Hiking - 2016 PCT - Day 36 to 45

Went into town for the last chance at a real meal. On the way back Redhawk decided to get in some extra training by carrying She Bear. I think he lasted about 50 meters. Apparently she wiggled... In the morning I got a lift back to the trail from a local Trail Angel, Dog Bite. This guy runs hikers around town most of the season and will pretty much pick you up and drop you off anywhere. With 8 days of food and plenty of water in my pack it was feeling pretty heavy.

The day started off with a pretty decent climb and as I was leaving town it was already pretty warm. It was glorious. So much better than the cold winds out from Wrightwood. I think I'm the only one appreciating it though...

Came across a section of dirt road walk trail that reminded me a lot of Ormeau. Lots of dust rocks and step ups. There was also the tell tail signs of slippage with rubber left behind on the rocks. I spent about 3 hours picking lines I would take in the Jeep. It was pretty clear what lines the hikers took though.

Made it to Golden Oaks springs, which was little more than a trickle. With over a dozen hikers there it took a long time to collect water. By the time I was done I figured I may as well camp the night. There was a nice little spot about 50m away up hill.

Started off with a nice downhill stretch in the morning to get into it before once again heading up hill. Near the top reached a great pine forest providing excellent shade making he hike fairly cool.

Made it to my planned stop, another spring, with time to spare and decided to push on. Made it my longest day yet, 25.9 miles. I certainly felt it by the end and it was actually dark by the time I went to bed for once.

The next stretch was a 42 mile stretch without any natural water sources. I filled up to my full capacity, 6.5 lt, with the knowledge that there should be a few well maintained water caches along the way. Before today I thought that 8 days of food was heavy...

Planned an early start with a 4 am alarm... but still barely made it out of camp by 6am. Only 7 miles out of camp I found my first water cache. Still had plenty on me but drank a bit before I got moving again. Well and truly in the desert section at the moment.



Passed a few people that pulled up stumps at 10am because it was too hot but I kept going until about noon. By 230pm I was bored and ready to get moving again. 330 I passed some friends that told me I was mad hiking in "this heat" ... it wasn't even 30°c today and only like 12% humidity!

Made it to the next likely water cache to not only find heaps of water but also an esky full of goodies. Chocolate, protein bars, Nutella and lollies. Great find. Was late in the day so it was also topped off with an amazing sunset.



Another early - ish morning start to get up a very steep and tall hill. Almost full of water again so another heavy pack. Luckily I was heading up the western side of the mountain so I was in the shade the entire way.

It was really good walking along ridges for a while enjoying the views. When I had stopped to take a break a SOBO (south bound) Hiker brought by some bad news. There was currently a bushfire raging just north of Walker Pass. Currently closing and potentially threatening the trail.

Made it to the Walker Pass campgrounds mid afternoon to see a few other hikers. There was also a guy from the fire service giving out information. Fire was mostly contained already and all was going well with the fight. About 2 hrs later he came back with a massive smile on his face happy to bring the news that it's a 99% chance to be reopened 6pm tomorrow.

It was already late in the day so I decided to bed down there for the night. Turns out it was a good call because I woke to the most amazing smell, bacon! A couple of trail angels were cooking up breakfast. They also had a big box of softdrink and beer. Being 7am in the morning I of course opted for the cold beer with a Gatorade chaser.



Not wanting to spend an entire day in the fairly desolate Walker Pass camp I decided to make my way into Lake Isabella. Met up again with T-Bird who was organising a 'cookout' (BBQ) so I bought some steak to throw on and potato salad to share.

I had planned for an early morning but by the time I rolled out of the comfy bed, had another shower and finished a fruit breakfast I was looking for a hitch after the time I would normally be hiking out of camp. Took a while to flag a ride and the first to stop was only going to Weldon,  about 1/2 way. As it was better than nothing I took it. At Weldon it was another long wait until a SUV full of fellow hikers finally stopped to take me the rest of the way.

The first climb was on the eastern side if the mountain and due to the late start was already quite warm. Bit of a breeze kept it reasonable but even I sought out the shade for breaks.

Made it to the top of a ridge for a great place to camp. Thought I would start the day down hill but the PCT took me up along a ridge and over a mountain before heading back down. Went past the burn area that temporarily closed the trail. It was at a camp site 0.2 East of the trail but luckily the wind was blowing away and it didn't touch the trail.

A few miles later there was another section that got hit by fire a few years ago. There was no shade for a 7 mile stretch, it wasn't that great. I eventually made it to a stream with a very slow flow. It was enough to get some water and a good place to camp for the night.

The next day it was a gentle 9.6 miles into Kennedy Meadows. This is the doorstep to the Sierra Mountains, said to be the most scenic, fun and difficult section of the entire PCT.

KM is a town with 1 bar/restaurant and 1 servo/store. There was about 70-80 hikers all hanging around collecting boxes and enjoying civilisation/power for the last time in many days. No phone signal and the wifi is so slow that even sending a 2 sentence email took a few minutes. That's why you're getting this post a little late.