Day 41 walker pass + injury and inspiration part 1

16.1 miles
From the McIver cabin (Mile 645, UND 6678)
To the unmarked path camp (mile 660, UND 7300)
Ascent 3030
DESCENDA 2594

Matt/Bones was in Walker Pass Campground. I quickly moved with Bear Bait and LP this morning for the 8 -mile walking walk.
In the morning, we started the short eight -mile walk (at this point, any distance in a single digit was mentally «short») to Walker Pass. Bear Bait and LP were looking for a trip to the city. I was finally looking to meet Matt/Bones (in 2024) in real life after working with him remotely for a few years.

Hills and valleys while falling towards Walker Pass

At the beginning of our time working together, Matt had a beautiful zoom background of a mountain, which he called as a local mountain. As someone who loves maps and the outdoors, I looked for him and discovered that Matt lives in a city where my grandfather actively looked for musical talent for a record company in the 1920s. He was eighteen months ago, I made a journey by road to Campo Avious with my son (returning from a job on the east coast) and I passed when Matt was visiting relatives. This time, Matt, after acquiring his alternative identity of the bones of the 2024 at (https://mattwalksthisway.ghost.io), was on his own road trip, visiting friends, national parks and going on his own camp/backpack trips. He was camped at the Walker Pass camp during the night. That morning, he parked at Walker Pass to provide magic of trails for PCT hikers and wait for me.

We updated with the professional status of others, the company that both directly or indirectly worked, so far, the details of it in Trek and its road travel plans in California. We discuss our experiences with the community through life; hikers, villages and angels of trails. We even remember taking photos, so he has evidence of our co -workers that he really met John Walker in Walker Pass. It was not until almost 3 hours later that I returned to the road.

And before leaving, Mike and Kathy, a single sense, Trail Angels by Kelsey Valley Road the other day, they also came to load the water cache a little more before returning home in San Diego. So we all talked a little about what appeared along the way, as well as their experiences as angels of trails. It became evident that although it can take a long time to meet people who walk on the same speed on the road, if you are stationary as an angel of paths, you are quickly with many hikers when you arrive in you. Mike and Kathy also explained that if they went to a good restaurant while they were on vacation, they would spend as much money as they do in Trail Magic Supplies, but they would not have the same experiences or interactions.

Matt at Walker Pass (on a 7000 -mile road trip)

With Matt/Bones in Walker Pass

In terms of covered miles, those few hours were completely unproductive. In terms of formed memories, most of the other hours on the road will eclipse.

The path rises from Walker Pass almost without shadow, so he was very grateful for some clouds. I walked an hour or so before stopping for a hike lunch (tuna and cheese wrapped in tortillas, followed by another tortilla with Nutella). A couple of miles later, I found some shadow in a camp, I supported my feet and rest for half an hour. I am slowly adopting the nap approach of life on the road. It is much more pleasant to walk when it is cooler, so I am taking more frequent breaks at noon.

The next water source seemed to be too far when I left my last nap. But Farout said there were no other tent sites before. My legs still felt good and I really wanted to get some more miles, so I started walking and hoping to find a good place. During the following miles, the path was contoured along the side of a mountain with a strong rise on one side and the corresponding fall in the other. The only flat terrain was the 18 -inch width of the path. And even those frequently crossed scart fields. I expected to be able to find something in a chair or maybe when it went on a crest.

The various ridges of ridges and mountains that I could see from the path

The contour of the path, barely climbing or going down, as it advances along the mountain

Here, crossing a crest, I saw a single small tent site about 40 feet of complete path with an adjacent wall of sticks to help block the wind. There were spectacular views in almost all directions. I went to work by cleaning more rocks on the ground and anxiously prepared my store. These views were worth a little wind and limited water until the morning.

The Ridge, right next to the path, where I settled the camp

My tent on the crest, well above the valley that contains the city of Ridgecrest

Someone had accumulated trunks to break part of the wind on this exposed crest

Sunset on the assembly of which I will walk in the morning

Note: This will be a continuous topic for a moment, so I am dividing it into parts of the day.

Ridgecrest at night

Apparently I had still been moisturizing well enough, while I woke up in the dark knowing that I needed to leave my store before the morning to water a rock. I put on my headlights, I slim over my shoes, I got out of my store and I saw more lights than only the stars above and the lights of the city of Ridgecrest down. There was a flashlight forty feet from my store, just where the path passes. Most people are not walking here at this time.

«Good night. Do you need anything?» I asked.

Hot Mess’s story came out quickly. He had just spent three days in Ridgecrest with an injured foot. The radiography said it was not broken and thought it was tendonitis. He had just returned to the path that night, walking at night to avoid heat. He had forgotten to load his flashlight, so he was walking in the light of his cell phone. The unequal and rocky path, especially the fields of Scree, in the last miles bothered her with almost every step.

Having explored the crest while it was still light, I knew there was another place to sleep a little further than my store. I told him that I did not know what I would find if I walked, but I didn’t see any land on the map that seems suitable for a tent for another couple of miles. I suggested that acamparo there tonight, let your foot rest and decide the correct course of action in the morning.

Needle in a hay

Soon, I put on a jacket and was showing Hot Mess the other close flat place.

I am in no way close to the most experienced person I could have found, but for several reasons, I knew I could help. I spent years in an emergency response team at work. He had taken first aid in the desert five times more than a dozen years. He had taken numerous youth groups to the countryside. The hat that I wear Hon Trail is a volunteer post in the County parks where I go to the trails and provide help (food, water, first aid, maps, instructions, information) for those who need it, which is something that I was doing even before being officially voluntary (I am my mother’s son and I cannot imagine otherwise).

While we were preparing to establish the Hot Mess store, it was visually scanning the ground for things that could be uncomfortable or harmful. I saw something brilliant in my lighthouse. Fearing that it was a piece of glass, I approached to pick it up and discovered that it was actually a sewing needle. Hot Mess commented that he had found the proverbial needle in a haystack. Knowing my background and the chances that she walked just when she left my store, I was wondering if she was the one who found the proverbial needle to find the help and support she needed.

We finished configuring your store and we both removed our tents for a very necessary break.

Electronic confusion

Yesterday I had a good cell connection most of the day. When I discovered where Matt was, I mentioned that I could overcome my planned camp in the McIver cabin last night to get to Walker Pass. When I got to the cabin, I knew that my body really didn’t want to walk those additional 8 miles last night. I wanted to inform Matt. But I no longer had cell service.

«There is no problem,» I thought, «I can send a message through my Garmin Inreach. But, without having a cellular connection, my phone did not reveal to me Matt’s phone number. He made our text conversation go back a couple of years, but I could not show me his number.

Oh good. I sent you a text message as soon as I had connectivity this morning. And I consider this more example of how technology often does not consider functionality when people are not constantly connected.

I have not left the desert completely

While contoureding the mountain, it was clear that he had not left the desert completely. In addition to being able to look at Ridgecrest east (definitely desert), there were still many Yucca cactus along the path.

YUCCA: I have not yet left all the cactus

Lupin, but I’m seeing things that I normally see in the mountains