Memories from May 25
Today looked like this until shortly after noon.
Everything looked ghostly. Condensation would collect in trees and cause small showers beneath them and my shoes acquired a thin layer of mud. The grass and fox tails which line the trail were we as with dew so my lower pant legs became damp as well. This seems like a foretaste of what the trail will be like in Washington where it’s sometimes jokingly referred to as a hiker wash.
Since the air was cool, and the ground offered few good places to sit, I walked continuously until the snacks I had stashed on the outside if my pack ran out and I had to sit down to eat something. Before then…
I passed the House of Bear which had a notice posted about armed surveillance. I thought it looked abandoned and was a ways off the trail so I stopped to take this picture. Instead, a few hundred yards up road, I passed a moderate size cabin shrouded in fog like something from a horror movie. I didn’t stop for a picture that time.
I did stop to get a picture of the 600 mile marker.
And when I had finally stopped to eat sitting on across a drier section of the trail, a few rain drops fell so I dug my poncho-tent out of my pack and through it over me. A minute or two later, the sky started to clear.
The 5-ish miles into Landers Camp were gorgeous, perhaps the prettiest on the trail so far. There were no scenic views, instead it felt like I was walking though someone’s garden. Alternatively it might have been the floor if a well decorated aquarium because of all the colors and sandy quality if the soil. I don’t know that pictures capture the effect properly but here’re a few.
At one point I crossed Puite Road where the Kern County Sheriff’s office has put a questionnaire for PCT hikers about encounters with dirt bikers (dirt bags?).
Landers Camp itself seems largely designed for ATV type use and had warnings about helmet requirements and spark suppressors. The spring at the camp is flowing wonderfully so I used my left over water to mix up about 64oz if milk.
I shared a large campsite with Druid who I’d been leap frogging with for most of the day. He’s not particularly talkative but is one of the few southerners I’ve met on the trail. We were joined by Icebath who is hiking a section missed during last year’s thru-hike. We had a fun conversation about a number of subjects including US education (Icebath is a teacher) and intellectual independence.
Isaac Takes A Hike 