Miles today: 12.5
Trail miles: 465.5
Elevation: 4169
Spinning on the turntable: CCR: More Gold
Up and down, up and down. That was the theme this week. Up a mountain, down to the valley. Repeat. I don’t mind when it’s a long slow stretch, but summiting and descending each day is challenging.
This morning was a uphill grind of about 2,000 feet over four miles. I started a little later than normal at 8AM and quickly realized that I need to change up my game as we move closer to the desert. I wake up around 5:30 each day and lay quietly until about 6:30. I may just set an alarm for 5AM to get the ball rolling earlier.

Guthooks past Vasquez
The climb was almost fully exposed to the sun with little shade. I had planned for this to be a shorter mileage day, so I took my time and worked on my social game with fellow hikers. I drank about 2 liters of water within four miles, which is a bit much by my normal drinking habits.

Hillside views
I stopped and filled out a trail registry for the first time. (Noelle signed the previous logs for us.) So this was my first.

PCT trail registry
I hung out and looked through previous entries from this year and then prior years. I realized with a jolt that I could find Darwin or Dixie in these pages. I quickly scanned for a few minutes and then gave up. Some folks drew pictures, wrote poems, offered up prayers or wrote silly stuff. I just wrote our names.
I found the log book a little overwhelming. So many lives intersecting in these pages, each with their own story. I kind of wanted to just sit down and read through all the notebooks, but opted to continue hiking.

PCT Trail book
I chatted with a hiker who had the tiniest pack I’ve seen yet. Base weight of five pounds. Five pounds! He was fully loaded with food for seven days of hiking so his weight was 20lbs. On a hot day like today I envy the UL hikers. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, so I’m curious what he has for rain gear. He didn’t even have a sleeping pad. Ouch.

Pointy thing
Anyone know what this is? I asked a couple of hikers, and Noelle, and we don’t know. One of the other hikers said he saw it earlier on the trail. It seemed perfectly placed on the log so I’m not sure if it was imported and discarded via another hiker.

PCT Metal Sign
The trail is full of day hikers who smell so clean and fresh that it’s a little intoxicating to be in their proximity. (Don’t mind me, I’m just getting high from the fresh smell of Downy in your clothes!)

Bees polinating
It’s odd to be out here on my own. In the current bubble that I’m traveling most of the hikers are in their early twenties. Almost everyone is friendly, but, I’m a bit of a fish out of water. I have no “tramily” so I’m floating on the periphery of most groups just a bit. I need to locate the tramilies for introverts, but I read that it’s a very quiet group.
We were traveling along in a older group of hikers for a few days (aged between 50’s and 60’s) but it was a bit of a sausage festival. Too much testosterone and chest thumping for my preference. I prefer a mixture of ages and gender.

Noelle hiking towards me
I was happy to see Noelle hiking up the trail in the afternoon as I was hiking down the trail. We headed back down the trail and went to a nearby Mexican restaurant via the “Pleasure-Way”. Yes, there are benefits to a camper van!
It’s a wild cucumber! Don’t eat it. 🙂
Hi Guys – just wanted to let you know that I’m enjoying your blog – keep up the good work – sounds like you worked out a great solution to continue to experience the trail together – looking forward to following your journey north. Good luck – one step at a time!
Todd
Glad you’re enjoying the blog! We’re also super glad that we found a solution that’s working for us. Thanks for your kind words!
If you put a familiar object in with the unknown thing it would be easier to identify based on scale. The green thing looks like the fruit of a wild cucumber but I don’t know if they grow in the desert. If it is a wild cucumber it is very bitter tasting and toxic.
If you would, Noelle, let me know where you will be parked on Sunday, June 2, I would like to visit with you, a stranger, pretty strange. I can bring some books. I am on a book swap site so I have a shelf of books to swap. They would be surprise books that you may end up enjoying. If not the 2nd than another day that is convenient for your busy schedule. Maybe you will be driving all day. You can drive faster than Steve can walk. One of you posted this is about a week behind where you are. It doesn’t sound like you have gotten to Tehachapi yet since Steve mentioned the desert crossing…………..You can email me or should I leave a phone number?(661-724-xxxx).
How did the work on the van turn out?
Hey S, green spiky item looks like a relative of the Buffalo Bur.