Days 34-36 Miles 451.8-510.9

Day 34

Start: 451.8 End: 471.5 total: 17.7

I awoke early and had a pleasant stroll through Vasquez rocks with my coffee + breakfast essential on the go! I packed out a danish from Trader Joe’s and munched on that thing while I walked. After a few miles I popped out on a road and walked through the small town of Agua Dulce. 

I saw Kindheart and Professor Meatball, who took the trail name Hitchmaster instead, which is indeed way cooler. They were heading to get coffee before going back out on trail. I got to the Oasis and saw Lucky, he was planning on doing work for stay there for a couple days as it was a nice place and he wanted to let his ankle heal a bit after running a bit too much on the downhills. I got there and was immediately offered hot coffee! I got my package and bought a couple extra things (snickers/ sunscreen/ a banana). I charged my phone and began organizing my resupply while catching up with Lucky. He also got a package there so we got to trade some of our goodies. Goldfish was also there too somewhere but I didn’t see him. Lucky informed me that Goldfish didn’t realize the trail was closed through the burn area and walked right through it. Goldfish had recognized my bandana in the hands of another hiker and Lucky and him got it for me so I was reunited with it!

It was a slow moving morning but I got all my affairs in order, took care of some resupply things and was headed back out to trail. Leaving the oasis, it was a boring and annoying couple miles on the road followed by a brutal and long climb. One that didn’t feel like it would ever end. Although there was a nice overcast so at least it wasn’t super sunny. 

At the top of the climb I had to send some texts so I went and got service and tried to find shade. As I was leaving I heard a rattle. My lizard brain kicked in before I made the connection and I hurried to grab all my things and get the hell out of there. The rattlesnake was a few feet from me which is good because in my worried haste I kept dropping my things. I started back out on trail and lost all the elevation I had just worked so hard at obtaining. I had a nice lunch under a shady tree before beginning another long, steep and Hanous climb that also felt like an enternity. 

I went down a couple miles to a road where my friend Courtney was supposed to meet me. I met Courtney on the AT in 2017 and we have stayed In touch and lived very parallel lives. She did the pct last year and was in the area doing trail magic. 

There was no service where I was and Courtney’s mini van in the end could not make it up that dirt rd. I texted her on my garmin and we agreed to meet the morning of the next day at a fire station 7 miles from me. I slept .1 S of that road in a nice little cove. 

Day 35

Start: 471.5 End 485.8 Total: 14.3

I awoke in a cloud and was quite damp. I quickly ate some oatmeal and made my coffee on the go before picking up and heading out. Everything was covered in a thick layer of fog and everything was so green. 

It wasn’t a wet fog but just cast a layer over everything. there was some up and some down contouring along the mountain. I passed another hiker named Alex who was enjoying watching the fog move over the mountains as he had his morning coffee. 

I did the 7 miles pretty quickly and got into the fire station. I found a little cover where i could charge my electronics and air out my sleeping bag. It was cold cloudy and windy but didn’t look like rain. I saw Courtney’s car and went over to greet her. We hugged and I invited her to move her car to the other side of the building where it was a bit more private and not right in front of the fire station. 

She pulled over and as she pulls in to this little nook I hear an awful sound of rubber hitting cement and an intense wheezing of air following that. Oh no. I’ve heard that sound before. I run over, she’s gets out, we both watch as her back tire deflates before our eyes. She had cut the corner close to provide a wind blocker for us and had taken a huge gash out of her tire. She was pretty overwhelmed and I assured her we’d figure it out and how lucky that we were at a fire station! She did not have a spare as her tires are all AWD but she did have triple A. 

We borrowed the fire station phone as there was no service and she called triple A and got a tow scheduled. I made a couple of sandwiches and snagged a couple beers, gatoraid and pieces of fruit. She had been doing trail magic further south and had a lot of extra stuff. 

Her tow came within the hour and we planned on meeting up again for the night at a road 7 miles further. Another hiker who i had met at Serenirys Oasis, Capt Jack, rolled in. He has thru hiked the pct twice and was just out doing another section. He was going to be taking an alternate from there, going up and over the mountain to the desert and following a different aqueduct section. The way the mountains were positioned they trapped all the bad weather and moisture, but if you just went up and over, you’d be in blue skies and the desert. 

I did the next 7 miles listening to my audiobook and when I got to the road Courtney had made it! She got her new tire no problem and was helping Alex get some sandwhich supplies. 

We hung out and I got some more sandwiches and snacks and we caught up some more. This time it was much less chaotic. Courtney had big plans this summer but broke her femur skiing so she had been recovering from that instead. 

She set up a big tarp behind a picnics table and we got all our stuff out to cowboy camp. Steam made it by a bit later and was so excited at experiencing the trail magic!

We watched a movie , I made some Mac and cheese and we went to bed. I woke up around midnight to a steady mist and had a feeling I should set up my tent. I woke Courtney up and she moved to her mini van and I made room for my tent. 

Day 36

Start 485.8 End: 510

Total 25

I was sure glad I set up my tent in the middle of the night as everything was quite wet in the morning. I checked the weather and it said 0 % chance of rain last night and today. I guess it wasn’t wrong , it wasn’t raining per say but there was a constant misting effect. I packed up and hung out with Courtney for a bit in her van before pulling myself away for what I knew was going to be a big day. 

I would climb a few thousand feet in elevation and stay up there for 20 miles before climbing back down in elevation. I knew my best chance of gettting out of this cloud and rainy weather was to do 25 miles and get back down lower in elevation and to the other side of these mountains that were blocking in all this moisture. 

I headed out around 8:15 with my shorts, rain coat and pack cover on and began the steep ascent. Around 9:15 I had gone two miles and decided I deserved to listen to some music. I was wearing my gloves which were now soaked so I had to take them off to use my phone. I just put it on speaker since I was fairly sure no one else was around and didn’t want to bother getting something else wet. I turned on some music and kept going. 

I was walking in a cloud, I could see maybe 30 feet in front of me, the rest was covered in a dense moist fog. There was a constant misting affect happening that suddenly soaked everything. All the plants had a layer of water on them so when I bushwhacked through the ones that overgrew the trail (and there are a lot) they would transfer their water to my legs my shirt, dripping down to my socks and feet. 

I got so cold I stopped to put on my rainpants and kept going. Maybe an hour after I had turned music on I checked my phone to ensure I was still on the trail. I fully charged my phone that morning in Courtney’s car but somehow it was now on 9%. I had accidentally turned on the flashlight and now my phone was practically dead. Guess no more listening to music, I thought, as I turned it off. 

I could’ve charged it up but it would’ve been a whole ordeal since my battery pack was in my backpack and anything I brought out would inevitably get wet. And it was so cold I knew I had to keep moving. 

After a few miles of climbing I was know on top of a ridge, it would steady out, go down and go up a bit more over the next ten miles. I’m sure they were lovely views but I was still in the clouds and could not see very far one way or another. It was one soaking step after another, just me and my thoughts and my wavering positive attitude. The only way out is through I told myself again and again. Picturing myself warm and dry in my tent eating Nutella out of a jar and making warm ramen noodles. That’s the thought I held onto to get me through the day. 

It was so eerie because there was a section that was pretty burnt so it was just this heavy, misty fog with these dead blackened trees. It was pretty cool but I was on a mission. I passed Alex maybe around 11 and said something to him in passing but would not stop. I had to keep moving. I was to cross the 500 mile marker today and that was 15 miles from where I camped and I told myself I would get there before taking a break. 

15 miles later I come across a little board next to the trail announcing the 500 mile marker. I took a quick selfie before my phone died and I trudged on.

Shortly after I ran into Steam and we hiked for 10 or so minutes together chatting which was a big boost for my emotional and mental state of mind. We passed the 500 mile marker that was made in rocks and took turns taking each others picture and even a selfie. 

He is recording some videos for his students to watch so I kept going while he did that. I found a nice protected, less misty area a little ways up and stopped for my first break of the day, 17 miles and 7 hours later. I shoved two summer sausage and cheese torts down my throat before my body parts began to get numb. 8 minutes later maybe, I shoved my things back into my pack and hurried to keep moving so my body would warm itself up. I shoved my wet hands back into my wet gloves because that was better than the alternative. Just keep going , just keep going. I hiked as if my life depended on it. I needed to get off that ridge. 

I heard the sounds of some motorbikes and saw a couple as I crossed a dirt rd. And magically on the other side, I emerged from the cloud. I could see hikertown in the desert in the distance below and the sun was even flirting with coming out. I thanks the hiking gods and immiditley felt my spirits improving. I don’t care if it’s cloudy just not that damn cloud of saturation. I went around a couple more turns and it came back but was less intense. 

I finally began my descent and could see the desert in the distance and the blue skies. I lost 3000 feet in elevation over a few miles and got to a stream where I found a perfect little cove for me to collapse inside of. I got my shoes off, set up my tent, aired out my things and layed down on the ground. Today had been the most physically, mentally and emotionally and spiritually challenging day yet but I had done it. I made it through and felt so proud of myself for having done it, and especially for having done it with no music or audiobook or podcast. I rewarded myself with dinner and desert and promises of a slow and relaxing morning. My whole body hurt so bad as I lied down to go to sleep but was also sustaining a flush of dopamine from what seemed like such a great physical and mental accomplishment that day.