New Valley Hills

“ ‘Cause two out of three ain’t bad”

First, a picture of Liz, a 2015 alumnus who opened her home to me for two nights in Wrightwood.

Yesterday I popped out of the third and final mountain range of the desert into the rural town of Acton. It was 36C. Two days prior I’d summitted Mount Baden Powell, named for the founder of the Scouting Movement. At 9399ft it was my highest point on the trail so far. 400 miles done.

Since then I’d been taking shortcuts to reduce miles as I dropped 6000ft into the heat – a tarmac road or a dirt road which was the previous PCT route, 4 miles shorter. I realised I could do two of the these three Hs – Heat, Height gain or distance, Heavy pack. Not all three.

Coming up is an icon of the PCT journey- hiking the LA Aquaduct through the eastern arm of the Mojave Desert. Known for its 30 mile length with no water, ironic since you’re walking along a 20ft diameter metal pipe taking water south to Los Angeles, its common to walk it at night for the cooler temperature and need to carry and consume less water. 30 miles at 4 miles per litre is 16 pounds of water. A lot of weight! By the time I get there it’ll still be 24C at night, and 38C daytime – how can anyone sleep in that heat?

The regional weather service is advising people stay indoors or get shade, and use air conditioning, with immediate effect. Hum, that doesn’t really work for hikers!

For a week or so I’d been bumping into Willem and Olga from the Netherlands. Lawyers by trade, a generation apart, they were intriguing walking buddies. Olga faster than me and a morning person, Willem seemingly slower and energised by the evenings, we played leapfrog for a week. Never camping together or arranging to meet we kept bumping into each other and being surprised by whoever was ahead. The first time I saw them Willem was in his sleeping bag on the path, Olga pumping up an inflatable sleep pad for him while a third person was talking to them. I was focused on the next water source, being out of h2o – we exchanged a few words and I paced onwards. My only thought was “what an entitled hiker to sleep on the footpath so one had to step around and over him”. The next day they rocked up at the hot springs and their story came out.

Willem had eaten a packaged meal that breakfast which had gone off. Within 15 minutes he’d started vomiting followed by diarrhoea. A bad case of food poisoning, he’d managed just 4 miles that day. Exhausted, he collapsed on the path where a passing hiker arrived and was helping them erect a tent and roll him into bed. Olga hadn’t eaten for 24 hours, worried their all shared food had gone off. I traded her a high calorie meal substitute shake which she gratefully wolfed down. Willem was recovering though would not accept my offering of “speedbump” as his trail name. No thank you he replied, I do not wish to be reminded of that day. For the next three days every time I saw him he was swimming in the river, trying to cool off. He seemed happier about the trail name “fish” when he remembered his astrological sign was Pisces.

They planted a seed in my head. Skip ahead 230 miles to just before the High Sierra. 2-3 days to Kennedy Meadows South where a 5000ft climb into the mountains brings cooler air. I’m sorely tempted. The weather isn’t forecast to drop below 30C for at least 8 days – I can’t sit around that long, and I can’t walk in that heat and thrive.

With apologies to Jim Steinman and Meatloaf.