I wake up at 5 and wander around the hotel. Yesterday I ate 7 tacos from Luna’s Mexicana and a burrito bowl from Chipotle. My stomach today’s in shambles, today is also Easter and 4/20 day. Greenhorn is going to give us a ride to trail at 8:30AM.
It’s 21 miles and 3,000’ elevation gain to Golden Oak Springs and we don’t want to do that water carry mid day. I leave the hotel with 4.5 liters, arguably too much but there’s really never too much if you can carry it comfortably. Drink more and it gets lighter drink less and be dehydrated. I’m trying to stay hydrated, I think being dehydrated is what’s going to get my muscles or joints to fall apart. Definitely will get my mind to fall apart.
Door knocks, it’s Green horn. Tardy, Seven and I jump into Greenhorns mom’s BMW and take the 20 minute trip to the trail head. I got shotgun. As we get out of the car we see two other hikers being dropped off as well. Stumbles and Reaper from Germany. They did the AT last year and are now doing the PCT. We chat for one minute and they blaze off up the trail. They’re fast. Weird comment, all the German hikers I’ve met on trail hike wicked fast. “Must be the German efficiency”-Tardy says…
The trail is entirely up today, it’s a long meandering switchback overlooking the highway and more windmills in the distance. There are no windmills near me right now but there will be later on looking at the map. After 5 miles it’s time for a siesta, I sit down and look forward to crushing my lunch. Fuck I can’t find it. Ugh omg I left it in the hotel fridge. 2.5 days worth of food, I even had frozen grapes I was going to crush in the heat.
I let out six curse words and then laugh about it. The maids living it up tonight. I pivot and eat a melted snickers bar and then an apple. My normal rule is no snickers or chocolate after 10AM. After a little bit and a tick check I’m up and moving again.
Another 10 miles go by and I run into Seven taking in some shade by a big Joshua tree, I’ve been tailing him all day but never caught up. He’s taking his long lunch and avoiding some level 10UV exposure. It’s now 1:30PM and we don’t want to be in the direct sunlight. We sit till 2 and then get moving again.
We roll into the water source around 3:45PM and see Coffee Break, Stumbles and Reaper. Coffee Break got on trail an hour before us by an uber with Long Legs. And wouldn’t ya know it Long Legs is miles ahead. The water source is a spring trough that taste like metal. Yuck.
I look around and grab a semi flat spot to set up my tent. “I’m here tonight.” I tell Seven he can move on without me. He mulls it over, looks at the map and the next camp being 5 miles away and ultimately decides to stay. An hour later Tardy walks in looking ragged, then 4 hours later just before sunset Greenhorn arrived after giving a bunch of rides earlier.
We’re all pushing forward to the next water source tomorrow, which is another 22 mile water carry. Tomorrow’s plan is 4,700 feet of up and 4,000 of down, that’s a lot of up and down for almost nothing in the end. With that in mind, I get into my tent after a lovely sunset and think it’s wise to get up early and beat the heat.
I lecture Tardy about getting all his stuff away from my tent. He’s got bags of food just out and about, and we’re definitely in mouse and bear country. The kid packs so much stuff it’s kindve impressive what he can carry. His ability to calculate macros and make sure he’s eating right is also impressive.
I eventually fall asleep listening to the windmills whipping sound and the smell of Greenhorn smoking a J. Happy 4/20 day my friend, don’t forget to leave cookies out for Snoop Dog.
The Pacific Crest Trail 