Last night our windy campsite just got windier and windier as the predawn hours progressed. Up at 6:30, Nitro and I began our hike at 7:00am. With cold, windy conditions I was bundled up about half way up the remaining 500 foot climb to the top of Skinner when I had to stop to peel off some layers. Once we got over the top, the hiking was gentle downsloping, wooded and very enjoyable. I stopped 3.6 miles down the trail at the road crossing to Yellow Jacket spring to wait for Nitro to catch up. Twenty minutes later she showed up in a threesome with Intruder and Mountain Goat. They all stopped to visit for a few minutes, then all four of us resumed hiking. After a few more minutes the guys stopped for a midmorning snack and I kept going. The trail was perfect, wooded, gently up and down, with perfect temperatures. For well over an hour I got lost in my thoughts and hiked on, not paying any attention to distance, time, or any of the other things that sometimes get in the way of deep thought and introspection. Some free range cows brought me back to focusing on the trail when I approached. They ran at first, down the trail, then stopped and looked as I slowly approached. When I finally got within two feet and they wouldn’t budge, I simply went around them, stepping off the trail to do so.
After 4 miles of beautiful forest, abruptly the landscape became sunny burned remains of a forest and I reached a dirt road. Still feeling great and enjoying the hike, I continued on the dirt road another 2 miles to a seasonal creek across the road, that in normal years is non-existent as a PCT water source. So instead of having to go off trail just .3 miles farther to McIvers spring for water, I stopped for an early lunch at the roadside creek. Just 30 minutes later Nitro, Intruder and Mountain Goad caught up and joined me under the shade of my Jeffrey pine for a lunch and water break. Soon Doodlebug arrived, in good spirits and obviously hiking much better than yesterday in desert heat conditions.
By now Nitro had made a decision to hitchhike with Intruder into Onyx, a small town 18 miles off an upcoming road crossing. Her hiker hunger has really kicked in this week and in the words of Rabbit, “She’s been eating like a pregnant woman.” So while Doodlebug ate her lunch, Intruder, Mountain Goat and Nitro and I resumed hiking, bent on doing 7.5 miles quickly so Nitro and Intruder could hitch in and back by dinner time, with snacks and sodas. We set a quick pace and chatted as we walked. Fortunately the first 3 miles were generally flat with just a few undulations of 100 foot changes in elevation. The next 4 ½ miles were a gentle descent. Despite afternoon heat, we made great time dropping 1700 feet to Walkers Pass camp ground and made got there just before 3pm.
Nitro took my food and soda order, my food trash, and my journals written since leaving Tehachapi with her to mail for me. She and Intruder walked just a few hundred yards to the paved, two lane highway and the third car picked them up to take them the 17.5 miles to Onyx. Meanwhile, Mountain Goat and I found a shade tree in the empty campground (except for Alyssa and Sage, who were napping at the other end of the campground), and we rested for a bit. I washed my feet, legs, face, shirt, and socks under an outdoor faucet and spent some time journaling.
Doodlebug rolled in and she and Mountain Goat started cooking dinner, so I gave up journaling to satisfy my own hiker hunger. About that time Alyssa and Sage joined us at the picnic table. As my dinner was almost done cooking and I was ready to eat, we heard the sound of an 18 wheeler in the distance braking to a stop. A few seconds later we heard him blow his horn and resume driving. Nitro! Intruder! Success! They appeared, bags of food and soda in hand, so I had a liter of cold coke to go with my shells and cheddar dinner. After we ate, we packed up and Doodlebug, Nitro, Intruder, Mountain Goat and I all began a 2.8 mile evening climb to a ridgetop. Hiking in the long shadows with mountains partially in sun and partially in shade is so gorgeous. It was another perfect evening for a 1000 foot climb out of a low spot with fabulous open views.
When we neared the ridgetop several things happened in rapid succession. I got up to the flattened, narrow ridgetop first. There was a hiker right next to the trail, completely enclosed in his sleeping bag, singing the Lenny Kravitz song, “I want to get away, I want to fly away”. He apparently saw me as I hiked by and we spoke briefly before I began a search for other possible campsites. A few feet farther and I was able to see a spectacular sunset. Immediately after taking a picture and pointing out the sunset to Mountain Goat, Mule (the hiker bedded down beside the trail) pointed up high in the sky. We looked up to see four fighter jets at high altitude tailing a tanker refueling jet, and two of the fighters were in the process of being refueled in mid-air.
By now Doodlebug and Nitro had caught up, and as we were taking in the two events, the earth gave way on the side of the trail and I performed a complete flip off the side of the steep face of the ridge and landed among the rocks. I was completely unscathed except for a light scrape above the left knee and my left hand. After my performance, we hiked another tenth of a mile as dusk approached and found some flat ground to all cowboy camp together. It’s now pitch black, and my fellow campers have all turned off their headlamps for a night’s sleep.
Today was a fabulous hiking day with perfect trail and views and spiritual time and great time with friends, old and new. Oh, here’s an update on my nasty spider bite. WARNING: parental discretion is advised. A couple days ago the swelling was 6 inches in diameter and over the size of a quarter around the bite was hard and raised and was beginning to blister. I decided to pick the small scab where the bite occurred. So then I decided to squeeze the quarter sized area to see if anything would come out. It did! Just like a scene from Alien! All of a sudden, a bunch of creamy, whitish, greenish stuff came oozing out of the entry point of the bite. I mean a big glob came out! It was disgusting. Had the spider laid millions of eggs inside my body? Was I the host for a brood to be later hatched? Anyway, after cleaning myself off, the wound has since begun to reduce at the site of swelling and appears to be on the mend.
So, today’s weather was sunny (surprise, surprise). Low 48, high 88. Today’s mileage: 20.4, cumulative mileage: 654.2. In ten miles we’ll be ¼ of the way through the long distance journey.
