PCT Day 51
June 20 2021
Mile: 592.9 to 608.7
Start: Beyoncé campsite
Finish: Landers Meadow spring campsite
In my sleep I shut off my 5am alarm several times and we slept in until about 7:30am. The gorgeous dappled shade and early morning breeze lulled us to sleep and made it difficult to wake up. Usually we didn’t have such nice shade, so it was very difficult to leave the campsite, but we knew it was going to get hot soon. Reluctantly we packed up after an early morning dance party and we hiked through a hot shadeless expanse of trail. We hiked through a land easement going through private grazing land that cut through the Bureau of Land Management land and passed a sad broken looking radio antenna. We hiked on through dusty fields, the grass burnt yellow and desiccated brown.The pastureland didn’t look too good for cattle but we followed cow footprints down the trail most of the morning while occasionally dodging huge cow patties. Our strategy today was hiking water-to-water source since the heat was so brutal and there was nowhere to take cover and escape. Staying hydrated was our survival strategy.
The day was wicked but we did get to follow a wide dirt road for a while which was nice to not have to dodge rocks as much as we do on the normal single track hiking trail. Shannon had way more energy than I did and so after a while of me slogging along the trail behind him, I told Shannon that I’d meet him at the next water source in a couple of miles up the trail. He took off and I rested for a few minutes under a shady tree eating snacks and recovering from the rough heat. I got up reluctantly and slowly chugged uphill to the spring, passing the 600 mile marker twice which made me wonder if I was just hallucinating or if some hiker had spent the time to make two 600 mile markers.
The trail passed by a private hunting cabin and finally I arrived at Robin Bird Springs a short distance off trail. Shannon was already filtering water from the sluggish spring and was shooting the shit with Chainsaw who was lying down in one of the only shaded spots not covered in cow shit. Apparently the cows must really like this spot because the whole place was blanketed in enormous amounts of dinner plate sized cow poops. It was so hot and the shade was so limited that all we did for the next half hour was kick and shovel cow patties out of the way with our poop shovels and shoes to make room for places to siesta and sit. Shannon also went all “Bob the Builder” on the spring and doubled the flow rate by improving the trench and digging out the water basin that had been clogged up with cow shit. And this is why we filter our water in the backcountry…
Chainsaw told us about some delicious Starburst flavored electrolyte drink mix he had picked up at the Dollar General and shared some with us – it was amazing and made the cow poop flavored water taste like starbursts. At one point we started trading food and drink mixes like we were back in the elementary school cafeteria. A spam packet traded for a rare ramen noodle flavor, Starburst flavored electrolyte drink mixes swapped for fizzy caffeinated drink mixes – you name it, we traded it. Soon we were joined by Shelby and Cheerleader who also had a gender bending trail name like Shannon’s “Princess North Star.”
We spent many hours chasing shade and naps and finally decided to pack up around 5 or 6pm, as the temperature cooled off. We call our dads on Father’s Day and then spent a gorgeous next couple of hours trekking through tall pine forests and rocky cliffs, which was such a welcome change from the stupid desert. Chainsaw had shared some info from Reddit about the girl who had died a few days ago from heat exhaustion on the PCT and we felt so sad. It was a reminder to be so careful in the hot weather and to check in on each other as were hiking.
Later in the afternoon talked with Shelby, who is hiking after having gotten clean, and we found out that we both had sassy grandmas who preferred to use their middle names, and also preferred Nana over grandma. In the cool forests we were able to hike fast to the Landers Meadow campground where there was supposedly the most flowing water source that we’d seen the whole 600 miles of PCT so far. True to the rumor, the water source was gorgeous. It only took 5 seconds to fill one liter of water, which made us so happy that we didn’t have to stress about water tonight.
It was just a handful of us PCT hikers staying at the campground tonight. We had a gorgeous sandy tentsite under towering lodgepole pines. All of us hikers spread out to enjoy the beautiful space. Chainsaw camped near us, and so did British ex-pat turned Croatian hiker named Bartender. I made too much Spanish lentil rice for dinner and Shannon and I forced it down trying to pretend like it was ice cream to get the massive quantity of rice in our bellies. It was gross but necessary because we couldn’t bury the river and it was too heavy to pack it out in our trash.
The moon was so bright again tonight and as it peeled through the trees it almost looked like it was daylight out. Shannon and I jumped in our tent after finding an old deer femur bone in the woods nearby probably from human hunters. We passed out with the wind whispering in the pines and pulled our hats and neck gaiters down over our eyes to block out the light from the moon.
