Day 24

PCT mile 411.8 to 436.1 PCT miles 24.3

Elon Musk entertainment, but still the most miserable hike so far!

We woke about 4:30 AM and were packing up when Chris, heart pounding, grabbed Rick’s shoulder and pointed to the sky, “War of the Worlds?, ET ?!, Santa?”. It was dark and only a sliver of a moon. From our knolltop we saw a line of 50 + lights traveling in a line almost evenly spaced at about 30 degrees above the horizon. Continuous. Very unusual sight.

Rick glanced up from his packing up task and said, “Nope. Elon Musk’s satellites.” The satellites were very bright as they silently moved in formation across our view of the sky and then dropped below the horizon to our left. We watched them for 10 minutes. The starlink satellite train was launched the same morning from Ft. Lauderdale. Apparently they are highly visible as they make their way to their final orbit. It was a sight we will never forget.

After that excitement we hiked a hot, overgrown (thorny bushes) trail that was blocked by so many downed trees (past fire), had so much poodle dog bush (photo) and poison oak and absolutely no water — we were on edge all day trying not to infect ourselves by touching the poisonous plants. Gave very little regard to the snakes. Not fun.

We ended the day at a great spot (closed Fire Station) where a trail angel keeps cold sodas and chips, water, chairs and cell phone charging station out for hikers. Nice guy comes up from Albuquerque (volunteers!) every year and stays in a bunk house at the Fire Station and keeps cooler and water cache full. This guy, Ron, made a miserable day of hiking so much better! Trail angels continue to impress us!

Met Jetsetter, Magnet and another guy refueling at the Trail Angel stop. Jetsetter told us about a young woman doing the PCT on horseback. No way either of us would ride a horse on this trail (this section anyway). He said she had to turnaround 15 miles into today’s hike because of downed trees. She carries a Japanese knife to cut small trees, but there were huge dead (fire) trees every couple of miles that required a lot of scrambling. Tough horse! Tough rider!