[pct-l] Pack base weight - Mojave / Tehachapi

[Jim & Jane Moody]

Here's a variation that worked well for me in 2010.  I hitched into Mojave on Oak Creek rd (long hitch).  The next day I did chores and got somebody to slack me between Oak Creek and Hwy 58.  The third day I hitched out to the PCT at Tehachapi Pass and started n orthward, rested and overloaded.   Two nights of motel, town food, resupply, laundry, and made miles all three days. 

Mango  



----- Original Message -----


From: "CHUCK CHELIN" <steeleye at wildblue.net> 
To: "PCT listserve" <pct-l at backcountry.net> 
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 5:49:42 PM 
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Pack base weight 

Good afternoon, 

Piper points out one of the many logistic decisions that a long-distance 
hiker must make:  Do I carry more food and/or water now allowing less 
frequent stops, or do I hike fewer – but lighter -- miles between resupply 
stops and accept some loss of time to hitch off-trail. 

Some situations are at the extremes of the question to the point of being 
no-brainers: For example, with the PCT being routed directly through towns 
like Agua Dulce and Cascade Locks, no hiker I know would pass without 
stopping while carrying food to the next resupply point up the trail. 
Similarly, 
it hardly makes sense to hitch 20-30 miles to some little town for food 
just because the PCT happens to cross a highway, particularly when the next 
easy resupply point may only be another day’s hike further up the trail. 

Conversely, resupply at Mojave or Tehachapi – they are functionally 
equivalent, so take your pick – is a good example of having reasonable 
choices; some of which can be made well in advance, and others that could 
wait until the last minute. 

>From the PCT, Mojave is a hitch of about 10 miles eastward, while Tehachapi 
is about the same distance westward.  Each has two viable roads to use to 
hitch:  The first road crossing is at a well-used but secondary highway 
called Tehachapi/Willow Springs Road going west and Oak Creek Road going 
east to Mojave.  If one hikes past that opportunity, about 8 miles further 
north the trail crosses Hwy-58, the Tehachapi Pass Freeway which goes 
through/near both little towns. 

One time I hiked to the freeway, camped, and then bright and early the next 
morning I got a ride to Mojave within 10 minutes of lifting my thumb.  It 
worked great:  By mid-day I had my resupply box, and I found a ride on the 
freeway back to the pass.  A down-side of that was by not staying in town 
for the night I started up the trail in the mid-day heat and I had to camp 
before reaching water, but all that was planned. 

Another time through the same area, I stopped at the first road to take a 
break, and encountered a Trail Angel who offered to take me to Mojave via 
Oak Springs Road.  I gladly accepted that offer rather than having to 
gamble on a finding a hitch on the freeway where I’ve heard the Highway 
Patrol frowns on such things.  After staying the night at Mojave I found a 
ride back up Oak Springs Road to the trail. 

Note:  Some hikers exit at the first road, resupply, then commence their 
hike at the freeway thereby missing – and conveniently forgetting about – 
the hot, dusty windy 8 miles of trail between. 

The down-side of exiting at the first road is one must then carry 8 miles 
of extra water towards the rather remote Golden Oak Spring.  Sometimes 
there is a water cache at the freeway crossing where one can top-up the 
canteen, and other times there is not.  I don’t rely upon it. 

Resupply at Mojave or Tehachapi offers more choices.  One can load food for 
about 150 miles to Kennedy Meadows, or carry less food and hitch into Onyx 
from Walker Pass as Piper mentioned.  So far, I’ve preferred to just hike 
straight through, but it is possible to save some weight by adding 
off-trail time to Onyx. 

We all get to choose. 

Steel-Eye 

-Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965 

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye 
http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09/ 
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