Day 39

Trail miles: 17.5

Total: 517.6

I think I am getting better at this! Or maybe I just had a really good day. I need to take less breaks so I can finish the day earlier. Well I started in the wrong road and quickly turned around to get on the right road. Then a cold 2 miles uphill in the fog. I got a couple of sunrise shots on the way up. I lost the group all morning. I took a break about 4 miles in and had the best cliff bar, which was coffee flavored and had one shot of espresso in it. Which reminds me, I need to order more. The morning was calming once it warmed up a bit. I listened to some podcasts and when I got service, I tried calling my mom while hiking for the first time. I think it went well when the wind wasn’t too loud!  I just have to make sure I’m on a downhill so my breathing isn’t too loud. I cut the call short when I saw trail magic! Cheshire Cat was cutting up fresh fruit! I got watermelon and threw a stick to the dog a bunch of times. At this point I was still alone and found out Brad had left about 20 minutes before me. I thought Raechel and Krista were ahead, but they came rolling in shortly. They had to take the side trail for water and stopped for breakfast as well. They must have been on the side trail when I passed and missed them. The rest of the day was PUDs or pointless up and downs. We made it into Hikertown at about 3:00pm, which is just a sanctuary on the side of the trail run by Marta and some others. I was taking video footage of the old western buildings when she called me in to have tamales! The drink she made was flour, hibiscus sugar, and water. Next was the market, which we were shuttled to by the store owner. I got the smallest bacon wrapped stuffed chicken on the planet; it was so sad looking. The rest of the stuff was expensive so I didn’t get more than what I really wanted. Back at the campsite we all hung around to eat more tamales and filter water before heading out tomorrow. I have about 3.5 liters to take with me the 17 miles. We decided to day hike the aqueduct because it hasn’t been terribly hot out and we don’t want to hike when we should be sleeping. Tomorrow might be my longest day on trail, but it’s flat so that may help! There are currently so many stabby ends of bushes caught in my socks, pants, and silk liner that I can’t get out. Every time I move it itches. I may have to get new sleep clothes once we leave the desert. 

Day 38

Trail miles: 21.9

Total: 500.1

Quick moment of silence for the hundreds of ants I have steps on in the last 500 miles. Seriously, they are everywhere on trail and it’s so hard to walk around them all. I wonder if it’s because hikers like me miss their mouth when stuffing them with crumbled Cheez It’s from the bottom of their pack. I wonder how long a Cheez It would feed a group of ants. 

The wake up call was at 4am to beat the heat. I took too long getting ready so I tried to catch up, but didn’t see anyone until around mile 7. The sunrise was so beautiful. I stopped to take a lot of GoPro and camera shots. I’ve decided the desert looks best before 8am and in the shadows. The sunset was pretty cool too. Definitely don’t take my camera out as much during the peak hours of the day. We got some trail magic cookies, which I rewarded myself with at the top of our big climb. About halfway up though was a cave you could climb into and walk around in! I wouldn’t camp there though, because you’d just be breathing in dust all night. Might be good for a siesta, but hard to get your pack through the hole. The spring was very slow so I fell way behind again filtering water. I caught up around mile 18 after I took a lunch break by myself because I was starving. It really makes you feel loads better after eating a real meal instead of snacking all day. And sitting too of course helps. Also playing Wordle when you have service, which we have somehow had everyday at one point or another. Not enough to use the internet most times, but enough to text. We were all in good spirits until we found out the water source was like a half mile off trail and through a field of grass to a cistern. It took us so long that Brad was ready to send a search party. It added on over an hour to our day. But we felt better after we hit mile 500!! We broke our permit qualifications, which say “minimum 500 continuous miles” so we are official! Camp is on the side of a parking lot with 9 other tramily members. We are all looking forward to burgers in Hikertown!

Day 37

Trail miles: 17.4

Total: 478.2

Woke up to find that the other group that also took off up the long hill also didn’t make it quite to the top before picking a campsite. And Raechel said she was dangerously falling asleep on the way up, so I feel better about making everyone stop to camp. Raechel and Krista are telling people how funny it was that all of a sudden I just turned right off trail and went up a hill to find campsites that weren’t marked on the map. I guess something was telling me it was perfect and I needed it. I made it up the hill slowly and made it to the water source where I didn’t find the gang anywhere. I figured they were so far ahead that they filled up already and left. I had a cliff bar and peanut butter and was about to take off when they showed up. Apparently they missed a turn and got behind me. I didn’t fill up because I had enough water and was hoping there’d be some non sulphuric water from the water cache a couple miles away, and there was! I ran into Forklift hiking, who told me she had been scarily dizzy from the heat and long water carry so I gave her a Gatorade packet. The two of them who both had some issues are going to stay tonight at camp and try to get up early tomorrow to hike in the morning. That is what we are also trying to do since Raechel felt bad hiking after lunch. I will probably try to hike through the heat since it doesn’t really bother me and I’m slower so I have to hike longer to make it to camp by dinner. Tomorrow is looking like a 20 mile day to the water source, but there are plenty along the way, which may keep the pack lighter and help people stay hydrated in the hot sun. Did I mention there’s people trying to organize a gigantic aqueduct night hike with our slowly solidifying tramily? I guess we will meet in Hikertown, eat dinner together, and head out after sunset and hike until we are done? I will need A LOT off caffeine. I can barely stay up past 9. No one has mentioned drugs yet which I hear some groups are adding to the party. Raechel says she’d end up hiking in circles. At dinner tonight, there was mostly the same group of hikers we now consistently run into at hot spots. We all ate dinner together and chatted for a couple of hours. Some of us washed our legs because there were so many poisonous plants growing onto the trail today. Oh, and Happy Cinco De Mayo!!

Day 36

Trail miles: 16.5

Total: 460.8

We got up early and headed to Agua Dulce for breakfast, which was 10 miles down the trail. We had a 1000 ft climb right off the bat and my pack was as full as ever with all my food. I took about 2 breaks and made it before the heat of the day really hit. The food at the Homemade Diner was good yet somehow didn’t fill me up. I wasted some time after that drying things out and trying to upload photos to Facebook again. There was basically only 4 places in the area to go to and they were all restaurants. Finally it was time to eat again and I ordered the daily special, which was a mistake, because it definitely could have fed a family of four. I ate about half and packed out the rest, but it will probably end up in the garbage in Hikertown. We then had 2 miles of road walk out of town. The good part about the trail going through towns is the convenience of not having to hitch and eating a meal right on trail. The worst part is the dangerous road walks. The never make them safe for hikers even though it’s literally the PCT and cars don’t slow down. After two more trail miles, we signed the trail registry and started up yet another large hill around 7:15pm. We had to turn our headlamps on around 8 or 8:30, which was my first time night hiking. And then I quickly gave up for the day when I saw the first flat spot to camp. I don’t know what it was, my hip or my enormous 

 pack weight, but I just needed to stop. I guess we all have bad days and today I didn’t have to push through the pain. Raechel and Krista are worried about tomorrows water carry. There is a spring coming up in a couple miles and a water cache soon after, but both are unreliable. The next reliable water source is in 18 miles. They have about a liter and a half left each so they will need one of those to pan out. Cole texted and verified the spring water being ok and the water filter filtering out most of the sulphuric taste. Oh did I mention we are hiking through LA?! I can’t believe I made it to LA. We went past these cool rock formations that apparently a lot of movies were filmed at, like Star Trek. And we got some trail magic! Pop and chips from a cooler outside a white van on the street. This is the only time you would probably ever just accept gift like that in the middle of nowhere.

Day 35

Trail miles: 4

Total: 444.3

I was the first to get up and pack up to go in the morning, but I waited for Raechel and Krista to head out. We hiked easily into the RV camp in Acton where we bought day passes and picked up our packages. I got my new Altras! I hope they work out ok, because I have to throw my old ones in the trash. I spent a little time packing my food and laying out my gear to dry from the overnight dew. This place is like hiker haven. The area near the clubhouse, where they sell food and have Wi-Fi, was also the area where PCT hikers can set up tents in the field. So everyone from our bubble was here today! Courtney and Jonah planned a huge potluck for all of us and I helped provide watermelon, which was a hit. Anyway, before all that, I took a very cold shower after laundry. Then we ate lunch which was brought back from town by Brad and Krista. Raechel and I tried swimming for a bit but it was not heated at all so we gave up and took yet another very cold shower. I actually turned off the shower before I was done, got dressed in my swim clothes, grabbed all my stuff, and scooted to the other shower house where the water was actually warm. And then it was time for the potluck with “the dirty bubble,” which is what Raechel calls our group now, a reference to SpongeBob watchers. It was great and we stayed up too late having fun and hearing stories of others past hiking trips. I got some great pictures. I really felt like I was apart of the community. We planned on hiking out, but it was too much fun to leave and Krista wasn’t able to anyway because of her foot. She is going into an urgent care tomorrow to get it checked out and will try to meet us in Agua Dulce. This next section will be bigger and hotter than ever before. My food weight by itself is probably 15 lbs. I have no idea how I’m going to fit everything in my back tomorrow. We are all cowboy camping for a early getaway to the breakfast place in Agua Dulce, which is 10 miles away. Brad is actually stealth camping in the unused TP with 3 beds! It looks kinda gross in there so I did not take a bed. Hopefully I can get some sleep as we are right next to a road and train tracks. 

Day 34

Trail miles: 19.5

Total: 440.3

It’s been a while but I think I finally figured out how to eat while walking. I put snack in my hip belt pocket and try to eat on the easier terrain. I like to get on trail before I eat my first breakfast (I eat 3 breakfasts, like Lord of the Rings). I’ve also figured out how to rehydrate things properly on trail. For some reason it takes a lot longer to reconstitute food here than back in Pennsylvania. I wait 20 min to be safe for the Knorr packets and my homemade meals. I’d also like to update that since I got my new Lululemon biker shorts, I have had no chaffing problems! While we are on the topic of gear, I am so looking forward to my new shoes coming tomorrow because the support is completely gone. My feet hurt a lot and I can feel every pebble I step on. I ordered the same version of Altras, the Timps, that I had before but they are now the third in the series instead of the second. And I got them in the same size because I don’t think my feet have swollen any yet, which I hear is a common thing to happen to thru hikers.

The trail was more desert-y than usual today. Very hot and the overgrown bushes scratched my legs so bad. There was even a warning sign calling it a “snag area” so like 4 miles of bushwhacking. We passed 2 rattlesnakes on trail. The first on was in a bush and we had to climb through more stabby bushes to keep a good distance. The second one I passed before I heard it and Raechel and Krista just ran past as fast as they could. I climbed a long 4 mile hill today and then had a nice decent. I put my headphones in to listen to a couple podcasts, because I don’t know if it was the sun or what, but I was bored and not in a good mood. We all got good campsites at camp today, 4 miles out from Acton, before a huge gaggle of hikers came and set up practically on trail and in the path. And some dude started loud mouthing about his opinion on everyone’s gear. Anyway, looking forward to the hot tub tomorrow and maybe some grilling at the RV camp!

Day 33

Trail miles: 20.2

Total: 420.8

Good thing I drank those electrolytes because I needed them. I chugged that 3/4 liter and I still didn’t pee all night. I felt a lot less cramping though, which camp back towards the end of today. I am sleeping with my feet up tonight in hopes my feet feel better for another long day tomorrow. Hiking today was same old hills and snack breaks. I actually found out something new that I didn’t realize today. The horse PCT Trail and hiker PCT trail are not always the same. I took the horse trail headed south for a couple minutes before I realized it was wrong. I’ll have to pay more attention to the signed instead of just looking for the PCT logo. We got trail magic which included lollipops and fruit so I decided to put the apple in some oatmeal for lunch. At the stream where we were filtering water, a swarm of bees attacked me and my bag! I put on my rain gear to try to keep them from stinging me. At the next water source we had someone’s leftover trail magic which included hot dogs, pizza, brownies, and Oreos. I even snagged a honey packet for my peanut butter and jelly tortilla wraps. The hot dogs were worth it even though I felt them coming back up on the way up the 2 mile hill to camp. At least it saved me from cooking dinner! I rolled out my calf and back in Raechel’s tennis ball since we got there early enough before bed. I watched a great sunset out of my tent and ate some more snacks, which were gross. I keep trying new snacks to spice up my days, but they only work out like half of the time. Rachel and Krista a currently arguing about Raechel pressing all of us to get up and leave early in the morning and it’s so funny. Krista says Brad is so paranoid that he gets up 2 hours early and the pressure isn’t spoken, it’s in the air! Maybe that’s why Brad left us again to sprint into Acton. I just don’t want to be left behind and be ready last.

A couple international hikers are trying to catch a bus from Agua Dulce to Six Flags so they can experience an American amusement park. I’m sure it’s not much different, maybe the sugary foods! It was organized by Lizard King, who got his name by removing the dead lizard from the water trough that had been there for a week and giving it a proper burial and ceremony. 

Day 32

Trail miles: 16.7

Total: 400.6

I woke up with cramping calves today, which means I am ready to take one of the tailwind electrolytes that I brought. I actually drank it during dinner so I will probably be up all night peeing. We got to the first picnic site with pit toilets and ate some snacks there. We met the friendliest group of middle aged church friends who were really interested in our hike and how it all worked. They seemed to be excited to get into hiking and wanted to know how to plan some overnight trips! One lady was even interested in doing what we are doing. We saw them again at the top of Mt Williamson where we stopped for more snacks. It was funny how they didn’t really know each other before the hike, but the lady gathered whoever she could to go. I hope they do get to take some trips! We made it to where the detour started (and stopped for more snacks) and were passed by a triple crown calendar year hiker. This is when someone hikes the PCT, CDT, and AT all in the same calendar year. He did not have time to stop and chat which was sad, but makes sense. We saw him head off down the road detour even with his wife in the car in the parking lot, so I knew we also should do the miles instead of hitching. I figure it should be a continuous footpath if an alternate is an option. The alternate was because there is a protected endangered frog species habitat. It added on a couple miles maybe, it’s hard to read the side trails on FarOut. We got to see a big waterfall and met the UCLA outdoor club in the process. And then we pushed our way to mile 400!! It is fitting we got there because it is our one month trail-iversary! I can’t believe we have been out here hiking for a month all day with only three zeros. We are camped at Camp Glenwood which wasn’t marked as a campsite, but it turned out to be a great place to stay. Maybe not in the high season, but no one is here tonight except lots of thru hikers. My dehydrated taco dinner with Del Taco hot sauce packets was so good! I’m always happier with homemade food. Also another night with pit toilets and toilet paper, the best part.

Day 31

Trail miles: 14.6

Total: 383.9

I had the best sleep of the whole trip last night. I got up and had my bagel with chocolate milk. Then I got Wordle on the second try with the words “death” and “trash” which was exactly how I felt at the end of today. Paula the trail angel gave us rides back the trailhead and I got to sit with her puppy in the front seat. We had an easy few miles before summiting Mt Baden Powell. The first 3 miles were tough but doable, but the last mile was covered in snow and the footprints just led straight up the hill. I had to stop so often because it was so difficult. At least I had microspikes on to help. We summited around lunch and got a ton of pictures with the other hikers we are meeting. Then the worst of the day happened. First, I think I developed athlete induced asthma. So my chest started tightening and I had a hard time breathing. That added on with the fact that we kept losing the trail because the footprints went everywhere but the trail. It took us a lot longer than we thought to do the mileage. Once we got to the top and had 3 miles downhill left, I put on my headphones and cruised down the snowless hill. It was a rough day for all of us that we are happy to be done with. Our camp is a huge one full of hikers we see here and there. They started a fire in the furnace which was very popular.

I put my bag down near the water source today and some old man said “oh my gosh I felt the ground move what do you have in there?” I mean come on why do people think that that is an ok thing to say? Raechel says he should feel embarrassed that he can’t carry as much as a bunch of girl. My favorite response we thought of was “You’re ultralight? Yeah you look like you need to be.” I love running into local girls along the trail because they always seem so excited for us. One told her husband that she wanted to do it and he said “you don’t have to do the whole thing, you can do it in sections.” Her response was without hesitation “oh I’d do the whole thing” like a boss. Another girl also told her boyfriend she wanted to do it. We even give encouraging words to older woman who say they wished they would have done this at our age, but there are people of all ages out here! And we keep up with the men on trail, since we keep seeing the same ones in town and at camp. Puke and Rally (her trail name because she bags peaks even though she puked on the way up) cheered me on as I reached the top of the mountain today, another example of female empowerment on trail!