To PCT mile 517.6 (stats here).
Despite the acorns and other falling stuff from the oaks, and the howling wind, I managed to sleep well. The ground was soft and even, and there were no other sounds except the natures. These things play a huge role.
I've now developed a routine to ignore the alarm. It will be extremely hard to break this routine. I got up a bit past 5am and was up and moving 5:30am. This was a bit late if I would want to make it to Hiker Town and still have enough time to do the orderings and visit the store there.Therefore in the beginning I kept a decent pace and easily covered 10 miles by 9:20am.
I skipped some water sources that were not on the trail. I also delayed keeping my first break. I've now stupidly switched to behavior that a real proper break comes after 10 miles, not 5. Regarding my feet, I should stick with the 5. This time some misreading of the map and lack of suitable spot for break resulted that I took a break after 13 miles.
The water sources were scarce today. There was a cistern, but the water did not look good and people had commented online that it might not be good. The day was very hot and I was running uncharactestically low with water, only about a liter. And all of it hot. Drinking hot water is not that nice. Luckily the second cistern looked good enough, and somebody had devised means to get it putting together a stick, half a bottle and some rope.
I've developed a blister to my little toe. I decided to puncture it while having a break even as the conditions were not as sterile as one would hope. Walking in the heat with a blister is not fun either. During the same break, nature called. Starting to finally put the hemp protein powder to my porridge has done the trick, and the stuff to bury in a cathole was green as grass.
I hiked through the hot day, only taking one bigger and two smaller breaks. The pace in the end was not the best, and small ascends were quite demanding. I needed to stop in shady places few times in order to cope. I finally managed to listen Wool to its end, and need to select now a new audio book to consume. I don't find listening books that easy during hiking. I find it hard to concentrate.
The day was weird. I did not see anyone during hiking. No other hikers, nobody. No roads or settlements. Until the very end, when I arrived to Hiker Town. The place was weird, styled as an old western town. You could occupy a house there for a night, for 10 dollars. I decided immediately to cowboy camp. You could loan a car and drive to town to resupply, but my Finnish driving license was no good for the owner, Richard, who has the intention to build a shopping center to the place. He is also the acting mayor of the small town and has a hard to grasp humour. He did give me a ride to the town shop and back. While doing that, we ended up checking the construction of his another propery, and I needed to help carry some buckets.
I ended up buying, surprise surprise, too much food. Only corn tortillas and peanutbutter, with few bars and a bag of nuts. But that was too much as I really did not need anything. I just did not do an inventory before going to shop, which one should always do. Also, corn tortillas are inferior to wheat tortillas. The taste bad and fall apart. I also bought a veggie hamburger from the store acting as a grill. It was okaye.
All this meant that when I started writing the blog, it was already almost dark. I hastily set up my camp and thought that I should order the stuff from Amazon before going to bed. But then again, the next day there would be the notorious LA Aquaduct section, and one would do good to start as early as possible. I was lazy, and did not do the order, just put my earplugs on because of the nearby highway, and hit the sack.
Despite the acorns and other falling stuff from the oaks, and the howling wind, I managed to sleep well. The ground was soft and even, and there were no other sounds except the natures. These things play a huge role.
I've now developed a routine to ignore the alarm. It will be extremely hard to break this routine. I got up a bit past 5am and was up and moving 5:30am. This was a bit late if I would want to make it to Hiker Town and still have enough time to do the orderings and visit the store there.Therefore in the beginning I kept a decent pace and easily covered 10 miles by 9:20am.
 |
| Looks sketchy but the water was fine! |
I skipped some water sources that were not on the trail. I also delayed keeping my first break. I've now stupidly switched to behavior that a real proper break comes after 10 miles, not 5. Regarding my feet, I should stick with the 5. This time some misreading of the map and lack of suitable spot for break resulted that I took a break after 13 miles.
The water sources were scarce today. There was a cistern, but the water did not look good and people had commented online that it might not be good. The day was very hot and I was running uncharactestically low with water, only about a liter. And all of it hot. Drinking hot water is not that nice. Luckily the second cistern looked good enough, and somebody had devised means to get it putting together a stick, half a bottle and some rope.
 |
| It seems the moron in the pic has walked now 500 miles on this trip. |
I've developed a blister to my little toe. I decided to puncture it while having a break even as the conditions were not as sterile as one would hope. Walking in the heat with a blister is not fun either. During the same break, nature called. Starting to finally put the hemp protein powder to my porridge has done the trick, and the stuff to bury in a cathole was green as grass.
I hiked through the hot day, only taking one bigger and two smaller breaks. The pace in the end was not the best, and small ascends were quite demanding. I needed to stop in shady places few times in order to cope. I finally managed to listen Wool to its end, and need to select now a new audio book to consume. I don't find listening books that easy during hiking. I find it hard to concentrate.
 |
| The desert starts to be a bit boring, but sometimes the scenery still captivates. |
The day was weird. I did not see anyone during hiking. No other hikers, nobody. No roads or settlements. Until the very end, when I arrived to Hiker Town. The place was weird, styled as an old western town. You could occupy a house there for a night, for 10 dollars. I decided immediately to cowboy camp. You could loan a car and drive to town to resupply, but my Finnish driving license was no good for the owner, Richard, who has the intention to build a shopping center to the place. He is also the acting mayor of the small town and has a hard to grasp humour. He did give me a ride to the town shop and back. While doing that, we ended up checking the construction of his another propery, and I needed to help carry some buckets.
I ended up buying, surprise surprise, too much food. Only corn tortillas and peanutbutter, with few bars and a bag of nuts. But that was too much as I really did not need anything. I just did not do an inventory before going to shop, which one should always do. Also, corn tortillas are inferior to wheat tortillas. The taste bad and fall apart. I also bought a veggie hamburger from the store acting as a grill. It was okaye.
All this meant that when I started writing the blog, it was already almost dark. I hastily set up my camp and thought that I should order the stuff from Amazon before going to bed. But then again, the next day there would be the notorious LA Aquaduct section, and one would do good to start as early as possible. I was lazy, and did not do the order, just put my earplugs on because of the nearby highway, and hit the sack.
"somebody had devised means to get it putting together a stick, half a bottle and some rope."
ReplyDeleteThat somebody was me! Thats my shoelace. When I was there there were a ton of bees too.
Ah! Thanks! You literally saved me. That was a hot day and void of water. The bees were still there 😀
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