PCT Day 40 - Trail Burritos

We woke Saturday morning later than normal due to late hours and a few Budweiser’s and had pancakes. By 10am we were back on trail. And we got trail magic from Jim! Burritos and Cactus Coolers and fruit!!

The trail is eventually leading us towards the LA Aqueduct, but for now we are hiking on ridges around 4,000 ft and there were no real spectacular views. We hiked 20 miles to the Sawmill Campgrounds. As we rolled in the rain returned. Tomorrow the wind is supposed to be intense with more rain. The predicted high is again in the low 40s so tomorrow may not be too much fun. We are ready for the desert heat!

-Joe

PCT Day 39 - ¡¡¡Casa de Luna!!!!

On Friday we woke up with the tent all wet again and the ground soaked, at least inside was nice and dry and already at 6 AM we could see blue sky’s. We only had a 7 mile hike to Casa de Luna. Casa de Luna is another place like Hiker heaven, where the host invites hikers to stay in her yard and offers taco salad at night and coffee and pancakes in the morning. We want to stay there just to be around all the people we are hiking with and get to know them a little bit more off trail. 

The days miles came easy as it was mostly all down hill along the mountain ridges.

We got to the road to the compound by 11am, but we knew we had to get to the post office in the town on the other side of the lake; Lake Hughes. 

We easily got a hitch to town. James, a follower of Christ, shared his love and devotion for our Savor with us, and also safely delivered us to the post office to receive a package from my ever faithful and loving Godmother, hi Aunt Kathy!

For the ride to Casa De Luna, we grabbed an Uber, it took a long time, there aren’t many Uber’s in Lake Hughes.

As soon as we arrived at the house, we knew right away this was the right choice. The place has a massive forest in the back yard that goes on and on where we can pitch our tents. It was like a maze, weaving around the trees with tents at every twist and turn.

The maze is decorated by painted rocks and old treasures to ensure someone won’t get lost, however I’m sure many do.

Upon arrival we were told of the house rules and were required put on a loaner Hawaiian shirt. There were some couches in the front driveway and in all about 50 people stayed the night. At one point a hiker alum stopped by to seek relief from the pain of losing a friend on trail in 2017. He appreciated meeting and talking with hikers, and provided some trail wisdom along with some reality of the dangers of the trail. It was a sobering reminder that what we are doing can be unsafe at times.

-Madelyn and Joe

PCT Day 38 - Rain Rain go AWAY

We got up around 7 AM, showered, then packed to be out the door by 8:30 AM. Casa de Luna is next at mile 478. We should be there tomorrow. 

Today started out fine at Agua Dulce, we had breakfast where an old man (a local) paid for us. They were all crabby men, but they had a soft heart. By 10 AM we were back on trail, which started out with 2 miles of road walking. The weather was cool, and overcast. No rain in the forecast, but it looked like it could. About 4 miles in we were gaining elevation and the weather turned; thick fog, wind, and then some drizzle that stuck with us all day. There were no views because of the thick fog. We thought about going 14 miles but the tent sites were under massive powerlines that were making lots of noise. We pressed on for three more miles. The note on Guthooks (our hiking app) said the tent sites were 100% worth the extra miles. Well we rolled in at about 5:15 PM and there were so many tents there. We managed to fit our tent under some low trees, but again the bathroom situation is a pain.

We camped with our trail friends Pippin and Saskia, and Roam.

PCT Day 37 - Zero at Hiker Heaven

The one disappointment that comes with camping with a bunch of people is having to pee with manners.

I love camping when we’re the only tent, I can easily exit the tent, do my thing, and return. But with an organized campground, such as Hiker Heaven, it’s harder to go anywhere. You have to walk in the cold dark night to get to the stinky bathrooms.

The town of Agua Dulce is fairly small. It had a few good restaurants, homemade for breakfast, big mouth Pizza and Maria Bonita for Mexican. Almost all town  outings we were with Hawkeye and a couple other hikers Roam and Smiles. The grocer in town sucked. $4.99 for a thing of oatmeal! We drink beer, talked to Hiker alumni such as super vegan, it was a good time. I also someone that I follow on Instagram!

PCT Day 36 - Hiker Heaven

Last night we camped with about 20 other hikers in a horse corral at the north fork ranger station. We walked/limped into camp around 7:30 PM and we were immediately informed of the Ranger giving out hotdogs if we left a two dollar donation. Sweet! We quickly set up our tent and then ran up to the station. Todd Dura is a volunteer who does this every year. He had a bunch of chips, soda, and carrots available for a donation, along with the hot dog. We sat in that ranger station for nearly an hour chatting and devouring our snacks. I was exhausted from the long day, and it was late like 8:30 PM. I think he got the impression that I was only doing the PCT because Joe asked me. Boy is he wrong, I did so much of the prepping and planning, and I am in in love with the PCT. 

We woke up sore but ready to go today, we had 20 miles left to get to hiker heaven. Hiker heaven is a family residence that hosts and welcomes PCT hikers. The stop at Hiker heaven is something most hikers do and gives people a chance to catch up and take a break from the trail with other hikers. The breaks from the hard days are always welcomed- the opportunity to drop your pack, buy a 6 pack, and sit around with friendly faces is a rare opportunity. At Hiker Heaven you’re allowed to camp for as long as necessary- for a donation of course. They offer showers, laundry and place to pitch your tent. The beautiful compound is located about a mile outside the small horse town of Agua Dulce. 

Today was pretty mild, we both got pretty hot actually during our mildly up and down hike. All ridge walking for the most part. Joe and I agreed to hike into the KOA for lunch, about 10 miles in. We read they have a small convenience store and hot coffee for hikers! It was only about 10:30 AM. We hit the trail again about noon, we still had 10 miles left in our day. The rest of the 10, I don’t think we saw another soul! We hiked through Vazquez rocks (where many movies have been shot- Blazing Saddles, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes) which was really neat, and saw a photo shoot with security monitoring. We walked into Agua Dulce and Hiker Heaven at about 6 PM. There were 72 hikers there- a record we were told! 

PCT Day 35 - 24 Miles!

The temperature on top of the mountain and our home for the night dropped below freezing. This was the coldest so far and it made waking up hard because the tent was covered in snow. We have no heater to turn on so we must deal with the conditions, any condition nature throws at us. After Joe cleaned and scraped the ice off the tent we packed up and headed out. You can imagine, it was freezing so the ground held the dusting of snow for another hour or so, then as we descended some it warmed up and quickly melted. I stopped to remove my puffer coat, and suddenly heard a helicopter overhead. Then two helicopters! As we made our miles down the mountain side to Mill Creek, we watched those chopters come back at least seven or eight more times, each time someone buckled into a hanging harness and off they flew. I wanted a ride! (We later learned they were linemen working on the enormous power lines) We descended 2,000 ft to Mill Creek about 7 miles in, we stopped for an early lunch at about 10:30 AM, more importantly we wanted to dry our tent. Also we needed water which we got from a remote fire station up a road. The air was still chilly, but after lunch we did some climbing again. Eventually the clouds disappeared and we could again see everything there was to see. There were so many mountains today both near and far. The Angeles national Forest led us from one mountain to the next by sending us to the valley floor and up again.

We decided early on our mileage should be high because we feel behind – realistically we only have a couple days of food left, so we’d like to make it to Hiker Heaven tomorrow. But that’s still 44 miles away. I tell Joe I’d rather do heavy miles today than tomorrow. Early on we decided to camp around mile 432 but we ended up going 4 extra miles do to the large mountain we had to decline. That put us at our highest mileage yet- 24 miles!

PCT Day 34 - Snow in the Desert?

The weather turned cold last night and we extinguished the fire early because rain drops started to fall. By morning the rain has turned to snow, yes snow in May in the LA County. The snow was enough to provide only a dusting because it was also mixed with cold rain. The morning was frigid and cold and not a great way to start the day. After a lengthy packing up routine we returned to the cold trail. We are still hiking in Angeles National Forest and have been dealing with the cold and wind almost entire time. The sun peaked out briefly during the afternoon and provided a short window, which we took to dry our tent and shell. Thankfully we did because the wind and cold quickly return along with the snow and sleet. The hike today was work and unpleasant due to the conditions. We are hoping tomorrow will be hot and sunny as we deserve a warm hike in frozen SoCal. 

PCT Day 33 - Time for a Campfire

We didn’t sleep too much on the ridge last night as both of our sleeping pads and the threat of bears in the area made it hard to stay asleep. 

Every tree branch that cracked or rustling squirrel was a potential bear and had us uneasy. 

We hiked further away from Baden Powell today and lost elevation before working once again to gain it for another mount, Mt Williamson. We did not spend the extra time to go to the top as it was overcast and would have had limited views. 

We are both feeling tired from yesterday and the lack of sleep so we took the first several miles slow and even stoped to address the holes in our sleeping pads which we hope we repaired. 

After lunch we road walked for 3 miles because the PCT has been closed in the section for a few years due to an endangered yellow tree frog. The detour takes us through a wonderful campground with running water and fire pits. 

We both agreed to take a half-day and regroup and I’m preparing to build a fire and get real sleep tonight.

PCT Day 32 - Baden Powell

After a restful evening in a holistic style lodge, a full resupply, followed by a hiker filled room with another warm bed we were ready to hit the trail again. We started to climb towards Baden Powell in the late afternoon as we wanted to give the snow some time to get slushy since we did not have micro spikes. The peak of Baden Powell is 8 miles from the point we reconnected with the PCT. Throughout the previous days over satisfying food and refreshing beers we had received conflicting information on how intense Baden Powell may or may not be. The general consensus was that it was doable but some thought the spikes necessary and others not. With as much Intel as possible we begin our hike by declining a thousand feet before the trail led us to a parking lot.  On the other side was Baden Powell and 41 switchbacks awaited us. We marched on with dead focus contemplating the challenge ahead. We first encountered snow 2 miles before the peak and it picked up its consistency over the next mile or so. The last 3/4 mile of trail was completely snow-covered and only a single set of well trampled foot prints led to the top. Going through the snow with the incline we faced was only possible because of our trekking polls since we didn’t have the micro spikes. The peak was rewarding as we could see the world from a birds eye view and other smaller peaks from all over SoCal. Also an American flag and a monument for whom the peak is named was present. We hoped the way down might be easier with less snow but it most certainly was not. We hiked through snowy trail for 5 miles, most of it completely covered so we found the footsteps of past hikers and followed them. 

I fell about five times and slid many more. At one point I almost slipped off a ridge, if I had I would had slid for 70 or 80 feet and would have required someone to loan me spikes or an axe to get back up, this definitely made my heart skip a beat or two. As we trailed on the moon rose and the sunset. We camped 5 miles from the peak on the edge of the snow line over looking an LA suburb. With it getting dark we could not risk transversing through another snowy ridge at night. 

What We Eat

The Hiker Diet is not ideal, nor recommended. But man does it make me feel like kid, and tastes pretty darn good. As you can imagine, all our food is processed and preserved. Nothing fresh, or with much color. Everything a kid would love.

We literally eat anything and everything, whenever we want.

Snickers for breakfast, snickers for dinner, so many snickers!

Not long into this adventure I decided we should probably try to fit some greens in somewhere. Enters; Amazing Grass Protein.

Breakfast:
Before - flavored and sweetened instant oatmeal with chocolate carnation and a scoop of peanut butter
Now - Amazing Grass Green Protein with regular oats, a scoop of PB, a packet of instant coffee, and a handful of nuts (20g of protein AND greens)

Snack: anything from a 14g protein clif bar, to trail mix to fruit leather

Lunch:
Before - cold soaked ramen
Now - tortilla, sausage, cheese and olive oil

Snack: anything from a 14g protein clif bar, to trail mix to fruit leather

Dinner:
Cous cous is our favorite with a packet of tuna, spam or salmon
Instant potatoes is our 2nd favorite with a packet of tuna, spam or salmon

Snack: snickers!

Favorite protein bars: Clif, The Complete Cookie, Pro Bar

Extras: propel packets, Emergen C