Sun. August 14    Miles today: 22.5    Total so far: 1,610.4     Sierras Section G     Walker Pass

It was very warm and quiet at 5:00 am in our camp just above Walker Pass.  Not even a bird was chirping in the predawn glow!  It didn’t take us long to get up ‘n at it, knowing that we had a lot of tough hiking ahead today, and water would be a problem–no more water caches.  But the scenery was looking much more “Sierra-ish”, which was very exciting. 

Right off the bat, we had to go around a couple of mountains, and all I can say is, the trailbuilders must have used a LOT of dynamite!  At one point they left a sort of “gateway” of rock right on the trail.  The mountains here seem to be parly granitic and partly volcanic.  Thee are many long, jagged ridges of rock as well as individual “mini-mountains”, one of which reminded me of Amon Hen in “Lord of the Rings.” 

Eventually we reached the Owens Peak saddle and began hiking steeply downhill toward Joshua Tree Spring, where water was supposed to be available, about 1/4 mile off the PCT.  The valley below the trail was very pretty–you could just make out what looked like a couple of ranches.  The downhill trail was very pulverized by horses, which was great for soft, comfortable, fast downhilling, but boy, did our legs get dirty!!  Then came a pleasant surprise–just before the turnoff to the spring, a “seasonal creek” was still running nicely!  Hooray!  We could get our water there instead of trekking to the spring! 

But man, it is a tedious business, pumping enough water through the filter for TWO people!  It took Bill 45 minutes to complete that task, since we knew we had a long, hot climb ahead of us and figured on carrying plenty of water–our “full load capacity”, which meant our packs were now awfully heavy.  Sigh.  An hour later, we stopped in the shade and I cooked dinner, while we both drank plenty of lemonade.  Our next stop (if it was running) would be Spanish Needle Creek. 

Sure enough, the trail began to climb in earnest, back up to the crest.  It was a hot afternoon, but as we puffed and panted up the hill, we enjoyed the views and scenery, which were totally great.  At one point, we heard a strange rumbling sound behind us.  It sounded like galloping horses, but that would be really weird–how could a bunch of horses go galloping up a steep, rocky trail?  Then we saw it–a two foot diameter boulder was loose and rolling down the mountainside!  It went “galloping” across the PCT a bit behind us.  Wow!  Glad we weren’t in its way!

Now we were motivated to hike on to Spanish Needle Creek.  Would it be running, or not?  Well, it was!  The creek turned out to be green, grassy and willowy and had plenty of water.  We filtered and drank a whole liter each of nice, cold creek water, with added Emergen-C powder.  Then we refilled our water bottles, knowing it was over 10 miles to the next water.   We loved the nice cool water, but it was really frustrating to have to spend so much time filtering when we would rather be hiking. 

After that, it was up, up, up till 5:30 pm!  But the view from the top was awesome!  We ate supper there and enjoyed the sight of distant Owens Valley and thunderclouds on the horizon, far off in Nevada.  Then came some more miles of up and down and contouring before we set up camp in what looked like a DRY saddle between two DRY valleys.  Off came the packs, and we started our evening routine of smoothing out the spot for the ground cloth, and setting up the tarp.  But rats!  We were soon atacked by such hordes of mosquitoes as we had not seen since Oregon.  So on with the raingear and headnets, up went the net tent under the tarp, and soon we were safe from the whining hordes.  The only bummer was, we’d planned to take “dundo baths” to rinse off all the trail dirt before going to bed, and we’d brought extra water for that purpose.  The mosquitoes made a bath impossible.  All we could do was wipe ourselves off as best we could, inside the net tent.

While we were busy dealing with the mosquitoes on the ground,  overhead there were some ominous developments in the sky.   Early this morning, there were lots of pretty cirrus clouds, and all day long they’d been gradually thickening up. By now, though, they looked very  dark and ominous.  Bill and I eyed the sky and wondered what it meant–rain tonight, maybe?  As we burrowed into our sleeping bags, the wind was coming up a bit, and there were flashes of lightning way off to the east.  When I did the “mileage math” for today,  the fact that so much time filtering cut the mileage by quite a bit was compensated for by realizing we’d passed the 1,600 mile mark!  That means our “miles-left-to-go” number is now only THREE digits long, not four!

The wind continued to grow stronger.  We could hear it howling in the treetops, accompanied by thunder and lightning that was obviously getting nearer and nearer, till it was right on top of us.  What followed, I can hardly find words to describe.  It was FIVE HOURS of the wildest, most terrifying storm we had ever seen in our entire lives.  Lightning was striking all around us (not ON us, thanks be to God!), and  the wind became so violent that it snapped the tops off nearby trees and ripped our tarp stakes right up out of the ground.  All this was accompanied by what I can only describe as TORRENTIAL rain.  Brave Bill went out TWICE into the howling storm to try to secure the tarp, which had collapsed on top of us, and was no longer protecting us from the rain.  All we could do was huddle under it, getting wetter and wetter.  I held the camera and our valuables close to me, hoping to keep them dry, and we prayed like crazy.  Needless to say, we got NO sleep.  The lightning “show” continued unabated till around 2:00 am, and heavy rain continued all night.  To those who say, “A down sleeping bag won’t keep you warm if gets wet”, I now say “Phooey!”  My down sleeping bag was soaked, and it still did its job.  Bill and I huddled together and stayed awake for the whole rest of the night.  We were now THANKING God for His protection in that incredible storm!

Sat. August 13        Miles today: 22          Total so far: 1,587.9      So. CA section F

Worried about another hot day ahead, we got up in the dark at 5:00 to break camp and drink some more water.  At first light we began the long, long climb up and out of Bird Spring Pass.  The great thing was, even though the morning was rapidly getting warm, we were climbing in a cool wind, and on the SHADY side of the mountain!  It took over an hour to get up to a saddle where we ate breakfast and enjoyed the “giant bonsai” pinyon pines and the wildflowers among the rocks.

Then came MORE climbing, now in the sun, but not quite as hot as yesterday.  Whew!  It took us till 9:30 am to reach the cute sign that told of the turnoff to Yellow Jacket Spring, where we’d thought we might  get water.  But tacked to a tree nearby was ANOTHER recent sign warming that the “main” Yellow Jacket spring was not reliable, and hikers should go to a different spring where you have to dig a hole, let water seep up, then filter from there.  Not good.  We looked at our water supplies and decided we could manage with what we had, thanks to the water caches.

A little while later, the PCT reached a road.   The guidebook MAPS that Mel had copied for us did not show the fact that the PCT would follow this road to the left, for over two miles, and there was no sign at the junction indicating where we should go.  We were very puzzled and worried about “Where did the PCT go?  Is it on the road?  But which way?”  Fortunately, the guidebook TEXT makes the matter clear, and even though Mel had not bothered to copy the text, in this particular case, one of the map pages “happened” to have the text explaining where to go at this road intersection.  AGAIN, it was God looking out for us.  He knew what we would need, even before we needed it!  So of course, we had to stop and thank Him. 

We’d hiked a mile or so, when we were passed by motorcycle riders in full, colorful “stormtrooper” armor.  We actually met and talked to them later.  They were all big, tall, strong, impressive guys,  but when they heard what we were doing, THEY were impressed by US!  Their leader was guy who looked just like the actor Sean Bean, who plays Boromir in the film “Fellowship of the Ring.”  We had fun talking to him and his buddies before mushing on through a large burned area, where  (as usual for that situation), the wildflowers and bees were doing very well!  Finally we came to where the PCT heads off the road and hunted for shade in the burned-over area where we could rest and eat lunch.  Shade was not easy to find!  Finally we located one unburned “island” of large trees–just what we needed.

After lunch, it was many more miles of walking through the burn, including a bright new PCT emblem on one of the burned trees.  Thankyou to whoever took the time to mark the trail!  And I have to admit, with the trees reduced to blackened pillars with no branches, you do get more mountain VIEWS.   The trail climbed up and up.  We felt as if we’d been just going uphill all day, and it was a bit tough.  But finally the trail headed down for Walker Pass.  Near the bottom, we hit ANOTHER burned area, this one very fresh (only 6 days ago since the fire, we found out.  Yikes, if we hadn’t been delayed in Tehachapi, we would have been walking right into a forest fire!   ANOTHER reason to thank God for the mysterious delay of our box!).

At last, hot, sweaty, dirty and thirsty, we reached Walker Pass Campground and decided to take a couple of “zero hours” there.  Our clothes were so soaked with sweat that when they dried out, they were as stiff as if they’d been starched!  They smelled “interesting”, too.  (Eau de trail!)  Nobody was at the campground, so we made ourselves at home.  We took off our sweaty clothes, rinsed them thoroughly at the faucet, hung them on bushes to dry in the hot sun, and also washed OURSELVES.  I even stuck my whole head under the faucet to rinse my hot, dirty, sweaty hair.  Boy, did it feel good!   And when we put our dry clothes back on, ahh!  (Especially my socks–they felt soft again, instead of stiff with sweat and dirt!)   Bill and I also drank a lot of water, and rested in the shade till late afternoon.

With the arrival of nice, cooler temperatures,  we pushed on across Highway 178 and immediately began ANOTHER climb!  But we were clean, it was lots more pleasant temperature-wise, and we got great views of the pass on the two miles of climbing to the top.  At a saddle, we found a wonderful campsite with a gorgeous sunset view, located among rocks and pinyon pines.  I considered it to be one of the prettiest campsites we’ve had yet, and we two very tired hikers got a good night’s rest.