PCT Day 40 – The Mojave Desert

Unbelievably, I can’t get to sleep in my little room. I toss and turn. I play my music. I do push-ups. It’s starting to bug me. Happily, I see that the Denver Nuggets have won the NBA championship. Aaron Gordon, one of my favorite players is on that team. What does that have to do with going to sleep? Exactly.

My alarm goes off at 1:30. Dealer, Seven and I plan to start hiking at 2am and to pass through 24 miles of the Mojave Desert today. Starting early let’s us take advantage of cool temperatures. We have hydrated our bodies and loaded up with electrolytes.

The Los Ángeles Aqueduct

California uses aqueducts to move water around. We will hike along two aqueducts today: the California aqueduct and the Los Ángeles aqueduct. We encounter the California aqueduct one mile after we start hiking. The aqueduct is an open, flowing channel of water, like a canal. It is about 20 feet wide where we first see it. The PCT parallels the aqueduct for a mile before turning north, crossing over the aqueduct.

On this moonless, night we could be anywhere. There are no recognizable landmarks. Seven carefully looks at the maps he has on his phone. We are on track, he says. Then we see this:

We have reached the end of the PCT! Is that Canada? Where is the marker? We are momentarily jubilant! Wait the map says we turn to the right. Canada will have to wait.

We reach the Los Angeles Aqueduct. It is not much to look at because it is covered by concrete. Seven says that California covered the aqueduct because hikers kept jumping in and getting killed. I wouldn’t doubt it. There are a lot of foolish hikers. I don’t walk on the aqueduct because concrete is hard and hurts my feet. Dealer walks on the aqueduct because flat surfaces hurt her ankles less.

We walk like this, headlamps trained on the ground ahead for hours. At about 5:15 the sun starts to glow above the eastern horizon.

As the day brightens I can finally see around me. On my right is Antelope Valley with the San Andreas Rift and Lancaster further down the valley to the left. The mountain on the far side of the valley are the mountains we hike through over the past 5 days from left to right.

On the left side of the trail are the Tehachapi Mountains with clouds creeping over their peaks. We will eventually camp there tonight.

Here is another view of the Tehachapi Mountains with something pretty added.

This goes on all morning. We hike hard, taking breaks only when necessary.

The sunlight is bright and hard, but the air temperatures are still cool, so we make good time.

The wind farm

At the end of the aqueduct is a natural water source: Cottonwood Creek. We had planned to get water there, but we have used so little of our four liters that we just blow by the creek and head up into the Tehachapi Mountains. We have a camp site picked out six miles ahead, but first we have to hike through the wind farm. It’s six miles, with 2000 feet of climb in the hottest part of the day.

The juxtaposition of wind turbines and Joshua trees in this area is interesting.

After about an hour of hiking in the wind farm we look for shelter. As you can see there is not a lot.

Eventually we find a tall bush and stick the top parts of our body in the shade, and pull out our food bags. We have hiked 19 miles before 11am!

This is the Mojave desert. I put up my umbrella so that I can take off my hat. My head feels cool under the umbrella when the wind blows. When the air is still, the umbrella doesn’t help that much.

I let Seven and Dealer take the lead. My two old nemeses, heat and uphill climbing, slow me down, and I am happy to simply put one foot in front of another until someone tells me to stop.

The grade is not too bad at first. Soon though, it goes up more. My hiking buddies get ahead of me. They have to wait for me from time to time. I am not pushing myself. Nothing good comes from that. We are not that far from camp. Slow and steady is the key.

Camp

Near the top of the climb to camp, I pause to look behind me. It’s really beautiful out here. The hiking is hard but it could have been so much worse.

The mild weather and precipitation have brought the desert to life this year. I have been one of the fortunate beneficiaries. Here is the trail down to Tylerhorse Creek. You can see the water flowing over the grey slate in the bottom of the canyon.

At 2:38pm we are done hiking. It has been a good day, but we need sleep. The canyon is a little gusty, but hopefully the wind stays reasonable, and the night will be peaceful. We had a small visitor in camp. Dealer got a photo before it ran off.

Oh and there’s this.

• June 13, 2023
• Starting marker: 517.6
• Ending marker: 541.6
• Miles hiked today: 24
• PCT miles hiked: 512