Filling in the gaps–Tehachapi to Walker Pass on the PCT
Early last summer we skipped the 80+ mile Tehachapi to Walker Pass leg on the PCT since it was more than 100 degrees at the time–with long water carries–and a little too edgy for us. Spring break this year seemed to be a perfect time to fill in this gap! We wanted to use just one vehicle this time (really, gas prices, the waste, the environment–we hoped to be better) and were a little confused about how we’d get to and from the trailhead.
Enter our exercise class/Pole Pedal Paddle team friends Dirk and Sarah–they had lived in the Bakersfield area for years and knew the Tehachapi hiking community well. Dirk and Sarah–thank you!
Their friend got us in touch with trail angel extraordinaire Abel, who, with his wife Kim, hosted us the night before our hike, fed us breakfast, allowed us to store our truck at the end of their driveway, and drove us to our start and ending trailheads. Abel–this is a very late and very grateful “thank you” for your kindness, patience and splendid humanity. We will remember you!
So, Day One of our hike: Abel hiked the first six (uphill) miles with us and we carried on another several miles on our own. High temp was 45…low was 35, with storm clouds on the horizon. We stopped at 10 miles out due to an imminent storm–we didn’t want to be stuck on a ridge in high winds and snow. Had a series of small accidents our first night of camping: Chris gouged his forehead on a branch, I burned a hole in my down jacket, and both of us poured boiling water on our (shod) feet at different times. Obviously, we were not quite in the hiking groove yet. 10ish miles total.
Day Two: Walking through clouds, mist, high winds and occasional drizzle. Everything was cold and wet–I wore all my clothes. There were some clear moments when we could see wind turbines through the mist (we could hear them all the time though–spooky). The day’s hike was challenging due to trail rerouting and elevation gain and we got to camp late. 17.5 miles total.
Day Three: Joy of joys, we woke up to the sun streaming through the walls of our tent! We had a thoroughly lazy morning drinking many cups of tea and drying everything out–we didn’t leave camp until 11am. The trail forward featured lots of oak and Jeffrey Pine at about 5500 feet elevation. There was snow on the north face of hillsides. There was some unhappy uphill dirt road hiking. We finally got to Robin Bird Springs where we filtered water below a surface coating of thick green algae (later in early June many PCT thru hikers would get sick here). It took a long time to filter water leaning into the low trough framed with nettles and covered with corrugated roof metal–we traveled a few miles more and camped on a little raised knoll among the scrub oak.
Day Four: We left our little knoll and found an unmapped spring just a mile up trail. Would have been nice to know about that ahead of time–it was a lot less vegetal than Robin Bird Springs. We marched through lovely rolling hills of Jefferson Pine, then Ponderosa, then Pinion Pine, and finally, losing elevation, scrub oak and then huge boulders and sagebrush. We met “Trail Crew”–headed south to Campo from Walker Pass. We were surprised to be in the desert sun! We took a little siesta at the Kelso Valley Rd water cache (thank you trail angel Devil Fish) and went up trail about 1.5 miles for a great camp spot on a little hill under the Joshua Trees. About 12.5 miles total.
Day Five and Six: not many notes from these days. We left early to beat the heat (a far different situation from the first few days of our hike!), passed through numerous OHV routes, up and down desert ridges, through protected desert tortoise areas and spent the night in a Joshua Tree grove at Bird Springs Pass (I know, we confused it with Robin Bird Springs, too) with another much appreciated water cache manifested by trail angel “Devil Fish”. The Joshua Tree grove allowed for some meditative moments.
Somewhere around Day Six we encountered many folks on OHVs–all very friendly if somewhat confused about our mission and the PCT paralleling their dirt roads–and the famous McIver Springs (dry) and cabin:
Day Seven: Abel met us at our campsite 4.9 miles from the Walker Pass trailhead on the last day of our hike. What an angel of a person–it was so good to see him! He hiked back down with us and got to the trailhead. It was very hot already. He drove our smelly selves back to his place 45 minutes away and let us hop into the shower before we headed north to Bend again. What a hike! Abel–you made it a wonderful and expeditious experience for us. Thanks again!
Three and Some Trees 