Mile #454, Agua Dulce, CA

 
Yesterday, after exiting the San Gabriels and spending a fitful night atop a breezy tuft of chaparral-spotted dirt a few feet from the PCT, I arrived in sleepy “downtown” Agua Dulce.  The PCT goes straight through Agua Dulce, via road walk, which is a rural ranching community just north of Los Angeles.  In the long [...]

Summit of Mt. Baden-Powell

 
It’s a beautiful sunny day atop Mt. Baden-Powell, one of the crowns of the San Gabriels and named after the founder of the Boy Scout movement, Lord Baden-Powell.  The summit is sandy rock dotted with ancient limber pines.  To the north, the Mojave Desert stretches out as a vast, flat, tan-colored blanket striped with roads [...]

Wrightwood, CA

 
Nobody likes getting stuck in town.  Getting stuck usually means being laid over until some needed service or body part agrees to start working for you again.  It can get expensive!  Getting stuck in town often means needing to spring for a few nights in a motel or campground, eating at restaurants and, worst of all, many buddies [...]

Mile #284, Little Bear Springs

I’m glad I stayed in town the extra day.  With town stops, the day I arrive is not as relaxing a as I’d like.  I have to resupply with food and other necessities, get to the post office before it closes, and find a place to stay if I’m not hiking out the same day.  [...]

Big Bear City, CA

 
I’ve decided to take an extra day off in Big Bear since a good group of people whom I hiked with over the first few weeks arrived last night or are arriving today.  I bumped into Tea Tree at breakfast this morning and  so I’ve just moved my stuff up the road from Nature’s Inn [...]

Mile #264, Above Mission Creek

I’m finally getting to the point where I can start making 20 mile days.  Today was about 22 over easy terrain and yesterday was 19 over some of the most challenging terrain I have encountered backpacking.  Most of the 19 miles was uphill as the trail gained about 5,000 feet with minimal shade.  Thankfully, a [...]

Mile #213, Mesa Wind Farm

 
After leaving my shady perch yesterday afternoon, it took about four hours to get down to the bottom, where a few hikers crowded around a water faucet, provided by the Desert Water Agency.  Having run out of water halfway down, the faucet was a heaven-sent gift.  I normally don’t like the taste of water, but [...]

Mile #194, San Jacinto Mountains @ 6,400ft

I’m sitting under the partial shade of a large fir tree, 5,000 feet above baking hot San Gorgonio pass, which separates the San Jacintos from the San Bernadinos and sits on a fault line.  The heat of the pass is known to be a hiker’s nemesis at mid-day, so I’m waiting out the [...]

Mile #151, Palms to Pines Highway

Since I’ve been writing many of these entries in towns or along roadside, you may have the impression that I’ve been bouncing from burger joints to hot springs.  The journey, though, has been far from easy.
 Yesterday I got a good dose of unobstructed, baking desert sun while walking just above Terwilliger Valley.  Lunch was cut [...]

Mile #109, Warner Springs

Warner Springs is a meaningful milestone for many would-be PCT thru-hikers, including myself.  It sits about a mile off the PCT at trail mile #109.6.  Most hikers stop here for a day or two of rest.  Here, they pick up mail drops, and resupply at the mini-mart.  A large portion of the town [...]