Fri. Aug. 12         Miles today: 28.2            Total so far: 1,565.9           So. CA Section F

This morning it was cool and pleasant for awhile.  We actually had to look for a “sun patch” to eat breakfast!  But that didn’t last long–pretty soon it was HOT!  At first we were in a lot of dry, but pretty forest.  The only drawback were the dozens of tiny flies that swarmed our faces to the point where we couldn’t avoid breathing in some of them.  Yuck!  Bill finally put on his headnet! 

There were signs everywhere of recent heavy rain that made us glad we’d been delayed in Tehachapi.  Gullies of all sizes,  cut by rain runoff, ran right across the PCT.  Then we had a very pleasant surprise! At one of the dirt roads that cross the PCT, there was a little water cache!  So I filled up our one liter bottles that we’d drunk up at breakfast, and we rejoiced at a note which said more water was cached up ahead.  What that meant was we wouldn’t have to walk literally miles offtrail to get the water we’d need.  To put it mildly, we were thrilled!  The morning was so hot that we’d already gone through a lot of the water we were carrying.

The trail took us on through more wildflowers and awesome rock formations, till we finally reached the next water cache at St. John’s Pass.  It was 95 degrees in the shade, and we gladly drank a whole liter each of the cache water, adding powdered lemonade.  Man, did it hit the spot!  We are very careful at these caches not to take any more than we absolutely need.  Who knows what other thirsty hikers might be coming along next?And I loved the name of the pass–at home we go to St. John’s Episcopal church.

Now we were in really arid country–no more trees, but beautiful in its own way.  We walked across several flash flood canyons–it’s interesting to see what fast-moving water can “sculpt.”  At noon it was close to 100 degrees, but we found a clump of Joshua trees that cast enough shade that we could be reasonably comfortable stopping to cook lunch, after we’d FIRST kicked a lot of dry old cow “pies” out of the way.  Obviously the cows like this shade, too!  After eating, we took a short siesta because it was so hot, and I took a picture looking straight up at the “design” of the Joshua tree branch above me.

From there, we continued to climb up through sagebrush and rocks.  I noticed a lot of beehives in the valley below–somebody must like sage honey!  We also passed several old mines.  Topping another ridge, we got a whole new “valley view”, which included a mirage lake shimmering in the heat.  It was a tough afternoon, hiking-wise, having to do so much uphill when it was so hot.  Bill and I were drinking lots of water and still feeling thirsty, but we didn’t dare “overdo” on the water, because our supply was limited.  Even our supper stop with food and lemonade left us thirsty, and we hiked as fast as we could toward the next cache at Bird Spring Pass.  But oh, frustration!  The trail was full of “moguls”, created by dirtbike people riding on the PCT.  We’d do a few steps down, then a few steps up, then down again.  Grrrr.   But the scenery was great, and as the sun went lower and lower, the light became prettier and prettier.  We got buzzed by a very large rattler curled up in the shade of a bush right by the trail. He refused to move, and I don’t blame him!  So we went around.

It was 7:30 by the time we reached Bird Spring Pass.  When we spotted the water cache up ahead, we almost ran to it, we were so thirsty.  However, it turned out that the jugs of water had been sitting there for some time.  Many were full of yucky, slimy water.  I managed to find some “minimally slimy” jugs and used powdered lemonade to make two liters worth. Bill and I gulped down a whole liter each.   That made a total of SIX LITERS of water for EACH of us today!  There was a little notebook where you could write comments, and a number of hikers had written very rude, grumpy remarks about the slimy water.  But I happened to know that this cache is stocked by a very dedicated and determined old lady who rides in on a MOTORCYCLE, because the road to Bird Spring Pass is washed out and impassable to cars.  It’s a very tough ride for her, so she can’t come up as often as she’d like.  So I wrote a very GRATEFUL comment, and I meant every word of it.

It was getting dark and it was very windy as we set up camp on the lee side of a clump of Joshua trees.  We were really tired and sweaty and  dirty, but we enjoyed the pretty sunset, and cheered when we added up our miles.  Twenty-eight miles, yahoo!   Even in the heat!  Those water caches saved us a lot of time–God bless the kind people who help thirsty hikers!

Thurs, August 11     Miles today: 22.3            Total so far: 1,537.7          So. CA Section F

It ws still dark at 5:00 am, so we waited for a little while before getting up.  The sun had not even risen yet, and it was already warm and very windy.  The windmills near our camp had been running all night long, but their sound is not annoying, at least not to me, anyway.  It’s sort of a low-pitched pleasant hum.  But when we put on our packs–groan!  They were heeeeeavy with 6 days of food, PLUS a lot of water (we had 5 liters each).  After praying together as we do each morning, we were on our way, enjoying several miles of comfortable contouring, with views of impressive high cliffs and rocks.

But then the trail became increasingly overgrown with various types of bushes, which we had to push through.  Not fun!  Eventually we began to climb again and get views of Kelso Valley.  At one point, the trail was lined for over a mile with red flowers that hummingbirds seem to love!  I have never seen so many hummingbirds in one place!  The flowers were pretty, and the hummingbirds were really cute, but after awhile even I got tired of pushing through the “red flower plants.” 

Now we were truly in the Piute Mountains, sometimes in oak forest, sometimes among pines.  Finding a shady place for lunch was important–it was 95 degrees again!  In the afternoon came much climbing in the hot sun–very tough for me.  I have to go much more slowly and sometimes even stop in the shade if I start feeling too wiped out by the heat.  The PCT here goes in and out of public and private property.  It’s not hard to tell the difference–private property is WELL-posted!  And the PCT itself was peppered with warning signs about “stay on the trail” and “trail easement is only 10 feet wide”. 

Just before 4 pm, we reached Robin Bird Spring.  The guidebook had been quite ecstatic, describing it as a “lovely place.”  But what we found was vandalized, littered with “cow pies” and broken glass.  Even the spring was all messed up, but we found a note tacked to a post about how to go under the fence, up the hill, then find a black pipe where spring water was coming out.  As it turned out, the actual spring was covered with a box.  Again, Bill patiently pumped the water filter while I cooked dinner.   Usually we cook at noon, but when it’s hot and water is in short supply, we wait and cook AT a water source.  It was two hours before we were all done and got going again and we did another 4 or 5 miles before calling it quits just before 8 pm.  We found a great campsite among large boulders with lots of soft pineneedle duff on the ground.  And it even had a great “bear tree” for hanging our food.  I fervently wished we could have gotten more miles done, but carrying such a heavy load plus all that time pumping water, and the very hot day had really slowed us down.  But again, we are very grateful that God made it possible for us to be here, and every step we take is getting us nearer to the Sierras!