PCT 2018 Thru-Hike: Episode 7 - Still In The Desert

Description

PCT Gear List Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaQqPbu1Fa0

PCT Gear List - https://darwinonthetrail.com/2018/04/19/darwins-2018-pct-thru-hike/

*** WAYS TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL ***

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/darwinonthetrail

(Help Support my 2018 PCT Thru with a pledge as low as a $1/month)

Visit our Etsy Shop! - https://www.etsy.com/shop/TravelandTrail

*** Gear Used to Shoot this Video! ***

Canon G7X Mark ii - http://amzn.to/2xnpSMt

UltraPod Tripod -https://amzn.to/2Eklksd

———Video Edited By: Kat Pendergast———

https://www.superk.at

------Intro & Animation By: BlackStrap Media------

https://blackstrapmedia.com

DISCLAIMER: This video and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support the channel and allows us to continue to make videos like this. Thank you for the support!

Contact information:

Website: www.darwinonthetrail.com

Instagram: Darwin_Onthetrail

facebook: www.facebook.com/darwinonthetrail

Tags: UL Hiking Gear,PCT,Pacific Crest Trail,PCT Thru Hike,Thru-Hike Gear List,UL Backpacking,Zpacks,Enlightened Equipment,CNOC Outdoors,UL Backpacking Gear,Vargo Bot 700,Hiker Trash,Hiking,Backpacking,Adventure,Long Distance Hiking,Zpacks Duplex,Zpacks ArcBlast,Kennedy Meadows

Video Transcription

good morning or afternoon or whenever you're watching this I just left Tehachapi I took a zero-day into HP to take care of some errands do some things that needed to be done have 140 miles till I get to Kennedy Meadows which is the beginning of the Sierras pretty exciting and I wanted to you know just kind of figure out my whole bear can situation and where I'm gonna pick it up what kind of resupply I want to do how much I want to carry so I got all the logistics of that figured out I did have to go into a town about a mile and a half hour an hour and a half into another city to go to an REI to buy new shoes because even though I picked up new shoes in Wrightwood my feet have grown a half size so I actually had to go up to a size twelve and a half hopefully they stopped growing because 13 just sounds nuts ate a bunch of pizza ate some Chinese food drink some beer got some good rest what else oh yeah I saw The Avengers was really wanting to see the New Avengers movie I won't spoil it for anybody even though hopefully you've seen that by now if you're a comic book geek if not go see it and yeah back on the trail apparently according to gut hook I am done with Southern California to hatchapee was supposed to be the end of Southern California and I just downloaded the second section of maps for central and northern California or the Sierras in Northern California but it definitely still looks like Southern California to me it's already pretty hot today huge six mile climb out of town and I might end up doing 20 24 miles today out of town all depends on how I feel but so far with the new shoes my feet not feeling is cramped feeling pretty good so here we go [Music]

time for a little break some lunch and a small siesta got a pretty decent day so far

climbed pretty much all the elevation that I think I want to be doing today I think from now on I'm just gonna be kind of cruising around it's definitely pretty warm day today might be the hottest day I think I've had out on the trail so far but still not bad it could be a lot worse still technically in the Mojave so I've been in the Mojave when it's really hot and it could definitely be worse one thing that is a bummer about today because there's been like no coverage is every time I've taken a drink of water it's like boiling hot because the Sun is just hitting the bottle and just heating it up in there a lot of dirt road walking today a lot of cruising down little dirt roads it reminded me a lot of the Arizona Trail which once you packed like a bunch of different sections and different trails every time you're on another trail you constantly like feel like you're back on some other trail somewhere you know there's parts on this trail where it's been very 80-ish parts that have definitely been very continental - bye - the New Mexico section and parts that have been very Arizona Trail like the northern section I say today is an Arizona TRO there I like how this trout changes a lot know what the 80 a a lot of times you're just hiking the exact same thing every single day from like pretty much Georgia all the way down Massachusetts it just looks the same and it finally starts to look different like when she start getting into Vermont and stuff so it's nice to have that variety out here where it changes

[Music]

[Music]

so today ended up being a 26 mile a day out of Tehachapi and they found a pretty decent camp spot not in the desert actually in some trees and grass and dirt recently someone asked me how I picked camp spots I don't really pick camp spots I just stopped when I get tired I was pretty tired after 26 miles a day after taking a zero you know having a day of rest whenever you're taking a zero and then getting back out on the trail definitely wears you out a little bit more than if you are kind of in the groove and you've been doing it for a few days and yeah I just get tired I find a spot and I set up my tent and I go to bed lately I've been trying to get in about 25 miles a day so if I kind of see something on gut hook or know of something that's gonna be like right at that 25 mile mark I might shoot for that but typically I just stop whenever I'm tired and I see something that looks flat I cannot stand camping on inclines crappy sandy spots and so I always looking for something flat and when I am absolutely exhausted wore out and I cannot go anymore for the day that's where I can't so now that I have the camp set up tent set up beds ready to go I've relaxed a little bit it is time to eat so on the menu tonight we have couscous with dehydrated peppers in there which is one of my favorite meals tuna this is with the sunflower oil in it so it has 160 calories none of that 70 calorie flavored lemon pepper stuff I go for the big calories and pesto because this stuff is awesome pretty much I love eating just couscous the great thing about couscous is you oh good obviously it is so easy to cold soak and it doesn't take long at all and then all you do is just grab some sort of a seasoning packet like pesto or taco seasoning or sometimes I'll even get a thing a gravy mix and you just add it to it put some tuna in there and have a complete meal like a whole cup of couscous packs a lot of calories so [Music]

[Music]

100 miles left to Kennedy Meadows trail is absolutely beautiful this morning it's nice and cool there's a canopy trees dirt to hike on instead of sand grass greenery I'm finally getting down with the desert I know it's going to come back right before Kennedy Meadows but it's definitely a nice break [Music]

[Music]

[Music]

got really really hot today doesn't help but a point from that nice beautiful forest to nice beautiful desert again I knew it was gonna come back so usually this is like a big 24 23 24 mile dry stretch that you usually have to carry water I got really lucky and back at the road crossing there was actually a little bit of water cached so I thought up about a liter and a half I am carrying about four liters have seven more miles to go for the day I'm gonna make camp and then in the morning I think that I'll have like I wanted to say like 9 maybe 10 miles until the next water cache so a bit of a dry section definitely hot definitely exposed but good thing I got this this here umbrella and it's good thing that I duct-taped it back together

[Music]

well it ended up being a pretty decent into the day 31 and a half so almost 32 miles which is the first time I've done a 30-cent

the injury so feel pretty good got about 6 miles into the next water cache that I'm gonna hit in the morning and then I think I want to go ahead and go to Walker pass tomorrow so pretty tired did all my camp chores got some food did some stretching and I've really been trying to do yoga again I used to do yoga a lot and just kind of got out of the habit of doing it but since the injury I've really been trying to stretch a lot do yoga and keep lumber so I get a real good night's sleep and all my muscles get a chance to relax [Music]

well I woke up this morning to a really windy dusty day my tent was rocking pretty hard I got up quite early this morning about 5 a.m. hit the trail by 5:30 and so far I've just been hiking in some really hardcore wind coming through these desert passes and just winds just whipping through there cared about six miles to the water cache that I'm very much looking forward to because I got about half a liter of water and just climb in these mountains kind of coming up and down the trail actually sucks quite a bit because it is super soft sand so not only is the wind blowing against me and giving me a resistance but so is the trail as you can see it's pretty pretty soft sand so you're trying to climb something really steep and then you're essentially walking on nothing no grip plus the winds blowing against me making it a pretty interesting morning but six miles to the water cache filled up and then I might actually be going all the way to Walker pass today out of the desert and back in the forest again not as lush as it was yesterday but definitely uh still quite a bit of coverage and it's not like walking through the big Mojave barren wasteland so really happy to be back out here it's nice and cool good breeze good trail I said I think I'm gonna try to get to Walker pass tonight my real good friend Dan actually lives down in Ridgecrest so I want to try to get him to come pick me up at Walker take me into Ridgecrest I want to resupply on a little bit of food get some town food get back to the trail and then start heading towards Kennedy Meadows tomorrow after I start tomorrow I should only have like 40 or 50 miles to Kennedy so pretty exciting it was really nice having that water cache back there the people who maintain that water cache were actually there so I did get to talk to him for a little bit and actually thank them for we're doing what they do

got a little people like that they just go out of their way to help hikers and cache water because they know how much we need it and how much we want it so keep cruising I got a few more miles maybe another hour until I'm gonna take a small lunch a siesta there should be another water spot it's around that same area and then I think that is the last water until Walker pass so keep on cruising

so made it here to walk her past campground right at Walker pass and my buddy Dan actually came up right whenever I got here picked me up took me to town with another hiker and we got pizza

so gonna chill out here I decided to be a good guy and bring back a communal pizza and yeah I sleep for the night get up and keep on rolling you