PCT day 9, An unexpected, abrupt change of plans

Mile 115.0 to 127.0, 12 miles total. Elevation start 3235 cresting at 5016. Total daily elevation gained: 2945 feet, total daily descent, 1090 feet. Average grade: 325 feet elevation change per mile. High: 65 degrees, low 41, sunny to cloudy, winds started out calm, eventually gusting to 40-50 MPH.

I’ve figured out how to find total elevation ascended/descended on my phone app. How neat! Also, the mileposts that I mention with my pictures are approximate to within 3 miles. I can’t remember the exact milepost when I have to wait days to post my blog due to poor cell service.

On this morning, I awoke to the wonderful sound of Agua Caliente creek flowing, and frogs croaking. These frogs actuallly sounded like crickets on steroids. I’ve never heard frogs that sound like that. The winds were mostly calm, so I had lots of moisture on my tent. This has been a constant theme in the “desert”. Below average temperatures and fairly moist air. I’ve only had to carry water once thus far, although I always carry 2 liters in case of an unexpected emergency.

My mileage goal for this day was somewhere between 15 to 18 miles. I started out with a good thousand foot climb out of my wonderful little campsite. The scenery was still green everywhere. Zach and I agreed that the landscape around this area, miles 130-140 more resembles a South American rain forest rather than southwest U.S. desert.

As I continued climbing in elevation, the scenery began to change. The green grassy fields and green rolling hills began to slowly change into a forest of larger trees, then finally changing to a rather barren, rocky landscape that more resembled the desert I expected to see, although this dry landscape would be short lived. The winds also began to pick up, and were quite chillly.

After I walked through this rocky landscape, I ended up on the crest of the ridge, and would walk this crest for the next 8-10 miles. I had hoped to make it to the end of this crest by the end of the day, finding a campsite sheltered from potential winds. Zach and I end up walking into “Mikes Plce” about 12 miles into our day. Mikes place is a supposed hiker friendly spot where hikers can go for free food/drinks (a donation is appreciated), and even to camp for the night. We walked down to Mikes Place. This was the strangest place Ive seen in a long time. It was actually rather creepy. There was an abandoned travel trailer up on a hill and a very strange house. We weren’t sure if this was actually “Mikes Place” or not. A few other hikers began to trickle in, which made us feel a bit better.

Within another couple of hours approximately 10-12 more hikers trickled in. We were sitting around in a circle, in chairs, wondering where “Mike” was. The winds really began picking up by late afternoon, and it was than that a storm warning came out. The forecast was for 40 MPH winds, with higher gusts on the crest, which is where we were. The temperature was dropping noticeably too. We were getting alarmed as evening was fast approaching and we had no plans in place. In fact, we didn’t even 100% know if this weird place was “Mikes” place or not. Around 6:00, we began to come up with a “plan B”. It’s now too late to try to hike off of the ridge, so we were stuck. We all began to walk around this odd property looking for places to camp. Zach (a different Zach), from Manhattan, KS, and I saw a long abandoned RV. A few of us snooped around and we decided that we were going to sleep in what we dubbed the “Breaking Bad RV”. Sorry, you have to have watched the TV series to know what this means.

We chose to sleep in this long abandoned RV over camping out in what was going to be a very windy, rainy, cold night. A total of 5 of us crammed into this RV. A husband and wife (can’t remember their names) slept on a fold out couch, and somebody else slept on the floor. By nightfall, we were all rather bewildered at our situation. Still no sign of any owner to this place. Others found small spaces in the woods to set up their tent, and about 4 others slept under the covered patio.

It was much later on, after 9 or 10:00 that the curator for Mikes Place finally showed up. A truck slowly pulled down the hill and up to the house. All of us in this RV are like “‘oh shit!!! Are we even supposed to be here, or are we trespassing???” Then we see this guy get out of the truck. He is wearing the craziest leather jacket I’ve ever seen, completely disheveled hair, and he has a 4 foot long animal’s tail sewed into his pants, giving him the appearance of having grown a tail! We all look at each other like OMG, what in the HELL is going on here?? Finally, Zach and I decided to walk down and make contact with him. He introduced himself as the curator to “Mikes place”. I was quick to figure out that he was a very strange, but overall friendly individual. Zach and I went back up to the abandoned RV after this.

Early the next morning, we learned that his trail name is Strange Bird. He woke up and came outside and said “hey, I’m sorry, but today I’m going to be a bad host and not cook anything, but you guys are welcome to anything in the shed”. He showed us a large grill and a large amount of food. Cynthia, Zach, and I volunteered to cook breakfast. We made pancakes, potatoes, and breakfast burritos.

“Strange Bird” has a tail sewn into all of his clothes. He says that humans used to have tails, and still should. He claims the tail helps him with balance amongst other things. I seriously am not making any of this up. He wears a tail everywhere he goes! His appearance best resembles a character in a Jack Nicholson horror movie. He is very animated and friendly and is very welcoming of PCT hikers. I’m learning that you never know what to expect on the PCT. Zach and I ended up leaving rather early, the next morning, knowing we had a tough day in front of us. As luck would have it, “Strange Bird” isn’t the only interesting person we would meet on trail. Wait until I tell you about “The Straggler”! I will talk about him on my down day coming up in Idyllwild.