Date: May 31, 2017
Miles: 19.9 miles (32km), from Aqua Dulce to mile 474.2. 
Health: After two days of laying around my legs are not in hiking condition. Slight pain on my right lower shin.

Note: as my camera is still broken (see day 25), all photos here are from iPhone 7 Plus. 

I slept poorly again. While Hiker Heaven is an awesome place, it's not great for resting. People make noise until late at night, and the sun wakes you up around 5:30am.

Today the morning was luckily cloudy and I woke up around 6am. Time to pack up everything and get on the 7am ride to town.

All my gear quickly find their spot in my backpack but my shelter is still wet from the moisture. Sadly there's nothing I can do, I have to dry it out later today.

About 20 hikers climb onboard the first ride to town. I lost my 0,75l Smart Water bottle so I need to get one from the store before going out. As I'm in the store I politely ask if the lovely ladies running the Deli could make me a breakfast burrito. The Deli opens at 8am but the lovely lady agrees to make me one if I can wait 10 minutes. I gladly agree.

While I'm waiting I hear that the driver is giving a ride to the end of the road walk out of town. The PCT follows a paved road from here for about two miles. Hiking on the narrow road is not only boring, but dangerous, so getting a ride to the trail would be really helpful. Sadly the Deli lady is already making my burrito so I have to pass on the ride. Everyone else hops on.

After I get my breakfast I start the dull road walk out of town. I eat my bacon burrito and try to avoid the traffic. It takes me about an hour and a half to reach the proper trail again.

As everyone's about hour, hour and a half ahead of me, there's no way I'm able to catch up to them. Right after the road walk, the trail gains around 2,000 feet (600m) of elevation so I spend the next two hours climbing up.

On one of the more open vistas I can see Sunshine and Fyre far ahead of me. I start a timer on my clock to see how far they are. Once I reach the spot where I saw them I look at my clock and they are only 30 minutes ahead of me.

Once I reach the top of the climb I get a message from Sunshine that they are now at the next water source. I look at the map and it's only about a mile away. I try to send a message that I'll be there in 20 minutes but the message doesn't go through and I lose the reception.

As it's all downhill to the water I try to hike faster, hopefully they're taking a break at the water and I can catch up to them. As I reach the water, there's no one there. I look around and the spring looks kind of creepy, and there are tons of flies around. Not a nice spot to take a break. It's almost lunch time so they must take a break soon, maybe a bit down the trail?

I refill my water bottles and head back on the trail. Whenever I see more of the trail I try to look for them to see how far ahead they are. But I can't see them. At one point I can see a long stretch of the trail but see no movement on it. They must have skipped lunch, or maybe I missed them somewhere and they are behind me? I hike on alone.

Other than that quick sighting of Fyre and Sunshine, I've seen no other people on the trail the whole day. Finally I'm getting so hungry that I have to stop. I make some cold soaked ramen and add a bit of tuna in it. As I wait for the ramen to soak I fall asleep. I've been sleeping poorly for the past couple of nights and the lack of sleep is catching up.

I get woken up by water falling on my head. Rain? It's raining a little but not enough to actually get wet. This is the second time it has rained on this trip. I eat my over soaked ramen and get back on the trail.

Right as I'm leaving Riley pops up around the corner. It's good to see a familiar face. I haven't seen him since we climbed San Jacinto together. He's hiking with a friend and they are stopping so I continue alone.

After the first climb the trail is pretty easy. I see tons of lizards, two snakes, hummingbirds, bugs, and tons of flies. What's up with all the flies?

At one point I run into Dragon and Andrew. They're having a break along the trail and they tell me Sunshine passed them over an hour ago, and Fyre over half an hour ago. And that they are both pushing the full 24 miles (38.6km) to Casa De Luna – as the home of trail angels Terrie and Joe Andersson is know.

The trail feels so effortless, and it's still early, that doing the last 6 miles to Casa De Luna would be fairly easy. But my body is still reeling from not sleeping enough, and I feel like getting to the Andersson's would make this another night of poor sleep.

I decide that I'm staying at the camp spot 4 miles from the Casa De Luna, getting to bed early, getting a good nights sleep, and then hiking there in the morning.

I get to the camp spot around 5pm and I'm in my sleeping bag before 7pm. Instead of cowboy camping I pitch my shelter to let it dry during the night. The spot where I'm sleeping is on a saddle high up, so there should be no condensation in the morning.

Just as I'm thinking this is the first night on the PCT that I'm sleeping alone, I hear a group of hikers coming up on the saddle. I know few of the hikers from yesterday as we shared a ride to Hiker Heaven. One of the girls is called Snake Bite.

My shelter is on a good, well protect spot, but the ground is a little slanted. I stuff my food bag under my legs to even out some of the downhill. Hopefully tomorrow I can get a ride from the Andersson's to Lake Hughe post office to pickup my camera.

Date: May 30, 2017
Miles: 0 in Hiker Heaven (mile 454). 
Health: Feeling rested. 

Note: as my camera is still broken (see day 25), all photos here are from iPhone 7 Plus.

We're all enjoying a zero day in Hiker Heaven, and as I've now been on trail for a month, I though it would be a good time to cover things that I haven't had time to talk about in the daily posts.

Overall the trail has been amazing. I was worried that once the "honeymoon period" was over, I might slowly start losing my interest to hiking long days everyday. Instead it has gone the other way. I keep getting more and more excited about hiking as we go on.

I can still remember how my "normal" life back home felt like, but by now it feels so distant and far away that it seems like a lifetime ago. At home time moves so quickly, weeks can go by in a blink of an eye. In here, days feel really long and every day is a new adventure. Although the heat and the trail are constant, no two days are the same and it's hard to feel like what you're doing is a routine.

The trail life feels amazing.

Gear changes

While I thought, and still think that I had a pretty well thought out gear list, I've made few changes during the first month.

One of the best advices I heard before leaving for the trail was that you're not locked to the gear you start with. Sure it makes sense to have a well thought out list and gear that works, but it's not like you're going to spend the next five to six months in total isolation. You'll have plenty of places along the trail where you can change out your gear. I've seen people change almost all of their big three on the trail.

Most gear changes are done because people change to lighter gear, or because gear failures.

So what have I done? I send my solar charger and knife back home from Big Bear. I didn't use my knife once during the entire trip. I was completely fine with my small titanium scissors.

The solar charger went home because I found out that I had more than enough power from the battery pack alone. And sending them both home saved weight.

I also switched my cold soaking container to a smaller Talenti ice cream container. I didn't need that much volume and it took too much space in my backpack.

I'm also planning on switching to a smaller backpack once we're done with the Sierra and I don't have to carry a bear canister. My current pack is a 48 liter MLD Prophet, but I'm having a hard time filling her up even with longer food carries. So I'm looking to switch to either the 38 liter MLD Burn, or the 40 liter Pa'lante Packs Simple Pack.

Food and eating

From the start I've gone stoveless and haven't regretted it once. Not having to deal with fuel, carrying extra weight, or waiting for food to cook is just liberating. And lighter.

So what do I eat?

For breakfast I usually eat bars, trailmix, or anything that can be eaten while walking. I usually aim to eat about 1,000 calories for breakfast.

For lunch I eat something that requires a little bit more preparation. My favorites are salami-cheddar-bacon-mayo-hot sauce bagels or tortillas. Cold soaked ramen with tuna also works. I aim to eat 1,500 to 2,000 calories for lunch.

For dinner I usually just eat what ever is on the top of my food bag and easily available. I aim to eat about 1,000 calories.

On top of those, I try to eat snacks throughout the day, adding anywhere from 500 to 1,000 calories to my diet.

So how much does my daily food weight? It's a bit hard to weight but I carry approximately 2.2lbs (1kg) of food per day of hiking.

Body and sleep

I haven't had any really bad problems with my body or feet. In the beginning I went to sleep way before hiker midnight every night and woke up without an alarm around 4am. But since, as working on this blog takes about an hour, hour and a half every night, and as we keep hiking later and later in the night due to the heat, I've been getting less and less sleep. And I can definitely notice that. And I'm not a young guy anymore so I don't recover as fast as the younger hikers. But that just means I have to take rest days every now and then.

My biggest problems with my feet were due to swelling, which was fixed by changing to wider shoes at Warner Spring. And since then, hiking in the zero drop Altra's that I've never worn before, has caused few other problems. The new shoes kept causing blisters for few weeks but that seems to be going away now.

One other thing about the zero drop shoes is that my legs are definitely doing a lot more work (compared to 12mm drop on Cascadians) and I do notice that after a long day. But that'll probably go away as my legs get used to the zero drop.

About the trail so far

I've gotten many comments about the amount of people on the trail, and the experience overall. There are few reasons why you see so many people on my photos.

First of all, there's a very short window each year to start the PCT. Therefore you and tens, maybe hundreds of other hikers like you who wish to thru-hike the PCT, start the trail around the same time. From the same spot.

Secondly, while we hike most of the time alone, we usually congregate around water sources and camp spots that are available in very limited quantities along the trail. There might only be one or two spots to sleep in on a 30 mile section, so naturally everyone gathers around these spots.

Also, I tend to take a lot more photos in these places, instead of photos of an empty trail, so it might look like we're constantly surrounded by a massive bubble of hikers. It would be really boring to write about, or photograph, the 8 hours of hiking alone we do daily. That's why I seem to focus more on the social side of the hiking.

Also, I want to follow the great advice many past thru-hikers have given: photograph the people you meet, not the scenery you see. I think that's an excellent advice. While I love seeing all the amazing vistas and scenery we pass by daily, it will be the people I hike with daily that I want to remember for the rest of my life. Also, as we've already seen, you'll never know when you'll see someone for the last time on trail.

How we spend our time on trail?

Most of our time on the trail is focused on water and food. The daily discussion evolves always around "where's the next water source?" and "how much water are you carrying?".

At times it also feels like we're here to eat. And then to do some walking between meals. I can definitely already tell that there are going to be few food items that I don't want to see ever again after this hike.

We usually hike between 6 to 10 hours and then the rest of the time is spend resting, preparing, resupplying, or just goofing around.

My photography workflow

I shoot most of my photos on the Sony RX100 V that I carry on my left shoulder strap. I transfer the photos over to my iPhone using Apples Lightning to USB adapter and edit all my photos on my phone using Adobe's Lightroom. When ever we reach a wifi spot I try to sync them online to the Adobe's Cloud for a backup. Once the photos are in Lightroom I delete the duplicate versions on my phone to save space. I leave the originals on the memory card in the camera.

As my camera is broken, I've used the iPhone 7 Plus and shooting with the Lightroom camera using DNG format. It's an ok solution but the 28mm lens (vs 24mm on Sony) and poor low light quality make it no match for the Sony.

Did I leave anything out? If there's something you'd like to know, please let me know in the comments.

Date: May 29, 2017
Miles: 0
Health: Stopping is not good for your body. Resting feels good but it's hard to get moving. 

Note: as my camera is still broken (see day 25), all photos here are from iPhone 7 Plus. 

I wake up at 7am but still feel tired. Rest, beer, and having nothing to do makes for loud hikers. I think I got to sleep around midnight.

Most of us pile on to the 8am ride to town to get breakfast. As we get in everything is closed. Memorial Day. So instead of restaurant breakfast we all buy food from the grocery store and head back to Hiker Heaven. I buy a large bag of store made lime flavored tortilla chips and store made guacamole and salsa.

At Hiker Heaven everyone seems to be moving in slow motion. There's an air of relaxation. I sit down and eat my chips with people I've not yet met. There's about 60-70 hikers in so there are a ton of new faces around.

The word has gone out that I have a birthday today so everyone I meet congratulates me as we meet. As I generally don't like to celebrate my birthday it feels kind of weird to have so many people congratulate you in person.

The day moves slowly. I do my laundry, watch Netflix, drink sodas and beer, and hang in the shade relaxing. I feel pretty out of it, like I have no energy. That's what happens when you're on the move for a long time and then stop.

Around 5pm we head back to town for birthday margaritas and Mexican food. We fill up a large table and eat and drink.

As we get back to Hiker Heaven I see Kelley, Derek, and Bianca and sit down next to them. We talk about the trail but all of a sudden I'm surprised by a large group of people standing behind me and three cakes being laid in front of me. One of the cakes has candles with numbers 2 and 9 on them :)

I'm totally surprised by this. The people singing, the super nice birthday card and the cakes get me all teary eyed. I just cried yesterday, I can't cry two days in a row. I try to read all the nice messages people have written on the card but can't without starting to cry. I'll save them for later reading.

We eat all the cakes and enjoy the beautiful sunset. I've spend my birthdays in some weird places doing some weird things but this has been one of the nicest ones.

I completely forget to take any photos during the day so this is a very photo limited post.

Date: May 28, 2017
Miles: 18,4 miles (29.6km), from North Fork Ranger Station to Hiker Heaven. 
Health: Feel stronger and better every day.

Note: as my camera is still broken (see day 25), all photos here are from iPhone 7 Plus.

Town day! Although we were far away from the small town of Aqua Dulce, it's still an awesome feeling to get to go to town. You start fantasizing about all the proper food you're going to eat, and being able to drink cold drinks. And getting a shower. And ice cream.

Getting to town gives a little extra umph to your step.

I first woke up around 4am. My sleeping bag wasn't as dry as I thought it was and all the moisture had transferred to my clothes during the night. It was still dark and only one tent was being taken down, with the headlamps fully blazing and shining around the entire campground. Ugh. I pull my moist sleeping bag over my head and fall back asleep.

I wake up again at 5am and people around me are also starting to wake up. Pony and Queso are slowly getting up, I see some movement in Sunshine's sleeping bag. Wait, Blü is gone? He must have sneaked out somewhere between 4am and now.

Everyone seems moving kind of slowly again. I eat my breakfast in bed. What a luxury. Queso, Pony, Sunshine, and I all get our things packed up at the same time and head for the trail at the same time. I feel like I want to try out my morning speed so I push forward with music  blasting from my headphones.

I spend the morning leapfrogging with Hot Sauce and Sunshine. On one of the ridge lines my phone comes alive and I notice I have connection for the first time in a while. I call my family, and many friends, and spend few hours hiking while talking with everyone back at home. It feels great to be able to speak Finnish again.

I've been kind of frustrated with not being able to properly communicate with people around me lately. I feel like I only communicate things that I know how to say, not things that I want, or feel.

The morning flies by in a instant and I soon arrive at the KOA campground junction. From here you can get water and either go to the campground and use their store, or move onwards and go directly to Aqua Dulce, which is about 10 miles away.

Sunshine and a bunch of other hikers are staying at the KOA. There's a rumor going around that there will be free margaritas at the KOA today at 10am. I feel like I should push on and get to Aqua Dulce and to Hiker Heaven.

Hiker Heaven is the home of Saufley's and they host PCT hikers on their large backyard. There are no good camping spots, or any other lodging within 10 mile radius to Aqua Dulce, and people are saying that there's a 50 hiker limit at the Hiker Heaven, so I kind of want to get there early.

Morgan, Laurel, Kristen, and Pig Ben, or The Girls, are pushing straight to Aqua Dulce so I gang up with them. But as we get to the small stream that's the last reliable water source, I start looking at the description of KOA and the promise of ice cold soda, ice cream, and free margaritas is just too much for me to resist. It's not about the destination but the journey, right? So I turn around and hike the 0.4 miles to the KOA campground. The Girls don't share my enthusiasm for ice cream and instead continue to Aqua Dulce.

KOA campground

I pass by Hot Sauce who's sitting under a tree drinking an ice cold Mountain Dew. He tells me where to find the small grocery store and I head towards the way he's pointing. It's weekend and the campground is full of people camping and barbecuing.

Pretty soon I notice a punch of people who look nothing like the people enjoying their weekend here – thru-hikers. I head over and find everyone there. Of course right next to the grocery store and the charging station. Two things that are always sure to pull thru-hikers.

I buy chips, soda, and a large pint of ice cream. A snack. As I get out, Sunshine points out that the chips and ice cream I bought are both low calorie. Damned. Only when thru-hiking you're disappointed that the junk food you bought doesn't have enough calories.

We sit in the shade, constantly popping back to the store to buy more food. It feels great to eat something other than bars and tortillas.

Pony reads me the poem her father wrote to her before the trip and I basically spend the entire time crying against her shoulder. It was such a beautiful poem. It's funny how words can have such a powerful reaction.

Soon the margaritas appear and this is starting to shape up to be an awesome afternoon. Now if I could only yogi some barbecue from some of the campers around, that would be perfect.

Soon the realization that we still have over 10 miles to cover, and it's starting to get late, hits us. Pony, Queso, and I start preparing to head out. It's not the greatest timing as it means we'll be going out at the hottest part of the day. But we really want to have spots at Hiker Heaven.

Sunshine is going to LA with a friend of hers so we leave her at the store and head out. I start first, and Pony and Queso behind me. As soon as I get out of the shade the heat hits me.

I start to climb out of the valley and back up to the hills and it's really hot. But I feel like it doesn't bother me as much as it used to. I'm soon up top and see the campground far below. No sight of Pony and Queso though. Wonder if they changed their minds.

I watch a section hiker someway ahead of me and he seems to be struggling. He takes a lot of pauses and has no sun protection. Soon I catch up to him as he's stopping on top of one of the climbs. I ask if he needs any help and if he has enough water for this section and he reassures me he's fine. I quickly assess how much water he's carrying and feel like he doesn't have enough with the rate that he's consuming. I offer to give him some of mine but he declines. I feel bad for him as there's no shade anywhere for miles and he has no way of protecting himself from the midday sun. I'm somewhat cool under my umbrella.

I keep hiking and hope he finds some shade.

At one point I receive a phone call from Pony and she informs me that they stop and look for shade to wait out the heat. I still feel fine so I push on.

While I move slower than usual in the heat, it doesn't seem to bother me that much. I've hardly touched my 2.75 liters of water and there's only 4 more miles left.

Vasquez Rock

Soon I arrive to the Vasquez Rock park. This is the place where many Star Trek episodes, Bonanza, and many more films and TV shows have been filmed. It's beautiful and I wish I could come back here during better light, like during dusk or dawn.

I take the mandatory tourist photo of the actual rock and continue to the mile long road walk to Aqua Dulce. The town is small, only few houses along the main road.

Soon I notice a pile of backpacks against a terrace fence. It's never too hard to find thru-hikers in town. As I head over I find Blü, Kelley, Derek, and Airplane Mode. I haven't seen her for awhile.

Before I get to take off my pack, everyone starts pushing me towards the parking lot. A ride to Hiker Heaven. We all hop in on a pickup and after few minutes we're at the legendary Hiker Heaven. I'm too tired and hungry from the heat to properly process any information. So as soon as I get in, and get the lay of the land, I find my spot, pitch my tent, and hop on the next ride back to the town.

Before I go I see a familiar face in the crowd, Fyre! It's so good to see her again! She hitchhiked here through LA and has been waiting for us. We also get a message that Blis is back on the trail, only few days behind us.

Once back in town I head over to the pizzeria and again order way too large pizza. I fill myself with ice cold sodas and take the rest of the pizza to go. At Hiker Heaven I get a haircut, take a shower, put all my clothes to the washer, and enjoy few beers with everyone. Tomorrow's my birthday and I'm super tired so it's time to go to bed.

Date: May 27, 2017
Miles: 17.5 miles (28.2km), from Mill Creek Fire Station to North Fork Ranger Station.
Health: Feeling really good. The past few short days have given me a ton of time to rest.

Note: as my camera is still broken (see day 25), all photos here are from iPhone 7 Plus. 

What a night. I woke up around 3am feeling all wet. Wondering if it had rained I started to look around in the dark and noticed everything was covered in light layer of frost. We had cowboy camped right on the shoulder where all the clouds from the sea pass through and they had dumped all the cold moisture on us during the night.

My sleeping bag was at parts completely soaked through, and I noticed a puddle of water inside, next to the zipper. Uh. I was too tired to care, and it was still warm inside the bag so I just positioned myself around the puddle and went back to sleep.

I woke up again at 5am, hoping I had just dreamed all that. No such luck. By this time everyone else was also waking up and wondering what had happened. No one else had water in their bag. I toss and turn a lot when I sleep so I must just kept melting the frosting on the zipper, and slowly piling that in the bag as I moved around.

We were again in no hurry as it was going to be a colder day so everyone moved over to the picnic table to dry their stuff up. While we ate breakfast we talked about the water carriages for the day, and how far people were hiking. Wilder and some of the girls were pushing for the longer option, and Blü was doing the shorter one. I decided to see how the day would progress.

As my bag was soaked, and I wanted to dry it and not compress wet down, I stayed back as others left. It took about 35 minutes for my bag to dry in the morning sun.

I filtered a liter of water for the 7 mile carriage to the next source, cameled up another liter, and then started heading down to the trail. To get to the trail I passed by the campground and surprise, Sunshine was there. As I didn't see her yesterday I was certain she had stayed few miles back up on the ridge. Derek and Kelley were there also.

We sayd quick hello's and I crossed the highway to get to the trailhead. As I was doing that, a pickup pulled next to me and a man named Jim approached me, asking if I could help his crew. They were doing trail maintenance and asked me to record the trail mileage for all areas on the ridge that were overgrown. They were approaching me from the other direction and we would meet later in the day. We shook hands and I thanked them for the awesome work they were doing by keeping the trail open and hikeable.

Today was again going to be a funny day, as due to the fire closure, we could either hike to the ranger station, making it a 17.5 mile day, or hike to KOA, making it a 26 mile day (41.8km). As I was climbing up the first hill up to the ridge line, I looked at the elevation profile and it looked pretty easy, in PCT terms. We had few over 1,000 feet climbs, but it was mostly downhill towards Aqua Dulce. This would be the theme to come for several days as we're slowly descending towards Mojave desert floor.

During the morning I passed many spots of Poodle Dog Bush. By now I could tell when I was approaching them by the awful smell of the plant. Luckily they weren't directly on the trail and were easy to avoid. It's just another annoyance to look after both, rattlesnakes, and Poodle Dog Bush.

The trail was again easy and fast. At one point I was taking photos and Sunshine caught up to me. Guess I was going slow with all the pole twirling and singing along to the music from my headphones. We made the last mile to the water source together and met Blü and few other hikers there. I had barely touched my water so far.

As Blü and Sunshine continued on after filtering enough water for the next 10 miles, I stayed behind to eat a bit more as I was getting hungry. The day was going fast. If I would continue with similar pace I would be at the Ranger Station some time after midday.

Shortly after I left the water, I met up with Jim and his crew and gave them the coordinates to the overgrown areas. It's a good thing that they are working on these as there was one section where many of us almost fell from the trail as you couldn't see your feet through the thick brush and the trail just disappears. My hiking pole saved me from tumbling down the face of the mountain on that one.

As I hike after Blü and Sunshine, I see couple of snakes, hummingbirds, countless lizards, and few chipmunks. The chipmunks always crack me up, they're so cute.

At one point, up high on the ridge line I notice my phone has reception and I quickly call my mom. I also notice I've gotten some comments and messages from readers and read through them. Talking with my mom and all the nice messages get me on such a good mood that I smile for the next half an hour and hiking feels really good. I can't wait to get to Aqua Dulce to answer everyone's messages.

Trail legs

Lately I've noticed that most of the climbs don't feel that bad anymore and I can just simply power through them with almost no change in pace. I can also easily hike for three-four hours without stopping.

We're getting to be about four weeks in on our hike and that starts to be around the time thru-hikers start getting their trail legs. It will take another two to four weeks to properly have them, but I definitely notice a difference. Now that I see that we're about to go up on a mountain, I don't feel like I'm going to die. I still dread the over 3,000 feet climbs, but those are rarer.

I catch up to Blü and Sunshine as they are taking a siesta under a large pine tree next to the trail. While I feel like hiking on, the shade and the possibility of eating more, are just too much to pass by. I scavenge my food bag for something different.

After some Nutella tortillas I have to move back to the sun as it's too cold in the shade. Blü sleeps in his sleeping bag and I climb next to Sunshine on a log. We talk about important things like which way we put a roll of toilet paper on a holder, and whether we put salami or cheese on top on a bread. Then we fall asleep, right on the trail.

I get woken up as few hikers come by. While the two still sleep I gather my things and continue on.

Soon I reach the Ranger Station and meet familiar faces there. But not Wilder and the girls. I've missed them by few hours. I want to push on but not knowing where Wilder and others are planning to stay, and not having any good plans, I sit down and enjoy the one dollar ice-cold drinks that you can buy from the Ranger Station.

Sitting down was a mistake. I get lazy and the cozyness and the amenities of the campground, versus hiking 8.3 miles alone to unknown, get the better of me and I get soft and decide to stay. Blü and Sunshine arrive. A little later Pony Express and Queso Grande also arrive. We haven't seen them for over a day. It's great seeing them again as our little group has been getting smaller and smaller as Fyre and Blis are off the trail and Andrew and Dragon are somewhere behind us.

We all sit around the picnic table, sing and play ukulele, and have a good time. At times this feels more like camping in a group, just doing long miles in between.

We cowboy camp again and I fall asleep listening to the power lines rattling close by. Tomorrow we push to Akton and then to Aqua Dulce.

Date: May 26, 2017
Miles: 19.9 miles (32km), from mile 398.7 to Mill Creek Fire Station. 
Health: No new blisters, legs tired but feel fine. Definitely need rest.

 Note: as my camera is still broken (see day 25), all photos here are from iPhone 7 Plus.

Today was quite an easy hike in PCT terms. We only climbed few thousand feet, which meant 1.5-2 hours of climbing, and the rest of the day we climbed slowly down. The trail was also quite easy. At times it felt luxurious.

We woke up with Blü quite late, around 6:30am. Blü got his things together quick and I took a little bit more time. We were ahead of everyone else and it wasn't going to be a hot day so no need to rush anywhere. I was on the trail 7:05am.

My first order of business was to make the two miles (3.2km) to Camp Glenwood for water, and to use their pit toilets. All that chili yesterday made me hike a bit faster.

At Glenwood I met Blü and a big group of other hikers. Most hikers pushed on but I stayed to eat a slow breakfast. Soon Wilder and others showed up, followed by the rest of our trail family a little later.

I had already wasted enough time so it was time to get on the trail. I was still a bit down from having an off day yesterday, and missing Blis and Fyre, but Morgan gave me a good pick-me-up before she left and I started to feel a little better.

I felt like I was moving super slow but looking at my progress I was moving at a steady 3.5 miles per hour (5.6km/h) pace. At one point there was a junction and the instructions and the map were a bit off and I ended up on a road, few hundred feet away from the PCT. This was a bit odd as I thought I was following the PCT signs. I ended up walking about 0.5 miles along the road to where it joined the trail again.

Soon I caught up to a female hiker, and a little later to Derek and Kelley who were eating a snack on a small shade on the trail. I felt strong and pushed onwards but soon, on a small climb, I felt all my energy disappear. I didn't eat enough on the breakfast.

The next water source was only few miles away so I didn't want to stop to eat. I let the others pass me and slowly made my way up to the spring on the mountain side. Kelley and Derek were there, and also Blü, who was waiting for me. We ate more and tried to find shade on the narrow trail on the side of the mountain. One by one we filled our bottles from the slow flowing spring.

This whole section was covered in Poodle Dog Bush. It's a nasty bush that grows on burn areas and causes really bad reactions if touched. If clothing or gear touches it, it needs to be washed separately from everything else. As we can't wash anything on the trail, it's just best to avoid the bush at all costs.

The Poodle Dog Bush can sometimes be hard to notice and Blü had sat down right below one at the spring. Not touching it tough.

Our plan from the spring onwards was to take few liters of water to make the next over ten miles to the Mill Creek Water Station, and on the way there, stop where ever Morgan, Laurel, Kristen, and Pig Ben were. Blü left first and I stayed to camel up a liter and filter another one before heading out. It wasn't hot by desert standards, only about 80 degrees (26.7c), but it was still hot enough for me. 

I've learned to pretty well tell how much I need water for different sections. In this kind of heat I can make about 5 miles (8km) with one liter, but I can push it up to 10 miles (16.1km) if needed. Water is the heaviest item we carry so you don't want to carry more than you need.

While I've honed down my water carries pretty well, same can't be said about my food carries. We're getting to Aqua Dulce in few days and I still have enough food to last another five days. It feels ridiculous to spend all that time, money, and effort to make your gear light, and then stupidly carry almost double the needed food for close to hundred miles.

I met the girls after the climb at a nice, but windy spot. But no sign of Blü. The girls hadn't seen him either. Maybe Blü missed them as they were sitting a bit off trail behind some trees. I stay there for a while but the wind and the shade make it kind of a cold spot to sit.

Sam shows up and I borrow the roller he's now carrying. This is the same roller we found in the hiker box in Mount Laguna. Blü has been carrying it for close to 350 miles, and now Sam is doing his part. Our plan is to take the roller all the way up to Canada.

I use the roller to unlock my leg muscles while forcing down some more chocolate bars. While I'm not hungry, I know I need the calories and I don't want to run out of fuel again like earlier.

Soon the girls head out and I hike after them. It's only seven miles from here to the Fire station and it's all downhill. I put on some Iron Maiden in my headphones and start running down the trail. For a second I had a cell reception and I received new photos of Fire (my dog) from back home. I smile and look at them while hiking down with a smile on my face. I miss my little furball so much.

The downhill is pretty quick to hike. I sing out loud and twirl around with my single hiking pole and soon see the Fire Station. Can't believe we've already done close to 20 miles and it's only 4pm? Everyone's sitting around the picnic table and we ponder for a while with Blü whether we should stay at the Fire Station for the night, or push on 2.7 miles to the next possible camp spot. We decide to stay as there's water at the station, and a toilet. That always wins dry camping and digging holes in the desert.

Slowly more hikers arrive and we start to wonder where to sleep. There's a camp ground 200 yards from the Fire Station but it's really noisy thanks to the busy highway close by, and sleeping close to the station is prohibited. I search the area around and soon find a spot behind a parking area where we can all fit and be sheltered from the wind.

As we're starting to settle in for the night, clouds roll in and we're soon all covered in clouds. Without the shelter from the winds it could get cold at night. Everyone's in bed way before hiker midnight. We plan the strategy for tomorrow from our sleeping bags. It's a bit tricky as there's another fire closure where we can't camp, and there's also a ice cold margarita trail magic rumor going around for Sunday morning. We need to do a long day tomorrow to beat the fire closure, and to make it close enough for the Sunday morning margaritas.

Trail life is sometimes weird :)

Date: May 25, 2017
Miles: 14.5 miles (23.3km), from the summit of Mt. Baden-Powell to mile 398.7.
Health: Legs are tired from the climb. Would've needed extra day in Wrightwood to recover. Keep getting new blisters from my shoes.

​​​Note:​ as my camera is still broken (see day 25), all photos here are from iPhone 7 Plus. 

Today was a quite a mixup of emotions. It started with us all waking up at the summit of Mount Baden-Powell. The sunrise was just epic.

We all just sat and walked around the summit marveling the unbelievable beauty opening to every direction. We could see the city of Los Angeles covered in a thick ocean of clouds, the highest mountain tops around us painted with the soft morning light, and the shadow of the Baden-Powell being drawn far below us in the distance. That was quite a way to eat breakfast.

We were in no hurry to leave but as the sun rose higher, everyone slowly started to head down and get back on the trail. The PCT goes only few hundred feet from the summit. On the way down we passed the famous, over 1,500 year old tree. I didn't see it yesterday as I passed it in the darkness.

Our next goal was getting to the next water source. Later in the day Blis's father was rumored to be giving us trail magic along the highway we’re crossing.

Sunshine was still in her sleeping bag and looked like she was not going anywhere soon. Blü had already left as far as I could tell. Everyone was just doing their own thing, it was funny.

I left the summit with Sam and Trevor but as I was feeling all energetic, I passed them and kept running down the mountain. I had forgotten to look at the elevation profile for the day. So when I hit a large uphill, I was quite surprised. We climbed another, a bit lower peak, but it wasn't that bad.

On the way up I met Morgan and Kristen. They were going fast, and the elevation was affecting my ability to breath properly, so I stayed behind them. It was fun hiking with new people. We've met at many stops and camps during the past few weeks, but never hiked together. So that meant new interesting conversation topics.

We soon caught up to Wilder and the rest of the group and made our way to the water. It was a spring on the side of the mountain. Blü was already there and we talked about the strategy for today.

I had completely missed that we would be hitting the endangered species closure today. Part of the trail is closed due to endangered frogs that live on the trail. There are few workarounds, but the most common is a couple mile road walk around the closure.

The next water source was a bit iffy due to the closure but we filtered two liters and would just make it work somehow. It was going to be a hot day.

Everyone got on the trail at different times and I was soon walking solo down the mountain. My legs started to hurt from the climb yesterday and I really didn't feel like hiking today. I turned the music louder in my headphones and hoped that would make the miles go faster. It didn't help. The rocky trail and the continues downhill made my feet hurt more and more. Soon I was going about half the speed I usually do. Frustration started to kick in.

I finally made it down the mountain to a rest stop on the highway 2 where few other hikers were having an early lunch. I still had 3 miles to go before the spot where Blis's fathers trail magic would be, but it was too early, so I sat down and made a bagel for myself.

I ate as slowly as I could as I didn't feel like getting back on the trail. Soon Sam and Trevor got down too and made a quick lunch. It was time to move again. As I was begrudgingly putting on my backpack, I see Trevor putting on his earphones and heading down the trail. Only problem was, the trail goes up from here. He was heading down. He was on the wrong trail.

We tried yelling after him but he didn't hear us. And of course there was no connection here so we couldn't call him. We looked at the map and the trail would lead him back on the PCT, after a 21 mile (33.7km) detour. Ugh.

Luckily he only made it 0.5 miles down before he noticed he was on a wrong trail. We marked the spot with an arrow so that no other hikers would make the same mistake.

I started hiking up but I just wasn't feeling it. The climb was quite steep and exposed. Some way up I made the mistake of looking at the map and elevation profile. The trail basically goes around a mountain, climbs close to 1300 feet, then drops down the same amount, only to end up at the same elevation we started from. So basically we climb for hour and a half to go down again, only to get to the almost same spot where we started from. I felt super frustrated. The trail made no sense, again.

I've noticed the same pattern few times before. We do these completely pointless climbs and detours when we could just walk straight from point A to point B. On my way up, I cursed the trail designer.

Once I reached the top I found Blü there. He had the unfortunate luck of having to listen to me bitch and moan about the trail for about 5 minutes. He just kept laughing and pointed out that the PCT is a "national scenic trail", emphasis on the scenic part.

I apologized for my midday meltdown and started to descent down to where we had started. On the way down I realized what he meant. I was still frustrated with the trail doing pointless loops, but I guess I needed to change my attitude a little bit. I'm so used to hiking somewhere with a purpose that this kind of "let's just pointlessly circle around in the wilderness" hiking feels kind of odd. Now I understand why everyone says you have no use for a compass on the PCT, you're never actually going towards the north.

Blü soon catches up to me and we hike down together. There we find others at the rest stop waiting for Blis and his father. We sit in the shade waiting. Blis arrives but his father is late. We start wondering weather he meant the rest stop 0.7 miles down the road. We have no way of contacting him as there's no connection.

We noticed that the next rest stop has a picnic area and it sounds way nicer than the one we're at, so we decide to go there instead. We walk along the highway to get there but no signs of Blis's father. We wait.

It's starting to get late. At one point we hear back from Fyre. She's off trail and in LA. She's resting her ankle as it has been hurting and she's meeting us in few days in Aqua Dulce. It's great that she's getting her ankle some rest but at the same time we didn't get to say bye to her, and it feels like we lost a member of our trail family. Even if for a short while.

As there's no sign of Blis's father, we decide to send Sunshine back up the highway to check the previous rest stops to see if he's there. She gets on the road and catches a ride instantly. We keep waiting.

After 20 minutes we see a car approaching and it's Sunshine, with Blis's father. We had ended up on a wrong rest stop and he had setup everything on the rest stop before the pointless climb.

We stuff about 15 hikers to his car in two separate rides and get to the correct rest stop. There we have quite a feast waiting for us. Blis's mom and dad had made a huge pot of chili, cornbread, watermelon, and a cooler full of beer. Blis's sister was there to help also.

We eat our stomachs full and enjoy the ice cold beer. What a setup. They had driven two hours from LA just to meet and feed us. Thank you so much for everything!

As it's getting time to leave, Blis tells us he's leaving with his father to LA as his ankle is also busted. We understand but it's really a shame, we're going to miss him so much. And loosing two members of our trail family on the same day, not fun.

We all wish him well and hope to see him in Aqua Dulce as we arrive there in few days. Hopefully Fyre is also there by then.

Blis's father drives us back to the spot where we were before and we thank him so much for all that he has done. While other hikers climb back up to the PCT, me and Blü decide to do a little sneaky move. Here the PCT follows the highway but pointlessly goes up and down on rocky mountains. It doesn't make much sense. By looking at the map we see that by hiking along the highway we can skip most of this pointless zigzagging and join the PCT little way down.

I don't need to hike every mile of the PCT, I just want to have a continues footpath from Mexico to Canada. And my legs hurt and I'm tired. The road walk is easy and we soon join back on the PCT and start going down. We find a nice spot next to the trail where to camp for the night.

Just as I get my cowboy camp all setup I notice I'm on top of an anthill so, as Blü keeps laughing, I move my camp.

I can't wait to get to Aqua Dulce and Hiker Heaven and take two or three zeros. I really need the rest and my feet need to recover. Sierra will wait. Also I need to get my camera fixed.

Tomorrow we'll cross the 400 mile marker.