Miles hiked: 18.8.
The desert was merciful today. I woke and did he last of my packing then stepped out of the hotel room into an overcast, cool morning. I caught a bus around 6:20 which delivered me to the desolate freeway overpass where the PCT crosses Hwy 58. The first few miles were right along the freeway, not exactly glamorous hiking with semi trucks and early commuters racing by, but at least there were a couple trains to watch. Then began a climb up through more dry junipers and Joshua trees and crumbling dead bushes and beautifully colored rocks and cliff faces and outcroppings. My goal for today was to take it slow; seems like every time I thing I can hike fast some body part puts up a protest. I don't have to hike fast to get good daily mileage, especially with weather like today's. I took a couple rests during the 2000 foot, 6ish mile climb, first to call Libby with what may be the last cell signal I'll have for a few weeks, and also just to sit and eat and enjoy the view out over the cloud-darkened desert.
The ridge I was climbing narrowed to a knife edge with steep rugged canyons on either side, then widened and flattened into broad parks of juniper, pinyon and sage. I was feeling the same first day out of town loneliness and homesickness, and for much of the morning I just sort of plodded along more in my own head than aware of where I was walking. The scenery was as if played on a screen while I stood in a dark room.
It turned out I was also pretty tired, and ended up stopping at 11 and sleeping for almost an hour under a juniper, umbrella over my upper body and rain jacket wrapped around my legs to keep off the occasional sprinkle. I woke and had a snack and shook a bunch of ants off my hat and kept going. I've come to accept these lonely periods as an inevitable part of the trip, and I am slowly learning to take them as they come and patiently let them pass.
It continued sprinkling on and off all day, and while at times it was a little muggy, the temperature was excellent for hiking all day. This was a huge relief because this section can apparently be brutally hot and the water sources are far apart. The trail continued following the pinyon/juniper ridge as it undulated north, broken here and there by fat spires of rock jutting upward, and winding around steep side canyons and sub-ridges.
I was alone and didn't see other hikers for most of the day. Apparently a few passed me when I was asleep, and I saw a few far off up the trail a couple times. but I didn't talk to anyone until I got to Golden Oak Spring at trail mile 583.3. Here I met up with some hikers I recognized but didn't know yet: Josh, xxx, Jaws, Bee Keeper, and another whose name I didn't get. The spring was great. Apparently it was pretty tough to get water here earlier in the year, but some trail volunteers have recently put in a lot of work and there was plenty of water in a cement trough and good flow coming out of a pipe. Unfortunately, there was a huge pile of animal-scattered trash there. It was mostly packaging from the sort of stuff thru hikers eat, but the sheer volume of trash made it seem unlikely that it came from hikers. It was as if 4-5 people's whole food bags had been torn into by some critter.
I had some granola dinner because I'm low on fuel and have to do a few no cook dinners this segment. Then I said goodbyes and loaded up 4 more liters for the next long dry stretch and head d out for a few more miles. The trail went through another small wind farm then wrapped around a steep slope before crossing a small saddle with several camp spots. I set up my tarp for the first time since being back on the trail, and around dark it started to actually rain a bit.
Birds:
Common Raven
Western Scrub-jay
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Chukar
Rock Wren
House Finch
Lark Sparrow
Spotted Towhee - fledgling
Northern Mockingbird
Lawrence's Goldfinch
Black-chinned Sparrow
Bushtit
Mourning Dove
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