PCT 2007 Day 60 – Sawmill CG – Cottonwood Creek

PCT 2007 Day 60

Day 60 / 5-24-07 Hostel   3120′
Sawmill CG – Cottonwood Creek
36 (.2) miles ;534.8 (12.4) total miles; 2610.3 trip miles
70’s; sunny

Between the mosquitoes and Wounded Knee snoring, I was forced to put in my ear plugs last night. As a result I never heard my alarm. We got going at five of 6 and the trail was easy. After a short bit, we saw some bear tracks on the trail. The bear must have walk almost a half mile of the PCT, then turned off since the tracks disappeared. Then later we came across more tracks, probably the same bear. This time it only stayed on the trail about twenty feet.

At the road crossing of the Liebre Mountain Truck Trail we went down to a guzzler water tank. It basically was a flat metal roof angled to a funnel; the water then went into a pipe and down into a shallow tank half in the ground below the roof. The water was nasty but we took some anyway. We used Wounded Knee’s filter on it. The trail after this was beautiful. The area was grassy and had oak tree stands all over. It was very open and green. I really enjoyed it. We hit a dirt road and the trail started its descent to Pine Canyon Road.

On the descent, we had to hike through some very overgrown trail. Then I came around a corner and there was a tiny bulldozer made for building trails. I had Wounded Knee get in it so I could get his picture. It wasn’t far to the road and once there I spotted a chair in which I had lunch in. During lunch a lizard charged Wounded Knee and then after being scared off by him came over to check me out. It was the bravest lizard I’ve seen yet.
After lunch the nice shade and green scenery was gone and I mean gone in a flash. It was barren and hot. Of course the trail took the most convoluted path it could. The further we went from the mountains behind us, the less plant life and green there was. At once point all I could see was rolling hills with brown grass on them. Finally we descended to the flat and then only had a short hot walk to Highway 138 and Hiker Town, our third hostel in 4 days. We caught Ultra Brite and Dirt. Dirt got picked up by his grandmother and we hung out. My package wasn’t at the store the first time I went so when I got back to Hiker Town, I took a Shower.

After showering I mostly sat around till 4 pm so I could go back to the store to see if my package arrived. Robert, who runs Hiker Town, went out in the car so he checked the store for my package but it didn’t arrive. As a result we all inventoried our food and we figured out, with a few more snacks, I could push on as we planned.

The plan was to hike around 15 miles making a total of 35, so we could hike the 15 miles of dirt road and heat at night. I took the car to the store one more time and got snacks.
When I got back, we packed up and left by 6 PM. The first 5 miles went by okay but I could tell it was going to be a long night. I was already tired. We snacked after the fifth mile and then pushed on as the sun was setting. It wasn’t until almost ten that we reached the 10 mile mark. We stopped at a sign telling us we had 5.6 miles more to go. We ate again and drank lots of water. I was so tired at this point. I was running on flumes for a while. The only thing keeping me going was the thought that when I reached the Cottonwood Creek Bridge I could sleep.

We were passed by a truck during the last section. I’m sure he/she was thinking “what the hell are these fools doing!”. We reached the bridge at midnight and I unpacked my pad and sleeping bag ASAP. I was horizontal and trying to sleep right away. I say trying because even though I was super tired I wasn’t falling asleep, then a fat mouse kept coming over to my Bessy (pack) trying to get my food. I finally got up and found a piece of wire on the roof like shelter shading the water cache and hung Bessy. I still didn’t fall asleep right away but the mouse did strop coming by.

Today was my longest day of hiking ever. Being that I didn’t plan on a 30 miler, I wasn’t mentally prepared for it. I will do more 30 milers but probably not until Oregon where it is flat.

Scatman 2011- This HURT.  It was like two days put into one.  It sucked not having my package show up.  All I can think is I didn’t leave enough money at the Saufley’s and they didn’t ship it but I doubt that.  The first half of the day was beautiful and hot but the trees and views made it at least nice to look at.  The second half was just barren desert and was boring.

At one point I had noticed I had walked by what appeared to be my second magazine lying on the road.  Mind you this is a dirt road in the middle of the desert.  When I saw the third magazine on the road I walked over and picked it up.  The scenery was boring and I needed something to distract me.  Boy was I distracted when I picked it up and saw what it was.  PORN!  Someone had thrown their own porno magazines out the window while driving down this dirt road in the middle of the desert.

It was getting dark by now and there I was walking down a dirt road in the middle of now where with my headlamp on “reading” a porn magazine.  By the time Wounded knee caught up to me I had picked up two more.  I handed them to him and said “Pick one!”  He didn’t know what to say.  When Ultra Bright caught us we were like to school boys who where trying to hide passing a note in front of the teacher.  It was funny as hell.  We read our fill and then left them for the others behind us.

I can’t tell you how tired I was come midnight and to think I started hiking at 6:30 am with a 4 hour break in the middle.  My legs twitched all night.

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Scatman

Get out there!

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