Journey Day 37 | PCT Day 37

Walking ridges, I feel like TV character out against wilderness

5/23/85

Up early again. Hard to sleep very late when there are no walls or ceiling, a drop cloth for a floor.

Off we go. Our goal is water. We decide to go for a creek after sign mileage proves wrong, the book’s extra two miles is correct. The water filter is a hassle, not living up to its guarantee. Keith and I fight over it. Water is a major hassle!

Ironies have popped up throughout the trip. As a writer, I guess I should be noting them in great detail.

Walking the ridges, I feel at times like TV’s Kung Fu, a character out along against the wilderness, though he spent most of his time battling bad guys. Our first true break was in Malibu Beach at the beachfront condo of the director and writer of the series, whom I’d never met before. He told us behind the scenes stories about the show. Mostly tales of David Carradine’s excesses.

 Often sing Simon and Garfunkel’s tune, “Look for America.” After hiking 19 miles, we stumbled into a stranger’s home near Whitewater to find it playing.

 We get stream water, then hike on. Break after a hard climb up Mt. Gleason. We just keep climbing. At the Messenger Flats intersection we decide to hike down two more miles to another creek. We break for the afternoon. Our trail bivy is very buggy. They won’t leave us alone. Bug juice seems to deter them temporarily, though flies are in my face as I write. Good breaks are a necessity, but the bugs don’t understand.

The new filter on our water filter isn’t working. What a scam.

From our break spot, we head down off the beloved San Gabriels. Our hot pace gets us off quickly. More rattlesnake adventures. Today we encounter six, including several large ones. One wouldn’t move, so we knocked it off its perch near the path with a rock. It slid off and rattled off into the bushes.

At about 400 miles after another 15-mile day. We stop just far enough from Acton so we can get in early tomorrow, yet enjoy tonight in relative nature. Tomorrow a much anticipated post office stop. Mail, meals, stores, town happenings before busting into the Mojave Desert. A new adventure. End Part Two in the guidebook.