Trail Logs for March 30 through April 30, 2001

March 30  8:10 PM.  Cruces Basin Wilderness, New Mexico. I'm finally back on the trail!  Many thanks to Allen Stibora and his wife for giving me a nice place to sleep last night in Albuquerque, and for getting me to Cumbres Pass near the Colorado/New Mexico border this afternoon.  I'll be spending the month of April going south through New Mexico.  The weather here is much better than that in Vermont, but there's still 2-3 feet of snow up here at 10,300 feet.  When I get below 7,000 feet it will be snow-free!  The "trail" here is mostly forest service roads covered in snow.  In some places they can be followed, but going cross-country here is MUCH easier than it was in Vermont.  There are fewer trees and better views of the terrain.  I've also got my GPS with me to help get a location determination now and then.  And my BLM maps have longitude and latitude markings on them, which allows me to extract the coordinates of any desired spot.  Then I can program my GPS to direct me toward that spot.  That's map and compass made easy! Although it was warm today, perhaps in the 50's even at this altitude, it's getting cold tonight.  It's already down in the high 20's.  And, of course, there are no shelters here, so I'm camped out in the snow.  My plan is to do fairly high mileage here in New Mexico.  Starting at 2 PM today, I managed 12 miles in snowshoes.  Not bad conditions, obviously. March 31  7:45 PM.  Camped by a tributary of Rio Vallecitos. Tonight I'm camped more than 1,000 feet lower than last night so it's warmer and there's less snow.  Last night it got down to 16 degrees by morning.  Hopefully that'll be the coldest night for me in New Mexico.  Tonight I found some bare ground to camp on and it's still above freezing right now. It was a good hiking day.  Bright, sunny and warm.  Until the snow got mushy in the afternoon I was really cruising.  It was not possible to follow my exact planned route due to the snow, but map and compass is pretty easy here with so many grand views.  I just follow whichever snowmobile track is going my way and keep moving in the right general direction.  So today's total is about 30 miles.  It's been a long time since I could say that. Today's toughest section was Placer Creek, where there were steep banks, lots of rocks, and deep soft snow between the rocks.  It took me an hour to go ½ mile!  Thank God it wasn't all that hard! April 1  7:30 PM.  Near West Sisneros Spring, Carson National Forest, New Mexico. It was another good day mileage-wise.  26 miles in the snow.  Again there was a lot of map and compass work and few trails or roads to follow.  The GPS was especially useful today as there were several transitions from ridge to ridge where it was not always obvious which ridge was the right one.  When the world started looking different than my map, it was nice to be able to re-establish my correct location.  I hope the batteries hold up until I can change them.  Somehow I forgot to bring spares. In just 2 days on the CDT I've already seen more wildlife than all winter on the AT.  The AT had lots of white-tailed deer and lots of coyote footprints, but here I've already seen 3 elk and 4 coyotes!  And the animals here are at least a little bit curious about me.  They move off slowly and stop once in a while to stare at me!  Presumably because there are more people and more hunters on the east coast, the wildlife flees in abject terror.  Not so, here.  It's refreshing.

April 2  10:00 PM.  On the banks of the Chama River, New Mexico. Today I resupplied at Ghost Ranch Conference Center, a truly beautiful place.  The scenery there would suit a National Park if there was more of it.  But the Ghost Ranch is tucked away in a little box canyon that makes it a splendid hideaway. The 3,000-foot elevation loss today, to 6,500 feet, raised the temperature considerably.  There's no snow at all down here and good water is hard to come by.  But there's lots of muddy water in the Chama River, so my nightly wash-up was easy.  And instead of exposing minimum skin for washing while bundling up the rest of me, as I usually do, I was able to relax with minimal clothing on for a bit.  I've been nursing my GPS along on an almost dead set of batteries, but it held out and I now have 2 new sets of batteries.  But I lost my GPS way pointer, so I hand-made a new one on a piece of paper this evening.  It will do until I get a new one, but won't be as accurate.  I saw a herd of about a dozen elk this morning, one of which had unusual lighter-colored fur in a calico pattern.  April 3  8:40 PM.  At the "front door" of San Pedro Parks Wilderness. Getting over the Mesa del Camino this morning was easier than I expected.  The trail was easier to follow than the guidebook led me to believe.  And there was only patchy snow at the top, at 8,500 feet.  Because there was only muddy snowmelt available on the way today, I carried 1.5 gallons, which is by far the heaviest water load yet.  Total pack weight was probably over 40 pounds.  The G4 pack is definitely at it's limit there, but it still carries reasonably well. Back at lower elevation in the afternoon, I wore just shorts and a tee shirt for the first time.  It was probably 70 degrees!  Late in the afternoon I climbed partway up to the San Pedro Parks Wilderness, a 10,500-foot plateau between here and Cuba, my next resupply stop.  Because of the heat, the snow is really mushy and wet.  I'm post-holing all the way to the ground in anything 2-feet deep or less.  I stopped before I got up into too much deep snow because I felt I might get stuck in it, even with snowshoes on.  I'm hoping it will firm up enough tonight to get me through.  For sure, I'll be up at dawn.  This is one night I'll be praying for freezing temperatures.  But it's only down to 43 degrees right now.

April 5  8:00 PM.  BLM land in Piedra Lumbre drainage, New Mexico. I missed a day in my journal because of the excitement in Cuba, NM, but I'll get to that in a minute.  The traverse of San Pedro Parks Wilderness was not easy.  Camping high turned out to be the right call.  It got down to 30 that night where I camped.  Just barely cold enough to firm up the snow a little bit.  So, that morning I was not post-holing quite as badly as the evening before.  That enabled me to get up the hill fairly early, although route finding in the snow was not easy.  But that section is an old trail which makes it easier.

Old trails are more eroded, so there's a 1-2 foot deep rut that's visible through the snow.  I saw lots of that on the AT this winter.  In addition, there are a lot of old aspen trees on the route and nearly every one near the trail has graffiti carved in its bark.  So that added a lot of trail markers!  It was also rather entertaining to read the old names and dates, some from the '20's.  As I got higher, the snow was ever more firm and soon I was walking on the snow crust.  That made it possible to get all the way across the parks before the snow turned to mush.  But finding the way was not easy.  On top, the namesake parks were vast open fields of snow.  No trail markings.  So I set a compass bearing and set out from park to park, through stands of evergreens.  At least there was no snow and ice in the branches.  And, as luck would have it (skill really), I came out of the trees into a park with a trail junction sign pointing down the canyon I needed to descend.  In a couple more hours I was out of the snow and wearing shorts as I ambled into Cuba, New Mexico. Cuba is a good half-mile-long town with three motels, several grocery stores, two laundromats and, of course, a post office.  So I passed up the first motel in my hurry to get to the post office before 5 PM.  I got my resupply box and tried to check into the nearby Del Prado Motel.  It was full!  There was a lot of road work going on in the area and the road workers were renting the motel rooms by the week.  I was told that the other nearby motel was also probably booked, so I decided to pack up my stuff and head out of town.  As I did so, I noticed a large open seam in my G4 backpack!  The hip belt was almost torn off!  The heavy water loads had taken a toll.  It looked bad enough that my first action was to call home to have another pack sent to me by Express Mail.  That would have taken until tomorrow to arrive, given the late hour.  So I walked back to the first motel in town, the Frontier, and they had one room left!  And just $25!  So I got a shower, some dinner and visited the grocery store.  They had a heavy-duty needle and some heavier thread than what I carry for repairs, so I bought them.  The rest of the evening, I had one eye on the TV and one on my stitching.  It turned out that the nastiest looking seam was non-load-bearing.  It ripped only because the load-bearing panel had come off.  So it was fixable.  This morning I called my dad to cancel the Express Mail.

So this morning, late and sleepy from a long night of sewing, I set out again.  The first challenge was to get out of a small box canyon where the trail ended and the guidebook calls for a cross-country walk.  It was a beautiful spot and not too difficult to navigate.  Then there was more dirt road to follow until a short cross-country bit to find a way down a cliff into Jarido Canyon.  That went okay, too and I soon found myself at Ojo Jarido, a sandstone arch/cave with a beautiful spring.  There are also some old Indian ruins in the area.  Quite a place!  Given 26 waterless miles ahead, I cooked dinner and washed up there, about 2 in the afternoon.  Then I loaded up 6 liters of water and headed out, again cross-country.  This time there was more cross-country than there should have been.  I wasn't lost.  No.  Really.  How can I be lost when my GPS tells me exactly where I am?  I can plot that point on my map and it tells me I'm right on the road I want to be on!  But the road is not where the map says it should be!  So I set a course and, what is becoming natural for me now, traveled cross-country.  After miles and a few hopped fences later, the road found me and I ended my day here at sunset. It's sprinkling today and that's supposed to get worse tonight.  In fact, it's starting to rain right now.  But to get out of the wind in this flat-as-a-pancake area, I camped in a small wash.  There's no flash-flood danger here, and I'm not right in the bottom of the wash, so I shouldn't wake up in a creek tonight, I hope!  That pancake comment reminded me of the views today.  I can see all the way to Mt. Taylor, which is still more than 50 miles away!  And it's not just sticking up so I can see it. I can see just about everything between here and there.  It makes walking, even at my rate, seem rather futile.

April 6  8:40 PM.  Cibola National Forest, NM.  Boy, what a weird day!  The rain last night continued off and on all night.  At dawn it was raining again, so thinking that the last weather forecast I'd seen had said one day of rain I figured it couldn't hurt to sleep in a little and give it a chance to get better than 45-degree rain.  So by 9 AM I was packed up and ready to go.  No rain, but it was 43 degrees and the barometer was still falling. It was windy, but it had been windy since the afternoon before.  Soon I could see a BIG cloud coming with the wind.  Then it hailed, then sleeted, then snowed.  For about an hour it snowed sideways and coated the land about ½ inch deep.  But it was still in the 40's so the stuff was heavy, wet and melted fast.  Then the sun came out!?  The wind very quickly dried me out and I felt much better.  Throughout the day several more clouds blew by with hail or sleet and the wind kept getting stronger.  Perhaps 30 mph early, to about 50 mph later.  Even now, in a great natural shelter in the lee of a minor ridge, there's a lot of wind.  And the trees outside are really getting hammered.  But there's a full moon, a grand view over the desert and the only clouds are low on the horizon.  Who knows what tomorrow will bring!  One thing's for sure, I'm not anxious to be up on Mt. Taylor in this wind.  I may have to plot a route around it. My camp tonight is in a small cavity under a couple boulders.  It's almost a cave.  It fits me very well and has a sandy floor.  Very nice. April 7  8:50 PM.  Cibola National Forest, nearing Mt. Taylor. Today was a MUCH nicer day than the last couple.  No rain, sleet, hail or snow, only moderate wind in the afternoon.  A high of around 60 degrees, even at 8,000 feet.  Very nice.  The warm, still morning made me want to nap at every rest stop.  I did rest a little here and there as the cold and wind yesterday had really taken a toll.  But by noon I had climbed 1,500 feet and logged 12 miles to a wonderful spring called Ojo de los Indios.  A faster pace and flatter ground added 20 more miles in the afternoon.  Not a bad day.  Just 32 miles and 11,301-foot Mt. Taylor stand between me and my next stop, Grants.  This afternoon I saw five of the biggest bull elk that I've ever seen.  I guess they get along this time of year because they were all together.  They were just starting to grow this year's antlers.

April 9  7:30 AM.  The Sands Motel, Grants, New Mexico. I got into town late last night after a 32-mile day, plus whatever extra it was getting to the motel.  This is a big town and not easy for a hiker to get around in.  It's several miles across and very spread out.  I had to ask twice which way to a motel.  I still have only the vaguest idea which way it is to the Post Office.  And I'll have to ask where to go to find new socks and such.  Even food is harder to find here.  There's just one restaurant that I can see from the motel, although I'm sure they're all over.  But given the late hour and my sore feet, I just had a pizza delivered.  Some things about a large town are nice. Yesterday's long hike was also an interesting one, especially going over Mt. Taylor.  It was a beautiful, clear day, but windy up on the mountain.  Snow was again deep enough that following the road through open, flat areas was impossible.  So I tried my best to follow the route of the road by map and compass.  Because of the steep terrain, the road did a lot of winding around, not all of which is even shown on my map, where a mile is less than one inch.  (I'm using the 1:100,000 BLM maps and the Forest Service maps in National Forests.)  So I lost the road several times.  And some of the routes I chose, road or not, were pretty steep.  A couple times I wish I'd had my ice ax in case I slipped.  But I was careful and limited my exposure. Soon I made it to the top of 11,301-foot Mt. Taylor and saw snowmobile tracks coming up the other side!  I certainly came up the hard way.  But the views were breathtaking!  Only the north was partly obscured by some trees, but that view I'd enjoyed all the way up.  A hundred miles in every direction covers a lot of ground, but I was soon getting cold in the wind up there so I didn't spend more than 10 minutes looking at the view. On the way down I took an alternate route down Lobo Canyon, which looked shorter and more interesting than the guidebook's recommended route.  It was a great choice with nice canyon views, water available and indeed shorter, if somewhat slower going in places.  The worst of it, though, and the probably reason it's not the recommended route, is that there's a private ranch at the lower end of the canyon.  So when I got to the "Posted  No Trespassing" signs, I followed their south fence for a mile and a quarter, then cross-countried it for another ½ mile to the main road.  All in all it was a good choice. The road-walk on a paved highway from there into town was arduous but fast, as these things always are.  I'd better get used to it.  There's more coming up.  And it's all my route now.  The guidebook just ended! April 9  8:30 PM.  El Malpais National Monument. It took me until noon to get out of Grants, but I managed to get in 22 miles of road walking before dark.  The Grants post office was a real joy.  Michelle there was the first person on the CDT who recognized me as a CDT hiker and appreciated me for doing it.  The more common reaction goes something like this.  "You want a ride?"   "No thanks, I'm hiking the Continental Divide Trail." "What's that? The Continental Divide is miles from here." "Yeah, I know, but this is it." (Strange look.)  "You sure you don't need a ride?  This is an awfully long, lonely road." "Yeah, thanks." I think part of it is how grungy I'm starting to look.  I haven't had a haircut or shave in over 4 months.  Even when I'm clean and don't stink, it looks like I probably do.  I tried two haircut places in Grants today and both claimed to be "booked solid."  Perhaps it was true or perhaps one look at me was enough to make them want to pass on THAT project.  I DO know that the soup kitchen people asked me if I was hungry and wanted something to eat when I passed by.  But now I'm back in the wilderness where appearance doesn't matter.  Tonight I have a wonderful bed of Ponderosa Pine needles four inches deep.  It's more comfortable than my bed in Grants!

April 10  9:00 PM.  Cibola County Road 41, New Mexico.  What a night!  It's down to 27 degrees already and blowing snow periodically.  Yuck!  I hope the snow flurries will die down as they built up this afternoon like small thunderstorms.  That would help.  I'm under my tarp, behind a barely discernable mound that is blocking not enough of the 30-40 mph wind out there.  It's so flat and treeless that there's no shelter.  In looking for this camp, I seriously considered a culvert that was just barely wide enough for me to squeeze into.  It would not have been comfortable, that's for sure. But I've got big rocks holding down the stakes of my tarp, and I'm trying out my emergency bivy sack for the first time.  It's a Space Bag made of Mylar.  It will keep the snow out from between my pad and sleeping bag, but it doesn't breathe, so I'm sure to be damp by morning.  I've also got 5 liters of water in here trying to keep it from freezing.  And the campsite was chosen for best wind protection, not for flatness.  So it may be a long night.  If worse comes to worst, I'm probably close enough to Pie Town to get there tomorrow, and there are some ranches in the area where I could get help if I need it.  But knowing how fast the weather changes around here, I'll probably wake up to a warm, clear morning.  I hope so.  Today I went mostly around El Malpais on the Chain of Craters Road rather than trying to follow Jim Wolfe's recommended Zuni-Acoma Trail route, which is shorter.  I didn't want to get lost on that route, which goes through a dry wilderness area.  My map doesn't identify the Zuni-Acoma Trail by name so, if I had problems, I would be going cross-country in lava fields.  No thanks.  My route was easy to follow, had lots of water and was much longer.  My reasoning is sound, but it may have been better to go the shorter way.  Despite there being lots of water in stock tanks, I've been carrying 6 liters because I can't count on the water being there.  April 11  8:00 PM.  Nita Lorrande's home in Pie Town, NM. Last night's wind only got worse as it got later.  I though the trekking poles that I use as tent poles would bend, but they didn't.  I have little idea how strong the wind really was, perhaps 50 mph, but the tarp was so flattened by it that it pushed down on my sleeping bag and my chest while I lay there!  When I rolled on my side, my shoulder was up high enough that it got cold.  And the thermometer read 25 degrees at the lowest.  That's some serious, below zero wind chill!  But the emergency Space Bag worked as planned.  It kept the snow off and would have cut the wind had the tarp failed.  As expected the sleeping bag got pretty wet, but I dried it out today.  All in all, I'd call this a successful night in conditions that are really beyond what a tarp should be used for.  But note that a 3-season tent would have collapsed, in my opinion.  A 4-season tent, properly pitched, would have been the best choice.  But for the weight, I'm still a believer in tarps. Today was a much nicer day as it cleared up, but was cold and a little windy all day.  I got into Pie Town a little before the post office closed, but they do not have my resupply box!  It won't be a disaster, though.  It may arrive in the morning but if not, I can get a ride with a guy named Alan into Quemado where I can buy food and maps.  Either way I'll be on my way some time tomorrow.  Next stop is Gila Cliff Dwellings, 107 miles away. An interesting note about water consumption.  Due to the cold and the fact that I didn't cook dinner in the wind last night, the 6 liters of water that I carried out of Grants lasted me the entire 80-plus miles here to Pie Town!  I carried as much as 4 liters of "cattle trough tea" at times, but I dumped it all out eventually.

HERE ARE SOME NEW PHOTOS.  FIRST, A FOND FAREWELL TO THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL, AT LEAST FOR NOW.

When the white blazes are ankle-high, you are walking through the treetops.  The picture below IS the trail!

SO, HELLO NEW MEXICO, AND THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE TRAIL!

Near Cumbres Pass, on the Colorado-New Mexico border (10,000 feet.)

April 12  9:00 PM.  Near Dutch Oven Pass, 20 miles south of Pie Town, NM. Some things just work out right.  Today was like that.  My resupply box didn't arrive but I had no trouble finding maps and food in Quemado.  The whole exercise took until noon by which time the little storm front that had been dropping some snow had passed.  The sun came out, it got warm and I had a nice 20-mile afternoon!  I'm rested and relaxed thanks to the hospitality of Nita and family, and well on my way to Gila Cliff Dwellings, my next stop.  I'm beginning to learn that there's a lot of water available out here on cattle ranching land.  Every few miles there's a stock tank, often with a windmill.  Windmills are great.  They pump water out of a well into a tank.  I can usually catch water coming right out of the pump.  Wonderful!  April 13  8:20 PM.  On the fringe of the Plains of San Augustin, New Mexico. What a crazy day.  Beautiful weather, downhill or flat roads to walk, no navigational challenges, or so I thought!  It all added up to lots of miles, perhaps 38 or 39 miles walked, but at 5 PM, with 31 miles already done, I was tired and took a wrong turn, or rather I missed the right turn.  I walked 5 miles up the wrong road and I'm camped here in the middle of retracing those 5 miles.  Rats!  The net effective mileage is only around 30.  It's an important lesson for me as I trend toward higher mileage.  Be very careful late in the day when tired.  Today I walked around the southwestern end of the Plains of San Augustin, a very flat depression that extends northeast for many miles.  Even though it's flat, I can't see all the way across it.  It's like looking out over the ocean.

April 14  9:00 PM.  Wall Lake, Gila National Forest, NM. It was another beautiful day, this time around 80 degrees.  That's hot enough to increase the water required to keep me hydrated and I almost ran out once before finding a windmill storage tank.  I was down to just about a pint left.  Today I also paid closer attention to the map so as not to take a wrong turn, like yesterday.  The first 1.5 miles today were to finish the 5-mile backtrack from yesterday's goof.  Including those miles, I walked 36.5 miles today, from 6 AM to 7:45 PM.  Like yesterday, when I got beyond about 32 miles, my feet began to hurt more than usual.  I guess no matter how far your body is prepared to go, when you surpass that, there's a price to pay.  Hopefully I'll soon be able to do 35-mile days without problems.  Until then I'm sleeping with my feet elevated on days like this.  It really helps make my feet feel better.  April 15  9:00 PM.  Gila Hot Springs, NM. Today was a fairly short 20-mile day.  I need the rest after the last two days and the chance to camp at a hot spring can't be passed up.  The water is as hot as you want, up to 160 degrees at the hot end!  Ouch!  But the air is cooling down fast and it's time to get some sleep.  I came through the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument today.  The Cliff Dwellings were closed but I saw a video of them at the Visitor Center.  It looks to be a minor version of Mesa Verde or Chaco Canyon, but the builders were the Mogollon people rather than the Anasasi.  April 17  7:30 AM.  Copper Manor Motel, Silver City, NM.  Here I am in Silver City, the last large town on my hike through New Mexico.  I got here late yesterday after a 39-mile road walk on Highway 15.  As road walks go, it was nice and scenic with lots of trees, hills and some nice views.  But the road is paved, which hurts the feet, and every mile is marked by a green milepost.  So I watched as all 39 of these mileposts slowly went by!  It took 13-1/2 hours and a gallon of water.  A long, but nice day.

April 17  7:45 PM.  Separ Road, just off NM90, near the Three Sisters. I took a half-day off today in Silver City.  I slept in, watched a little TV, had Huevos Rancheros for breakfast and rested my aching feet.  After getting my resupply box, a care package from Marge and a letter from Kim at the post office, I headed out of town around 1 PM.  That left enough time to get off the main highway after 18 miles of paved road walking and find this nice quiet campsite on a small bit of BLM land. Kim's daughter Julia sent me a delightful drawing of me out in the desert.  I particularly like how she drew me as a tiny little figure in the midst of the huge desert.  That's how I feel out here some of the time, insignificant in a vast land. April 18  7:30 PM.  Under Interstate 10, where it crosses Burro Cienaga. Tonight I'm in a culvert under I-10.  There's no way to get away from the freeway here because I'm hiking a section of frontage road with private property and fences all along.  So the quietest place is under the freeway.  I can hear the traffic, but it's not too bad.  The Southern Pacific train track is right next to the freeway, so that'll make some noise too.  Good thing I'm tired tonight after 30-something miles.  There were no road signs to help with the distance calculation, so I really don't know exactly how far I went.  I just know it seemed like forever as I was approaching the freeway.  It's really flat here and I could see the trucks going by about 10 miles away!  Those miles were hiked in the heat of the day, 90-plus in the sun, so it was tough mentally.  And the frontage road walk is only slightly better.  It hardly feels like I'm moving at all when the traffic is going by at 75 mph. The high mileage and pounding on roads is taking its toll on my feet.  Besides hurting more, I've developed a blister on my left heel.  Not good, but probably not a disaster either.  If I can hold together for two more days, I'll be at the border and get a few days rest before starting the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).

April 19  8:30 PM.  Highway 81, 10 miles north of the Mexican border. For those paying close attention, no, I didn't do a 60-mile day.  I did a 34 miler with a flip-flop.  I've been worried about how to get back from Antelope Wells border crossing because it's such a lightly traveled road.  So when I got to Hachita, where my last resupply box was waiting for me, and met Sam Hughes, a new plan formed.  Sam drove me to Antelope Wells from Hachita, a distance of 45 miles.  Now I'm hiking north from the border back to Hachita.  No more nasty hitchhike problem!  And there's just 35 more miles to town, so I'll probably get there tomorrow.  Today was another beautiful spring day in the desert.  Warm and sunny in the morning, but a little cloudy in the afternoon.  It's been hot enough to drink 6 liters of water today, but not too bad, really. A 2-1/2 inch long tarantula just visited my camp spot.  Really beautiful, but I hope it doesn't want to share my sleeping bag tonight!  If it's as warm as last night, it won't get below about 60 degrees.  That's warmer than the high temperature on all but a couple days on the AT this winter!  I sure don't need all my winter gear right now!  Earlier today I saw my first rattlesnake of the year.  It was sunning itself on the road as I walked by.  This is real desert down here.  The last couple days I've seen lots of Joshua trees, cholla cactus, prickly pear cactus and beavertail cactus.  But it's definitely spring; there are lots of wildflowers in bloom, too.  It's really lovely to walk in the desert at this time of year.

April 20  6:00 PM.  Sam Hughes' house, Hachita, NM.  Today I finished New Mexico!  I hiked the remaining 35 miles back to Hachita and I'm awaiting Sam's return.  I'm a little early  he isn't expecting me until 6 or 7 PM.  But today is very windy and that made it feel cooler, so I could hike faster.  Since I was going north today, the wind was at my back for a change.  That was a pleasant turn.  It's blowing up a lot of dust, though.  On the side of the road today, I saw the body of a dead eagle.  I stopped to admire the once great bird, when I noticed a tuft of three feathers at my feet.  The three eagle feathers immediately made me think of the three great trails I'm hiking.  It seemed to me that the feathers were a gift to me, and a symbol of my hike.  I'd like to carry them with me for the rest of my hike, but I'm afraid they're too fragile for that.  But since I'm heading home tomorrow for a brief rest before beginning the PCT, I'll leave them there.  They are very special to me.  April 21  9:30 PM.  Greyhound bus station, Los Angeles, CA.   The last time I was here, I had a 3-hour layover on my way to San Diego to start the PCT in '97.  As I recall, that was a Friday night from midnight to 3 AM and this place was full of "colorful" people in various states of mind, drug-induced or otherwise.  Tonight is Saturday and it's a much busier, saner place.  My trip home has been easy so far.  Sam Hughes took me to Lordsburg and I got on the Greyhound bus that took me here.  At 11 PM, I'll board another bus bound for San Jose.  No sweat.  On the way here, the bus went through San Gorgonio Pass on I-10.  There's a great view of Mt. San Jacinto there and it was covered with snow from Fuller Ridge on up.  This interests me because the PCT goes through there and I'll be there in a couple weeks.  It looks tough to get through right now, but no doubt it will be easier than some of the AT treks I've done.  But I don't think I'll have my snowshoes with me, which may make it tougher.  But if the snow doesn't melt soon, I may rethink that plan.

April 27  9:00 AM.  In the car heading for Lake Morena and the southern terminus of the PCT. It's been great to get a week of rest at home.  I feel refreshed physically and mentally and am ready to get out on the trail again.  In fact, I'm a little antsy, but there's no point getting started on the PCT too early.  I'll just get into a lot of snow.  This week I shopped for a lot of gear to replace what is worn out.  New shoes, socks, shell jacket, trekking poles and a sunhat, just to name a few items.  I'm also switching to my summer gear, which is lighter, so my base pack weight is now down below 13 pounds.

And that includes a much heavier pack, the Kelty Vapor, which will allow me to run comfortably when I feel the need to cover ground a little more quickly.  The G4 I've been using is great, but it wouldn't carry as well without all my winter gear filling it up and giving it some form.  And it may or may not have withstood the extra pounding that running will bring. I also got a chance to see my friends for a bit.  I went running with my running "buds", Brooke, Derek, David, Raymond and my father Roy.  I had a nice dinner with my school buddies, David, Frank, Roy, Theo and Josh.  I missed Gabe, who is ill, and Chris, who is traveling in China.  I Also got a visit from Sven Thesen, who thruhikers will no doubt recognize as one of only two guys who have ever hiked both the AT and the PCT in one year.  He and Jarrod did so in '99 and I followed their trek with much interest.  Now they are following along on my journey, and getting "itchy feet" while doing so.  I certainly understand.  This lifestyle is very addictive.  There is so much freedom in the fresh air and sunshine.  And, of course, it was great to see Mom and Dad, eat some home cooking, play a little Bridge and be lazy for a while.  As Dorothy says, "There's no place like home." April 29  7:15 PM.  "Proposed Horse Camp" in Cleveland National Forest, southern California. The 3rd Annual Day Zero PCT Kickoff Party was wonderful.  There were over a hundred people, all interested in hiking.  I talked with so many people I lost count.  All the lonely days on the AT I looked forward to this time and it did not disappoint.  Kim, Julia and Kenyon were there (cousins of mine.)  Sage, a hiking partner of mine from my '97 PCT hike was there.  And lots of other hikers, some I've met before, many I met for the first time.  This morning I headed north with Monte and Ann.  There were many more hikers we ran into on the trail, most of whom are camped here.  We have about 15 people camped here!  It will take a few days for the crowd to spread out on the trail.  Today is especially crowded because many of us have resupply boxes to pick up in Mount Laguna tomorrow.  Some of the people here are:  Swiss Miss, Nick, Jeff, Monte, and Ann. April 30  9:45 PM.  San Felipe Creek at Scissors Crossing. Today was a long day.  I got up at first light and headed for the Mount Laguna Post Office.  I got there an hour before it opened at 8 AM.  With new supplies I walked here, a distance of over 39 miles for the day.  Needless to say, I left everyone from the kickoff party behind.  Here I am, alone again.  Another note from the kickoff party is that I met Glen Van Peski, the maker of my G4 pack and Reed, a friend of his.  Glen generously offered to make me a new G4.  The new one will be lower volume to better fit my summer gear and be made of the sturdier, but heavier, 2.2 oz silnylon fabric.  Reed gave me a Moonstone Anorak, which is warmer and lighter than my Moonstone Powerstretch fleece jacket, and let me try out his one pound Rab Top sleeping bag.  It has down only on the top to save weight.  I was cold in it on a 36-degree night, but I still believe it would be great to use in summer conditions.  It's over a pound lighter than my Feathered Friends Hummingbird bag.  With the new G4 and the Rab Top bag, I can save 2.5 pounds off the 12-13 that I'm now carrying. May 1  10:00 PM.  Warner Springs, CA. I did 32 miles today, including the infamous 23 waterless miles through the San Felipe Hills.  Although it was a reasonably warm day, perhaps 80's in the shade, it didn't seem as tough this time as in '97, when I was a very green thruhiker.  Last time 6 liters of water each barely got my dad and me through the waterless part.  Today, 6 liters got me all the way to Warner Springs.  The difference was conditioning, cooler temperature and an early morning start.  I saw two rattlesnakes today and one yesterday.  So far it seems there are fewer around than in '97.  At Barrel Spring today I met four hikers.  Amy and Brent are newlyweds on their honeymoon!  They met while working at Glacier National Park, so they're obviously both outdoors people.  They were hiking with "Griz" and another guy whose name I didn't catch.  Griz was wondering what happened to Wayne, who I saw last night camped out before Scissors Crossing.  Wayne was having foot trouble and was considering a hitch into Julian for a rest.