Vagabond Scrapbook

a diary of wanderlust from the Pacific Crest Trail
I hiked into Tehatchapi yesterday morning, and ended up road-walking most of the way into town before a driver finally stopped for my thumb. I had a big lunch, resupplied for the next 5 days or so at the grocery store, and then found a hiker with a room to share up the road at Best Western. The next section sounds a bit ominous to me. Temperatures over 100 every day, stretches longer than 20 miles without water, and several thousand feet of climbing too. I’d like to hike the next few days worth of miles at night, but have had difficulty getting my body to shift into that routine when I’ve tried in the past. My plan for the day is to soak in this pool until the burger spot opens for lunch. Yelp has a buy-one/get-one-half-off combo deal for checking in there, so I’ll have a burger and fries for lunch, and then pack out another one for dinner tonight. By early afternoon, I want to be in my tent, on the trail, trying to sleep. I’ll get up at sundown, hopefully well-rested, and hike all night the 25 miles through the wind farms to the next possible water source, where I’ll try again to sleep through the day. The Sierra is so close, but this last stretch of desert is a bit of a hurdle. I wish I did better in the heat. There are so many things on this trail that can slow a person down, and I find all one needs to do to overcome most of them is toughen up and quit complaining; but the heat is different for me. I can’t control it, I can’t push through it, my body just quits no matter how badly my mind wants to move on. I’ve suffered 7 hours of hyperthermia on the climb out of cajon pass, where I could barely move, or talk, or breath, or do anything but sweat until sundown. I fainted on the way down to the KOA before Vasquez rocks. I can’t take it any slower in these sections either - where water sources are so far apart. So night hiking it has to be.

I hiked into Tehatchapi yesterday morning, and ended up road-walking most of the way into town before a driver finally stopped for my thumb. I had a big lunch, resupplied for the next 5 days or so at the grocery store, and then found a hiker with a room to share up the road at Best Western. The next section sounds a bit ominous to me. Temperatures over 100 every day, stretches longer than 20 miles without water, and several thousand feet of climbing too. I’d like to hike the next few days worth of miles at night, but have had difficulty getting my body to shift into that routine when I’ve tried in the past. My plan for the day is to soak in this pool until the burger spot opens for lunch. Yelp has a buy-one/get-one-half-off combo deal for checking in there, so I’ll have a burger and fries for lunch, and then pack out another one for dinner tonight. By early afternoon, I want to be in my tent, on the trail, trying to sleep. I’ll get up at sundown, hopefully well-rested, and hike all night the 25 miles through the wind farms to the next possible water source, where I’ll try again to sleep through the day.

The Sierra is so close, but this last stretch of desert is a bit of a hurdle. I wish I did better in the heat. There are so many things on this trail that can slow a person down, and I find all one needs to do to overcome most of them is toughen up and quit complaining; but the heat is different for me. I can’t control it, I can’t push through it, my body just quits no matter how badly my mind wants to move on. I’ve suffered 7 hours of hyperthermia on the climb out of cajon pass, where I could barely move, or talk, or breath, or do anything but sweat until sundown. I fainted on the way down to the KOA before Vasquez rocks. I can’t take it any slower in these sections either - where water sources are so far apart. So night hiking it has to be.