Day 37; Sat, June 2 2007

(Stud) Here's an entry you probably shouldn't read if you find the "f" word or the word "sucks" offensive.

The day actually started out good. We got up, headed down the trail and waived good mornimg to father and son--Troll and Oblivious--who were camped not too far down the trail from us. Oblivious is 12, and by far the youngest thru-hiker we've met on the PCT. He hiked the AT with his mom and dad when he was 10. <e is an only child and is home schooled. While his dad is talkative and gregareous--he is generally laid back and often has his nose in a book when not engaged in other camp activities. But he's always got a big grin and is very engaging when you start up a conversation with him.

About 2 miles down the trail we got water from a spring that had been dammed up by connecting a group of boulders with a cement wall to form a pool about 10 feet in diameter and 3-4 ft deep at the deepest part.

Around 8:15 am (we made note of the time), we were walking through an open forest of Jeffrey pine, when we spotted a black bear about 40 yards away. We stopped and watched as it slowly ambled across the trail and up hill until it disappeared behind some boulders. It never noticed us. This was our first bear sighting on the PCT and seeing such an animal in its natural habitat (as we had several times on the AT) never gets old.

A bit farther down the trail we came to a dirt road crossing. We found a WANTED poster at the side of the trail held down by a rock left by
the Piute Neighborhood Watch. They were looking for a dirty, psycho, white male, 5'5", going by several alias' including "short shit". This guy had been breaking into local houses and steeling guns. The sign said he had been known to frequent the PCT, had food caches throughout the area and was armed and dangerous. The poster also said something to the effect: if you shoot, shoot to kill--save law enforcement the time of having to deal with this scum bag. Needless to say, we hiked together through the rest of this section.

Around 9:30 or 10, the beautiful wooded section abruptly ended and we found ourselves back in the desert--with more of it as far as the eye could see. Crap. We were doing a 16 mile stretch between water sources an all I could think about was how we were headed into the desert--which I thought we were finlly done with--just as the day was starting to heat up.

Around noon, we got to a road crossing where Troll, Oblivious and Dozen were taking refuge under a cluster of Joshua trees as they were eating lunch. We scrunched under there with them since there was little shade to be had. While we were eating a ranger pulled up in a truck. He got out, and we noticed he had on a bulletproof vest, was carrying a glock (sp?) and had at least 4 clips of ammunition. He asked if we'd seen anything strange. We told him if he was referring to the guy on the wanted poster--no, we hadn't seen him. We told us this was an area where people on the run hung out. Great.

Dwight and I were the first to head back out in the heat after lunch. It had been cloudly all day and just as we were leaving we got about 10 drops of rain. Two actually hit me. There was monetary excitment on all of our parts that we might actually get rained on, but it was not to be. The sun was hiden behind some clouds for a bit and we enjoyed that while it lasted.

Until around 5 or so we baked in the heat--leap frogging each other as we stopped to take breaks. Around 5, we found Dozen under a Joshua tree eating his "first dinner". Apple Pie was about 30 yards further down the trail under a Joshua tree--they had not seen each other. So the 4 of us joined up and ate and hung out until 6 or so--then packed up. We were all trying to make it to the next water stop--which would have made it about a long 27 mile day for us.

We hiked until 9:30 pm or so and never made it to the water. We had to do a long unhill section in the blasted loose beach sand--on trail that had been eroded into mogals(sp?) by dirt bike riders. Dirt bikes have heavily damaged PCT trails in the area we'd been hiking through in the last several days. We believed they were responsible for the beach sand effect as well. At one point along this section a hiker had used their hiking pole to write "Fucking Bikers" in the sand. If I'd had the energy, I'd have added "Amen, brother" next to it. The only way I got through this section of trail was to concentrate on putting my foot down only in places where another hiker had before me. It sucked, it truly sucked.

At 9:30 pm we found a nearly flat spot next to the trail and threw down. Dwight had not had any water in some time--so he finished what I had left. It could not have been more than 1/4 cup. It would have to do until tomorrow.