Days 45 – to 50 (Miles 566.4 to 652.5)

This is a longer post, covering multiple days, as I am posting once a week roughly. You can subscribe to get an email notification with each new post.

Day 45: 566.4 to 587.5 (21.1 miles)

Got up at 3.15 am, left at 3.45 without Iceman although we had agreed to this the night before. He said half asleep: “The only thing I’ll get up at 3am for is Mt Whitney.” Bahaha ok, I left without my hiking buddy, but with a few other hikers and got the 4.30am bus out of town. Since it was going to a very hot day and a 17 mile water carry, which makes the packs super heavy, we wanted to get the steep ascend out of the way before it got too hot. And I was surprised when 11 hikers showed up at the bus stop at 4.30am in the morning while the rest of Tehachapi was still dark, without cars and sleeping.

I hiked up and up for 2h carrying 4l of water and 5.6 days of food so my pack was very very heavy. But I’ve gotten strong. Most days I hardly feel my backpack.

We did over 11miles before 10am, that’s a first. Hikers often talk about “10 before 10”. Reached water source right at noon and glad I did cause it was hot! I rested 2.5h in the shade and had lunch. Kept walking 4 miles and camped with Jaygo, Lilian and Uno. We had dinner together and luckily so because I run out of fuel just as I was cooking my dinner! 😳 UNO shared his fuel with me so I could eat. I shared our mile marker via Garmin because we had no service all day with Iceman but he did not catch up to us today.

Stats:

Distance: 21.63 Miles

Ascent: 4337 feet

Steps: 57.131

Day 46: 587.5 to 605.6 – 600 mile marker!

Woke up at 5.35am as every day with first light, rolled over and slept till 7am. Was slow today, felt dehydrated but have to ration water, next source isn’t for 16 miles and I am already low with 3.5 liters.

Walked in the forest a gentle ascent under the giants, at least they create a breeze but with that comes the swooshing noise, almost like a train or vacuum cleaner if you get really close to one.

Last night, red large ants started to crawl over me so around 9pm I set up my tent. Felt much better in there. It was a hot night and I left my rain fly open and slept without my sleeping bag. Several hikers arrived after me and set up right next to me. This morning when I woke up, everyone was gone. Late starter and alone. Peaceful.

Hiking alone brought up many interesting thoughts:

Hiking the first hour I was thinking the pct is an incredibly rich experience in many ways: human connection and kindness of strangers, new friends you meet on and off trail, rich in pain and suffering, hiking 10h a day up and down and up and down isn’t easy on the body, but it is foremost rich in joy and bliss; waking up with the sun and being outside all day in the most beautiful scenic backcountry without any traces of civilization (except the last few days walking through windmills) has an effect on the mind that I yet have to understand and find words to describe. It is surely a combination of things that create the happy state of mind I’ve been finding myself in since starting the trail 46 days ago, some of which are not directly related to the PCT, like:

Not being in Berlin (I’ve been wanting to get out of the big city for a while now)

Not working stressful tech job, sitting in front of a laptop 10h a day

Not reading the news or spending hours in front of screens or social media

Instead, I am somewhat secluded and shielded from the rest of the world and what is happening on the grand scheme of things but also on social media or even in my closer circle.

Most days I do not have phone service or reception and my phone is on airplane mode all day; I use it to take pictures and write my diary and check the map on FarOut

I don’t read news, keep up with current affairs or spend time on social networks

I don’t work, I do something I love all day long

I am outside, breathe fresh air and move my body all day

I go to bed with the sun and wake with the sun, I don’t use a headlamp most nights and there is no artificial light disrupting my circadian rhythm

I have time to think about things for hours and let my mind wonder and go where it pleases, it’s interesting to see where it ends up

I choose to be present with the trail and the beauty surrounding me most of the time and “stop to smell the roses”. Many times a day I squat down with my 35 pound pack to take a close up picture of a plant or just watch a squirrel, lizard or other animal for half an hour

I rest and nap on trail when I am tired

I feel free and happy and feel that I am honoring my needs. Most of all, I feel truly alive and don’t feel anymore that life is passing me by. I am living my dream. 😳 Woah, that’s deep, bro 😆☀️🫶

I hiked by myself most of the day and it was fun. I listened to a Huberman Potcast. I was hoping to run into Iceman but in the end it’s 7pm now and he isn’t here yet. It’s the second day. If you’re just one mile ahead or below on trail you sometimes don’t see people for days even though we’re all hiking the same trail.

Just saw: my HRV status is “balanced” for the first time since I started hiking – on day 46. It took my body 1.5 months to get used to hiking all day every day. Incredible. Our bodies are incredible.

Iceman caught up tonight finally. I’m happy we’re reunited. I enjoyed having some me time but I’m also happy I am not hiking alone anymore, especially with the Sierra coming up. You don’t want to enter the Sierra Nevada alone. We exchanged our trail stories of the last two days, had dinner and crawled into our tents for an early night. The last two days have been tough; very hot and little water.

Stats

Distance: 19.4 miles

Steps: 44.451

Ascent: 1387m

Day 47: 605.6 to 625.5 McIvers Spring – „1000km hiked“ (20.1 Miles)

Woke up at 7am, made breakfast and cowboy mocha because I accidentally threw away my filter. It was really nice. I think we started around 8am. We hiked 2 miles and had to filter 6 l of water for a 10 mile water carry which took a while. Here, my backpack rolled down the hill quite far because I wasn’t being careful. I also dropped several bottles down the hill. I gotta be more careful especially in here Sierra Nevada.

We hiked 8 miles and just before we reached the water cache we sat down in the shade and had lunch. From 1-2 maybe.

Then at the water cache was trail magic: cold IPAs, food and water, everything! OneWay and his wife. We had beers and he made us fresh guacamole right there – he had forgotten salt at home and it’s one of the few things I carry so I got out my little salt packets I stole at In and Out and OneWay added it.

We packed out two tall boys and started hiking at 3pm and it was super hot, we shared the beers and had to soon rest under some large Joshua trees because it was over 30 degrees C.

We kept hiking and soon the trail became very beautiful and we hiked through the high desert and had spectacular views. No more windmills disrupting endless mountain rages. 🫶

Originally, we wanted to make it 25 miles today to the next water source but it was getting dark so we stopped after 20 miles.

Stats

Distance: 20.4 miles

Steps: 46.130

Ascent: 852 m

Descent: 1150 m

Day 48: McIvers Spring mile 625.5 to 645

Today was fun – we hiked through desert and then had a big climb up which I flew up, Not sure why – had lunch at the top – I almost ran out of food – and then came to a forest finally and walked along a ridge – ant attack – right knee was hurting a bit all day.

We camped close to a cabin and a spring and had beautiful views all around and a Great Sunset.

Stats

Distance: 20.04 miles

Steps: 44.461

Ascent: 4262 feet

Descent: 3024 feet

Day 49: 645 to 652.5 Walker Pass

We hiked just over 7 Miles to Walker Pass Campground and went to the road and got a hitch into Ridgecrest within 5 minutes. It’s a 20 Minute Ride. We went to eat Thai Food and then found a cheap Motel with a Pool to do a Zero and resupply.

Day 50: Zero in Ridgecrest

I actually didn’t take any photos today in town. We resupplied and tried to find a screen protector for my phone – so walked through town in 100 degrees F weather for 6 miles and went to all the stores and didn’t find one 🙁

Tomorrow we hit the trail again fresh and clean, 2.6 days to Kennedy Meadow South to enter the Sierra Nevada shortly after. Super stoked!

Thanks for reading!