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?”)

Early morning in the Mojave

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. 

Thruhikers at the only Aqueduct "water hole"

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.

Baby rock duck

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.

Tylerhorse Canyon creek

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. 

The PCT in the Tehachapis--before the motocross mess

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. 

Tree branch blockade on the PCT

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!

Fri. June 10    Miles today: 23.2   Total so far: 528.7     So. CA section E

The cold wind howled all night while we snuggled in our sleeping bags, and this morning we literally woke up IN a cloud!  The clouds made the oak forest look very pretty and mysterious as we got ontrail by 5:45.  A bit of uphill got us high enough to be able to watch the sunrise from ABOVE the clouds.  The trail wound through grassy hillsides and oak forests that looked like a park, with beautiful views in every direction. 

First "trail pond"

And finally, a first–a POND, right by the trail!  This was the first pond we’ve come to–so far it’s all been creeks, lakes and rivers.  So of course we had to stop there for a snack and a rest!

Just then, along came some of “the gang”from Agua Dulce and yesterday’s “Anderson Oasis”. They veered off the trail the minute they saw me, with a message.  “Hey, Monty, you left something in Agua Dulce–where should Mrs. Saufley mail it?”  Yup, I KNEW I’d left something behind (which I had spent quite awhile looking for and finally gave up)–a little plastic ziplok baggie with our resupply notes, my eyeglass prescription, etc.  I was VERY glad to know it was safe, and planned to call the Saufleys as soon as we reached our next resupply later today.  Turned out it got left in the trailer, during the time when we were trying to organize for our “skip” up to Oregon.  And since it also contained a credit card, I will say this:  So far, I have been VERY impressed with the integrity of the majority of thruhikers.  Not only do they care for the trail, but for each other!

The “gang” headed on, and so did Bill and I, after we finished our snack.  But the trail stopped being beautiful, and turned awful.  It was heavily eroded and gullied.  Some of the gullies were 10 feet deep and hard to get around.  Eventually we reached the border of Tejon Ranch property, and from then on, it was seven miles of “Behave yourself!  No Camping!  No fires!  Stay on the trail!”  And the trail itself followed a very weird path down into every creekbed, both large an small.  The scenery was pretty barren, too.  The Tejon Ranch for years has been the big holdout on the PCT route, refusing to allow a trail to go through their property.  At Hiker Heaven, there had been much jubilation because recently the Ranch agred to allow a trail corridor!  Hooray!  When that’s done (and it will be years), there will be no more ugly trail and no more “walking the aqueduct” as we will do today and tomorrow.

Well, finally we came down out of the hills into the wide Antelope Valley, headed for our resupply at “The Country Store.”  I had heard some tales of nasty, aggressive Mojave Green rattlesnakes along this stretch of trail, so I kept a sharp eye out, and saw no snakes at all,  but some pretty horses! 

The young Indiana Jones?

To reach the Store was a 1.1 mile walk on a dirt road by a busy highway, but it was worth it!  We had a very nice time there, with a BIG lunch, shopping for food, loading up on water, and writing in journals.  I would highly recommend the Country Store as a resupply for thru-hikers.  The folks here are supernice and helpful, and  by sitting out in front of the store, we got to have some fun talking to the “locals.”  One young guy was in the parking lot practicing with his new bullwhip.  He let me look at his whip, and I was amazed to find that the end is just a little bit of soft, fuzzy stuff. 

Shortly before we were going to leave, some other thru-hikers arrived–Chris from Indiana, who was really nice, and then Josh ‘n Anna again!  They had gotten a ride to the Store from the guy who runs a place called “Hikertown”, right by the PCT.  (We saw it, but did not go there, because we heard it was kind of weird.)  The other guys were just picking up a few things, and we all ended up getting a ride back to the PCT. 

Walking the Aqueduct with Chris-from-Indiana

Chris-from-Indiana was very friendly, and walked with us for a couple of hours..  The first item on our “itinerary” was the California Aqueduct.  We are in the Mojave now, and the soil is very dry.  Approaching the aqueduct, it was not just dry, but cracked with big cracks like a giant jigsaw puzzle.  We climbed up the berm, and there it was–a fastmoving large river running along a concrete river bed.  We were all about to begin the notorious “aqueduct walk section” of the PCT–miles and miles through the Mojave Desert with the Joshua trees and the Mojave Green rattlesnakes and the scorpions, and….usually horrendous heat that forces even thru-hikers to travel at night.   But the locals back at the Country Store had told us, “Here, it’s either really HOT or it’s really WINDY,”  and for us, we were in the “really windy!”  And it was quite a wind–lively, gusty, and quite cool. 

After a couple of miles, we came to a place which posed a very interesting engineering problem, but neatly solved!  Problem:  How do you cross one aqueduct over/through another?  Solution: Run one aqueduct into a huge pipe, like a bridge, OVER the other aqueduct.  Bravo to the engineers who pulled that off! 

Joshua trees by the PCT

 After that “crossing”, the PCT turned to head north, following the aqueduct-in-a-pipe, the Los Angeles Aqueduct.  After weeks of uphills, downhills and rough trail, it was quite relaxing to just walk and talk along a flat dirt road.  And there were lots of the famous Joshua trees!  We’d been warned not to bumpinto them–their sharp pointy leaves have an intense irritant.  Eventually the aqueduct went underground, with a concrete top that looked like a road.  We noticed that the local residents used it exactly for that purpose! 

These folks are serious!!??

We had a lot of fun looking at the “houses” as we walked along the “road.”  I guess they don’t worry much about building codes!  The houses were of every design and many obvously “homemade.”  But we didn’t stare too long, because the frequent “No Trespassing” signs were pretty emphatic!  But what a wonderful view these folks have!  The Antelope Valley is wide, with mountains on both sides.  We were heading for the Tehachapis, which in the late afternoon were wearing a topping of clouds.

Around 6:00 pm, we stopped to cook some dinner, while Chris hiked on.  The cooking logistics were “interesting.”  The wind was really blowing now–often in gusts so strong that they made us stagger.  How do you light your tiny alcohol stove and cook up some hot mochas and a big pot of mashed potatoes with bacon and mushroom bits in that kind of situation?  Solution–every now and then along the aqueduct, there is a 2 foot high concrete box for access to the water.  Put your stove and pot on the LEE side of a box, and voila–dinner!  Sadly, these boxes used to be waterholes where PCT hikers had access to aqueduct water, but the openings are now all welded shut.  We had to carry on our backs enough water to last over 16 miles. 

Bill beating the bushes to get rid of Mojave Greens--we hope!

After our very tasty dinner, we headed on for a few more easy miles before dark.  We enjoyed the lovely evening light, which included a sort of “desert alpenglow,” and finally  found a cozy flat spot in the sand off the trail for a comfortable camp.  Bill gave the nearby bushes a good poking and whacking with his stick to make sure there were no snakes!  The sky tonight here in the desert is gorgeous–we can see the Milky Way.  Truly ” The heavens declare the glory of God,” as the Bible says.  And I am VERY grateful that my little “baggie” is safe (it will be at our next resupply) and that we are not having to deal with horrendous desert heat.