Saturday, April 5, 2025
Miles: 29.0
Gain/Loss: 1617’/1230′
After getting into town at 1:30am after a long day of traveling by plane, city bus, and Greyhound, I was up at 5:30am to walk to the shuttle for 6am. It was a long bumpy drive to the monument, with only one of the three hours on a paved road. It was me plus a male driver and 6 other male hikers in an 8-passenger Tahoe. I did manage to figure out how to pee on the side of a dirt road on the 3-hour drive without everyone seeing me in the open desert (thank you, evergreen bush). It was chilly today, with a high of maybe 60, though it felt 10-12 degrees hotter in the sun.
I got started by 9:20am. It actually lightly rained/sprinkled for a few hours, with dark menacing clouds and high winds that blew sand into my face. It was cold (~45 degrees) while it lasted but nothing too bad. I didn’t feel any panic, so that was good. I saw fallen snow on a high mountain in the distance from the precipitation, and a friend told me it was snowing in Sante Fe.
I tested positive for Flu A 7 days before departure for this trip. I went to a lot of trouble to get a script from my PCP for an inhaler for this trip, and it was very much worth it. My lungs hurt off and on all day, though the inhaler did help a lot. I was very glad that the trail today was basically flat.
Despite a very difficult route, I only got off trail once and took a slightly longer way around, bushwhacking back to trail. The trail is hard to follow, with lots of sandy game trails from coyotes and cows, and very little signage. It’s more a route through the brush so far, with lots of washes where it’s easy to lose the trail.
I met Six at the first water cache. She’s from San Francisco, and had hiked the PCT before.
After another water cache or two, I saw a giant desert hare with huge ears towards sunset. I pushed until last light to make it to my anticipated stopping spot. I set up camp at 7:45pm on schedule for mileage, and was asleep by 9pm.
