trampled by the cows. Flies hover here and there over it.

I decide to copy the plan of walking 7 miles to the next water source and waiting out the heat of the day there until the cool of the evening comes and night hike. I’m slow yet again as my feet hurt but I get there eventually. No idea where Puss went but I meet Atellabun there. We chill in the shade and drink some homemade raspberry wine that his Dad sent out and nap as others turn up seeking solace from the sun.

There ends up being about ten of us chilling in the shade. It’s too hot to do anything so we all just laze in the sun and have to move every now and again as the sun moves. The water source is a lush spring which flows into a metal trough - which apparently the day after I was there some hikers saw a family of bears come to drink from it and watch a baby bear climb inside.

It’s so nice to chill and do very little. I catch up with my journal, drink, read ahead for the next sections, drink, pee, calculate when I need to resupply, drink, nap, pee, drink, eat. Two guys turn up and speed around on dirt bikes. They leave coke in the trough to cool down and we all joke that they left it as trail magic….they reclaim it after half an hour.

I then come to realise that I haven’t have a done off/zero day since I started hiking… I’ve walked at least 5 miles a day.

It’s so hot I’m looking forward to finishing this desert section. The next part is a 44 mile or 71 km stretch without water. There are 2 rumoured water caches but I still have to leave with about 5 litres, some have 9 litres. We begin to peel off after 5:30pm. The sun is still intense but I head out at 6pm. I’ve drank at least 4 litres throughout the day and I’m carrying 5.5 litres. It’s still really hot and I pause for a mars bar on a stone and watch the sun sink down over the hills in the distance. I’m not very motivated to hike this section. I think about what it will be like to night hike which will be different.

I climb a bit, then follow the ins and outs of the mountain as it weaves in and out of the crevasses. In a straight line it’s probably a mile, but the extra bits it’s probably 3 miles. Atellabun catches up and I tail him till the dirt road appears and low and behold there is an impressive water cache. It’s huge! Crazy! I down a litre and then twilight happens. Snakebite, Atellabun and 5fingers set off before me and I get out my head torch.

Night hiking is so strange. It’s so quiet, little desert gerbils walking out in front of me. All I see is the trail in front of me and the few side bushes, everything is dark. I somehow hike a total of 13 miles and take a break. I turn off my headtorch amazed by the amount of stars that I can see. There is no moon so everywhere is pitch black apart from the stars. It’s so warm and I’m content sitting there in my hiking shirt. I chill for about 20 mins then I hike on for an hour and sleep next to the trail on a sandy flat patch. It was right next to the trail and I startle two hikers who walk by. I try to sleep but know I have to be up for 4am. It’s midnight, the stars are brilliant. I lie there, wide awake and look at the numerous amount of stars here. I know my brother Tom would love this as he is into astronomy. It’s so still. I can hear tiny ants scurrying over me. I don’t know what time I eventually fall asleep.

 

 

day 27 here

 

PCT Day 25

Day 25

Miles 29

I get up and set off for 5:20 am. Puss has already gone and Cookie is still asleep. It’s a slow slog up the hill, the sun as it always does appears at half 6 and the heat begins it daily onslaught. There is no shade as the forest has been burnt out. It’s so hot as I hiked out of the valley and enter a wind farm, their hum rather ominous. I make the 10 miles to the water source and take a break to cool myself down while drinking 2 litres. A group of 5 hikers are chilling there and I sit in the shade, eat noodles and down another litre.

I set off again but only walk 5 miles, the midday heat getting to me. I try to take a siesta but none of the burnt-out trees give a good shelter. I stay for an hour till I can stand the flies no more and head off into the hot afternoon. I trudge along the trail, the sun shining down. I pause in the shade and sweat from every pore. Soon I came upon a campsite in a meadow. This place actually had green grass which bowed in the wind. It would have been lovely to have stay there but I need water which is 9 miles away. Clouds have been in the sky for the past few hours now but for some reason they seem to be repelled by the sun. Thunder roared out in the distance and I can see patches of rain over yonder. I ascend up the grassy hill and find a tree with shade - finally!

I’m getting thirsty by this point and drinking water down eagerly. It’s a shame I was speeding through this part as fast as I could. My brain counting miles down and thinking of Coke or Pepsi or milk or Sprite or Fanta…..

I climb over fallen trees and perch on huge stones, tiredness setting in. I have a great view of a town down below. I enter a dirt track and find the magical 600 mark. I sped up, heading up hill. 2 miles, 1.5 miles, 1 mile 0.5 miles and I arrive at Robin Bird Spring. It’s 8pm so  Gone hiker midnight and getting dark. I sped to the water speed and meet Puss. I down a litre and filled up my bottle again. We chat about the heat and the trail as I drink. Then I put up my inner tent, eat a poptart and climb into bed exhausted.

Day 26 here