A good nights sleep and a fairly early start to the day. More of the same from yesterday with what seems like steeper that normal ascents and descents. Two of them today up to 7000 feet or more and then back down. Caught up with Paul and Same and got the bear story and we stayed pretty close the rest of the day and ended up camping at the same place. The camping place was again right near a water source. I would have totally missed the water source had it not been for Dave (the Dave that did not go to Rita’s earlier). Where the PCT crossed the stream it was totally dry but about 200 yards up the stream was a really nice pool of water. Dave yelled to me as I was going by and told me where the water was. He saved me a mile of walking as the other water source at this time was a full mile off the trail. Once again Dave was in a hurry to get somewhere and continued hiking while I decided to camp by the water source. But it was not just the water source that helped me make that decision. Just ahead was a climb to 8000 feet and at the end of the day, I was not interested in starting that. I had 21 miles to go to get to Kennedy Meadows. That night I gave myself about a 2% chance of being able to do the 21 miles with a climb to 8000 feet included. However, I did have two dinners that night to try and load up for the next day. I had a hot meal that included beef, noodles, rice and veggies. I then made a thick sandwich with summer sausage and cheese on a flour tortilla. I also made a second sandwich that I would eat after about 2 hours of hiking the next morning to fuel my day. It was not a great nights sleep. It was a great camping location by a water source and people kept arriving until about 10 at night. As each would arrive they would generally first loudly ask someone where the water was (I was not the only one that had no clue) and then they would have a lively conversation about their day. Normally no amount of noise will keep me awake when I want to sleep but this night was different. I could not dose off.

This day starts out great with Rita’s blueberry pancakes. But then she starts to tell us about how hot, how dry, how steep the next section is and how they have had people start it and then return to them and ask to be driven to Kennedy Meadows. We laugh a little and indicate we prefer words like “gentle slope” rather than “steep slope”. After eating we get ready and jump into the truck and they take us back to the trail. Rita was not wrong but she forgot to mention the trail was also very rocky and it was the rocky part that got to me. There are generally some rocks on the trail of course but this was ridiculous. The rocks were a constant and they would not just small pebbles but rocks of size and rocks with sharp points and rocks that rolled one way or another when you stepped on them. For me, this day was the hardest day of hiking on the entire trail thus far. I ended up the day with 2 blisters and a sore hip. It just did not seem my feet where ever just flat on the ground but were always angled one way or another. About the middle of the day a bug flew into my mouth and I swallowed it. I thought, OK, I needed a little protein. but the bug was not ready to go that that easy. It either clung on for dear life or keep crawling back up my throat. I kept on drinking lots of water to try and force it down. The bug would have nothing of it and eventually seemed to get caught in the gagging zone and I ended up throwing up on the trail. Such a waste of needed food AND water. Paul was close at the time as was a new hiker Poppins which I had met earlier for the first time. At the next stop, Poppins gave me half an orange (the orange I had shared much earlier in the trail had come back to me) and Paul gave me some Oreo cookies to eat.

The rest of the group went more miles than I did. I got to the water source and called it a day as soon as I found a level spot to camp. The water source was a spring fed trough and it was about .25 miles off the trail. Straight down off the trail into a valley. When I got almost there a woman was running up the trail from the trough and indicated there was a bear down there. Sure enough, it was easy to see. The bear was down getting a drink. I sat down on the trail and watched as the bear got his fill of water and I had the following thoughts. 1) Why am I seeing a bear at this point. There should not be any bears until Kennedy Meadows about 40 miles away. I guess nobody told the bear. 2) I think I am safe because the bear is two switchbacks away from me and then of course it occurs to me the bear does not use the switchbacks and could probably bound up to me in no time at all. 3) Since bears were not suppose to be here, I did not have my food in a bear canister. I hoped that the bear did not like summer sausage and cheese which was sitting in my pack. It did not take long for the bear to move on but I waited another 15 minutes or so just to make sure. I went and got my water and then went up and told those waiting smartly a little higher up that the bear was gone.

The next day I caught up with Paul and Sam again and they indicated that the bear had started to come towards their tent. Like me, they did not expect a bear and Paul had prepared their supper in the tent. The bear apparently noticed and they saw him moving towards the tent. They both jumped out and began making a lot of noise by banging their trekking poles together and yelling. The bear paused and looked at them for awhile and then turned and went away. They were a little shaken by the experience as I would have been.

Get up early again this morning so that I can do the 1500 ascent before the sun is up and blazing. Was not going to get two overcast days in a row I figured and I was right. The ascent was gentle and took me up to 7000 feet. The rest of day was spent going up and down between 6200 and 7000 feet and then ended with a 1800 foot descent to Walker Pass on road 178 at mile 651. The day was hot and many times there were long periods of rest in the shade. This is the type of dynamic when you tend to meet more people because when you see someone resting in the shade you tend to think “what a great idea” and you join them. So I met up with J-Walk and Thinmint, Paul and Sam, Brit and Tonka, Dave. I had met Tonka way back at 602 but had not seen him again until one of the shade breaks today. Not a very eventful day until the end. When we arrive at Walker Campground there is another water cache but no natural water. So that means from mile 608 to and INCLUDING mile 651 there was no natural water to be had on the trail! Without the water caches and with normal temperatures this section would have to be done at night as there is no way to carry enough water to make it. I must say that I have heard that nobody has ever died of dehydration on the PCT trail. It is just the one time I had to go a few miles without water, I was miserable. The thought of walking 43 miles in 100 degree heat and at the end of that walk finding a dry water hole is not appealing. So we are at the water cache and just talking when up drives a woman and starts hauling water out of her car. She is the water cache trail angel and we all thank her and proceed to help her with the new water and consolidate the water currently at the cache to leave as many full bottles as possible. But then it really gets interesting. The trail angel’s name is Rita and she tells us that she hosts PCT hikers in her guest house which can hold 12 campers. 2 private rooms and then the rest just sleep on the floor. But wait there is more….. she fixes a spaghetti dinner for the hikers. But wait there is more. In the morning she makes a blueberry pancake breakfast and then drives everyone back to the trail. AND there are showers and you can do laundry. She does all this for an optional donation, whatever you want to provide. 20 minutes either way and we would have missed Rita. Everyone but Dave gladly went to her guest house. Dave wanted to get some more miles in and so kept hiking. It was my longest walk of the trail and I felt good at the end of the day. Even with all the heat breaks, I got in good miles and I was showered and eating a spaghetti dinner. J-Walk and Thinmint totally get what Lenora and I are doing and mention how great it must be to visit a new Church each week along the way. Life is good.

After a good nights sleep I get up early to get some miles in before it gets too hot. Based on the heat I was planning to try and find some shade and wait out the heat and continue hiking that night. As it turns out it was overcast and it remained overcast the entire day and even had a trace of rain during the day. The temperature was very mild. What a blessing. At mile 624 I come to a point where the trail crosses a road (about 8 in the morning I think) and there was a young man and his wife with a jeep. Right next to the young man (Doug) is a lot of water. I look at the water and look at Doug. Look at the water and look at Doug. I finally say “Is that your water?”. He laughs and says that the water is for the hikers. He tells me he was hired by two hikers (Coyote and Happy Feet) to haul some water up for them to this point. Rather than just bringing water for them, he brought up water for everyone. And he brought Pepsi. And he brought grapes, carrots, beer, hotdogs, tarps he set up for shade and chairs that hikers could sit on in the shade under the tarp. Just another good news story on the trail. As I talked to him I found out he has just lost his job and he and his wife were living out of their jeep!! All of that going on in his life and yet he is taking care of hikers. A little too early for beer and hotdogs but I had a pepsi, ate some grapes, downed and replaced 2 liters of water, gave them a nice tip and headed on down the trail. When I get to mile 630 there is another water cache with plenty of water. It is starting to rain and so I set up tent to wait out the rain. The rain stops soon enough but I decide to just stay at the water source for the night. The next day I hope to get in 20 miles and it starts with a 1500 foot ascent. So no water for 43 miles, turned into water at 617, 624, and 630 and I avoided the heat and actually got cooled by a little bit of rain. I say a few extra prayers of thanks this night.

Lenora and I spent the weekend in California City. We enjoyed Church and had some great Mexican food Saturday and good pizza on Sunday. Then on Monday it was back up to mile 602 which was about a 2 hour drive.

I realize I had forgotten to mention a couple things in my previous posts. First, I have received my trail name and it is Mr. Burns. “Just keep walking” decided that was my name because he thought I look somewhat like Mr. Burns on the Simpsons and also because I burned myself and had to go off trail for it to heal. So Mr. Burns it is. Second, back in Hiker Town I met a young man named Eugene Yoon who has an amazing story. Eugene has a friend that is paralyzed and he is walking the PCT to raise money to buy his fiend an amazing new medical machine that will help his friend to walk again. The medical device is a “ReWalk robotic Exoskeleton” and you can find out information about his here “I will walk”. The last time I saw Eugene was at mile 602 as he had to pick up his pace to get to Kennedy Meadows (mile 702) in time for an interview. Eugene was also fascinated that I was walking the trail and he frankly asked me how old I was. He is actually collecting a series of pictures of all the people on the trail that are over 60 and posting on facebook I think. The are a number of us “old people” that are on the trail and a number that are older and faster than myself. Anyway, go take a look at the I will walk site (link above). Perhaps you can help Eugene to help his friend to walk again. That would be a cool thing to do.

While at the water hole at mile 602 I had mentioned how surprised I was by the habitat and how I expected desert. Real “at least is a dry heat” desert. Hiker Ciervo proudly said how he had done this section from Tahachapi to Kennedy Meadows 5 times and that the forest habitat I was now in was how it was going to be all the way to Kennedy Meadows. What a relief…. out of the desert… Ciervo is either the biggest lier of all time or did not understand the question. After about 5 miles I meet PieuteMama who is a trail angel. The first thing she says to me is “…so are you prepared to go 43 miles without a water source”. Uh…. no, I say, should I be? She indicates we (there were two others with me: Fixie and Tonka) are about to descend into brutal desert, totally dry and without any cover, and there was no water. We all look at each other and indicate we had heard there were water caches at two spots in those 43 miles. She tells us in previous years that was true but not so this year because SHE was the one that maintained those caches and she was not doing it this year as she was without a car. So we all load up with water (8 liters for me) and prepare for the worst. Sure enough, not too far ahead we drop out of the trees and into the desert. It had been 105 degrees there that day but it was about 5 in the evening when I got to this point and the heat was not that bad. The water caches were suppose to be at mile 617 and 630. I keep walking until mile 617 because I really wanted to know if I needed to conserve the water by walking at night. Even with water I was not going to be walking during the day if it was over 100 degrees. There was water at 617!! Lots of it. So I immediately drank and refreshed about 3 liters of water. Still had the 8 liters as I was still not sure about the 630 water cache. Cowboy camped under the stars. Another great day and a great night. I did spend a bit of time wondering about both PiuteMama and Ciervo.

So when I get up in the morning guess who is also camped at the water hole. “Just Keep Walking” and “Night Walker” are there and we are both a little surprised to see each other. “Rock City”, “Stubbs”, and “SingleMalt” are not too far back and show up later in the day. This is a good and probably the only spot where Lenora can pick me for Sunday. There is a road just a mile from the water hole and she can make it here to pick me up. I tell the crew that Lenora is coming to get me and they all decide to wait with me by the road so that they can meet Lenora. While we are waiting another thunder storm comes up and we huddle about for 2 hours in the rain. Everyone is happy and upbeat. Some images from the water hole back down the valley. We are about at 6300 feet.

Waiting around in the rain.

I was happy these folks wanted to wait to meet Lenora. They were rewarded as Lenora brought treats. Fruit drinks, apples, snickers, Crispy Cream donuts, Pepsi, GatorAde. The place erupted into a feeding frenzy. Other hikers that happened by at the time joined in the fun. It was a great time. Very proud Lenora found me because this was an obscure location on a 25 mile dirt road that was not in that great of condition. She not only drove up and found me but drove back down to our motel in California City. A nice little Church here in California City. A 10:30 mass. Life is good.

Lenora’s note: When I left home this morning there was a little pressure, knowing Don was already at the pickup spot and I was leaving late with several pre-drive errands to do before really getting on the road. However the Garmin said my target road was a mere three hours away and I’m heading out at 10 am. Arrival time 1 pm and lots of time to do resupply and rest before Sunday. Not to be. After about 3 and 1/2 hours I am nearing the cut off road. After 4 hours I am finally on the right road. 25 miles to go, yeah I’m late but still ok. 25 miles, how long can it take to drive 25 miles. If you have driven on dirt roads on steep mountain trails you know what I had long ago forgotten. 3+ hours later the magic friend “Find my IPhone” tells me I am 1/4 mile from Don’s phone and I pray it is not a hoax. I am so happy when I reach the spot and he is there with all his friends. I meet the “crew” and they chow down. It is good to be a Trail Angel, (ranks right up there with Coffee Angel which is another adventure on another day). The scenery was amazing as my trusty 4 Runner climbed the mountain but the cats did not like the “adventure”. They were in a panic as the car jumped and rocked over the boulders and rain ruts and careened close to the drop off. I’ve rarely heard or seen such panic in a cat and it lasted most of the three hours it took to travel up the 25 mile road. When we drove down I basked in the compliments of my husband who truly was amazed that I had dared to challenge the 4 Runner to climb that mountain. I love this adventure and if my prayers are focused mainly on Don’s safety and my success in finding him they do travel to gratitude for the wonders of the world that our Father created for us. Life is indeed good.

Got up about 4 this morning to start the 19 (or so) mile walk to the next water source. A beautiful morning walking mainly at elevation and therefore with lots of trees and shade. These sections of the trail are nothing like I expected them to be. I actually expected to be walking in sage brush and see skulls of dead animals along the way with vultures circling overhead.

Have not been taking pictures of wild flowers lately. They are around and here are a couple shots.

You sick of wind turbines yet. Well the location of them is pretty…

And I finally reach the water source. A long day and some serious climbs. At one point about 8 am a hiker past me and there were 12 miles left to get to the water source. He indicated he would be there by noon. 3 miles an hour with serious climbs. I just laughed. I believe I got there about 5 pm. So it took me 5 more hours than him!! So… I am slow… I know this but I am loving it. I like to think I have more time to see things, more time to admire the work of God, at least when my head is not down while I am trying to suck up as much air as possible into my lungs. So I arrived at the water source just in time. There was a thunder storm brewing and there was rumbling and very dark clouds overhead. I got my tent put together and everything into it and literally 30 seconds later it started raining. I was safe in the tent for the night and the rain on the tent put me right to sleep.

So the “Just Keep Walking” group rented a car to go to REI in LA and gave me ride back to the trail before leaving. Notice I skipped at 8 miles. There are two ways to get to Tehachapi. One is via Willow Springs Road. The other is via Hwy 58. I came in on one but went out on the other and thus skipped 8 miles. Starting the day about 10 am. This next section has 17 miles to one water source and then 18 miles to the next water source after that. This is said to be the driest part of the PCT and thus the locals at Tehachapi say it is the hardest :). A very mild day. In the 70’s. I would hate to walk this section in the 90’s or 100’s but in the 70’s it was not all that bad. Saw some familiar faces along the trail and but not ones I had spent any time with. Some images at the start of the walk. The now ever present wind turbines.

Remember I talked how a lot of the trail has mountain on one side and death fall on the other BUT that the trail is flat and not really dangerous. Thought I would take a picture of that

Gaining elevation and getting into some trees. Trees == shade and that is good. Becoming a fan of elevation.

Once I got to the water source it was the end of my day. Only one moderately good camping site acceptable. Camped under a big tree. Not exactly flat but not all that bad. Cowboy camped again and almost expected “Just Keep Walking” crew to come walking in during the night but it did not happen. A good day and a good night. By the way, for most of the PCT season this water hole has been dry because of damage done by cows to the pipes. That would means for those early ones they had 35 miles without water and if you add the 8 miles I skipped that would be 43 miles between water stops!!! This would not be possible for me in the heat of the day. The only way to do that many miles with the amount of water I can reasonably carry is to walk at night. I am very happy that I am so slow that I gave them time to fix the issue with the piping.

Did pretty much nothing today but rest and eat, then eat and rest. Life is hard.

Great night. Good breakfast and walking again. The plan was to take a day off in Tehachapi as it is really the last town that is relatively close to the PCT. Not much of a walk left and so I sleep pretty late in the day (6 am or so). There is fire damage here but a pretty looking valley down below.

This day is basically a descent to the desert floor again. When I get to the paved Willow Springs Road there is a trail angel there named CopperTone who travels around and sets up at various spots to do good deeds. Here he is handing out Cream floats. ICE CREAM!!!! And the wonderful Canadian Lady that gave me a ride earlier is there and she is handing out oranges and giving rides into Tehachapi!! I am blessed. Also there are “Just Keep Walking”, “Night Walker”, and “Rock City”!! “Stubbs” and “SingleMalt” apparently camped somewhere the night before and had not made it yet. They indicate they are staying at some hotel in town which was not where I ended up staying….at least so I thought. However the next morning there they all were at breakfast. A good group of people and I am glad to keep running into them even if hiking together is not possible. Everyone has to hike at their own pace and to find two or more people that can go at the same pace is pretty much impossible. Even with this group they spread out as each goes at their own pace and they gather up again at resting points. They are close enough to the same speed to make this possible. As easy day followed by a day of rest the next day. The weather forecast is for mild temperatures and so I am going to walk during the day on June 4. This crew is going to rent a car and go to REI in LA for resupply and then do more night hiking.