PCT: Kelso Valley Rd. to Walker Pass

Day 1

We spent the night in Ridgecrest last night, and Angela dropped me off at Kelso Valley Road for a 2 day, 36-mile stretch. It was cold and windy to start, but that didn’t last long. It felt great to be back on trail again. The rhythmic crunch of trail under feet brings back memories and helps relax me almost instantly. Unfortunately, that also didn’t last for long either. My feet both cramped up on me early on, and by the time they were happy, the temperature had climbed, and the wind disappeared. I now found myself in the middle of a 19-mile stretch with almost no shade and only a cache for water.

I pushed through miles and miles of terrain decorated with Joshua Trees, but not much else. The water cache was 15 miles in, and I reached it around 1pm, taking advantage of some large Joshua Trees for shade. I ate lunch and rehydrated before heading out to start the biggest climb of the day. It was hot, and I was slow and downing water like no tomorrow. By the time I reached the top, I realized I had an issue. My Waterboy skills are apparently rusty, and I drank more than planned. This left me with a decision to hike a few more miles and dry camp for the night with less than ideal water or hike another 9 miles to a creek. The creek it was. The wind eventually came back, and evening lengthened the shadows from the trees I’d encountered, so despite being completely exhausted, I managed to push through to the creek and then a campsite shortly after.

Today was a special level of grueling I wasn’t trained for and wasn’t planning on. I ended up hiking 28 miles with over a mile of climb once it was all said and done. As I lay here in the tent, my legs have decided that even rolling over is too much, and I can’t argue. I definitely owe my body for what I made it do today. Tomorrow morning will be a tough start, but I only have 8 miles left, which is mostly downhill.

Day 2

I slept alright last night, and my legs recovered pretty well, all things considered. I was on trail by 6am and made quick work of the remaining 8.5 miles, meeting Angela and the kids at 8:30.

With this in the bag, I’m now only missing a 75mi stretch out of the 1st 1400mi of California. Next up, I’ll be picking up a mix of family and solo miles this summer in Oregon and Washington while we house sit for Matt and Jessi. More on that later.