Monday, June 21 Walker Pass Miles today: 26.2 Total: 676.6

Monday, June 21st, 2010

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Last night was very warm, and it sure was great to be out of the wind!   While I was getting dressed this morning (and it was wonderful to have such a “warm” morning” so that I wasn’t shivering into my clothes!), I was putting on my shoes and wondering what was going to happen with the foot pain that has bothered me for the last two days.  Suddenly, as I stared at my shoes, I had a thought.  I had them laced in what I call “desert style”, meaning very loose around the toes to allow for foot swelling in the heat, and then tight up higher to support my ankles.  “I wonder if I have my shoes laced too tightly?”  was the idea that occurred to me.  So I loosened up the lacing over the arch/ankle zone of my foot.  And voila!  No more pain in my feet today!  I hiked all day on happy feet!  Answered prayer #1. 

As Bill and I hiked along the 1 mile to Walker Pass Campground, we were joking about the thruhikers who “have to” have their “coffee fix” to start the day, and will freeze and shiver early in the morning so they can make that cuppa java.  When we reached the turnoff to the campground, there was a trail angel sign telling PCT hikers which campsite to go to for all sorts of goodies.  Well, it was 6 am, so we figured any trail angel would probably be asleep.  “We’ll just get water and head on” was our plan.  But there was no water!  All the campground faucets were turned off.  Bummer!  It was pretty obvious where the trail angel was–the only campsite that was occupied–so we went there, hoping there might be some water.  The only other option was a yucky spring down the road.

Yes indeedy, there was water (answered prayer # 2) –AND Trail Angel “Oakie Girl” spotted us.  She climbed out of her car (where she’d been sleeping) and insisted on giving us not just water, but BREAKFAST!   At 6 am!  What a feast–cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs ‘n cheese in tortillas, coffee….wow!   Oakie Girl told us she’s a mountainclimber/peakbagger, not a thruhiker, but she decided that Walker Pass was in great need of a resident trail angel.  She told us that 15 hikers went through yesterday, and she was able to help them with lots of things–food, water, rides to town, etc.  What a great lady!

Then began the big climb out of Walker Pass, and as I walked, sure enough, my right hip began to hurt again.  I thought and thought about what to do, and as I walked along, I tried different things to help it feel better.  What I discovered was that if I pulled UP on the right shoulder strap of my pack, the pain went away.  Hmmm.  I thought about what I might be able to do–a loadlifter strap, maybe?

Meanwhile, we reached the famous “Rock Gate” on the east side of the mountains and began contouring north, with awesome views of the China Lake basin to the east.  Before noon, the trail began to go downhill and we had to cross many rockslides.  Bill  said, “The way I figure it, we should be at the Joshua Tree Spring trail by noon” and he NAILED it!  That’s exactly when we arrived…and were welcomed by 7 other thruhikers, who were eating lunch in the bit of shade available!  We stopped and cooked our dinner and chatted with them all, before they headed on and Bill headed for the spring while I cut off a spare piece of strap and sewed a “loadlifter” onto my right shoulder strap.  I also tied a spare piece of “bear rope” cord to the waistbelt on the right side, and tied the other end up at the shoulder so that the right side of the waistbelt was being pulled up off my hip. It worked! The hip was immediately pain free, and never gave me any more problems all the way to Canada!   Answered prayer #3.

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We made another stop for water at Spanish Needle Creek–a bit tricky because it was just a trickle and there were other hikers who also needed to get water.  All of us had to wait our turn!  After that was a long but not hard uphill till we reached the “2nd broad saddle” where we ate supper in 2005.  It was very windy, but there were no ominous clouds as there were five years ago. 

So at sundown, we were looking for someplace  to camp out of the  howling wind— and we had to be specially careful because there was a 2,000 foot dropoff close by and if a bit of gear got loose— it would be gone forever.  Finally located a place behind a tree!  And it was wonderful to NOT have sore feet and sore hip.  Thankyou, Lord!

Walk to Lórien: Near small stream in valley near Rivendell

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