Day 39
Start: LA Aqueduct
Finish: 549 campsite
Daily Mileage: 19.7
PCT Mile: 549
In the morning we decided that it was good for us to have stopped at 9 last night despite the others continuing on. We kept to a mostly normal sleeping schedule, and with the wind blowing it wasn’t too hot to be walking through the day. We probably could have just started walking earlier in the day yesterday, but it doesn’t really matter. I don’t enjoy night hiking nearly as much since I like to see what is around me. There was no moon either to light the way.
The aqueduct went under some hills, so we started off down a road that paralleled it at a distance. This was a more boring part of the Mojave transit, but necessary as always.
We soon circled back and rejoined the aqueduct where the entire channel of water continued as a bridge straight over a gully. There for the first time we could see the full size of the aqueduct, and it was deeper and larger overall that I had expected. The water authority graciously supplied a spigot for hikers to tap into the water supply we had been hiking next to for many miles but had no way to get at. An interesting situation, especially since we were walking through the desert.
climb steeply in earnest, and the wind began to drop, perhaps shielded by the hills. The temperature, or at least my perception of it spiked, but I blasted onwards, driven by the urging of the next water source and the promise of a break in possible shade.
It was a tough climb with the heat, but I pressed forward hard and soon came to a flowing stream where there was a single tree that made decent shade. This was the last water source for the next 25 miles that wasn’t a cache, so it was deserving for a good break and full recovery and hydration before pressing on.
I was at the stream for a bit before Cookie Monster and Jana caught up, and I ended up staying there for a couple hours as the day wore on. I didn’t really want to get back out into the heat for more exposed climbing with a limited water supply, but it just had to be done. I filled up 5.5 liters of water which is my current full capacity, and put in my earphones since I figured I would need some help keeping my mind off the climbing, heat, and exposure of the rest of the day.
The trail bobbled a bit as it circled around a mountain range, and the trail turned out to be not nearly as tedious as I had thought. The further I went, the more the landscape brightened with the color of flowers dotting it. Red, white, yellow, and purple carpeted the landscape at times, with the sparse green bushes being the rare bit of color that wasn’t a flower.
The amazing color continued, but I kept on my nonfiction audiobook for some extra motivation. The story reached a tragic point as I rounded a bend in the trail and was presented with an entire mountainside uniformly covered in flowers, almost completely obscuring the sand beneath. The sad story and then the sudden appearance of the dramatic mountainside gave me an emotional overload with the death in the story compared to the new life represented by the flowers, and I got lost in the moment and broke down as my eyes watered.
The scene was so astounding and beautiful that I struggled to take it in. I couldn’t stay standing and I had to sit down to try and comprehend the situation. I just immersed myself in it and lived it. I can struggle to let my emotions free, but it is something that can happen to me while I’m thru-hiking that is rare at other times in my “normal” life, so I embrace it when I can.
I felt that I was one with the trail, finally on this trip. I felt that I belonged out here, and that this was my trail and this journey was a necessary part of my life. It took me a bit to process my feelings while I took in the landscape, but that is what I’m out here for, so there was no need to hurry on. I took my time before continuing on through the fields of flowers and see them close up instead of at a distance.
The field was enormous and amazing to walk through. I could see more large fields in the distance as well. Hiking upward, I got out of the flowers and soon crested the mountain I had been climbing, 3,000 feet above the desert floor, with some additional descents along the way. Pretty good for being in the heat.
At the crest I got to our planned campsite and there was a cache with cold pop, chips, and cookies. I was hot, and that was the perfect way to end my hike for the day, sitting down in a camp chair with a cold pop and bag of chips, looking at the Mojave Desert now far below me.
I sat there for a while before Jana and Cookie Monster caught up, and I made myself exit my reverie and set up camp and do the other camp chores.
I had truly a fantastic day today, between the engineering marvels of the aqueduct and wind farm to the natural wonder of the flowering desert.
