June 2, day 65, km 1,030
Distance to Kennedy Meadows, gateway to the Sierra: 100 km
Cowboy camped under a Joshua tree. Then started off at 9:15 am. Captain Jack, a hiker from Wisconsin whom we'd met the previous days, passed us. After consulting our Guthook app, we began to realize we still had a way to go before the next water station. To save water, we shared a cup of coffee and waived the muesli. Then we remembered Downhill Mike had written us a text message a few days earlier, mentioning a water cache at kilomter 1,028, at Bird Spring Pass. Mike had hiked the section 3 days before us. So we needed to hike another 18 km and hope the cache would still have enough water. That wasn't so difficult, as the trail was mostly downhill. Somehow, we'd managed to internalize that. At the 1,000 kilometer milestone, which someone had marked with branches, we took photos and interviewed each other about what this milestone means to us. Met some people from Bonn here, though we didn't find out their names until later. Sabine eventually set off again, taking the lead, and encountered Captain Jack en route. Olli joined up later and we interviewed the almost 25-year-old Captain Jack (named for the "Pirates of the Caribbian" printed on his cap), who hopes hiking the trail will help him reduce his media consumption and jumpstart his own creativity.
After a meal break in the shade of a Joshua tree and surrounded by fresh cow patties (however, we didn't see any trace of a cow all day), Olli walked ahead. After another 8 km, he happily ascertained there was plenty of water at Bird Spring Pass. The last 3 km without water had made him a bit uneasy. Sabine turned up 15 miutes later – without a single drop of water. We generously filled up our water supplies and had a meal break. Dark clouds assembled. We interviewed the couple from Bonn: Katharina, 29, a doctor who quit her job after just two and a half years in order to hike the trail; and Flo, 30, an immunologist.
It was an interesting conversation – among other things about the working conditions in a hospital for a female doctor.
Filipe arrived. His 21-year-old buddy Brazilian Storm, who was inspired by Filipe to do the PCT, was at least a day ahead of Filipe, because he had overtaken us at least 24 hours before. Filipe immediately lay down to rest next to the gigantic bottles at the water cache: he was having trouble with his hamstrings. Next to the oversized bottles, he looked a bit like a male version of Alice in Wonderland. In the meantime, Captain Jack wrote and drew in the trail register ...
Just before we set off on the 6-km ascent rising to 450 meters altitude, Vanessa from Osnabrück passed us. We'd met her at Scout and Frodo’s and hadn't seen her since (she'd started a day after us)! Of course we indulged in a lively exchange. Vanessa’s pace is fairly fast; she'd quit the trail for 10 days because of an intermezzo in Las Vegas, and had rejoined the trail only today. Although we headed off to the ascent after our natter, Vanessa – now nicknamed Little Bee – was still trying to figure out if she wanted to go up at all, given the weather forecast. Nearly at the summit – we'd had no rain, fortunately – we had a short snack break with a super view. A little while later, the "crazy" Brazilian Filipe – whom we hadn't expected – arrived. It was hard to miss him: he was bubbling with enthusiasm for the hike. Then Vanessa arrived, having decided to go for it after all. After a break to interview Filipe, we finished up the 1.2 km with a sense of elation. After that, it was all downhill; we called it a day after 32 km. Cowboy camped in the woods.
Pictures