PCT Section Hike: Walker Pass to Kennedy Meadows ( Part of California Section G) PCT mile 652 to 704.2

Day 5: Walker Pass to about a mile past Joshua Tree Springs
About 13 miles

We leave Walker Pass  at 11 am and enter the Owens Peak Segment.  We have a big climb and it is getting hot, so we are a bit worried that we tarried too long at the campground.  We have already hiked 7 miles to get to Walker and are planning to go to the next water source, Joshua Tree Springs, for our evening camping spot. 

It is a barren place and a sandy trail, luckily it is graded very well and that makes the climb easier. There is also a cooling breeze as we hike higher. 

This is  view looking back down from about half way up. Note the switchbacks. 

 Here we have made it to the top and can begin to see into Owen's Valley.  We get cell reception, so we call our kids and check in.  It is kind of like reverse parenting:  Yes, we're fine.  Sorry we didn't call earlier.  We also download to Mark's phone the PCT Southern California Book as I had accidentally downloaded the PCT Northern California Book.  We don't really use this book for navigating, but   we like reading at night about the following day's trail, so we can be on the lookout for interesting plants or features.  (For a navigating tool, we use Guthook's PCT app the most, although Halfmile's app is good too.)

We learned that this flower is quite rare and should never be picked.  It is a Charlotte's phacelia and the vivid deep-blue color is hard to miss.  We also learn that the peak we are on was named after Jim Jenkins who before his death at age 27 had hiked all of the trails in the Southern Sierra and was the author of 2 books that name and map everything, and I mean everything (trails, water, history, flora and  fauna) in the Southern Sierras. He was also consulted for finding trail routings for the PCT in the Southern Sierra.  All before age 27.  Wow.

We walk along a trail that clings to the side of Jenkins Peak.  To the east the land drops away and there are large green circles in a sea of brown.  Alfalfa we presume.  The shale foot path eventually makes our feet sore and Mark gets a little blister and stops to cover it with tape.   I begin to experience pain in my left shin that feels a lot like shin splints.  I'm alarmed as I haven't had them since high school when I over strided trying to keep up with the long legged, fast girls in gym class.  Shin splints could really ruin our hike. 

The trail eventually heads west around the mountain, after lots of dizzying views to the east side.  I keep thinking it would be a terrible place to be in an earthquake.  We walk through an area where the ground is covered in little white forget me knots and the smell is incredibly good and then quickly becomes sickly sweet.   We make it to Joshua Tree Springs and have the place all to ourselves, so we get in an argument of some sort.   Probably about food.  Either we are carrying too much or too little, or maybe I am carrying too much or too little.  Grumpy we are.  I think he is more grumpy, he thinks I am.  Ha.   I soak my leg in the trough as the pain has intensified and the area is swelling.  I then remember that while hiking I had felt a bite or poke of some sort and I must not have shin splints after all, but just a little sting of some sort. I am relieved.

Mark makes dinner at the spring and we eat with flies and mosquitos buzzing. It is thick with insects.  We're still mad  and sit resolutely shoveling food and possibly insects into our mouths as other hikers show up.  After eating we take off again for a camping spot further along the trail.

About a mile past Joshua Tree Spring we come to a little saddle and find a lovely camping spot and get treated to a great sunset.  We make up and fall asleep. 

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Day 6: A Mile Past the Joshua Tree Springs to Two Miles Past Fox Mill Springs

20 miles



Slept under stars and moon and awake to sunny, but hazy skies.  AKA: Gonna be hot!  We get up  and hit the trail early for the water at Spanish Needle Creek, only a few miles away. 

There  we meet  a Canadian couple and another young hiker who tells me she is almost out of food.  Of course, I reach into my pack and give her a meal.  We are almost a full day ahead of schedule and have extra food.  Mark is up the hill getting the water  and unfortunately when he gets back we get in another little spat about it.  I should have asked him first, since we share everything.  Oops.  I tell you, food is definitely becoming an issue.  We grumpily carry our argument up the hill  to a camp site and lay all of our gear out to dry.  Mark makes some coffee and we talk it out while our stuff dries.  Coffee helps and we soon regain a good mood and move on.

As we climb the trail gets prettier and there is once again a cool breeze.

Until we enter the Chimney Creek area, that is.  Boy, does it get hot.  We stop at about 2 pm and sit in the shade on some boulders and cool off.  The  Appster figures out stuff while we wait and reads aloud about the Chimney Creek area.   I eat a lot.  Maybe I do eat more than I carry.  Hmmm?  More food issues.  Ha.

We hike on down to the actual creek of Chimney Creek and find a nice, albeit little, pool for cooling off and getting a bit more water.  A few other hikers are here as well. 

As we head up the trail to our next water source, Fox Mill Spring, Mark begins seeing lots of obsidian flakes.  In some areas the ground is littered with the tell tale sign that a native American once sat there making arrowheads.

Fox Mill Spring also has a lot of historic old stuff.  Mark picks up an old piece of shaped wood and asks me what it might be.  All of a sudden I have a vision of a house with shutters.  So weird.  It's a shutter, I tell him, as a little shiver runs up my spine. 

We cook our dinner at the springs and load up our water.  I tell Mark our next water is in 10 miles, so we both just take a couple of liters for the night and for our hike in the morning.  We head up the trail a few miles to a nice private spot with a view.  Once we reach camp and unload our packs, Mark discovers he only has a liter and a half of water (he didn't take his platypus out of his pack when he filled it)  and that the water 8 miles away might not be there as the water report says it is dry.  Quite a few times though, the water report has said dry and we find water, so the source is a bit questionable.  I have 2 and a half liters, so we would still each have 2 liters.  It should be fine. We decide to just sleep on it and make a decision about whether to go back for water in the morning.  Our biggest worries seem to be water and food. 
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Day 7: 2 Miles above Fox Mill Spring to Kennedy Meadows Store

17.8 miles for Tj  and 21.8 for Mark 



Mark awakes at 4:30 am and wants to start hiking, I took a half of flexeril last night  for my jittery, aching legs and don't want to be roused.  He decides to just get up and go back the 2 miles to the spring and fetch more water.  I sleep on and awake when the sun's glow  peeks over the mountain.

Mark soon arrives and we have coffee and eat our probar breakfast while we pack up our stuff and somehow get into another argument.  Geez.  We usually are happiest hiking, but the last few days have been a big disappointment on that front. 

It is also disappointing to walk into another burned area.  Our trail 'therapy' session heats up and we continue discussing things quite loudly. Our argument shifts into real life stuff, bigger stuff than trail food and water and  tears pool up and run down my cheeks.  It is a bit embarrassing when  another hiker passes us.  Later an older woman suddenly comes around the bend toward us and I see her kind and  knowing smile and somehow it makes our disagreement feel more normal.  We continue our conversation in a more adult fashion and actually begin listening to each other. 

We are hiking fast, for us, today, 3.5 miles per hour.  The anger and a downhill trail I suppose.  At one point a humongous rattle snake slithers quickly across the trail and coils up in a bush and rattles like crazy at us.  Mark wants the camera, but I am already many yards away and don't give it to him.  It was about 3 feet in length and 3 inches thick with about 3 inches of rattles.

This area is called Domelands or "Rocks" and there was water at Manter Creek.  Mark went back for our peace of mind though and he always wants to hike more miles, so we aren't upset about it.  Better safe than sorry is our motto, most days.   

When we get to the Kern River we take a swim in a beaver pond.  It is fun and the clouds overhead playful and we cool off.  All is well in our world once again.   

We hike on after an hour or more and soon come to the PCT 700 mile mark. 

And we hike and hike across a long, dry area and it is hot and we know we are close to Kennedy Meadows store and all kinds of food and drink await.  I hike faster and faster and faster and we see a car up ahead on a road and two other hikers in front of us go to the car.  Could it be trail magic?  It is.  We get chips and soda from Burk and it is good.  We hike on the road .8 miles to the store.

It is about 2 pm and we order from the grill and have beers and Gatorade and enjoy visiting with the Canadian couple again.  They've  been hiking mostly 30 mile days since Campo.  Pretty impressive.  The crowd begins to feel oppressive to me and we go  and shower (after a really long wait) and then buy food to resupply for our next section and nothing has prices and we spend too much and buy too much, so we get a couple more beers and order some pizza and then they give us ice cream and cake.   We waiver back and forth back with our planning and put food in the hiker box and then decide we will need more and buy some Ramen, as of course some hiker grabbed the food we put in the box  as soon as we put it down.   It's ridiculous and I am overwhelmed by too many choices.   We aren't sure what we are doing  and then I  mandate that we should each carry what we want to eat.  No more arguing.  If you go hungry, it will be your own fault, if you carry too much, it is your own doing as well.  Mark buys a big bag of Fritos and says he won't share, smiling.  I even go so far as splitting up our toothbrushes and first aid supplies and he gives me our Inreach device, as he has a phone.   I guess I am still carrying a grudge, but it does kind of make sense and I don't want any more food arguments.     

It is hot here and we just kind of use our sleeping bags as a cover and fall asleep as the sun is setting behind the mountains.  Later I awake in the dark of night and  hear people laughing and having a good time.  I just look forward to being back on the trail tomorrow as we are headed into the High Sierra.