Author: Marcus

We started on the 42-mile dry stretch, and I thought back to the advice my haircutter gave me in Alpine: “You can go a month without food, don’t worry about food. But water…”

You’d think such a dry trail would be devoid of life, but there are many desert-adapted plants and animals that can go quite some time between drinks. Rather than the rolling sand dunes and saborro cactuses that people tend to expect in the desert, there were many trees and flowing plants that ignored my haircutter’s advice.

As trail angel Siri had said, there was a large water cache at mile 615, making this desert much easier on us than on the dessicated flowers. But, as luck would have it, just as we were finishing filling up our water reserves, Siri’s familiar grey SUV pulled up. He gave us crisp, cold Pepsi and snacks, and we chatted about the conveniences of hut hiking, such as they have in Norway.

Past 615, it got drier and more tumbleweed-heavy, conforming to a desert stereotype.

Even way out here, though there was evidence of human activity, in the form of an abandoned gold mine. I stood on the edge and looked in, and couldn’t see the bottom. But, with appropriate settings on my camera, i could see to the bottom..

Between the two shafts, somebody had taken the time to abandon a school bus out here.

In the distance, there was an abandoned truck downhill. Further uphill, there was an abandoned ’60s Cadillac.

Further down the trail, we reached mile 630, a road crossing with the next water cache. About a dozen hikers were camped here, so they’d have access to water all night. We set up here too. And why not? The sun was setting over the mountains westward.

We got started late today. We needed to plan for a 42.5 mile waterless stretch that would start tomorrow.

The trail today was pretty ordinary: Rolling hills of desert shrubs, grasses, and succulents, with a few pine trees and long views.

We’d been noticing things that looked like balloons attached to power lines.

We guessed they were probably there to make the power lines more visible to aircraft. We had speculated on what they were made of, and what they looked like up close.

We went through an area that had burned, and that re-introduced us to an old friend:

We also passed the 600 mile marker.

The heat was strong, but there were two springs on the trail today. The first was Robin Bird Spring, which had a veritable colony of hikers resting near it, enjoying the easy access to water. I’d run out of water a few miles early, and eagerly drank a liter as soon as I could treat it.

After filling up, we headed out, and almost immediately crossed a dirt road with a van on it. The van contained a trail angel named Siri. We chatted with him about the hiking trails of his native Norway, and he gave me an Orange Fanta and some Oreos. He also mentioned that there were large water caches at miles 615 and 630, which would make the coming miles much more manageable.

After another dry stretch of trail, we made it to our destination for the night, Landers Camp, which was a campsite with a spring nearby. The spring flowed fast with cool, clear water, and tasted delicious. I filled up to my maximum capacity (6 liters), and didn’t look forward to carrying all that weight up the desert hills tomorrow.

The campground was an overused drive-in site, but tonight there were only a few PCT hikers and nobody else. It was quiet, and we were able to get good rest.

The only signs of overuse near us were piles of shotgun shells, the remains of a blown-up mannequin, a sombrero, and cans of grape soda. Which sounds like quite a birthday party.

We went to sleep, to start the long dry stretch tomorrow.

Some pictures of today’s trail:

We’d had a nice time in Tehachapi. We saw the ostrich farm (Elizabeth wants to farm ostriches now). We’d seen the brewery (Honey Wagon Brewing. It seems to specialize in sour beers and flavored barleywimes. Elizabeth liked the hazelnut and the chocolate barlrywines. I wasn’t a fan, the coffee barleywine tasted like boozy Tootsie Rolls). We’d even seen Bakersfield and the Borax Pit. It was now time to get back to hiking.

We started where we’d left off, at Tehachapi Willow Road. But today, we had a belly full of town food and coffee, two days rest, and… No backpacks.

We hiked a fast 8 miles to highway 58, where Elizabeth’s boyfriend drove our packs to us (our packs, and ice cream).

With our packs back, we set off across Highway 58, and were on the trail for real again.

On the trail register box just across 58, someone had written “Cheryl Strayed was here ’98”. My understanding is that she did start here…. But isn’t that the wrong year? (Not to mention that the register box probably wasn’t that old).

The trail paralleled the highway for a while, and we saw some interesting things.

The next section of the trail had been destroyed by a mud slide. As it happened, earthmovers were at work as we walked by. They waved as we scrambled out of the way.

The trail from then on was ordinary. It was hot (about 95), but breezy. And there were more windmills.

Up here, it got windy. Really windy, the kind of wind that makes you think they should put a wind farm here.

Golden Oaks Spring was the only reliable water for a long stretch – 25 miles before, 18 after. It ran slow. The trough below the spring pipe was full of algae and tadpoles. There was a long line of hikers waiting their turn for the fresh spring water from the pipe. To keep things moving, I just scooped mine from the trough. Pre-filtering through a bandana and filtering with a Sawyer Squeeze turned the tadpole-filled pond scum into perfectly good-tasting water. (I mention this because I’ve never seen anyone else pre-filter on the PCT. IMO it should be a more popular technique.)

In the hour we were there, nobody else took water from the trough.

Since the pond area was crowded, we moved on, hoping there’d be a good campsite coming up. As it happened, there was a terrific site a couple miles ahead, with a view of the sunset, and not too much turbine noise. We made camp, and had a good night’s sleep.

Some pictures of today’s trail follow. I’m thinking of including a few pictures like this every day: