Day 9 – Mile 129.2 to 149.9

MM: 149.8

Trail Miles: 20.7

Miles Walked: 20.9

Camping on exposed ridges it not something my tent cares to do. Twice in the night, when the winds picked up, one of my main tent stakes came undone and half the tent collapsed on me. It’s a super light weight tent – made from Dyneema Cuben Fiber, the same stuff sail boat sails are made from. When the wind gusts up, my tent sounds like I’m on a sailboat. Between the noise and the tent collapsing, I didn’t get a lot of sleep yet still managed to oversleep my alarm. The others were already packed and ready to go by time I woke up at 0540. They helped me pack up my tent and we hustled to get down out of the winds. 0615

We hiked about 4 miles then stopped to cook breakfast. It was already getting warm by 0800.

We weren’t the only ones impacted by the heat. About 0930, Medicine Woman, Wanderer and I heard an unmistakable rattling sound. MW & W were about 10 ft ahead of me. Slightly hidden in a shrubs shade, no more than 18 inches off trail was a coiled up Rattlesnake. We didn’t think Rsnakes would be sheltering in the shade so early in the day. It scared the bejeezus out of Wanderer who came running back towards me. We snapped photos while we waited for it to move on. The rest of the day, with each retelling, the snake and it’s fangs would get bigger, to the point where eventually Medicine Woman was throwing the snake at Wanderer. We had some fun with it.

Today was a dry and waterless stretch. The only water available for 25 miles was at two water caches. We stopped at the first, tanked up some and ate lunch. There were a few other hikers hunkering down in what little shade there was. One group of 3 foreign hikers was particularly entertaining. They were blasting an eclectic array of music in multiple languages and singing at the top of their lungs.

We stopped at the second water cache just a few miles later and tanked up again for the night and tomorrow. Why carry extra water weight when you don’t have too?

The PCT goes through a lot of privately owned land. The second cache was on property owned by Trail Angel Mary. It was dubbed Muir Woods, after John Muir the American Adventurer. There was an outhouse and shower, a clothesline and buckets for laundry, 2 picnic tables with an awning/shade in addition to a large water tank (refilled by hand a sign said). There was even a small ‘library’ with free books to take, and chilled/filtered water in an igloo cooler. Trail Angel Mary wasn’t there, but man, she’s awesome! I took a quick shower fully clothed knowing the desert sun would dry me in no time.

There were several hikers there we’d seen over the last few days: Marc from Montreal/Sf-Bay Area, Bill from Bay Area, Momento, Hamilton and Zack from S Oregon. There was also another rattlesnake. — The hikers hadn’t noticed it near the picnic table until Wanderer arrived and pointed it out. His snake radar was still elevated from his morning encounter.

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Mile 145 – Trail Angel Mary’s “Muir Woods”

We all eventually headed out. My group was bringing up the rear. We had another 4 miles to go til our planned campsite. When we got there, the small site was already occupied by the hikers from the second water cache. We worked out a way to squeeze 4 tents into a space for two, while 3 of us convoy camped under the stars.

It’s my first night cowboy camping. Aside from the fear of a snake curling up next to me for warmth, it’s fine – but then it’s midnight and I’ve only slept one hour so far!

Sunrise Day 9 – Mile 130

The desert

Desert flowers were blooming with Juniper berries above.

Me & Medicine Woman

Diet –

Bfast: 2x instant oatmeal w/protein powder

Lunch: chicken Szechwan salad recipe rehydrated

Snack – Chex like mix

Dinner: “Night after Night bean soup”**- had to cook too long/too big portion

** In the recipe book, the author noted he’d eaten this soup night after night on a 7- day backpacking trip, never tiring of it. I suspect the author spent more time digging and hovering over cat holes than hiking. This stuff is, uh, cleansing.