Lionheart - Pacific Crest Trail Journal - 2013

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aqueduct sunrise

When You Run Out Of Water In The Mojave

The faucet is off
Angel Orbit brings water
Black smoke fills the sky


There is no such thing as sleeping in when you're in the desert. Flat terrain lends itself to good sunrise and sunset viewing and early morning sun. Even though I kept calling it sunset, had a beautiful sunrise as we headed back out aside the LA Aqueduct.

We arrived at the cottonwood creek bridge to find not only the water faucet off but the water cache empty as well. It was another 7 miles until the tylerhorse canyon creek. I only had a 1/2 liter so I left quickly. Despite just being after 9 am, it was already hot. The trail was mostly shadeless as G Dub and I meandered through wind turbines. As the heat approached triple digits, not even the lizards were out. I was out of water quickly but G Dub shared some of his with me. My mouth grew dry and I couldn't stop licking my lips. After passing some cows who we couldn't figure out how they survived, we actually found a small shady spot. I started sucking on jolly ranchers to help create saliva in my dry mouth. Suddenly, Orbit approached us with bottles of water. She'd already made it to the trickle of a creek and walked back at least a mile to bring us water. We drank a little and saved the rest for Wren and Bagpipes behind us, who also only had a 1/2 liter a piece.

As I neared the water source Bagpipes, who had pushed ahead of me came back with even more water for me and Wren. I was starting to feel better as I arrived at the trickling Tylerhorse Canyon creek around noon. We relaxed there until 5 pm as slowly the sky grew dark with smoke.

As we climbed out of the canyon, we could see the enormous black plume of smoke to our south. What a monster. As our climb continued, we eventually could see large areas of flames. We were a long ways away so the flames must have been huge. As darkness fell, the sky glowed red. Eventually I pulled out my head lamp to make my way to the water cache where I caught up with G Dub and Porsche. Water and apples. What a gift. Oh, and chairs to sit in. Heaven.

G Dub shared some chili dinner with us as we sat in this eerie setting of previously burnt forest, smoky skies, and ant laden trees. Soon Rocks, Posey and Amigo rolled in. We sat around and ate for a while and then went to bed.

Entry 71 of 208
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