Tentsite (632.0) - Walker Pass Campground (652.5) | Mileage: 20.5 + 1.4 (Running back for sunglasses)

I wake up to the light hitting my face and squint around in a half-asleep half-confused sort of state. I’m not really sure why I woke up, maybe the light or maybe the people in the campsite above us rolling up their sleep stuff and chatting to each other like it’s midday and they’re catching up over coffee?

Regardless, I’m very much awake and I look around for my phone to check the time and find out it’s 5:23am!!!! Which of course makes me think I should un-awake myself and sleep more because while that may be most other thru-hikers morning time, it’s definitely not ours. But. It’s really hard to go back to sleep when one is cowboying and thus fully outside and that outside looks fully like morning and everyone around you is acting like it’s fully morning. So I stir around a bit until my somewhat quiet not so quiet movement noise wakes Maddie up.

And Maddie predictably asks the time and upon hearing the answer tries to roll over and hide back in her sleeping bag. But the people next to us are oh-so-chatty and the light is oh-so-bright, so soon we are both up and moving and packing up so fast since we don’t have a tent and we hit the trail so early (but still later than about 3/4 of the people camping here).

And it’s cool out because it’s so early and we still have our jackets on (though that is short-lived) and all the sudden we hit switchbacks and a massive hill and the fact that we are up early and it’s cold and shady makes it so much more enjoyable than the climbs on prior days. Which makes it go by way faster than normal and soon we are already at the top.

And we have service so we call the Ridgecrest Enterprise to answer some random question they had about our method of payment for the rental car and to see if they will pick us up (as advertised). But alas they do not pick you up outside of Ridgecrest (false advertising). So we have to figure out how to get a hitch from Walker Pass to Ridgecrest. Which normally we would be like no worries we will just hit the road and see what happens and no rush no sweat, but given we have to drive 3.5+ hours to Vegas to make our flight to make our siblings’ graduation, we cannot be late and it would be nice to have a guaranteed ride at a guaranteed time to the Enterprise.

So we walk a bit more and then we get service again and we text some of the people listed on FarOut as trail angels that gives rides. But one of them is out of town and the other charges $100 so that doesn’t work. And the public bus only runs Mon/Wed/Fri and it’s Thursday. So we give up and decide we will just rely on a random hitch after all, hopefully it’s a busy road.

So we carry on walking and we are cruising and it’s still early and we are getting so many miles in, we’re at 7.5 by 9:00 and we decide it’s breakfast time because we woke up so early that we are already seriously hungry.

And we sit in an empty tent site in the trees and eat breakfast which is actually more like lunch because we have another one of the paneer and veggie packs because we’ve been reversing our lunch and breakfast foods on account of how hungry we get in the morning. But then we’re cold so we start moving again and do singalong and I feel happy and fresh and the walking is easy and downhill and it’s so beautiful.

And the miles fly by because we don’t have to do that many today and also because we started early. And we are racing racing to get to the campsite early because then we will have time to chill and catch up on our journals. And I can’t remember if we even stop for lunch or not because we are so zoomy.

And then we are about a mile away from the campground and Maddie is still racing but now it’s making me tired and grumpy. And it’s only 3:00 and all of a sudden I am hungry and tired and even though I was totally on board with the racing I now don’t understand what the rush is to get to the campsite right now since we are just going to sit there once we get there. So I say buddy can we please just sit under this beautiful shady tree and take a break and have a snack and do some journaling because then when we go to do the last mile it will feel fast and easy and fresh. And Maddie is realllllly grumpy at that proposal and sulks at me and grumps but she agrees and we sit down in the shade. Well, Maddie sits in the shade and I sit half in the shade with my back in the sun so the sweat will dry off. And I can tell that Maddie has decided this was in fact a good idea after all and she sits and does not rush at me to keep moving. And I sit and journal and the time goes by and we keep sitting. And then the Italian guys pass us and then Flow and Boone pass us. And then we start to wonder just how many campsites are at this camping area and maybe we should get going because it would be sad if all the good ones are taken.

So we keep walking and then Maddie wants to take a picture so I stand and look at her but my hat is shading my face but mostly I look hotter with it backward so I turn it around. And then we take a bunch of photos and keep going all leisurely like.

And we round the corner and we can see the road now and the campsite should be just up ahead.

And I reach up to my hat brim for my sunglasses to put them on but they aren’t there. And I have a moment of panic and I’m like buddy I lost my sunglasses and I try really hard to think where they went and why they aren’t on my head.

And then I remember when I turned my hat back around for the pictures Maddie was taking. And probably that’s when they fell off. So I sigh and big sigh and start jogging backwards up the trail while Maddie waits in the shade. Thank god we are almost done for the day and we are taking four zeros in Chicago because otherwise I probably would be having a meltdown right now. But as it is, it’s kind of fun to run up the trail without a pack and also because when I run by the hikers they give me big crazy eyes like are you okay or insane why are you running and that’s kind of silly. And I stop and ask them if they’ve seen black sunglasses and of course they haven’t and I’m not sure if they are super unobservant because they’re tired or if when I turned my hat around the glasses flung off super far into the brush and I’ll never find them. So I get a bit sad and panicky again because I hate losing things even though I lose things a decent amount sadly.

And I run and run and jeez we walked farther than I realized. And then I’m tired and also maybe near where I lost the glasses so I slow down to a walk and start scanning the ground. And I walk for a while and I’m starting to get nervous that I won’t find them and what if they are totally lost or what if they got stuck on my pack right now and Maddie is standing next to it and seeing them and not having a way to contact me. And I’m thinking all these thoughts and wondering what I should do next if I can’t find them here when all the sudden I see them perched on a shrubby bush like it’s wearing them, and by the way this bush is literally on the trail so those hikers were blind.

But yay! I have them back! So I pick them up and go jogging back down the trail to Maddie. And now I’m going at a slight downhill and the trail is packed sand dirt and so smooth and has nice banked curves and I feel like I am a rollercoaster and it’s super fun and I think that I would love to trail run here.

And then I’m back at Maddie and sadly I am sweaty again from the running even though I had dried myself off at our prior break.

And we walk the last 0.3 to the campsite and it is not what I expected at all. It looks like the desert still, not some treed oasis like I was expected for some silly reason. And there’s no shade and the sites are all overgrown and there are 2 RV spots and a van is in one and looks like it’s been there forever with stuff spewing out its windows and a vault toilet. And it’s hot. And I feel validated that I had us stop in the pretty shady spot a mile earlier for a while because that was definitely the move.

And also there’s no service anywhere to be found even though we had it the whole rest of the day so hopefully we can get a hitch because we can’t order an Uber.

So we walk around evaluating the spots and finally decide on one that looks like it’s not super overgrown up high on the hill. And then we walk back to the tiny corner of shade we can find near the water cache and huddle in it and make instant potatoes and cut jalapeños into it.

And there is a box of trail magic by the water cache that has some beer and fruit snacks so we have some of those after we finish our instant potatoes dinner.

And as we are sitting there a woman comes over and her name is Abby (diff from the prior Abbys we met, clearly the PCT name of the year) and she is wearing an oversized black coat over another coat over a button-down and is middle-aged and apologetic for interrupting us but clearly really hoping to talk. She says she is going to start the trail from here. She’s been living here for a bit in her tent with a busted zipper, some of her stuff was stolen and it’s expensive to buy new stuff, and she isn’t sure when she will start. And she asks us how the desert was and what we think the Sierras will be like and what gear we will add. But she isn’t sure if she can do the Sierras, she doesn’t have a permit or a bear can or snow equipment. And she apologizes again and again for interrupting us and over-sharing even though we assure her again and again that we do not mind it’s nice to have someone to talk to and she’s sweet and we’re having a good conversation and we have nothing else to be doing. And she did some of the AT a couple years ago so we chat about that too.

And then we start filling up our water from the large jugs that are the cache (maintained by Sergio from Ridgecrest, as we saw on FarOut) which is super cool and nice of him because that is a ton of water and must be a ton of work. And all the sudden there is Sweet Pea walking down the trail!!! Which is so fun and we catch up about the last couple days and it’s really exciting to see him even though we berate him for walking so fast and catching us because now when we head to Chicago he is going to get so far ahead of us.

And we are chatting away and all the sudden Dr. Grant comes walking up. And of course we all chat together too which is also so fun because yay friends. But also sad because we are going to fall behind everyone and be alone.

And Sweet Pea wants to drop his pack because he is tired because he was booking it the last couple days so we show him over to our site and we drop our stuff and start setting up when all the sudden an RV rolls in and we hear other hikers saying free beer! and see them start walking over to the RV.

And even though we are not feeling super social and we already just had beers we figure we should head over to see what’s up. And the RV guy gives us beers and starts chatting all about himself and how he was in town eating Chinese food and he figured he should bring something for all the hikers. And he is a storyteller it seems because we learn all about how he bolted all the cliffs all over this area and he gestures behind him to show the entire valley which he bolted so it could be climbed (is this real? Is that even allowed? It’s protected parkland…) and he tells us about how he climbed Half Dome but then it was bad weather so he had to rescue a bunch of “silly foreign tourists” who wanted to climb it in the bad weather and then they camped somewhere on the way back and he accidentally went to sleep on what he thought was a log but was actually a black bear and then it licked his face and woke him up and he had to relocate to a non-black bear sleep spot (for real this is the story he shared).

And then it started getting dark so we excused ourselves from the unending story barrage and went back to our site and decided to cowboy (again!! We are real PCTers now) because we were feeling too lazy to set up our tent. And also it was a tiny spot and Sweet Pea wouldn’t have fit otherwise. And the sun was setting over the distant mountains which I think are the Sierras and suddenly this ugly ugly humans-razing-nature campsite turned into a beautiful misty mountain-surrounded peaceful sandy patch of nature. The light does crazy things to perceptions of one’s surroundings I guess.

And the stars come out and they are beautiful and the cars stop coming by with their aggro headlights and it’s quiet and I start to fall asleep.

And my last semi-conscious thought before I drift off is that we don’t stack up. Because I’m pretty sure Jesus made it in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights, but we are bailing tomorrow. So I guess we will have to settle for 37 days and nights. Good, but not good enough.

But I think I’m actually excited about Chicago now. I want to see our families, hang out in Hyde Park, hit the climbing gym, shower, relax.

Guess that’s temptation.