The Concrete Trail (D-27 517.6

The Concrete Trail (D-27 517.6 - 549)

Today was going to be walking along and on the famous LA Aquaduct. This is perhaps the flattest section in the whole of PCT. It is also usually one of the hotter and dryer sections and lot of hikers walk this section at night. A group of hikers, incl me, were planning to do that too but since it was so cold & windy yesterday night, we figured it would be cool enough to walk during daytime. I headed out from Hikertown around 6 am and very quickly you hit the open aquaduct, with a warning sign before that

Then it becomes a closed pipe

Finally, it goes underground and you are walking on top the concrete slab enclosing it. This goes on for miles. It is kinda nice to not worry about the trail condition, but at the same time, there is not a single shade area.

The second half of the day, once I went off the Aquaduct, was full of windmills. Never seen them so close. Massive and beautiful structures!

Finally, it was back to mountains and continuously uphill for the rest of the day. It was very tiring day!

However, it was my first 30+ mile day 🙂

My reward for hitting 50k/31 mile in a single day!

Finally, reached the campsite at the top of the mountain where I am right now. It is a somewhat sheltered site and hopefully protected from wind. Surprisingly nobody else is camping here tonight & it is just me 🙂

This is a water cache with chairs and umbrella set up by a trail angel, and a few campsites are next to it.

My tent site

Data:

Comments

Merlyn Patil said…

30+ mile cool Ravi!
keep posting all your hiking experience 😊

May 13, 2022 at 2:16 PM

Why you shouldn't (or should) thru-hike the PCT? (D-115: 2592.1 - 2613.1 - Nero @ Mazama, D-116: 2613.1 - 2642.6)

Over the last 116 days, I have had plenty of time to think about what's good or bad about this thru-hike and just in case, one of you is thinking about doing a PCT thru-hike, here are my thoughts about why you shouldn't or should do it. Why you shouldn't do a PCT thru-hike - It is very tough physically and mentally - There is less than 50% chance that anyone starting it will finish - Almost everyone seems to have negative physical effects including weight loss, muscle loss, days & days of tired legs & feet etc - You will definitely get scratches, bruises and cuts, if you are lucky. If you are unlucky, major sprains, muscle tears & other hike-ending injuries. Btw, most people who stop do so 'cos of injuries. - You will trip & fall down multiple times (when the avg number of steps is 50000 - 70000/day over uneven paths, the law of large numbers takes over and some of those steps will lead to falls) - It is an expensive activity, with a bulk o...

Gratitude (D-114: 2577.8 - 2592.1 - Nero @ Mazama)

As the last town day on the trail ends and a few dozen miles left to the end point, I would like to speak of gratitude. Every so often on the trail, there are moments of "why the heck am I doing this?" and that's when I have to compel myself to remember that this is an option and an opportunity given to me. I am fortunate enough to be able to hike on this trail for a long period, which is essentially a vacation (albeit, a physically & mentally demanding one). Not everybody gets the option of taking such a long vacation from work, family and other commitments. It may be a cliche, but I am full of gratitude for this. I am also deeply grateful to a bunch of people who made this hike possible and I would like to use this post to mention those people. Ravin & Deepika opened their home and hearts so that I could do all the preparatory work before the hike. They were generous to a fault and I used (& perhaps, abused) their generosity. Even during the hik...

A thru-hike attempt... successful! (D-117: 2642.6 - 2653.6, D-117S (SOBO): 0 - 17.1, D-118S (SOBO): 17.1-30.6)

It is done! Finally, on August 10th, 2022, 117 days after I started at the US-Mexico border on April 16th, 2022, I reached the US-Canada border. Walked 2653.6 miles (4270.6 km) south-to-north through the states of California, Oregon and Washington. No bittersweet moments...just sweet relief to be done 😀. We were few of the lucky thru-hikers this year who were able to go south-to-north continuously without any interruptions. People who started even a couple of weeks earlier and maintained this pace hit a lot more snow in Seirras and a hell lot more in Washington, the latter being almost hike-stopping. By the time we got to Seirras, the snow was much more manageable, and almost all the snow had melted in Washington. People who started later or were slower have had to skip parts of Northern California due to forest fires. Even Oregon and Southern California have some fires starting already. Anyway, reached the northern terminus of the PCT yesterday morn...

A thru-hike attempt

Search This Blog