Day 35, Chase This Light

Part 1, The Desert, Day 35

Chase This Light

Miles: 22.06

PCT Mile: 580.56

It feels so good to be back on the trail. It kind of feels like coming home, even when it sucks. Everything is simpler out here. 

I slept hard last night in that dirty motel room. I slept like 6 good hours, which is a lot for me, though I had horrible nightmares about the trail. In one, I was walking through the shadeless, hot desert and my pack was on fire, but I couldn't put the fire out. My shoes and clothes were melting.... I'll stop there, but I wonder what it means. 

I woke up with butterflies in my stomach. I'm always nervous going from town to the trail, for some reason. I quickly packed up and asked the manager for a ride to the trail for 10 bucks, an offer he'd made me yesterday. It was early and I meant business, so I got it done.

Before I left I saw Chris and Vanessa, the very first two hikers I met this year, back at the El Cajon Transit Station on day 1! This was so cool. I caught up briefly, promising to see them on the trail. I got in the guys car and we were off. This guy was cool, but he drove like a NASCAR driver on angels dust. I was thrilled to back on the trail by 8am. 

More wind turbines... All freakin day with these wind turbines. 

My pack has 8 days of food, 6 liters of water, and should probably be weighed in a truck weigh station. It was heinously heavy. My feet and legs felt pretty good after the break, but this big weight really hurt my shoulder. I know this is probably wrong, but it feels like their is a strain in my back muscle behind my shoulder. It just feels this way, but who needs a back muscle? I have legs! 

The 8 miles to highway 58 were pretty boring. Many hikers cheated and hitched to highway 58, skipping these 8 miles. It's just funner to walk the whole way to Canada, in my opinion.

Here's a bone... It's not mine.

I walked on a road for awhile, crossed the train tracks carefully, and walked up the ramp and over Highway 58. 

A few hikers were here going to Mojave, but I was the only one at the moment going up into the hills. It's 25 miles to the next water spring, so I chugged a liter, and filled up from this water cache:

The wonderful people who left the water also left this neat card:

How nice of them. The trail followed the noisy highway for a few miles. It was hot out, and I could tell it was gonna be a hard few hours here.

The trail climbed up slowly at first into the hot, exposed hills. It would go up 2,000 feet over the next 4 miles.

Here's me not amused by the lack of shade:

I could see the massive Mojave Desert below. It's a beautiful and kind of frightening place.

At this point, I heard a BOOM! A crash so loud that it shook the earth, and I first thought it was thunder, though it was sunny and hot out. It sounded and felt like a sonic boom, and I thought either a meth lab exploded, or a plane crashed. Sure enough, way out in the middle of the desert was a black smoke plume, going up into the sky. It's hard to see in the pic but look closely:

Something exploded. It was crazy. I have no idea what happened, but I heard and felt it from miles away. Anyways, I found this awesome tree cave and sat there in the shade and ate some food.

I'm trying to take more breaks, so this was nice. I think my feet will thank me. 

I kept going up. 

I really enjoyed and appreciated this tree:

As I reached the top, the terrain started turning greener, with more plants.

It's crazy how the landscape changes from one side of the mountain to the other. I wasn't sad to see the desert/highway scenery go away for awhile. It was still hot though.

The trail followed this dirt road for 4 miles. I saw more good camp spots today than I've ever seen in one day, but I hadn't gone enough miles today to enjoy any of them. I was trying to get at least 20 miles today. 

I took another break when my feet started to ache, and it was nice to lay in the sun since there was an afternoon breeze.

Oh good.... More wind turbines.

I was tired, but this huge dark cloud was on the horizon, and it started blocking out the sun light. Instead of settling and camping in the shade, I kept trying to out hike the cloud so I could be in the sun.

I decided to camp 2 miles before the spring, since I have 1.5 liters of water. The sun isn't showing, and I'm camped under a wind turbine, so I have the gentle sound of an industrial engine rocking me to sleep like a horrific lullaby. 

I did make ramen for dinner, which is still good. My tent is slanting downhill, so I'm gonna go out and work on this. It's great to be back on the trail, but rain is on the way. Bring it on.