Woke to this

The Third Circle

The wind just never stops man. I feel like I’m in one of the circles of Hell. F@#$ this wind. F#$% this desert. I’m sick of all this burned out terrain.

Packed my wet sleeping bag, did all my morning stretches, and bugged out. It was 7 miles to Walker Pass. Most folks hitch into Lake Isabella for a day, but I plan to push through.

For the last 5 days, I’ve been really missing my hiking bubble. While I never really hooked up with a group, I have been hiking among the same group of people. I miss them. Bam Bam, Joe Dirt, Trash Panda, Hiker Daddy, Manny Pack, and all the rest. Not sure what to call this. Bubble-Displacement? Bubble-Envy?

I’ve been checking the trail registers to see how far my group is ahead of me. Started out I was 6 days behind. I’ve been making up some time. If I skip the Isabella stop, I’ll be 4 days back. One positive is that I’ve noticed Bottom (one of my favorite German dudes) is only a few days ahead of me. Maybe I’ll catch them in Kennedy.

Anyway, made Walker at 9:30. Trail angels have been busy here. They left us a ton of sodas in ice chests, a dozen loaves of bread (almost expired, who cares), Nutella, and peanut butter. Ran into a nice group of folks hiking together: Land Mammal, Cake, twin girls named Rise and Shine (heh), and Snakebite. Sinatra rolled up to join in. We all hung out together for a couple hours picking through the snacks.

Hikers keep rolling in and there are angels shuttling in more goodies. Donuts!!! Later Land Mammal turns up with pizzas for his group and I manage to yogi a couple slices.

Then my old buddies Zach (Sizzle) and Austin (Seabiscuit) show up! Finally some faces I recognize. We spend some time catching up. They are now hiking with two gals, one Danish and the other Dutch. They are full of stories. One of them is that they took a zero at some town, visited a thrift store and bought a vcr/tv combo + the lord of the rings trilogy on VCR tape for $20. They watched one or two of them, then left the lot at the hotel. Funny dudes.

I’m looking at my meager food bag and finding that I’m running short. Got a couple mountain house meals, some candy bars, a tuna packet, some instant oatmeal, and a single serving of peanut butter to last me for 3 days and 50 miles.

Back on the trail around 12:30 for some climbing. 5k to 7.5k over 7 miles. Back up in the trees and mostly protected from the wind. It was a pleasant section.

Seabiscuit and I hiked together for a while. Ran into Jan (a german dude) staring at the owen valley below. Said it reminded him of Germany. Dunno, all I saw was brown misery. Guess the guy is getting homesick.

After that it was back down to 5.5k to Joshua Tree Spring at mile 664. Nice and protected. Plenty of water. Zach’s crew was camped in the heavily wooded area next to the creek.

I threw my pack down in a potential tent site and walked down to chat with the crew. While we were chatting it dawned on me that one gal’s voice was not matching any of the participants. Turns out it was the Dutch girl….she was 30 feet above me in a tree. Hmm… To each their own, I suppose.

Anyway, I climbed back up the hill to setup and saw ants covering my bag. Bad spot. Brushed them off and setup a few hundred yards away by myself. Finally a good night’s sleep.

Dusted off the sleeping bag and packed the ground sheet after a couple hours of sleep. Back on the trail at 7:30.

 

This wind just never stops. I really, really hate it. Sand keeps pelting me in the face.

The Windy, Sucky, Desert

I ate my last pop tart on the go, then started feeding on a family size bag of peanut M and M’s. Passed a couple hiking together after a little chat. They caught up with me a couple miles later when I was taking a break. Said they have been finding peanut M&M’s on the trail which they were picking up and eating. Turns out I was leaking a slow dribble. 🙂

Woke up around 3:30 for the next segment. Given the boost from last night, I figured I could take down some big miles. Hit the water cache for a reload and ran into Indigo (the tree counting gal) and Kara again. Sinatra was there stocking up on free food. Some other gal rolled up, sat down in the dirt, and stuck her face into a single serving Nutella cup that our trail angel left us.

Next came a mega climb from 5.3 to 7k over 3 miles. The youngsters passed me on the way up. I’m getting used to that. After this climb I was rewarded with mile after mile of burned out terrain. Used to be a nice forest here. Now it is a bush filled sadness.

This wind will just not stop. I got on some dirt road and started scouting for a camp spot around 8pm. Found some hikers cowboying it in a dismal spot. Moved on. By 9 I was getting a little desperate and settled on a spot under a lone tree around mile 642.

Stopped, and started setting up the tent in this nasty wind. Lost a tent stake when the wind tore the tent out of my hand. Finally got it up. Blew up my air matress, pillow, took off shoes, changed into my sleep clothes and buttoned up.

Laying there the wind is relentless. I can hear the tree crackling. For some reason, the wind is whipping around and hitting my tent violently from opposite sides every 30 seconds to a minute. First it blows from the left and the sides deform to hit me in the face. Then the other side which deforms and hits me in the back of the head. Face…Head….Face….Head…. Screw this.

At 10:30 I reversed the whole process. Deflate the mattress, pillow, change back into hiking clothes, put on my shoes. Take the tent down, put on my puffy, look around for my missing tent stake (never found), pack everything up into my bag, throw a rock at a couple kangaroo mice who I have decided to blame for this mess. I turned my tracker back on and started walking.

Left the dirt road and got back on the trail. I was stumbling around, super tired. Finally I got on the East side of a hill which was blocking some of the wind. Kept looking for spots, but nothing good. Around midnight I finally found a narrow spot that was semi-level between some bushes. Threw down my ground sheet, pad, and fell asleep in my bag.

I figure I’m camping around mile 645. That makes it a ~20 mile day, so I guess that’s good. I need to get back into sync tomorrow. Will this desert shit ever end?

Woke this morning still feeling dehydrated. Most of the folks are packing up and leaving to get some miles in before the heat. I decided to lounge around today near the water and get my mojo back. I’m not leaving until there is no trace of yellow in my piss.

Washed my clothes in the stream and hung them out to dry. Setup my solar panel and charged all my bats. Grabbed my pad and spent the morning blogging while watching hikers trickling in. Went from a couple people to 30 by 11:00. All were laying around for the day in two clumps.

 

Hung out with Thirsty Detour for a big chunk of the day. He’s an actuary from Salt Lake. He is averaging 15’s, so I probably won’t see him much after this. I think the Camels he is smoking might have something to do with the mileage numbers 🙂

While we were chatting, the sick dude from a couple days ago showed up to chat. Apparently he had setup yesterday around the same time as me, but has been laying in his tent all day. His name is Payless. He told me that every time he thinks he’s feeling better he loads up, gets a few steps in, then barfs. He’s a young, slim, fit kid. Not much fat reserves.

Thirsty and I felt bad for him. Payless thought maybe some food with lots of fiber might help. Thirsty dug into his pack and found a nutrition bar. I just threw him my food bag and said to pick out anything he wanted. He ended up taking a couple granola bars and all my trail mix (bunch of nuts and stuff). Fine by me, that mix sucked anyway.

Plenty of hiker sympathy, but nobody wanted him to be too close to him. He must have already picked up on that, because his tent was setup alone far from the group. He wondered back to his isolation chamber and went to sleep. Later I wondered by his tent and saw a gigantic rattler slithering a few feet from it. Must have been 5 feet long. That got him a little excited. Poor guy can’t get a break.

By 3, I was feeling the urge to get on the trail.  I’m pissing clear, potable water.  I should bottle this stuff!

I’m sick of this heat. I’m sick of all this wind. I’m REALLY sick of the desert. I’ve been hiking the desert on and off for 6 weeks and enough is enough. Decided that I’m going to rock the trail tonight.

I wrapped up my right leg in a new compression bandage using some tips from a guy with a similar problem. Picked up my pack, said my goodbyes, and clocked in at precisely 4:00. I’m hiking second shift tonight and there is plenty of overtime available.

SECOND SHIFT
I left with 5.5 liters of water, so I’m back to a 40 pound carry. The temp was 80 and dropping. I’m feeling pretty good.

There was some small climbing up to about 6.9k. In the tree line so the trail was pleasant. There are some streams during the 6 to 8 mile stretch before the decent into desert misery.

It was nice to actually see more than a trickle of water. I’m water loading as I walked sucking down 2 liters in 6 miles. I refilled at one of the stream crossings.

 

Stopped for some dinner at 7 at a camp site. Most folks are setting up, I’m going to keep moving.

Trails continued to be nice for a few more miles.

It was cool walking into the dusk. As the sun was setting to the West, the moon was rising to the Southeast. Looked like a full Moon.

Crossed some burn then headed downhill. The few unburned trees began to disappear around 11. Had my headlamp on, but only needed to use it occasionally. Most of the time I was just hiking by moonlight. Had the headphones blasting music from my play list. Then it happened.

Werewolves of London starting playing.

Looked into the sky and saw a full Moon…..

And let out a long howl….

…..and Salty J was transformed.

The rest of the night was a blur. Hiking by moonlight until 4 am through crazy 25 mile/hr winds with nasty gusts to 40. Sand blowing everywhere. No shelter, even on the lee side of the hills. Passing hikers cowboy camped in sad little piles trying to get shelter from the wind. None of this bothered the Wolf.

Sleep came about 4am.   Woke up a few hours later at 7am laying on a ground sheet under a Joshua Tree with my sleeping bag covered in a sand. There were some instant coffee packets and snickers bars missing from my food bag.

No hikers were harmed during this episode, but a few may have had their tents peed on. I’m pretty sure the Wolf peed on my left shoe during a particularly bad gust of wind.

Did 25 miles that night (mile 627). I’m finally back in the groove!

By the time I got out of my tent, Mayo had left and the other 2 folks were packing up. I spent some extra time doing stretches and, after the last one left, found a nice vista for a morning constitution.  

We camped around mile 587 last night. Didn’t have much of an objective today, just wanted to make the next water and see what else I could do. Unfortunately it turned out to be a rough day.

Started at about 5k feet and the trail is generally a long exposed mild upward climb for a while. These loud windmills seem to never go away. There are not that many of them, it is just that the trail seems to keep coming back to the same area. Had to blast the headphones to get that grinding sound out of my head.

Before Hamp Williams Pass at around 594, the trail turned vicious. Steep, exposed climb up to 5.8, down to the Pass, then another slog up to 6.2k at 597.5. I stopped for a some brunch at 10:30 with a couple of folks (Pinata and Sour Straws). Temp on my thermometer was 92 and climbing. By the time I reached the second peak, I was covered in sweat and could not keep up on the water intake. Shin splint on the right leg was killing me from the brief down hills.

Time for a change in tactics. Around noon, I found a nice shady spot under a tree, threw down my pad and went to sleep.

It is hard to describe water anxiety when the temps are pushing 100 degrees. Middle of the day, Out of water, leg hurting, still carrying at least 35 pounds, and relief is 4 miles away. Only solution is to reach down and grab some grit.

If I had the water, I’d have stayed longer. By this point I was down to 1 liter and getting worried. Still another 4 or 5 miles to Robin Bird Spring. So, back on the trail.

The trail joins some crappy dirt road to a private residence. There are lots of “No Trespassing” and “No Water” signs next to the structures here. I expected to see some bearded guy with a shotgun standing guard. Didn’t see a single hiker and pulled the last water from my bladder 2 miles from the spring. No love in this stretch.

Reached Robin Bird around 3:30. I’m pissing dark yellow and I’m super dehydrated. Bunch of hikers laying around, some of whom are packing up to do some late hiking. Shade and water. Paradise.

I setup my tent and then spent the rest of the day drinking, eating, and sleeping. I pounded at least 4 liters before nightfall. Was dozing in my tent when a couple and another dude setup next to me. The couple wanted to start a fire. The dude was like “I think that is a really bad idea…the wind is going to blow embers into our tents”. It went back and forth for a while but I figured he was going to win the argument, so I went back to sleep. There was no fire thankfully.

I did a pathetic ~14 miles today. Need a better plan tomorrow.