PCT 2007 Day 40 – Spur – Sandy Jeep Road

PCT 2007 Day 40

Day 40 / 5-04-07 Tarp
Spur – Sandy Jeep Road
23.2 miles; 142.7 total miles; 1977.9 trip miles
Low clouds in AM, 40’s

Last night it never rained but it was pretty chilly in the AM. Ants came into my tarp when I was writing in my journal. I kept blowing them back. I had to put my food in my pack and I think it helped. The cloud cover was pretty low until 8 AM when it finally broke. Up to that point, it was really chilly. I hiked with gloves on for the first time.
The clouds made the scenery very special. We were in high scrub that was burned a few years back and it was in the process of growing back. There were also lots of large rocks every where so that added to the eeriness of the hike.

We passed a hiker named Eric The Black. He hiked with us to Mike Herrera’s house on Chihuahua Valley Road around 8 AM. Mike has tons of water, beer, snacks and best of all a screened in porch with comfortable chairs. We are packing out some beer. It’s freezing in the shade so I can’t say how long we’ll stay.

We headed out from Mike’s at 9:20 and had a short climb before we started a long descent to Tule Canyon. Eric must have stopped since we haven’t seen him in a while. The wind has picked up and must be gusting at 30+ mph. We stopped for lunch at a dirt road that is the border of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Right now we are chilling out since we’ve already hiked 14 miles and only have 9 to go.
We stayed at the lunch spot till around 1:30 PM and moved on. My heels let me know right away that they wanted more time off. We descended to Tule Canyon and then Tule Road. We passed Eric who must have passed us during lunch, and continued to descend to Coyote Canyon Road. Then we crossed the site of an old buried water tank you use to be able to get water from. There was a skeleton of an animal there.

We continued down another mile to Nance Canyon, which has a seasonal creeklet (So the data book says.  The data book is a book that has certain landmarks or features listed and the distances between them. You use it to plan your day and to know where the water is.)
After we got our water, we had to climb up to a sandy jeep road where we are spending the night. We are at 4075′ and the wind is unbelievable. I got here at 6 PM, cooked and did my dishes and was in my bag by 7 and I have already had to get up twice to fix the rocks weighting down my tarp stakes. It’s going to be a long night that’s for sure. The other issue is that it’s sandy and the wind is blowing it into everything. I should be completely filthy by 4:30 AM when I get up.  My pack is acting as a wind block on one side of my head. I just hope I don’t have to get up a ton all night to fix the tarp.

Scatman

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You can check out my Appalachian Trail or Continental Divide Trail journals too!