[pct-l] Aqua Dulcimer to Walker Pass

[Marge Prothman]

Section $. and Section F. Aqua Dulcie to Walker Pass  192.9 Nov./Dec 1999

 

On Saturday Nov. 20, 1999 a old friend and I  decided to hike these two
sections. I was in Yuma for the winter and she came from B.C. Canada.  We
stayed one night with the Saufleys, arranged our food box for delivery and
good friend Jim drove us to  deliver our Box and then drove us back to the
trail head in Aqua Dulcie. We did not need to stash water on the desert as "
Letitbe and Skunk"  had already done this and had to leave the trail.  He
left a list of the places where it was stashed.  We appreciated this and one
of these trail names was our famous record holder on the trail today, but I
do not remember calling him which name?

 

 Jim took  our car to the camp ground  at Walker Pass....

 

We had hiked about 5 miles when I discovered we did not have my poles which
we mainly used for setting up the tarp tent.  They were in the trunk of my
car miles away by now. What to do.we discovered Yucca stalks which were tall
enough and tough enough to set the tarp up using one at each end.  We also
used frozen cowpies along  the sides of the tarp.  It was really cold out
there.

 

We experienced the Santa Ana winds in both sections and it was really cold .
I wore all my clothes to bed and all my clothes on the trail. I never took
off my hat and my hair hurt when I did take it off.  During  this time we
did not wash ourselves or our eating pot. We rationalized that the cold
would freeze any germs on the pots etc. We did manage to get a diaper wipe
on the body once or twice. I felt we were in Survival Mode and  just wanted
to hike out of there. 

 

I sent a trip report to the PCT and I wanted to share these two comments:

 

>From Owen Kitteridge:

There is a reason that the area east of Mojave has windmills and you found
this out.  I went to High School in Mojave and that was 27 years ago and I
still will not go into High Desert in the winter due to unstable weather.
As a boy scout and camping/hiking in the wind/sand sucks.  In fact Mojave
averages 360 days of wind.

 

>From Charlie Jones;

Congratulations to both of you. You two must hold the record this year for
being the last hikers with enough guts to still be out on the PCT despite
the weather and low temps.

I hope you turned off the lights...there is no one hiking behide you.

Charlie.

 

 

I just wanted to share this with the list, it brings back lots of memories.

we had all the right stuff in our packs. We were on the edge of light weight
backpacking with the tarp tent that my daughter had made.

 

Cheers,   Marge (the old gal)