PCT day 34, descending into the Agua Dulce ‘desert’ botanical garden

Start mile 430.4, end 444.3, 13.9 miles.  Total ascent 1,390 feet.  Total descent, 4859 feet. Average grade, 448 feet per mile.  Partly cloudy, high 75ish dropping during the day, low 58, no wind.  

Today I said good bye to this mountain range and hello to the Agua Dulce valley floor. Once again, there were flowers everywhere on this hike! This day also marks a great psychological milestone. The trail curved back to the north again. I’ve been hiking westward for the last 150 miles. It feels good to be hiking towards Canada again!

The air is rather humid again, and now there may be thunderstorms in the next few days. I can see the moisture in the air! Am I back in Kansas again?? I’m sitting in a KOA campsite typing this at 11 pm and my tent is already soaked with dew.

The first few miles of my hike saw an incredible scene. The valley floor was covered in fog, with only hilltops visible!

I hiked into a ranger station for a soda and talked to the ranger for a bit. He reiterated the fact that he’s never seen a spring anything like this spring in his career. Water is still not a problem, being available every 3-6 miles. The ranger told me that I will have a 12-14 mile waterless stretch north of Agua Dulce. This is probably the longest stretch without water so far. After that, it should be smooth sailing into Tehachapi regarding water.

The theme of the day, like most of the “desert “ has been is the incredible flower display. “Falls”, a fellow hiker, said this descent smelled like his grandma’s house. He’s right. There is a particular lavender colored flower that smells like 75% lemon verbena and 25% patchouli. Yankee Candle really should send people out here to bottle the scents and try to reproduce them. I’d name them something like Desert Rose or Mojave Rain. One other thing that stands out is the drone of bees pollinating the flowers. The buzzing of thousands of bees could be heard over the crunching of my foot steps!

The group I’m currently hiking with ended up at the KOA campsite near PCT mile 444.3. We decided to reward ourselves for finishing another mountain range by getting an Uber and going into the nearest town and getting a pizza!! Our Uber ride back was very scary and dangerous! This guy driving myself, Robert ‘Captain’, Carla ‘Gilligan’, and Danny ‘Falls’ back must have been under the influence of something. I don’t think it was alcohol, but something! He would drift across the center line. The DA DA DA DA across the center line alerted us to this. He would come up right to a stop sign and hit the brakes hard, and would approach a 30 mph curve in the road going 70, then hit his brakes hard. It was as if his response time was seriously impaired!! I forgot to mention the wrong turns he took!

Well, I’m back in one piece. Tomorrow will be an easy 12 mile hike to a place called Hiker Heaven in Agua Dulce. I’ll now let the pictures do the talking. All images taken from miles 430-444!