Arthur on the PCT

Arthur and his tramily have reached the gateway to the Sierra.

 On Wednesday Arthur hit mile 662.5 -- one quarter of the trail! "We climbed into some legit mountains after Walker Pass and some Sierra white granite."

On Wednesday Arthur paused at Walker Pass to get some more assistance from our Bakersfield Trail Angel, Jennifer. That was at mile 644, and he plans to temporarily leave the trial at mile 744 at Cottonwood Pass. He starts climbing into the mountains in about 50 miles ( click here for an elevation profile) but he says the snow reports show that the first fifty miles or so are clear.  We will drive from the Truckee area to Lone Pine this weekend to pick him up and the he will spend about a week here and then start hiking north from here.  "First views of the High Sierra; mind blowing how much snow there still is." Lots of Joshua Trees recently.  Arthur wore the same shoes on his thru-hikes of the Tahoe Rim Trail (2021), the John Muir Trail (2022) and the first 640 miles on the PCT, for a total of about 1,000 miles, plus 20 miles up and down Half Dome in 2021 and numerous other day hikes. 

The southernmost section (approx. miles 0-700) seems to be the best supported by trail angels. People who live along or near the trail seem to delight in helping the hikers by providing food and drink at trail-road junctions, shuttling them to post offices and towns, and even inviting them into their homes.  Twice now Arthur has spent a night with a number of other hikers in homes on or near the trail, where the landowner charges a small fee for a bed, shower, and laundry. On Thursday, Arthur and his crew were met by my friend Jennifer. I've known Jennifer since 1999 when we worked at different newspapers under the Oakland Tribune parent company and played co-ed rec softball together (Go Band!). Jennifer is also a backpacker (she joined Arthur and I on a four-day trek through Desolation Wilderness a few years ago) and lives in Bakersfield, which is just an hour or so drive from a couple of PCT resupply locations. So she was eager to be a trail angel. I've mailed he lots of Arth

Tuesday Arthur passed the 500 mile mark and reached Hikertown, a group of small buildings in the desert that offers services to hikers. He picked up a resupply box I sent there.  We talked with Arthur for about a half hour Sunday morning. It was so good to hear his voice, and he is having an amazing time. He said he feels like he is really in a groove and loves living a life of having no worries but getting from point A to point B, waking and resting with the rhythms of the sun.  And we are super excited to see him in a couple weeks. He will leave the trail around July 1 and we will pick him up around Kennedy Meadows, possibly with one or two of his hiker buddies, and then he will stay in our cabin near Donner Pass for several days and then resume hiking north from here. Here are some recent photos: "We saw so much poodle dog brush yesterday. It seems to really like burn areas. It smells really bad like weed. It does have pretty purple flowers though."

Arthur continues to feel great and is enjoying his time on the trail and with the people in his bubble.  "We haven't seen LA at all because of the marine layer. It's clouds as far as you can see. Feels like you're on the edge of the world. The marine layer actually came over the mountains a few times. This was it receding but it really reminded me of that one reservoir we would drive past to go to half moon bay, with the marine layer coming over the coastal range." "We had to do a road walk yesterday due to a small trail closure for endangered frogs." Some of the folks he has been hiking with plan to power through the Sierras despite the snowy conditions. Things could change, but at the moment he is planning to leave the trail at Kennedy Meadows or Cottonwood Pass. His parents are excited to pick him up and bring him to Donner Pass, on the north end of the Sierra, where he will hang

At roughly Mile 370, Arthur is having a truly amazing time on the trail.  "(Tuesday) was awesome. We did 25.8 so basically 26 miles with 6500 feet of climbing. It was so pretty. Amazing pine forest at the top. I really felt great today-- it might be the best day so far. And like so little descent it was all climbing which I like. Really have my trail legs and am in the swing of things. I'm having so much fun on the trail." His group is starting to think about how they will handle the Sierra Nevada section of the trail. In a few weeks they'll reach the southern end of the Sierras at Kennedy Meadows. Record amounts of snow hit the region this winter and many parts of the trail north of Kennedy Meadows are still covered. If conditions don't improve they may decide to get a ride to a point further north where there's less snow and, hopefully complete the section they skipped later in the year. 

Arthur seems to be hiking with a consistent crew for now. Here they are on Friday at the home of Kenny, who provides a bed, laundry, and shower for $40.  They crossed a deep but very slow moving creek together. The water wasn't very cold and the crossing was fun, though carrying the pack on his head was "interesting." 

 So far Arthur has gone about 320 miles. Animals he has encountered: coyotoes howling at night but not seen, a huge jackrabbit, tons of bugs that are not mosquitoes (yay!), beetles, butterflies, big bees, little grey lizards everywhere, and garter snakes. Thia horned lizard is adorable. This creature is less adorable, but it was polite enough to sleep right smack in the middle of the trail where it was easily seen and then avoided. "That's a little water cache someone set up, it had that tank and a little library of poems, and those cardboard cutouts were famous poets with some quotes from them. Thru hikers often get trail names. Last year on his John Muir Trail hike, someone called Arthur Junior Jesus because of his age and his long hair. He went by JJ for short for the rest of that hike. For this hike he decided to change, and this week got his new name: "My name is Boot because a few days before big bear I dropped my boot

 Arthur (trail name Boot, more on that later) spent a few days taking it relatively easy near Big Bear Lake. (When you hear about people in LA driving up to the mountains for the day to ski, they are talking about Big Bear.) Big Bear was his first true zero day and proper shower since he started. He got a ride with some other hikers (Cheddar, Honey, Charolotte, Hats Off, DeVeeDay) to a hiker resort run by a guy named Kenny who charges $40 a night for a bed, shower, and laundry.  "I took a shower and it was incredible. I look much skinnier, lol...You can see my ribs but my legs look the same." He's lost about 11 pounds and feels truly hungry after two weeks. (His trips the last two years were about 10 days and he lost a similar amount but never felt like eating much until he was off trail. He's loving the PCT community: "There was one guy at Scissors Crossing with strawberries and oranges and a lady at I-10 with oranges and cookies."

Arthur is taking a zero day in Big Bear City. This morning he ate a huge burrito for breakfast but was still hungry and planned to buy many snacks at the grocery store. He plans to take a shower and wash his clothes at the home of a trail angel where he'll stay with other hikers.  He sent me lots of photos, which I'll post and caption as I have time. Meanwhile, here's a selfie from Mile 265, one-tenth of the way!

Arthur camped near Mile 228 on Monday evening in a beautiful canyon. He hiked less than 20 miles Monday after a massive descent of more than 7000 feet in elevation, his most in one day ever, from Mt. San Jacinto. "(Saturday) there was a lot of snow, but was very nice up by jacinto. Tons of water, although at the start there were many fallen trees, some needing you to crawl under or take a large detour. Today I saw a tarantula hawk! Massive 2 inch wasp, with bright orange wings. It was crazy! Really afraid of me though it instantly flew away." He's mostly hiking alone, but frequently sees two guys from Japan and France. They hike at a different pace but do around the same mileage.  

Arthur reports that Friday was a hard day, but delicious water was found at Apache Spring. "All set up in camp for the night. Hard day, lots of uphill, great views of palm springs and the desert though. Looking forward to tomorrow, going to be pretty!" As of Saturday evening Arthur was around Mile 190 and had had a hard day or climbing.  "Got into camp for tonight, extremely pretty but super difficult day. One section had like a mile of snow! Can say more tomorrow once I have data"

  Arthur says the weather was interesting on Wednesday: "It was super windy, I was walking literally inside of of the clouds most of the day and before that it sprinkled a bit. Later on the clouds kinda parted and I could see they were all super low-hanging. It was only sunny from 2:30 to 3:00 or so and probably low 60s the whole day." He also said he had to get water from a spring where the water tasted and smelled like sulfur. He was concerned about the drinkability of the water at Tule Spring but plenty of people were drinking it after filtering, and since it was 10 miles till next water, he used it even though it didn't taste very good. Today (Thursday) he reached Paradise Valley Cafe at mile 151, where I dropped his first resupply box after I left him at the trail head. I'll be shipping his next boxes to Big Bear City and Wrightwood.