Wanted to get as much of the next section done early in the morning before the heat and so I got up early to begin the walk to the next water source which was TylerHorse Canyon. As it turns out I am really glad I started early because it was another hot day and there was no shade. Much of the walk is through and around wind turbine farms. Here are some early morning pictures

I have seen a couple rattle snakes along the trail but only have this one picture. He saw me before I saw him but he let we walk by without striking.

It is a big (600 feet) descent into Tylerhorse Canyon and as I am doing it I can not see any signs of water down there. I was getting a bit anxious when I finally got a glint off a small stream of water. So I load up with water but it is now about 10 and getting hot and so I start looking for shade to wait out the heat. There is 1 tree in this canyon large enough for shade.

As the day goes on there are about 20 hikers cheek to cheek to try to stay in the shade of this tree. Among them are “Just Keep Walking”, “Rock City”, “Night Walker”, “Stubbs”, and “SingleMalt”. Since they basically left a day before me, I am not sure how this happened but I am happy to see them. We all just rest and talk under the tree. Every now and them getting up and moving our stuff to shift to where the shade is.

The plan is to start walking again at 7 pm. The plan is that I will also join and walk with them for the night walk. They indicate they are slow and evidence would suggest they are right as I keep catching them. However none of them are injured :). We start walking and the section is a lot of up and down and one particular down section was very dangerous for me. In the night, I had no depth perception and this was a steep downhill with the mountain on one side and a death fall on the other. Most of the time the trail is cut into the mountain and is a level path. This however was a sandy section and the trail was slanted to the death fall side. Without depth perception it was hard for me to tell where to step. I took it VERY VERY slow. Right after the descent (that I survived) was a step ascent and I was slow. They were all way ahead of me and after 5 miles they stopped for a rest and waited for me. I could tell that SingleMalt was not all that happy and had been there for a long time waiting for me. When I arrived, they waited about 2 minutes and started up again. Most of them has been waiting for 30 or more minutes and were ready to go. So in this type of dynamic the slowest person really never gets any rest. Went for another 2 hours or so and they waited again. This time I told them to just go on and not wait for me. I was slowing them down too much and I would see them down the trail. They took my advice and I did not see them the rest of the night. About 1:30 in the morning, I found a good camping spot and again cowboy camped under the stars. It was great. I have now become of fan of not using the tent unless it is necessary because of weather. The nights are just too beautiful.

While resting and observing Sunday in HikerTown I met a hiker almost as old as myself and we decided to start out on the desert together. His name was Rocko because he likes to take pictures of rocks. Geology interests him. We decide to leave about 4:30. It was hot but we figured it would cool off soon enough. As we are walking he tells me he likes to go slow because he has a bad ankle. Great I say, I love slow. As you know I can only keep up with people that are injured. Not that I take joy in their injuries you understand but at least I can keep up with them. So we start out and we are going at a pace of 3 miles per hour. I worry and ask him if he is sure this pace is OK. He says it was. After about 5 miles he needs a rest which we do and he indicates that his ankle is hurting. He takes a couple pain pills and we continue on. After about 8 miles he has to stop again and indicates he can not continue. That he is going to spend the night there and hope is ankle gets better. I feel bad about leaving him, but not bad enough not to leave him. He indicates it is ok. I have not seen him or heard of him since. I wonder if he had to quit. It does not take much to force you off the trail. Just hit a rock the wrong way and twist your ankle and your PCT adventure could be over for the year. I keep looking at registers to see his name but have not noticed it. Could be he is just behind me. Here are some pictures I took during the daylight.

As the night falls it cools off and it is really easy walking. Flat and with a full moon it is easy to see where you are going without a headlamp. Just keep walking. I was a little worried about the water cache and exactly where it was and feared I would pass it by in the dark. The owner of Hikertown told me that the PCTA was not very happy about the water caches and was discouraging them because the hikers came to depend on them. I can understand that BUT frankly when you are routing us through a desert and without the water cache there would not be water for 34 miles, I think a water cache is appropriate and frankly should be sponsored by the PCTA and not discouraged. But what do I know. The cache was in the middle of a Wind Turbine farm and the sight of wind turbines would be normal for the next 5 days of the PCT. I did notice the water cache. I did stop at it for water and decided to camp there for the night about midnight. Another beautiful night of cowboy camping under the stars and the sound of wind turbines.

When I made camp last night there was another camper near by. I cowboy camped (without a tent as it was a beautiful night) and tried hard not to wake them up. The next morning I woke up at 6:30 which is really late for me and the other camper had already left. They apparently did so very quietly as well as I had no idea they had left. Once I get to sleep there is not much that will wake me up as my family can attest. It is a good trait and a bad trait. It would be nice to wake up if someone broke into my house to rob me but I really doubt that I would. That is why I have two attack cats. Anyway at 6:30 the sun was already up and it was already hot. I only had 8 miles to go to HikerTown and I figured I could do that easy. I had plenty of water. So I got up and had a nice breakfast of a flour tortilla filled with cheese and summer sausage and a hot chocolate and I was ready to go.

The day got hotter really fast. I was lucky to be doing it this early in the morning because by the time I arrived at Hikertown, even with plenty of water, I was feeling a little sick to my stomach. The heat from above and below was getting to me and there was not very much shade once I dropped down into the desert floor. I was happy to make it to HikerTown and renewed my pledge to walk at night. This walking during the day was not a good idea and it was not working for me. Today is Saturday and so I spend the rest of the day and night in HikerTown and then most of Sunday (day of rest) also in HikerTown waiting for the evening to start the walk again. This next section is true desert as the walk is about 20 miles along the AquaDuct. It is a 17 mile stretch without water AND the only reason there is water in 17 miles is because the owners of HikerTown maintain a water cache of two 50 gallon drums at that point. I have such admiration for the people that were able to walk the PCT in the days when trail angels and water caches did not exist!! They are better men that me.

While I am waiting at HikerTown on Saturday, “Just Keep Walking”, “Night Walker”, “Rock City”, “Stubbs”, “SingleMalt” arrive. Turns out they got a ride from Anderson’s to HikerTown. They head out on Saturday night to do the desert. I have an urge to go with them and have someone to walk with in the desert but do not.

The next day we all had a leisurely breakfast at the ranger station and then the owner of the Anderson’s Trail Angel location drives up and asks if we want a ride to her place. The Anderson’s is a legendary stop on the trail. We all say yes and most of the crew is going to take the whole day off and begin the next day. I decide to go to the Anderson’s and rest for the day and then hike that night. It was a good decision as the Anderson’s was really not the place for me to be. It was a good enough place to rest and I used to nearby store to gorge myself with sandwiches and GatorAde but most of the crowd at the Anderson’s were having a little too much fun for me. A really nice Canadian lady who was being a trail angel for her daughter was waiting for her daughter to show up and was giving rides while wait. She was a really sweet lady and gave me a ride back to the trail. You may notice I skipped miles 478 to 493. This section of the trail is closed due to fire and the alternate trail is along a road and I did not feel safe. I walked a little on this road to get to the ranger station and heard traffic on this road all during the night and it was just a bit too busy for me. So the trail angel gave me a ride to where the trail opened up again at mile 493. Starting walking about 5 in the evening and walked until just past midnight. There was 1 water source along the way which they called which was called a “guzzler”. Had no idea what that meant but it turns out to be a structure built about 2 feet off the ground that collects rain water which runs from a pipe down into a tank. So you have to crawl under this structure on your belly and get to the tank and reach down to get the water. It was a good water source and the water was cold and clean but a bit hard to get to. There were 3 other people there getting water and me and the other guy crawled under while the girls above kept throwing bottles down to us to fill. As we filled them we threw them back up and they filtered them. It went pretty fast and after all of us got water they decided to camp right there and I continued on about another 5 miles and set up camp. Figured with all the water I had I would finish the walk into HikerTown the next day. I must say that while I was walking in light I was surprised by the landscape. I was figuring a desert landscape and I was basically in a forest as you can see by the pictures. The real desert comes tomorrow.

Lenora’s Note: With Don back on the trail I’m getting ready to be his personal “camp follower” so today I have a dentist appointment to get started on my next set of dental implants and I am leaving him to fend for himself on the trail for the weekend. Lots to do before I leave home for the rest of the adventure.

Had a great night. Got up early to walk the 3 miles to get to the only water supply for the day. From the water supply in 3 miles it is 15 miles to the next one.

Wish I would have taken a picture of the water supply. It was a drip of about 1 liter per minute. There were about 5 of us at the site trying to fill up our bottles for the next 15 mile section and patiently waiting for our turn to capture some water. Not too bad because after capturing you have to filter the water and so it takes some time to capture and filter, capture some more and filter. So the general rule to this point has been a liter of water for every 5 miles. At least that is what I hear as I have not actually been paying attention. I generally carry much more water than I need. But this time I get what everyone is saying is necessary and get 3 liters for the next 15 miles. BIG BIG mistake. My gut told me I should have taken more water. My GUT was right. This section is up and down, up and down, and it was hot. Everyone was looking for a little shade to rest in and most were taking long rest periods. I took about a 2 hour nap in the shade at one point. At about the mid point we cross a paved road which would have been a perfect spot for a trail angel and a water cache. There was a water cache, but it was dry. Too many hikers this year for the small cache that was there. I’m thinking next year perhaps Lenora and I will set up at this road and be trail angels as it is needed. Later on when we about 3 miles from the next water source, there was another dry water cache. Good intentions by the angels but the need this year is just greater than they expected. Before this 3 mile mark I knew I was in trouble. Well…. trouble really?? I mean in only 3 or so miles I will have water. How bad can it be? It felt bad and I was rationing my sips and ran out of water at about this point. I asked a couple hikers going by if they had any extra water and they were all rationing as well. Everyone on this day underestimated how much water was needed for 15 miles. The heat and terrain were not taken into account by anyone. It was a bad day for everyone I talked to. Finally make it to the water source at a ranger station which was also a perfect place to camp. While I am getting water a number of other desperate people show up and get water and decide to camp there as well. The first thing everyone does is go get water, drink about 2 liters without hardly taking a breath, and then take time to chat.

Just Keep Walking
Night Walker
Stubbs and SingleMalt
Rock City
Mossy
Shaggy and Paige

We had a good night talking about the trail and how hard the day was and how the miles coming up in the desert were going to be harder, hotter, and dryer. Must admit, I was anxious about the future days. Decided it was time to start walking at night to conserve on the need for water.

So back on the trail after a great memorial day. The locals says this section of the trail is the hardest :). It seems like at most locations the locals say that either the trail entering their location or leaving their location is the hardest on the PCT. In Mt. Laguna it was because it is all uphill. Also Mt. Laguna is either the end of the 2nd or 3rd day on the trail and people are figuring out that their shoes are all wrong and they have blisters or battered toe nails. The angels at Ziggy and the Bear (after the 20 mile down hill from Mt. San Jacinto) say the next section is the worst because you have just come down 20 miles and you now have to start the ascent into Big Bear. The locals here say the next section of the trail into Aqua Dulce (SweetWater) is the worst because it is totally exposed and there is very little shade. Only one cave along the way you can go into to get relief from the sun. All of these people are probably correct. Each section of the trail is the worst… or perhaps rather it is the best.. each section seems to give you something new to think about. Anyway, Lenora dropped me off pretty early in the morning and so the exposed landscape did not really cause me any problems and the walk into Aqua Dulce was a good one. I have a picture down below of the cave that provides shade. It is not on the trail exactly but there is a well worn path that leads to the cave. This section of the trail was really quite nice. A lot of great rock structures including Vasquez Rocks. This apparently is a famous site because a number of Star Trek episodes were filmed here. When I arrived they were just starting to set up for some HUGE event and I’m guessing it was Star Trek related. I did not hang around long enough to find out. I continued on into Aqua Dulce where there are are 3 things that interest a PCT hiker. There is a cafe with great burgers, a cafe with great pizza, and a store with every thing that a PCT hiker needs. All of these places are very welcoming to PCT hikers and so I spent about 2 hours here getting a great burger and shopping for some food in the store to take along. There were probably at least 30 other hikers hanging around and waiting for the heat to drop off before continuing and just enjoying the little town. I left about 2 pm to continue but at this point in the trail you are actually walking right along a paved highway and the heat beats you from above and below. About 2 miles down the road another hiker named Sarge catches up to me. We soon come to a little church with a nice lawn and a big shade tree and we both agree it is foolish to keep walking in the heat and so we stop and rest on the lawn in the shade for about 2 hours. During this time no other hikers come by. They were smart enough to stay in town and enjoy the food and drink. Sarge said he had retired because who he was working for was doing immoral things. That pretty much opened the door and I had a wonderful time talking with Sarge about how wondrous the trail is and how it is natural to think of God while walking in such beauty. We started to walk again and it was not long before Sarge surged ahead and sadly I have not seen him again. I made it about 6 miles out of town to the top of a ridge and camped for the night. A good first day back.

I mentioned I slept until day break and what a glorious day break it was. Beautiful blue sky. I texted Lenora “what a difference a day makes”. Had I not called for Lenora to come get me during my low point I could have gone on very easily. I felt great… got some quarters from the morning staff, did laundry, took a shower, and I was pretty sure it was never going to rain again :). So lesson learned… Do not make any major decisions when you are at the low point. Try and remember all the great times that have gone before and know that those times will come again. Maintain a positive attitude. Don’t let that devil get into your brain and turn you negative. But I am also really happy to be home right now. Going to spend the week at home. Need to get a new phone and need to figure out what I need to get to keep me dryer in these times as they will come again. After Memorial Day I will start again from the KOA. This will put me a week behind my schedule BUT based on the freak storms we are having I think that getting the High Sierra’s a week later will be a good thing.

Also remember when I had the fall and lost my knife as it went down the mountain. When I got home on my birthday, I found a package from Martha. She sent me a new knife!! Of course, a bigger and better knife that before. This is a knife that will make Bears and Mountain Lions run the other way in terror.

During the stay at the KOA I talked with lots of other hikers. Most of them were much smarter that me and Shutter Bug. They knew the storm was coming and just stayed where they were for a day. So I guess with just a little bit of planning some of these things can be avoided. Who knew?? OR… I could have listened to Lenora when she mentioned that she was not happy about dropping me off given the OBVIOUS storm that was moving in.

Life is good. Love being home. Will love getting back on the trail after Memorial Day. Stay tuned and God Bless.

Lenora’s note: Friends with a faith life are one of God’s great gifts in this life. My Women’s Ministry let me vent, let me discharge some of my fear and anxiety in a safe place and prayed with me for the safety of my ‘wayward’ husband. Jean even got her volunteer training early so I could head up the mountain. My only thought was on finding Don and a little wonder at what the note “What a difference a day makes” might mean. I wondered if I might get to the top of the mountain and find he did not need rescue at all but would want to just give me a kiss and hit the trail again. I practiced my cheerful accepting response to this possibility but can now admit when he shared that he was coming home for a break I was full of joy and relief. Now home we can plan for the next leg of the ‘adventure’ to begin after the Memorial Day obligations and family time.

So, during the night with the howling wind saying that I woke up in the morning would really be a stretch. Basically I just kept opening my eyes and when it looked like it was getting lighter I figured it was morning. I am use to looking at my phone to see the time but my phone was not working. I realized finally that the InReach also had the time and so I looked at it and it was about 5:00 in the morning. I had to have a long talk with myself to get up. I realized by now that everything was wet. My gloves were drenched and cold. My shoes where drenched and cold. I had no idea what the weather was suppose to be like or how far I had to go to get to anywhere!!! For awhile, I thought, I am just going to stay in this sleeping bag which was warm and wait for something good to happen. Perhaps the sun would come out. The tent was covered with snow and when I peaked out it only looked cold and foggy. I will have to admit that a few words came out of my mouth that I am not all the proud off. I am in Southern California!!! It is May 15th!!! Why am I dealing with this %@%!$%^@^@^&^&!& snow and cold!! I think about 7, I figured I might as well pack up and get going. So I put my rain gear over my thermal underwear because at least that was dry. Stuffed every other thing that was wet into my backpack and started walking. About about 15 minutes I met the guy that I was following just the day before. His name was “Shutter Bug” cause he likes to take pictures (duh). Turns out he works in the film industry and is an assistant director. Really nice guy. His phone worked!! He told me that the weather was supposed to clear by 2 pm. So most of the day we were walking IN the clouds and the mist was just getting us wetter. He had the same situation that I did. The wind had uprooted the stakes of his rainfly and everything he had was soaked. He had called his girlfriend and asked her to pick him up at the KOA. KOA??? I asked. Yes, he said, there is a KOA about 13 miles ahead. About 4 or 5 hours later I was really questioning the whole 2 pm thing. I figured it was never going to stop. I was going to be wet, cold and miserable for the rest of my life. I really was at a low point of the trail to this point. When this happened before Bear Lake I accepted it much better. This somehow just seemed much worse but mainly because everything was wet and I was not sure how I was going to get it dry since it was going to rain or snow for the rest of my life. Anyway, I texted Lenora from the InReach and told her to pick me up. Originally I meant to make sure she would pick me up at Agua Dulce which is where I was suppose to be on Saturday anyway. But later, decided that she should just pick me up at the KOA which is 10 miles short of Agua Dulce. Again, at this point, I had no interest in those 10 miles. Shutter Bug and I stayed pretty close all day only because he had a bad knee. Remember I mentioned I could tell by his steps that something was wrong. With his bad knee and me in perfect condition, we pretty much walked at the same speed :). KOA was about a half mile from the PCT and when we got to the road his girlfriend was waiting and they gave me ride up to the KOA. I was never so happy to be given a ride for .5 miles!!! Arrived at the KOA at about 6 pm and about an hour earlier the sun had actually made an appearance. I was able to put out my tent and rainfly and get both of them dry before the sunset. So I was able to sleep in a dry tent that night. KOA also had a laundry where I could have done clothes that night except they did not have any quarters to give me. Had they really wanted to, there were plenty of quarters that could have found to give me from various machine they have, including the washing machine itself. BUT, it was the end of their day, they were tired, and I can understand they had a life also. But a dry tent and my thermal underwear was still dry and Lenora was going to pick me up tomorrow so all was good. For some reason (two Alieve actually) I slept great that night. It was actually the first time in the tent sleeping that I slept through the night and did not wake up till day break.

Lenora’s Note: I made it home Thursday with only minor irritations of traffic, got nails and toes ‘updated’ and spent the late afternoon and evening helping at photo sessions at St. Tim’s. Home finally about 8:30 pm I started thinking again about that lonely figure heading up the mountain trail and out of sight. All of a sudden I realized the day of the week. In about 4 hours I could go to Adoration and I decided to take my worries to my Lord. I slept well for about 4 hours and the hour of Adoration went by in a flash. Back home for a little nap and by morning I was working on Directory business and stitching a little before my shift at the photo shoot. The note “Hotel in Agua Dulce?” got me working on finding Don a dry place to stay, with little luck. The next note “What are your plans?” made me really wonder. I knew it rained and had no idea of what had happened on the mountain so thinking Don was hinting I might as well stay home while he hiked through the weekend I started to prepare to do that. Meanwhile I have a nice morning. Time with the cats, stitching, starting laundry and then off to work at church where I get the note: “I need you to get me in agua dulce” I ask “Now?” but no answer. A little later I ask “Should I leave now?’ and later still I get: “Sat afternoon is ok” So having promised to work the first shift the next morning at the church and hearing that the KOA is our meeting place for the next day I went to bed late after watching hours of recorded tv shows.

Ok, so what happened to miles 342 to 418? They are being left to another year. After the burn and the need to lay off until the risk of infection was gone it was decided to stay on the schedule and drop me off where I should have been at mile 418. However those types of decisions will probably change in the future because the recent “freak” snow storms in California have probably increased the snow in the High Sierra and I really will want to delay my arrival that those 12000 foot passes. Speaking of freak snow storms…… So after the Ohio Biggest Week in Birding build in delay and the extra 3 days I took off because of the burn, Lenora drove me and dropped me off at about mile 418 to restart the trek. The burn had healed and all I have left are some scars and some very pretty new pink skin on my knee. Interesting to me that the part of the knee where the skin was taken off by the boiling water healed much sooner that the part of my knee that blistered. I just figured the place where the skin was just taken off was hurt more seriously that then the blistered area and would take longer to heal. That is not what happened. So when Lenora dropped me off, it was raining and she looked up at the sky and had apprehensions and really did not want to send me off. However, I thought it was just going to be a minor thing and it would be over and so I dressed in my rain gear and headed off on the trail. We had been using my phone to get us to the spot where she dropped me off and after 10 minutes into the trail I realized I had left my phone in the car. There is no way I do this trail without my phone. So I called her on the satellite phone and messaged her via the InReach and lucky was able to get her before she was too far away. She came back, I got my phone, and off I went again. Almost immediately it started to rain and then started to rain hard and then it started to hail and then it started to snow and it never stopped. I did not get started until about 12:30 and so I was not planning to go too far and so I took out the phone to see what was ahead. This was in the rain/snow and it only took a few drops of water on the screen and my phone started acting up. I thought I saw that a place called Messenger Flats campground that was ahead that was down about 1500 feet from where I was. Great I thought, the drop in elevation might get me out of the snow. As I continued up and up I realized that I must have read something wrong. Indeed I had. Although Messenger Flats was not at the crest, it was pretty darn close at 5886 feet and the snow was heavy. As I was walking the snow was accumulating on the trail and there was about a 1/4 inch of snow on the trail. Enough that I could easily tell there was someone just ahead me and that he was having a hard time. His steps were pretty close together. As far as I could tell it was only me and him on the mountain. By the time I made it to Messenger Flats, the storm was in full force. I was wet and not only my rain gear but my clothes under were also wet. My shirt I think from sweat and my pants because my rain coat has worked its way up above my rain pains and so the wet just ran down my rain coat and then under my rain pants. I could tell the guy ahead of me also stopped at Messenger Flats but I did not see where he camped. I found a flat spot and started putting up my tent. It was snowing hard enough that my main tent got went before I could get the rainfly over it. Not too bad but a little annoying. I was able to mop up with the wet with a towel I had and was pretty comfortable once in the sleeping bag. Since I thought I was secure, I got into my sleeping clothes (thermal underwear on these cold nights) and settled in. Sometime during the night, the high wind pulled up the stakes of the rainfly on two sided of my tent and the wet started coming in. Nice and secure in my sleeping bag, I did not notice. I know, hard to imagine I would not notice but those that know me can totally understand how really unaware I can be at times. So that was my day. The second of my days where the entire day was spent in what can only be called a “freak” storm in California. Middle of May, 5000 feet, and a pretty good snow storm taking place. I was to learn later than a couple of people called 911 and asked to be rescued from the storm. I’m not sure where they were. The storm was not that bad where I was. I was miserable and wet but never had any fear that my time had come. Oh by the way, my phone sputtered for awhile but by the time I set up camp it was dead, dead, dead. Apparently my phones time HAD come. I had not done the proper homework before starting this part of the trail and had NO idea what was ahead. I am an idiot!!
Lenora’s comment: As Don walked away up the trail, rain coming down and temperature 4 degrees lower than when we approached the drop off spot I grabbed my phone and noted: “Just dropped him off at Angeles National Forest/ PCT intersection; 43 degrees, light rain but cold rain. The temp is dropping. I want him to come back. Lonely, frightened for his safety. Praying for his protection.” I sat there a long time watching him disappear the second time and drove away slowly, hoping he would turn around and wave me to come back. I did not predict the complications he would face over the coming hours but I was full of apprehension. My trip on the other hand was long, traffic heavy and rain heavier. I was sorry Don was walking in the rain but had no clue he was trudging through snow and getting ready to be so wet and so cold.