53-69 days outside the path – The Trek

I would have thought that a couple of weeks outside the path of the path would have felt relaxing. Instead, he felt quite busy.

Instead of recovering in Lone Pine, I discovered that I could take buses and get home in 10 1/2 hours. So I made the necessary reservations and prepared to recover at home in San José.

Sierras and Mt Whitney from the bus outside Lone Pine

The three buses went from solitary pine to Mojave, wet to Bakersfield and Bakersfield to San José. Google Maps was good to show all connections. But it did not provide any link to traffic agencies to determine the cost, real locations or schedule. For the stop in Mojave, he did not even mention the city. He only said that the stop was in a JR of Carl’s in Inyo St. I had to bring the map to solve it. There was a walk in Bakersfield, for which he gave an estimated time, but not a distance. Traffic addresses are not a new feature, so it is difficult to understand why they cannot provide this useful information.

It was strange to look through the bus window in the areas I have walked: Ridgecrest/Inyokern, Mojave/Tehachapi Pass. Especially because these are the notes that I was currently becoming blog posts.

Wind mills in the distance

Tehachapi pass area. The PCT is at the base of the hills on the left. It begins to climb from the bottom of the great hill on the hill to the right.

The upper part of the 58th highway output ramp in Tehachapi Pass that serves as a bus stop and where the PCT crosses the road.

While they checked my foot, I tried to keep the people informed. But, after getting home, I realized that I had only told friends in my hiking group that was injured and out of the way. He hadn’t told them that he would return home. As they had a walk the next night, I decided to surprise them.
I drove where the walking route crossed a road, walked a couple of hundreds of meters along the path and sat. He was out of the path, wore a winged hat and looked an open map.

Many of the group walked fair. Kate stopped and said: «That looks like John. Are you John?» People were excited to see me.

Kathy was substitute for the walk. From the back, he saw Kate bowed to someone next to the path and worried that there was a great injury. He later told us that he told himself «he would like John to be here. He would know what to do.» She said it was a big surprise.

Surprise for hikers. «Who is this vagabund on the side of the path?»

On the night of the 55th, my stomach felt very restless and quickly progressed to the indicative symptoms of Norovirus. I kept a cube next to my bed and made numerous races to the bathroom that night. I managed to consume broth and some electrolytes the next day. That progressed to his broth with pasta and finally felt about normal for the afternoon of the 58th.

While I was at home, I also introduced myself in the church to sing with my normal music group. Unfortunately, being summer, most of the group was not there.

I felt better during these days and spent time taking care of some things at home. But I also worked to exchange a backpack team for things that I thought would work better for me.

Trekking poles

I had never really used trekking posts before my PCT walk. I liked to have my hands free. But I found them very useful along the way. But the couple who brought were used that my daughter found in a sale of Rei garage. A section of a post would not remain extended when I put weight on it, although it could take the post to the right length for me without extending that. But the Poles had lost their advice at this point. So I bought a new pair of Leki posts.

Cook pot, windshield, top

He had been using a 650 ml pot of Toaks. He also had an aluminum GSI cup that fit inside it. I discovered that the 650 ml pot was barely large enough to rehydrate many of my meals. The food and water were very close to the upper part of the pot, which facilitated the extension. I replaced the 650 ml pot and the cup with a single 900 ml pot.

Instead of using the lid that came with the 900 ml pot, I cut a lid of an disposable aluminum source for baking. I also took a strip of the same type of aluminum and created a wind screen that would surround the pot, reduce the burner wind and redirect the heat by the side of the pot. I thought: «Why wasting the weight in titanium where a lighter aluminum will work equally»? He had used such aluminum tapas for a decade and worked well.

Of course, a larger pot would no longer fit the cozy and made custom bubbles for the construction of buildings. Then, I made a new one to adapt to the biggest pot.

The final result of all this was still lighter than my old 650 ml pot more aluminum cup.

Updated chef kit

Cold soaking container

As with the 650 ml Toaks pot, the talenti container he had been using was barely large enough to hold my morning oats. He had also begun to leak around the threads. So I replaced it with a larger plastic peanut butter jar. Since the peanut butter jar is a thinner plastic, this even saved me 18 grams.

Rain gear

I only used my rain team a couple of times so far. I also tend to be careful and take care of my team. Then, I bought the really cheap and light frog taggs rain suit and replaced my jacket/pants of a decade. This saved me 10 oz more or less.

Guitar

More than one person has thought that this would be the first element I sent home. But he is still with me. This time, I remembered to pack my little capo for it.

The Scout troop had an honor court (awards ceremony) scheduled for tonight to recognize all the work that the scouts had done in recent months. Since I was in the city, I attended. While some explorers knew it was close, most was surprised by my presence. I could talk about a few minutes about my experiences: mainly my injury and how my first aid experience through exploration had provided me with the skills and experience to treat my injury and reduce the probability of worsening things.

Court of Honor (we also build a bridge to symbolically welcome new explorers to the troop)

An disadvantage of doing this walk was that the Wailin ‘Jennys’ would be interpreting a couple of concerts during the summer. But I would be on the way. When I was at home, I looked for the dates and I saw that I could do the concert the night before I left. Obtaining two tickets on this late date meant that it was in the next last row, but I have to attend and listen to its incredible harmonies.

I had completed my antibiotic course around 63, so it could have followed again. But the Scout troop was scheduled to go to the summer camp in the mountains from the 64th for me. They would be in a established camp much closer to the PCT. So I chose to join them during most of the week they were there and return to trails directly from the camp.
It was a logistics challenge, since I really didn’t want to risk forgetting something I would need on the way. Then, I did my best to pack to camp and continue completely separately. That meant that my backpacking team remained in my backpack throughout the week, while using another team for the camp (I used an older sleeping sack and slept in my hammock all week). While I was there, I tried to evangelize the path to adults and young people a bit (hopefully for a few years in the future), giving a talk related to my experiences with 800 miles on the PCT so far. And as I usually do while I was there, I helped teach a class (pioneer this year) and went to some paths and doing some maintenance on the path that I have adopted in the last ten years.

Our camp in the summer camp

Swing

Floating blastpole (keep in mind that the post with the banner in it does not touch the ground)

Tower

«Sand» art: use of materials found in the camp

Rope tunnel entrance in our camp

We use a reflective chain for the entrance

Jam Musical Session: We invite the staff and other troops to come to our camp and lead/join the song

Pioneer class proves the strength of its construction

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