Saturday, June 11     Miles today: 27.3       Total so far: 555 miles!!      So. CA section E

It was a clear, pleasant, but VERY windy night last night!  When we started hiking at 5:30 am, we discovered that only a little farther along, a group of 4 thru-hikers had camped ON TOP OF one of the concrete boxes along the aqueduct!  (I’m afraid we gave them a bad time about it later–“Wussies!  Whatcha scared of–thought a Mojave Green would crawl into your sleeping bag, or a scorpion into your shoe?”)

We hiked till it was a bit warmer before stopping for breakfast, and enjoyed the beautiful early morning views of the desert while we munched our granola.  Eventually the other thru-hikers caught up with us (they are much younger and much faster), and one of them kindly offered to take our picture.   Wow, we finally have a picture of us TOGETHER on the trail!  Then off they went, and soon had outdistanced us.  The funny thing is, we generally end up passing them every morning, because we start hiking earlier and generally finish later, too. 

Several cool, windy miles later, we reached our first target–Cottonwood Creek and its aqueduct water faucet.  The whole gang were gathered there having a snack.  We got out our gear for collecting and filtering unsafe water, since there was a warning sign–and just then, who should show up, but Chris and Barbara!  (We gave THEM water when they had completely run out back on the Desert Divide.  Only Chris is hiking now, with Barbara doing resupply.)  They brought us a bunch of clean water and cold sodas!  We all happily filled our platypuses and hiked on, till at last we were DONE walking the aqueduct and back on trail.

Almost right away I saw one of the really cute things I’ve been noticing for the last couple of weeks along the PCT–a little tiny “baby rock duck” to indicate where the trail goes.  It looks just like a regular “big duck”, but it’s only 2 or 3 inches high.  I don’t know who’s been leaving them to mark trail, but I really enjoy seeing them!  And the trail now, amazingly for the normally winding PCT, headed straight like anarrow for the Tehachapi Mountains.

After a couple of miles, the PCT did begin to climb and wind again, and with a vengeance!  Carrying full water loads (enough to get us through 23 miles) was really tough.  The trail was beautiful, but it was up, and up, and I just could not hike very fast with such a heavy water load.  Close to the top of that first climb, while the PCT was temporarily on a dirt road, we were overtaken by 3 motocross riders in full “stormtrooper” regalia.  They looked to me like a dad and his two boys.  They immediately started to do what motocross riders like to do–head straight up the STEEP mountainside to see if they could make it to the top.  The youngest, who was only a kid, barely made it, but in the end, he succeeded.  I’m glad I’m not his mom!  Mommies should never watch their little boys ride motorcycles up cliffs.

We persevered in our climb as well, finally reached the top, and were down into Tylerhorse Canyon where we unexpectedly found the creek still running. The water looked a bit weird, though–glad we didn’t need any.  After that, the PCT was kind for awhile–nice and level, with views, including the NASA Space Shuttle Center. 

But when we came to Gamble Canyon, it was a mess.  Motocross riders have torn up the hillsides and PCT so much that it’s very hard to figure out where the trail goes. And more damage is done as motocross vertical trails cut through the generally more horizontal PCT.  While we were in Gamble Canyon, a motocross rider was revving up his bike on the canyon floor far below, then came tearing straight up the canyon wall, right at us.  Turns out he never even noticed we were there. He was following a “mototrail”, so we stepped back, stopped, and watched him roar past, dirt flying.  Just then he saw us, too, and stopped.  “Folks,” he said, “I sure din’t mean fer ta dust ya like that.  Sorry–didn’t even see ya.”  We didn’t make a fuss, but did have very mixed feelings.  We can see where the riders are having a lot of good, “clean” dusty fun–but the damage they do is pretty bad. 

Later on, the damage to the PCT got worse.  It was obvious that the motorcycle riders were totally ignoring signs saying that the PCTis for hikers and horses only.  They were riding their bikes on the trail, and creating “moguls” that may give them some thrilling “air” time, but are really tough for us hikers.  Some exasperated thru-hikers have started dragging tree branches across the PCT to deter the motorcycles.  Finally it got so bad at one point, that we totally lost the PCT in the woods honeycombed with mototrails.  We finally relocated the PCT, but not before poor Bill slipped and slid quite a ways down a steep path. Fortunately, he was not hurt.

High up in the Tehachapis now, we came across some of the “gang” of thruhikers,  sitting by the trail in the lee of a tree and looking a bit grim.  It turned out that they had completely run out of water and were worried about many miles yet to go.  We gave them some of our water, and they were very grateful.  I had been very unhappy about the load of water I carried up the hills this morning, but being able to have enough to share really made my day!  In fact, later on when we stopped for a crackers n’ cheese supper out of the cold, gusty wind, those same hikers passed us by, looking much more cheerful!  We enjoyed being out of the wind for awhile (though it sure was roaring in the treetops!), and hoped to make several more miles before bedtime.

  But not much farther along, we were stopped by private property warning signs that said for the next several miles, NO CAMPING ALLOWED.  So we turned back into the forest, called it a day, and found a nice camp with a mountain view but still sheltered from the wind.  I like the wind–it keeps away the mosquitoes!  Boy, did the sleeping bag feel good!  And when I totalled our mileage for the day, I could hardly believe it–our best day yet, even with two “killer” hill climbs when we weren’t hiking very fast!  Thankyou, Lord!