June 3, day 66, km 1.049
Distance to Kennedy Meadows, gateway to the Sierra: 81 km
Today we set off at 8 am, with the aim of reaching Walker Pass (20 km) early in order to keep our options open for the continued route. During breakfast at 6 am, Filipe zoomed past: he'd informed us the evening before that he wanted to get an early start again. The entire stretch was downhill, from 1,831 to 1.608 meters. As a result, we made good time, despite the heat. At half-time we had a meal of noodles with chunks of salami and tuna – super delicious! When we were done, Flo and Katharina turned up, the couple from Bonn whom we'd interviewed the day before at the Bird Spring water cache, and inherited our plat picnic spot. Captain Jack had passed by earlier. Found out we could expect trail magic at Walker Pass Trailmagic, and that "Second Chance Hiker" was expected at 3 pm.
Link: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC4DLytGAdFb-9ArE02HUHeQ
Second Chance is the PCT star 2019, a 200 kg giant who’s taken his life in his own hands again since starting off on the PCT in January. He's lost 50 kg so far. Naturally, we were eager to take
the opportunity to interview him. We practically sailed down the mountain, reaching Walker Pass in 75 minutes (7.2 km).
And, indeed, trail magic awaited us! Zero Goal Power and Solar had set up several tents, providing hikers with grilled hotdogs, vegetables, fruits, soda, and ice cream. A true feast for hikers!
We saw many acquaintances: Seashells and Lawrence of Cascadia, Jukebox and Oilking, Rabit Rabit and Mockingjay. Captain Jack was also already there. Everyone had intended to move on, but we all
stayed – it was a beautiful place and everyone had so much to recount. The most important topic was, of course, what's next. The next station is Kennedy Meadows, i.e., the sierra. Half a dozen
options were debated on how to cross the latter given the wintry conditions, versus skipping/flipping. The sierra is over 400 miles long, with 80% of the trail covered with snow. That means
bringing heavier clothing, plenty of food, and various other utensils (ice ax, microspikes, crampons, bear canister). Getting up every day at 3 am, hiking up the pass in order to be down again
before the midday sun – to avoid post holing (sinking up to your knees in deep snow). And coping with wet clothes and tent every day. You have to have a taste for it. Even a Dutchman, who's with
the military and who has plenty of snow experience from being in the Arctic, decided to skip the sierra!
For us, hiking through the sierra makes no sense at the moment because we'd be too slow in the current wintry conditions, even if we wanted to (max. mileage is 10 miles a day here) – and we
wouldn't reach Canada, our goal. We’ve therefore decided on the following option:
We'll leave the trail at Walker Pass and take a bus to Ashland, on the border of California and Oregon, thus skipping the sierra (750 km) and northern California (900 km). From Ashland we'll hike
northbound through Oregon (675 km) and Washington (750 km) to Canada. Normally, the problem in Washington is the Cascades, which are snow-covered till early July. Fortunately, the situation is a
lot better there than in the sierra, so we can expect to get through in early July if conditions are ok. In Oregon, however, there may be forest fires in early July – for which reason part of the
trail was closed last year. Since it's June, and slowly getting warmer, we should be fine. From Canada, we'll jump back to Walker Pass in order to catch up on the sierra during the best time of
year. And if we end up being late, we could even do the "easier" stretch in northern California for a few weeks during October. That's the plan anyway....
At some point, Second Chance turned up and we were able to shoot a terrific, moving interview with him. He'll be joining Vanessa, Little Bee, and others after Walker Pass.
One of our last deeds was weighing the backpacks: Olli's weighed 21 kg without food (we'd eaten most of it on the last stretch) or water. Sabine's weighed 17 kg, without food or water – the scale
wasn't very exact, though. Then we sprayed Sabine's T-shirt with the words "Trail Monster" at Hobo Joe’s, joking about Sabine's yen for communication and Mountain Lion’s keeping a distance
voluntarily on that account.
After a great afternoon and evening at Walker Pass, the goodbyes were hard. Interviewed Seashells, Lawrence, Little Bee, and Jukebox, between a couple of hotdogs and six and five beers (how many
did Sabine have; how many did Olli have?). Then Meagen, who works for the Navy and who was hanging out at Walker Pass on account of the great energy – took us to Ridgecrest, about a half hour's
drive, during which we reserved a room at the "Super 8" instead of the doubly expensive Clarion Inn recommended by Mike. Since there was no laundry service, Meagan figured out the laundry
logistics during the drive. At Super 8, we did laundry ($6), had a meal at Carl's Jr., and fell asleep exhausted.
Pictures