Month: April 2017

PCT mile 454.2 to 471.42

I asked a few people at Hiker Heaven about the Red-Legged Frog Trail Alternate– Nobody did it: many because they missed it but a fai number because it is a a long dry up-and-down. I feel better about modding it 

Last night while I was publishing blog posts some of the crew was piled in in the trailer watching “Petes Dragon”, while a hiker “BeerMuffin” was cooking three tri-top steaks on the grill. The steaks came out fantastic.
I heard a Great Horned Owl last night and remembered that I spooked one into flight yesterday on my way down to Hwy 14. I was also awakened by the neighborhood dogs that started barking all of a sudden. A few minutes later I found out why: I heard coyotes yipping nearby and others farther off replying. It took a while for the dogs to calm down. Then the roosters started crowing. Then the PCTers started packing up — lots if zipper sounds! I was thinking of taking a zero day and sleeping in but that’s not happening. Sunrise was nice though.
BTW, Here’s a view of the Hikers Heaven sleeping area.

I realized my sun hat was missing – I thought I left it with my pack but it was not there. I then worried that it had been blown away in a he strong gusts we had yesterday afternoon, so I searched the yard to no avail. I resigned myself to having to go to town to find a replacement and went back to my tent to check one last time – under the sleeping bag, under the pad and then under the tent.. and there it was sandwiched between the groundcloth and the tent. Yay!

While BeerMuffin was cooking scrambled eggs (18 of them), with a pound of sausage, mushrooms, spinach and cheese, I went to find Santas Helper because he knows how to operate the sewing machine.  

These things are a mystery to me. He made it look so simple and it looked great — from the top… but when he pulled it out it ha a bunch of long loops of thread dangling from the other side, like fur. We tried cleaning out and rethreading the bobbin, but no luck. By a he time I got my pants back on breakfast had been devoured. Oh well I have food and I did score some fresh coffee.  

I also was able to get maps for the next section thanks to our host, so I started thinking maybe I should hike today after all. It feels guilty to just hang out, so I paced up and hit the trail — my latest start yet 9:30 am.

The trail out passed through the rest of Agua Dulce that I not yet walked through. I saw an interesting lawn ornament.

And a street with an awesome name.

And then the trail returned to the wilderness.

I saw a great view of Lake Hughes.

And a good view of Edward’s Air Force Base

I caught up to Medic and we came across two rattlesnakes – the first was at Bear Springs 

​The second one we ran into – almost literally!  Medic was in the lead and then all of a sudden he jumped up on a rock two feet up from the trail exclaiming “Scheisse!!!” (He’s from the German-speaking part of Switzerland) and pointed his poles at the base of a bush across the trail.  There was a big Mojave Rattler just hanging out that did not see us.  Medic had stepped within 2 feet of him/her.  I have a video of him/her but I am unable to upload it to my blog 😦

The flowers were once again pretty nice.

I am still impressed by the size of the Wild Cucumber and the Miners Lettuce.

And the trail on the north side of the mountains was beautiful

I found a nice spot to camp, although a bit exposed, but it was a pretty night.

Thanks for reading!