- Date: 2023-06-12
- Pct day: 38
- Start: Mile 535
- End: Mile 541
- Distance: 6 miles
- Ascent: 2070 feet
- Descent: 344 feet
- Start name: Cottonwood creek & Faucet
- End name: Tylerhorse Canyon & Tentsite
- Wake up: 08:00
- Start hiking: 12:00
- At camp: 16:30
- In bed: 19:00
- Where I slept: tent
- Shower: no
Key moments
- woke up to the sun blaring in my tent, and the sounds of the creek right next to me, and the sounds of the wind turbines
- I surprisingly didn’t feel super stiff or have really strong pains as much as I felt like I was moving through molasses. Everything felt slow, and an effort.
- I really do need to stretch
- we all started packing up very slowly. Very slowly.
- I wasn’t going to feel ready to start hiking for a little while, so I decided I was just going to take however long I would need to take to get moving.
- I was reminded of my friend Clouds’s quote: every shit on trail feels like an emergency.
- Perhaps too much detail but it was a surreal moment taking a dump amongst a grove of Joshua trees surrounded by the loud sounds of wind turbines. The things you don’t hear about on the PCT
- I said goodbye to the cowboys (Clouds, Tiptoe, and Double Check) as they packed up and left
- I retreated my bag to the shade of a bridge next to the creek and lay down, eating a second and then a third breakfast. I was definitely in need of more calories and sleep.
- A few more hikers appeared, Dragon, and James. We were all pretty stoked about completing the aqueduct, it’s a milestone of the desert. Only 167 miles of the desert to go. That’s still a lot of miles but I want to savour these ones.
- I spent some time watching the water of the creek flow by and reflected on my journey so far. I’ve been rushing, getting caught up in the energy of the trail, and the people I’ve met.
- I value connection with people so highly, but also my connection with myself, and my sense of independence. These things can be in opposition to each other - wanting to be with others and sharing experiences also means you can lose some independence
- But I think I can still honour my values, but what this means is that I don’t need to feel some great strong need to stick with a hiking group the entire time on the trail, or rather I don’t need to feel anxious about finding the right group of people.
- It’s like trying to find the right partner in a relationship, sometimes it feels like you’re searching so hard, to try and find the right person, and then just when you relax and stop trying so hard, you bump into the right person. Sometimes i feel I’ve been looking so hard I have lost sight of what the trail is, and what I can learn.
- I’m surrounded by great people on the trail, and it’s been an enormous gift to get to know them, and to see them ahead of me, behind me, in a town.
- The trail is the family. I’ll relish the opportunities to connect with people but I won’t make connecting with a group for the whole trail an expectation I want to put on myself.
- These thoughts all came to me as I zoned out looking at the creek for 2 hours
- I set out walking at midday and walked through a forest of Joshua Trees- very cool trees. And also enormous wind turbines. I believe the PCT predated the wind farm, and it felt so bizarre to be walking around these enormous pieces of engineering . Also they are loud, but so beautiful to see spinning in the distance.
- The walking felt super hard, I was going slow.
- I resigned myself to just making it to the next campsite with water in 6 miles. An earlier version of me on the trail would have wanted to make more miles, getting caught up in the energy of wanting to get into town early the next day, but I can start to feel the growth. Why not savour a bit more time in the desert?
- The campsite was great, beautiful flowing water and very windy. It was still sunny so I lay down in the shade of a tree and had a chat to another hiker about upcoming water sources.
- Once the sun started to dip behind a hill I could set up my tent in the shade. I passed out for half an hour or more on a 1/8 inch foam mat in my tent. It felt good.
- Nubs appeared, still feeling a bit unwell but in good spirits. We will both get into Tehachapi tomorrow, which is exciting.
- just before I got into my tent I saw two fighter jets fly above, doing some kind of training exercise, breaking the sound barrier it sounded like. If my friend Alana was with me I reckon she could have identified them.
Plan from here
- walk 17 miles to Tehachapi
Animals sighted
- lizards
Gear thoughts
- my Durston tent has some zippers that are getting a bit beaten up and don’t quite work properly - the company said they can repair or swap the tent for me, which is very nice
- A bandana is a nice thing to use to clean all the dirt and grime off my legs
- I really love my feathered friends flicker wide sleeping bag/quilt . It’s nice to have so much room
Physical condition
- slow, but good. Need to stretch and eat more
Thoughts and Observations
Some of the bad things
- I get so very slow today, I’m hoping some good sleep and a lot of food will help me recover for tomorrow
Quotes of the day
- the trail is the family
#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023
