PCT: Missed the bus in Inyokern

So, a bit of bumbling and luck both bad and good leaves me killing some time in Inyokern. 

After picking up my bicycle near Devil's Punchbowl, I took the slow route through Lancaster to get some cheap gas, got me to Inyokern early afternoon. Asked around for location of bus stop & was directed to a '76 station. Asked there whether I could leave a backpack ovrngt & bicycle for a week, was directed to try at hardware store across the street.

Talked to the owner there and was given places to keep pack and bike. I then went on to Walker Pass to check out purported campground at the pass, without first leaving the pack at the HW store, which would have been more efficient. Found the campground about a mile west of the pass (Hadn't noticed this on my first scouting drive over the pass.) Talked to some other PCT hikers there, getting updated water info for the next stretch (about every 20 miles for that 100 mile stretch.) 

Sorted out my pack contents, ate dinner, etc., chatted a bit more with the hikers, two of which were from Germany, one had a car - he was just there resupplying the others.  Finally got myself on the road again by about 6PM.

When I got back to Inyokern the hardware store grounds were all locked up surrounded by concertina-topped chain link fence.  Lucky that I hadn't gotten back sooner before they had locked up, or I would have discovered my pack inaccessible the next morning at 6:15am when the bus left, since the store didn't open til 7:30.

So, what now? A hwy patrol happened by who suggested I ask at the Sheriff's office a few blocks west. It was closed but as I drove thru the neighborhood someone asked whether I was looking for a turtle. No, but... and I told them my story, and was offered to stay at their mobile home, leave my bike there, etc.

So with that settled I drove back to the pass where I left my bike, drove to campground and left my car there, hiked the last mile back to the pass, bicycled by full moon (with rear bike flasher) down to Inyokern (tailwind on long downhill, fierce crosswind on 2 mile stretch north on hay 14, tailwind again east into town.)  Got to take a shower, chatted til midnight, woke up 4:30 to walk mile to gas station, had coffee there & chatted with locals in picnic area outside til I saw the bus ...just blow right past me!

Lots of phone calls later I learned there are two bus systems here, mine stopped a few blocks west.
Now I'm waiting for uncertain other system's bus at 10:30 or the other bus 7:30PM.

PCT: leftover Cajon Pass to Wrights Peak done, sitting in Wrightwood

Yesterday I hiked the 16.2 miles from Swarthout Cyn Rd (a few miles
west of Cajon
pass) up the hill to Wrights Peak above Wrightwood.  It was quite a
scenic climb, nice cool, windy weather that made it much more pleasant
than the hot weather last year that caused me to decide to skip it for
the time being then.

Saw three snakes along the way - fist a very colorful ringsnake I think -

got photos and video, then some drab unidentifid snake that slinked off before I

could get my camera ready, then a small rattlesnake that very noisily
bounced around like a spring, lunging at me several times - needless

to say I didn't manage to capture that action, as I was busy jumping back.
It finally slinkered off and I got a photo of that.

I slept at the top, had minimal clothes with me but had my sleeping

bag and biv sack - I stuffed that with pine needles to be a bit

warmer in the brisk wind going on all night.  Chose a spot with
spectacular view to the east over Cajon Pass,  Got sunrise photos in
the morning, with the whole area blanketed with fog.  Hiked the last
2.5 miles down to Wrightwood this morning.

Today I need to download some GPS tracklogs and photos, buy some more
foil packs of tuna, salmon and/or chicken, for the next few day's
dinners on the trail, then head to Walker Pass area to scout around a
bit to verify I can leave my car there, and see what the hills are
like on my bike route from Walker Pass to Inyokern - if too much
uphill, I think I'll arrrange to have the bus pick me up at the bottom
of hwy 178 where it intersects the bus route on hwy 14 (I think thats
the #.)  When I talked to the bus system person dbyesterday they said
I could do that.  I'll need to arrange that today because I'd be
wanting to catch the 7:30-ish AM run.  I'll probably try to leave my
bicycle at the bottom of hwy 178 before I catch the bus, to avoid
having to drag that around.  (Would leave my backpack there the night
before as well, so I won't have to bicycle with it on.

So, this is the weekend I hoped to catch up with that CNPS event near
Big Pine.  I'll be on the trail to Walker Pass instead.

Yesterday I tried using the Teva sandals that I also had bought about
a month ago and did some hiking in.  They are rather tight and
non-adjustable for just wearing around, but for hiking they work quite
well.  My feet felt better in them than in the boots that I still plan
to return to REI.  So, yeah, my blisters seem to have healed, and my
hip is "stable" at the moment - just taking it easy on the
"heavy-impact-stepping" - practicing a "springy" gait, especially
downhill.  I think that's helping to avoid developing knee problems as
well.

PCT: Bike flat fixed, ready to roll Wrightwood to Cajon Pass

Bike tire fix was fairly straightforward.  The valve stem broke off
completely.  Pried off one edge of the tire using  several
"butterknives" I had in the car, then used snubnose pliers to pull out
the innerrtube (also pulled out the "thorn protector" that probably
was the reason the tire slipped so badly on the firsst steep uphill...
put in the replacement innertube, pumped it up, tested it around the
parkinglot, load the bike back in the car.

So, tonight I'm going downhill to Cajon Pass (or actually to Swarthout
Cyn  Rd just west of the pass, a dirt rd crossing the trl that I left
off at last yr skipping the next 15 mile uphill to ridge above
Wrightwood.  Tomorrow I'll leave my pack there, then drive back up to
Wrightwood, leave my car there, bicycle back down to my pack, hike up,
and another 32.5 miles down a side trl to Wrightwood back to my car.
That should finish that.  Day-hike probably, though I'll bring my pack
sleeping bag just in case.

then on to Walker Pass.

PCT: contemplating logistics Hwy 58 to Walker Pass, loose end Cajon to Wrights

So, looked into the logistics of the hwy 58 to Walker Pass (hwy 178)
stretch.  I had looked around Walker Pass without finding a good place
to leave the car, but I now learned from the "water report"
that there is a campground near there after all. If so, that's where
I'd leave my car. If not suitable, I may end up leaving my bicycle
there to use at the end of the hike (would also leave a day-pack and
leave my big pack there while I bicycle back to my car - via two bus
trasnsfers: I'd be coasting down the steep east side of hwy 178 to hwy
14 then north about two miles then east towards Inyokern, where I can
catch a bus to Mojave (the Mojave-Ridgecrest Route of the Kern
Regional Transit system.  Trouble is, it runs MWF only, and only two
runs, one on the morning (6:15) and one in the evening (7:20) so the
evening run is the one I'll probably be taking.  From Mojave, there'a
a bus heading for Tehachapi, and I can ask the driver to drop me off
at the trail, at Camron Cyn Rd.  I talked to someone at the transit
agency and they apparently do that all the time for hikers.  The
ttiming of connections in the morning and evening may even work,
though it would be scary close, and in  the evening, I'd get to the
trail after dark.  But the timing may not matter, because I may chose
to arrange to lave the car at a motel in Mojave, and stay there for a
night at the end of my hike. Or, maybe in Inyokern.

In any case, it's 85 miles of trail between the two hwys, with about 6
apparently reliable water sources fairly evenly distributed en route,
and a few other more sketchy sources, so I may not bother trying to
leave extra water for myself along the route as I had planned (turns
out the spots I had thought to leave water already have caches
provided by "angels", and during this peak hiker time they'll probably
be kept stocked regularly.

So, still remaining is to deal with is my bicycle flat.  I'll need
that fixed either way.  That's next as soon as I send this.

Looks like it will be very windy tomorrow and into Thursday which
means I may not want to start the Teh-WP hike tomorrow.  maybe, if I
get the flat fixed quickly, I'll still squeeze in the loose end Cajon
Pass to Wrights Ridgetop hike tomorrow.  Would make sense from efficiency
point of view.  We'll see...

PCT: Devils Punchbowl to Hikertown done, what next

So I made it back to my car yesterday, about a day ahead of when I thought I'd be out (seem to be walking longer per day than my average last yr, despite blisters still lingering.)  Got myself fed, cleaned up, & slept at the "Hikertown" place, then fetched my daypack at the Punchbowl Visitor Center, and my bicycle from the campground a bit east of there.  Bike is still flat - will have to figure out how to deal with the goop in the innertube clogging the valve so I can't deflate it to change it nor pump it up to use further - seems to have just lost about half the pressure, with valve stem stuck at abotu a 45degree angle.) There's a cycle shop in town, but it's closed today.  Some web research or more brute force efforts may be in store.) 

Now I'm at the Wrightwood library again, assuming I'll finish up the last loose end of the hike I was planning to have finished last year - that being still the section from Cajon Pass up the ridge into the San Gabriels above Wrightwood.  (My last attempt was scotched by the very cold weather I talked about near the start of this trip.  This time, forecast this week looks very good for this just over one-day bike/hike, but also looks like a good time to do the very hot section from hwy 58 near Tehachapi north through the very dry section to & past Walker Pass.   If I do that, I may postpone returning to the Bay Area for at least another week or so - I still may try to catch up with some of you in Big Pine for that CNPS outing, but it may be just for the end of the event.   I still need to spend some time today figuring out the exact timing and whether it makes more sense to do the Walker Pass section now.  Also, whether I can fix my flat - that may sway me towards the longer hike.

I'll probably update you on my decision later today. 

PCT: at the Saufly's HikerHeaven in Agua Dulce

I'm now in Agua Dulce at the Sauflys' Hiker Heaven hostel. I arrived here last night about 8pm after being passed by half a dozen people on the trail within the previous two days, all of whom were settled in there. Some left this morning, more arrived today.  Interesting assortment of origins, of course, a group of three from South Africa probably furthest removed. More than half seem to be quite experienced hikers having done the PCT or AT in earlier years.  (I't a bit early, the "horde" of hikers expected to show up here a week or so from now.  (I'll be trampled from behind in another week.) One couple from Swizerland, I tried chatting with in German for a bit - but even though they were trying to speak "Hoch-Deutsch" (high-german) with me, it was somewhat hard for me to understand.  I seemed to have less of a problem talking with Nicole who sounded very much like my dad, both from Berlin. 

I'm showered, my clothes is washed, I got the resupply box I left there just before I started.  But still want to try to join one of the daily rides into the nearest big town where ther's an REI,Walmart, etc, to try to get a USB mini cable that I forgot, so I can recharge my GPS logger.  I do have alternative GPS logging options for the next 60 miles back to my car, but would be convenient.  

Also have developed some blisters (for the first time... didn't have that problem last year...) that I still need to deal with a better.  My new shoes seem to be the culprit, they are wider & looser - can't tighten them enough.  If there is a  trip to REI, I may just buy myself another pair of the Lowa's that I have been wearing (tweo pairs) both of wich developed the same broken seams problem but otherwise seem to fit me better.  Oddly, the hip problem that I though would be my main issue, has not been bothering.

I Plan to leave here tomorrow afternoon. In another 25 miles (two days for me) there's another "host family" I'll probably stay at another night. (this one I didn't know about while planning - the Anderson's.  Then there's another 40 miles to the Hikertown hostel where my car is at. Then I'll pick up my bicycle (which, by the way, developed a flat about a mile from my endpoint! (More on that later I'm sure, when I have to fix it.)  By that time it will be near the end of the month and I likely will come back to the bay area briefly, before continuing into the Sierra proper.

PCT: restarting my hike from Hikertown to bike-bus-bike to Devils Punchbowl

so, what have I been doing this past week since leaving SRosa?

After rushing to clean up after myself at Mike's apartment (leaving a
few bits of furniture & other stuff behind... to make it to Alison's
place in Santa Cruz before she had to go to work that afternoon,
getting there with barely one hour to spare, we had a short chat and
she showed me around her new place in the Santa Cruz Mts -very nice! 
I moved on to overnight at Madonna Mt Park a bit south-east in the
same Mts, though I had to go west to hwy 1 and back up the next canyon
after being told the "more direct" route would be longer.  That overnight 
turned out to be a bit more expensive than expected, because the Sr
discount I noted on the web only applied if you had an annual pass or some such.  The campground was in a pleasant deep-woods setting, and there were a variety of trails that seemed to promise sweeping views of the area, but I didn't stay to seek out these photoops.

Next day I drove almost to Walker Pass at the south end of the Sierra
range, turning off on Kelso Valley Road near the town of Onyx, a paved road that connects to Jawbone Canyon Rd and a web of dirt roads for OHVers and dirt bikes. The PCT passes through this area.  I took a left onto Bird
Spring Pass Rd that crosses the PCT, where I wanted to leave myself a
water cache for when I planned to hike that section later this month.
I camped before the road climbed up the ridge, not sure whether my car
would make it easily and worried I wouldn't be able to turn around.
With still two hrs of daylight left I walked up the ridge with a
gallon of water, but at the trail I found a large existing water cache (a
typical feature along dry sections of trail that are accessible by
jeep or high-clearance vehicles - "trail angels" maintain these caches
periodically during the hiking season.)

Next day I wanted to go further south along Kelso road to other
spur-roads crossing the trail, but the southbound rd was closed that
Saturday due to a Bike Rally going on in that popular ORV area.  So
I backtracked and drove east over Walker Pass looking for possible
places to park my car for a few days and checking how feasible it might 
be to bicycle from the pass down to hwy 14 where I think there's a bus
that runs south to the town of Mojave, that connects with another bus to Tehachapi, ideally stopping near where the PCT crosses.  I haven't yet checked out the details of these routes.

But I didn't see any side-roads or big turnoffs near the pass, so I'm not sure how
feasible this will be - I may have to go all the way from Tehachapi to
Kennedy Meadows before accessing my car again.  Or maybe I could time my hike it in coordination with the Bristlecone CNPS Chapter's "conference" in Big Pine near the end of the month, and persuade a friend from there to drop me off there on their way home.  And maybe it would be convenient to do the hike in reverse direction, southbound.

I drove south on hwy 14 then hwy 58 towards Tehachapi and stopped
at the Jawbone Visitor Center, a very ORV-oriented place, got a bunch
of good maps of all the ORV roads that also showed the PCT and very
clearly the "jurisdictions" (BLM, Park, Forest, private, etc) for much
of the southern sierra.  Going on, I stopped where the PCT crosses hwy 58, then cut south across the valley trying to paralell the temporary route
of the PCT, to the Hikertown Hostel, and chatted with the host there to verify that I could leave my car there for a
while in a few days.

I also asked for any news about the progress of the planned rerouting
of the trail into the Tehachapi's through the Tejon Ranch property.  He
said it would be routed along 300th street about a mile or two west of
here, which was disappointing to hear, since that was still well down
in the valley although apparently the trail would then turn north-west up the
first set of low ridges of the Tehachapi's, and then rejoin the current
route still south of the rte 58 hwy crossing.  Anyhow, I next drove to 300th street to look around - it's just a bit further west along the aquaduct, seems to me.

I then checked out the abandoned "Old Ridge Route" road that roughly parallels hwy 5 at the west end of Liebre Mt, that I would have thought the trail could be routed along or across.
There is an existing trail branching from the PCT on Liebre Mt that
goes westward with a trailhead on the Old Ridge Route, and I did find that trailhead.  I also wanted to see whether that trail could be extended further west to ideally cross hwy 5 and enter the Hungry Valley ORV area that is just southwest of the hwy 5/hwy 138 junction.  Very steep topography west of the old road, however.  

I then drove on east along Pine Canyon Road to
three points Rd to hwy 137, eastward, stopping at the "Desert
Woodland" park that was closed, and the Poppy preserve that was open
but bloomless, through the urban sprawl of Lancaster and Palmdale to
Pearblossom and on to the Devils Punchbowl park, following the route I
planned to bicycle & bus.  Got to the park after hours, near sundown,
too late to talk to the ranger about leaving my bike & Pack, so I
hurried on east to Valleyermo Rd and on to the campgrounds east of the Punchbowl and
overtnighted there. That was Saturday night, very crowded with
families chatting well into the evening, campfires blazing dangerously in very windy weather in tinder-dry surroundings. I decided to sleep in the car, ready to evacuate the area on short notice.

Very cold and windy next morning still, I walked the first leg of the
PCT detour in reverse up the ridge to Islip Saddle where I had quit
last year.  most of the hike was in clouds.  This trail traversed an
extremely steep slope most of which was an active landslide, sliding
into a ravine so obviously an active fault.  Returned from this 11
mile round-trip early afternoon, and decided I'd drive up to the ridge
above the town of Wrightwood, planning to overnight at Guffy
Campground, expecting to wake up the next morning to snow.  Actually
only made it to the lower "Blue Ridge" campground. Slept in the car.

Woke up next morning to sleet but little accumulated snow.  A
backpacker iin shorts walked by and I offered him a ride back to town
to warm up. (He said he was 70yrs old.)  I brought him to the hardware store
in Wrightwood that had a "welcome PCT hikers" sign posted. They had a
notebook there with a bunch of info on local "Angels" that hosted PCT
hikers.  A few other hikers showed up.  He called many of the angels leaving
msgs or learning that they no longer did that. He also called some
Hotels and most were closed for the summer (Wrightwood has some ski
slopes nearby.)  He bought himself some rain pants and we had some
lunch.  He decided he'd try to hike on so I drove him back up the
ridge, drove a bit west along the ridge to the saddle at the base of
Mt Baden Powell, that he would be climbing the next day (these were
areas I had already done last year - sections of trail criss-crossing
hwy 2 on the ridge, that I did in various combinations of forward &
backward using my bike to "close the loop".  It was getting colder &
windier.  He decided he'd rather try again in town at a more expensive hotel.
I dropped him off at one hotel and we parted ways.

I had been vacillating between many alternative plans.  I had
originally thought I could take advantage of the cooler weather to
finish up the only section of trail I had skipped last year because it
happened to be very hot at the time - the climb from Cajon Pass up to
the ridge above Wrightwood.  (I had instead out&back-hiked the upper
section of that climb.) What I needed to do (should have done last
year) is leave my car on the ridge at Guffy CG, bicycle back down the
ridge through Wrightwood, leave my bike near Cajon Pass and hike back
up.  An alternative was to leave my car in Wrightwood, bicycle down
hike up the ridge and take a spur trail (that most hikers take) back
down to Wrightwood.  A third alternative reason for me to be up there
is to complete a section of trail along "Pleasantview Ridge" that had
been detoured but not specifically closed as part of the frog closure.
 None of these alternatives were attractive today. I didn't want to
bicycle in sleet on wet roads, and I didn't want to hike a trail with
spectacular views while the views were obscured by clouds.  So I
decided I'd take care of another piece of unfinished business, to drop
off a resupply package for myself at the "Hiker Heaven" Trail-Angel
Hostel in Agua Dulce that I would be passing by midway through my 120
mile hike from the Punchbowl Park to the "Hikertown" place where I
would have my car.  Also, I wanted to work out some details about my
bike ride from the Pearblossom bus drop-off point.

So first did the resupply dropoff, then explored some alternative routes
from Pearblossom to either the park or the campground, and found that
Vallyermo Rd to the campground would avoid climbing a small ridge to
the park, and the park was also at higher elevation. The campground
would also put me in position to hike the other two legs of the
detour in proper direction and without another out&back of the bottom
leg. (now that I had already hiked the first leg up&back.) So, I would
be leaving my pack at the park, but my bicycle at or near the
campground. Also, since  the "first afternoon bus" would get me to
Pearblossom at around 6pm with another hour of bicycling to do, I
could just camp "legally' in a campground, whereas there was no camping permitted in the park. I decided I'd check with
the ranger to make sure I could leave my pack with then for two days,
but found the park closed on Mondays.  So back to the campground for
another night. Packed my pack the next morning, dropped it off at the park's visitor center, having a nice chat with the ranger there, then drove
back west to "Hikertown".

Parked behind a bunch of boats stored at that place per instructiuons,
sorted some things for the bike ride, tried to copy my picts to date
onto a disk drive using my little eeepc but ran into problems (disk drive would not spin up.)  Started this email, now its
much later than I would like.  Still need to T-shoot the disk drive
issue and another problem - for some reason my cell phone is hung up
"out of memory" even though I've been deleting apps I don't absolutely
need for this trip.  Aargh.  I'm writing this on the eeepc. 
I've left my big laptop safely in storage in Santa Rosa. Ah well, get some sleep, worry
about it in the morning.