PCT 2018 Thru-Hike: Episode 2 - Every Available Mile

Description

PCT Gear List Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaQqPbu1Fa0

PCT Gear List - https://darwinonthetrail.com/2018/04/19/darwins-2018-pct-thru-hike/

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Tags: UL Hiking Gear,PCT,Pacific Crest Trail,PCT Thru-Hike,Thru-Hike Gear List,UL Backpacking,Zpacks,Enlightened Equipment,CNOC Outdoors,UL Backpacking gear,Vargo Bot 700,Hiker Trash,Hiking,Backpacking,Pinhoti Trail,Adventure,Long Distance Hiking,Zpacks Duplex,Zpacks Arc Blast

Video Transcription

[Music]

so I decided to get a pretty early start this morning had a great sleep last night

all the best sleep I've had on the trail decided to hit the trail and kind of watch the sunrise this morning but one thing I didn't expect to see and kind of didn't realize was I am at Mile 150 this morning I am gonna walk into the Paradise Cafe which is a mile off the trail but pretty much everyone says not to miss it it's totally worth going so I'm gonna pop in there get me like a breakfast burrito and keep on trucking trucking up the mountain here at the infamous Paradise Valley Kevin going to get a bit of breakfast [Music]

we've hiked about 1213 miles of a pretty big mountain kind of following this Ridge looking down on Palm Springs which is pretty neat [Music]

been a pretty good day kind of windy up here pretty exposed but absolutely beautiful views we have about seven more miles of the actual trail left so our plan is to hike to where the fire cloture is which i think is at Mile 168 and then we're going to hike back two miles and then take the Forbes ranch spring trail down to 74 and then we're gonna hitch into Idlewild that way we can kind of get every mile of the PCT that's available to hike and then still get down into Idlewild without kind of adding an extra day on but beautiful this is the farthest mileage that you can do to the fire closure on the PCT we Palm Springs down there in Palm Desert and see the burn over there on the side of the mountain whole mountains pretty much fall because of the burn so we made it into Idlewild last night after a like 28 mile day after doing like a reroute and pitching in from 74 we decided to take a little bit of zero off the trail we're at Mile 168 then pushing it pretty hard to this point so just kind of hanging around town and relaxing Racer X is off to meet with the mayor of Idlewild which is actually a dog it's a golden retriever is the mayor of Idlewild I thank Foxtrot is trying to find his cousin who's also currently hiking the PCT and myself I pretty much has been walking around taking it easy and hanging out with some other hikers so today I hung out with no no he stopped record easy slow-mo so it was really nice sitting around with all them just talking trail and drinking a couple beers so it's always good to take a zero love taking zeros just because kind of gets you physically and mentally off the trail and kind of let you to prepare so yeah not much else to say about today other than zero day food beer resupply and rest well I had a great zero and Idlewild yesterday and left this morning had a lead kind of late because I had to mail something out kind of last-minute but I am back on the trail on the reroute and I have about four miles up the reroute before I meet back up with the PCT at Mile 178 so again you know I'm going for every single available mile of the PCT captura really steep crazy long climb up the the reroute I am back on the PCT right where it picks back up at Mile 178 and now I'm hiking to a San Jacinto peak well at least the the trail that goes to the peak and then my plan is to hike to mile 185 I believe then I'm going to hike three-point-something miles up to the peak see the peak and then hike three-point-something back down the same way and carry on I got to the junction where the PCT splits off from the first San Jacinto Trail which is what a lot of hikers take they take the Santa sent to alternate but you know my goal when I came out here was to hike every mile of the PCT that was available if you know if there's fire closures that's one thing I can't hike it but if the trail is open you know I came out to hike the PCT yeah there's nobody else on this trail by myself it is much more elevation gain and loss and when I get to the other side I am going to hike an extra six miles to go up to San Jacinto and come back down so it's adding an extra six miles on my day but for me it's totally worth it so you're probably expecting to see a clip of me climbing San Jacinto so what happened was I actually hiked two mile one 85.7 of the PCT which is the second trail that you can take to get to the top of San Jacinto there's gonna be like 3.2 miles and then I was gonna hike back I dropped my pack off there at the trailhead and I started climbing and I got about two miles up and the weather got really nasty when got up to about mmm I had to take a guess maybe sixty mile an hour wind the temperature dropped really low and then to the west there was some big nasty dark clouds so I just kind of made the conscious decision that it wasn't worth me going up there if I was gonna get socked in by bad weather I've been on the top of enough mountains and bad weather to know when to call it and funny enough right whenever I decided to turn around Racer X was actually coming down himself and he didn't get to the top either he definitely got a little a little sketched out by the weather so we both made the decision to just kind of hike back down we ended up grabbing our packs hiking a few miles up and then right now we are kind of in a small stealth spot on the side of the mountain you're gonna get some rest

get up in the morning and then we have a 20-mile descent off of the mountain and it's a dry descent so I have water that I just picked up from about a mile back and that is the only water for about 20 miles

so bed early up early take off and get this big descent done [Music]

it's a new day beautiful morning lot less windy lot less chilly pretty much just descending the massive mountain chain San Jacinto Mountains today it's like a 20 mile stretch pretty dry no water and then at the bottom of the mountain there supposed to be a spigot with some water so that's where I'm trying to hike to currently and I don't know where I'm gonna head tonight thank my next stop is going to be Big Bear so I believe snuggles is gonna meet me there

and I think she's gonna go do some trail magic around Big Bear so it'd be nice to see her again [Music]

so I've been descending for quite some time now for a few hours I'm still not down in the bottom but I am back in the desert of no more beautiful alpine forests it's pretty wild though out in front of me you can see these desert mountains

but if we look back as you can see it right between those trees san jacinto peak

[Music]

I can down the road through the desert is never fun luckily I do have an umbrella even though it's broke and snapped on me a few days ago to the high wind but working not you guys to see the wind farm there in the distance big ol windmills that road is actually the road that you take to get up into Joshua Tree

[Music]

so it's uh getting pretty late in the day and I'm so hiking I got in 20 miles by two o'clock today so I just feeling good and I was like you know what I'm just gonna push it there was another water stop it's called whitewater Preserve in ten miles it was two o'clock I sit around for about 45 minutes took a break took my shoes off ate a little bit and yeah so I'm pushing for a 30 plus mild day still coming down this Ridge I think it's about six o'clock maybe 6:30 man I'll tell you what coming down this Canyon right now is just absolutely stunning

[Music]

there is supposed to be something called an empty white water preserve and it's about 0.5 off of the trail so that is where I'm planning on heading there supposed to be a camp spot there a place where you can dip into the water which sounds so good especially on my knees and my feet and even bathrooms with running water so I think that's where I'm gonna head and end up tonight this was totally worth the 32 mile day this place was absolutely amazing to camp that last night so beautiful look at this

[Applause]

they're apparently as a fire closure today I think at Mile 238 so I think the plan is to hike to the fire closure which is like in 17 miles and then go a little bit past that I'm good hook it says that the fire closure is for like I don't know 15 20 miles so we were originally gonna stop I was originally gonna stuff right before that and camp and just make it a small day but according to all the comments on the PCTs website it's not closed that far it's only closed like four miles so after 244 you can camp so probably try to make it another 20 use something mild day definitely not 30 yesterday was fun but 30 plus mile days definitely take it out on me so I've been hiking quite some time today and I'm currently hiking through this burn area that is you know every time I hike through a burn area I always feel really sad that the you know obviously the forest is burned down and caused it horrible fire that double all this life at the same time it's really inspiring it's really beautiful Beauty and the burn fuel

[Music]

so it's late I am tired ended up damn like a 26 27 mile day to day I have 20 miles and a big bear in the morning I'm eating and going to bed [Music]

you