My pack is packed, my resupply boxes are ready, the bills are paid and it’s almost time to head out to California. I’m hoping Vail Pass will be drivable as I took my snow tires off yesterday. In contrast to drought-ridden California, we have been having a steady succession of storms since February that shows no sign of abating.
My plan is to hike from Idyllwild to Walker Pass starting April 8 and finishing around May 10, in time for my daughter’s graduation from Pitzer College. That will be the end of the tuition-paying phase of my life, one more responsibility shed and thus another step toward freedom, at least as much as we can ever be free. Or perhaps its just a step toward a more-refined state of self-indulgence. Hard to say.
This trip will connect two very different phases of my hiking career. Last year I hiked the 150 miles from Lake Morena to Idyllwild (Fobes Saddle, to be precise). In 1976 my brother and I started out from Walker Pass, intending to hike the PCT to Lake Tahoe. I think the trail was in a very different place then – the climb out of Walker was straight up a cattle trail, but finally topped out in a nice forest. The second day out I was getting water from the creek and felt a ping in my knee, like a string bering plucked, and my knee began to swell and stiffen immediately. Walking was excruciatingly painful. Especially postholing over Forrester Pass. But it was beautiful, and nearly deserted. I don’t think we saw half a dozen other hikers in that stretch. We made it as far as Kearsarge Pass/Onion Valley before I finally gave up and went home to have my knee operated on. After that, responsible stuff like college, grad school, jobs and family limited my hikes to no longer than a week at best.
But now the kids are grown, my last company went bankrupt, and my wife doesn’t seem to mind me being gone for a month. So it’s best to do this while I can. There is not another 40 year window waiting for me out there.
I hiked a lot (and built some) of the trails in the San Jacintos, San Bernadinos and San Gabriels as a Boy Scout and teenager that are now a part of the PCT that I’ll be walking. I haven’t thought of these places for decades, and I suspect they will evoke some long-forgotten times and friends. So this trip will be in some respects a walk back in time for me.
On the PCT 1976 with my Eddie Bauer tent and Kelty D4 pack