It's Eerie Outside!

Pleasanton Ridge Trail by Susan Alcorn

According to news sources, there are more than 1,000 wildfires burning in California. The air quality is rated unsafe. It's recommended that people stay indoors with the windows closed. The danger is greatest for the very young and the very old. We aren't often smelling the smoke where we live, but the haze is pretty bad.

Ralph and I have had to postpone our hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. The "Clover" Fire, which we have been following for almost a month, has not only increased, it's gone over onto the east side of the Sierra. For quite a while, the fire was allowed to burn because it was a naturally occurring fire—caused by lightning. But now that it is close to structures—including the Kennedy Meadows store and Highway 395, it's being more actively fought.

The trail was closed at one point, then opened with escorts, now closed again. We're disappointed about having to cancel our trip because the miles from Kennedy Meadows to Cottonwood Pass are our last 50 miles to hike of the PCT in California and we'd really like to complete it. At the same time, we realize that our concerns are nowhere near as important as those of the firefighters and the residents who have homes, property, even lives at stake.

Because we want to keep in shape and ready for our next backpack trip, we are taking local hikes. We decided it was safe enough to hike because we haven't been smelling much smoke. We're hiking many of the trails listed in this year's East Bay Regional Parks Trail Challenge and being introduced to many new places to hike. Yesterday we hiked the Pleasanton Ridge trail (Pleasanton); today we hiked along the Nimitz and Wildcat Canyon trails in Tilden Park (Berkeley). The eerie thing is that most people are heeding the warnings about air quality and the trails are close to deserted. Our hikes have been wonderful—I just hope that we aren't undermining our health!

Today we met a man on the Nimitz Trail. He warned us that he had seen a mountain lion about a mile back. We've always said we'd love to see a mountain lion in the wild, but not too close. We weren't lucky enough to see this one, but it did keep us on our toes.

Our big sighting of the day was a mama and papa quail that we startled as they were crossing the trail. Mama flew to one side of the trail and then the other, warning her little ones to stay quiet. We moved off several yards and waited patiently; after Mama thought we were gone, she ran back across the trail and collected her two tiny chicks and brought them back to where Papa was waiting.

Today as we sat having our lunch in the foothills and looking out at the haze, I was reminded of Stewart's Earth Abides. The book was set in Berkeley and the main character awakes (after recovering from a snakebite as I recall) to find himself all alone in the hills—and the air filled with smoke. Turns out most of the population has been destroyed by a nuclear holocaust. Eerie? Yes!

Heading into the Unknown

Mojave Red photo by Susan Alcorn

Ralph and I are soon going to be resuming the Pacific Crest Trail south of Mt. Whitney. Although it is with some trepidation that I'm starting to pack and get ready to go, I'm also pretty excited about it. When we finish the upcoming fifty miles (Kennedy Meadows to Cottonwood Pass), we will have finished the California PCT and 1,725 miles!

In May we hiked from further south to Kennedy Meadows (KM). It was in the nineties at KM, but hit 105 degrees by the time we dropped to Hwy. 395 on our drive home. A few days later—Memorial Day weekend, it snowed in the Sierra so temperatures dropped. Then a forest fire started right along the PCT just north of KM. For a few days the trail was closed, then for a couple of weeks, firefighters were escorting backpackers through the area. That escort service seems to have been called off, but I still feel like I am heading into the unknown.

Backpacking doesn't usually have a lot of drama, but it always seems to be accompanied by a great deal of uncertainty! By the way, if you don't subscribe to my backpacking/hiking newsletter, you can do so by going to our website at www.backpack45.com. It's free!

Happy trails!
Susan Alcorn

©2008 photo and contents Susan Alcorn

Trail Angels Galore!

Unwary Desert Traveler?
(Southern California water cache maintained by trail angels, the Andersons) photo by Susan Alcorn

Ever since Ralph and I started tackling the Pacific Crest Trail seriously (setting the goal to complete it, and taking longer backpacking trips), we have become aware of the amazing trail angels that support hikers. Our last section hike of the PCT was once again in southern California from Agua Dulce to Kennedy Meadows—a distance of about 250 miles.

This is a rather challenging portion of the PCT as far as weather and water supplies. To help with the water problem (the lack thereof) Ralph actually went down south early in April, drove miles of dirt roads or hiked in, in order to place caches of water at appropriate places along the trail. There is at least one stretch with no natural water for 20+ miles and another stretch of 30+ miles. Since we normally hike 12-15 miles per day, you can see the problem.

As usual, we had the good fortune to have trail angel encounters. Donna and Jeff Saufley, who run Hiker Heaven in Agua Dulce, and Diane Ely, who lives in the vicinity, saw that we got off to a good start. The Saufley's provided us with a comfy bed and a hearty fettuccine dinner the night before we started hiking. They also kept our car for us until we returned. Diane was on standby to help us anywhere along the route and she was the one who picked us up in Tehachapi when our trip ended—100 miles from her house!

Part of Section E's "charm" is that you have to walk a day or two along the California and then the Los Angeles aqueduct. The irony is lost on no one who has traveled this way that millions of gallons of water are flowing just below your feet (go rent the movie "Chinatown" if you don't remember how the water was "stolen" from the Mono Lake area and sent on its way to Southern California). However in the Los Angeles aqueduct, the water is buried under several inches of concrete with no access for desert hikers.

Skipping ahead to the Mojave Desert. Although I had dreaded the crossing of the Mojave Desert, we were lucky enough to be protected by some cloud cover, or light winds, most of the time. And thank goodness, we did not see any sidewinders or even the dangerous Green Mojave rattlesnake.

We encountered a problem on Day #12. Although we hadn't seen anyone for almost three days and had no phone reception, we had been doing well and were on schedule. Mid-afternoon, we stopped for a break at Butterbredt Canyon. A car pulled up, then a second one. Chester (the younger) stepped out. We got to talking and soon learned that he and his parents were slack-packing sections of the PCT. They had two rental cars and each day they would drive one car to their chosen endpoint and then drive the second car to their starting point. Then they would walk from car to car. We thought it was an interesting way of doing their hike with the benefit of not having to carry their backpacks.

We say "goodbye" and resumed our hike. As we climbed towards Pinyon Mountain, the wind started to pick up. By 5:00 PM, it was blowing quite hard and we began to look for a sheltered place to set up camp. We found nothing suitable for setting up a tent. We continued on. The wind became so strong that both of us were pushed off the trail numerous times and we were lucky that the slopes of the mountain were not dramatically steep. Whenever I stopped, it was all that I could do to resist being pushed along.

Finally we reached an intersection of dirt roads—and amazingly, one of the rental cars was parked there. Ralph went to see if the car would provide a windbreak. No dice. Then, a fluke of luck, he tried the car door and found it was unlocked! What are the odds??????

I jumped in and announced that I wasn't leaving the car. Ralph tried to set up the tent in the shelter of a nearby Joshua tree. He finally gave up because the wind would have destroyed the tent in the process of setting it up (we estimated the winds varied between 40-60mph). After a little searching down canyon, he found a somewhat sheltered spot, where setup was possible, but opted for the relative comfort of the car where we spent the night.

My back, which had had a few twinges from the wind blowing sideways at my pack, seemed okay the next morning. But about two miles into the hike, I began to feel both twinges and spasms. Not a good thing when you are two days from a road and have no phone connections. We considered our options and decided the safest thing to do was to go back to the car and wait for Chester and his parents (Ellen and Chester).

They ended up driving us three hours on dirt roads as they placed their cars for their next day's hike and then drove us back to a motel in Tehachapi. That makes Trail Angels 4, 5, & 6 for this trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Number 4 was R. K., the hotel manager at Day's Inn in Tehachapi who gave us a round trip ride to a trailhead.)

(This post, slightly modified, was originally circulated in my twice-monthly newsletter, Susan Alcorn's Backpacking/Hiking Newsletter #105, May 10, 2008. You can subscribe by sending an e-mail to: backpack45 "at sign" yahoo.com)

Happy trails,
Susan Alcorn
Author of award winning We're in the Mountains Not over the Hill: Tales and Tips from Seasoned Women Backpackers and Camino Chronicle: Walking to Santiago.
Shepherd Canyon Books
www.backpack45.com (previous newsletters archived here!)

1675 PCT Miles!

Scorpion by Ralph Alcorn
Poppies in landscape by Susan Alcorn


Whew, I am feeling rather pleased today. Ralph and I have recently been backpacking on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) again and we are only 50 miles short of finishing all of California (We hope to soon complete those miles, too.). For some reason, it has just hit me that we may actually be able to complete the entire 2,650 miles of the PCT (Mexico to Canada).

A couple of years back I was inspired by Barbara Sher's Refuse to Choose to sit down and write out my goals. I focused on finishing the PCT and figured that if we did 400 miles a year over the following 4 years, we would accomplish our goal. We are right on schedule. Since I am 67 and Ralph is 72, I sometimes wonder if we can make it, but actually we have been doing more miles per day, and more miles per year, than we did 10 years ago. So I guess we will just have to play it by ear!

Our latest 250-mile trip was in southern California through the Mojave Desert (Agua Dulce to Kennedy Meadows). I was amazed at how isolated we were; there were a couple of periods in which we didn't see anyone for 2-3 days—and this is just east of the Los Angeles basin. We were also without cellphone reception most of the time. It was an arid landscape with long stretches of primarily Joshua trees and mesquite, but there were also sections with incredible displays of wildflowers. There were also areas with pine or oak trees with patches of Miner's Lettuce underneath.

We saw more animal life than human. Several snakes (including a rattler), lizards, Horned Toads (actually a lizard too), a Blue Skink, a Walking Stick, a scorpion (keeping warm under our tent's groundcloth), plenty of birds, and a few amazing Sphinx "Hummingbird" Moths. As much as I dreaded hiking in southern California—because I was convinced I would perish in the desert from either the heat or rattlesnakes, I will miss it when we've finished it. I thought it would be the same mile after mile, but actually it has been quite varied and interesting.

Next post I'll tell you about our latest Trail Magic and Trail Angels.

Fidelity Is Not Obsolete!

The topic of fidelity has long puzzled me. Puzzled me because I've never known how to voice my support of it. All the media attention, jokes, and gossip seem to support the notion that fidelity is not only obsolete, but also biologically impossible. For years I have read and heard statements about how the vast majority of animals are not by nature monogamous. That may be true--I'm not a scientist who has studied the matter--but I think it's irrelevant. Monogamy is not biologically impossible for humans; it's a personal choice!

I'm not interested in sharing my personal history, but I do believe in fidelity. For me it is a moral issue, but I'm not trying to preach to others. I'm speaking on a practical level--what works. Being faithful to one's partner--because trust and respect are the foundation of worthwhile relationships--is much more likely to lead to romance, true intimacy, and love. (How to prove that our spouse (and we ourselves) are faithful--now that's a quandary, isn't it?)

You might wonder why I am discussing this topic at all today. It's because I was listening to Gayle King, Oprah's close friend, on Oprah and Friends on XM radio today. And one of the topics of discussion was the recent news story about New York Representative Vito who has fathered a child from an extramarital affair. Apparently Fossella (a Republican) has been a strong advocate of "family values." The problem that I have with it all is that when high-profile individuals--including elected officials and movie stars--are such hypocrites, other people may conclude that there is something inevitable about the activities.

I'm not a "family values" type person, but I do believe that parents should work hard to raise their children in loving households. Because I believe that loving households are more likely the result of mutually supportive adults working together, infidelity is a contradiction. Having said that, I'm not as concerned with what happens in other people's households as I am with the fallout, the widely repeated message that people can't help themselves!

It is sad that so many people are being bombarded with messages that indicate that great sex is only for the young and/or with new partners in clandestine meetings. Comments that hint that commitment and long-term relationships are boring, etc. are ridiculous. It just isn't the case. I know that I can't prove it, but just this once, I've decided to say it!

It's Not about the Sand! Into the Mojave Desert

California Poppies near Section "E" Pacific Crest Trail photo by Ralph Alcorn (copyright 2008)

Recently someone wrote into a PCT forum asking about the possibility of sunburn from the reflected light from the desert lands of Southern California. It made me think of the Sahara Desert and the photos we usually see of undulating, high mountains of sand with minimal vegetation. Some of the deserts of Southern California do have large areas of sand, but most of the desert is arid land with such vegetation as scrub brush, Joshua trees, various forms of cactus — and in the spring — wildflowers.


Ralph and I will soon be backpacking through Section E of the Pacific Crest Trail, which will take us across part of the Mojave Desert. I'm looking forward to seeing the fields of California poppies and other flowering plants including owl's clover, forget-me-nots, wild onion, silver puffs, and red maids, and goldfields in the nearby Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve enroute to the PCT trailhead. I am not looking forward to seeing the Mojave Green rattlesnake.

If you want to see the desert in bloom, visit Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, which is on Hwy. 138 (off Hwy. 5) near Lancaster. Their website says that we are at, are almost at, the peak of the season, but there should be poppies until at least mid-May — longer if we get more rain. They say it will be a great year, at least far better than the last two drought years. Ralph was in the area recently — photo above — and was lucky enough to be there on a non-windy day. When it's windy, the poppies stay curled.

The reserve's website gives details on the local winds, which it notes can be exponentially higher than in nearby Lancaster.

The following is from the Reserve's website:
The Jane S. Pinheiro Interpretive Center is now open (March 15-May ?):
Weekends 9 am - 5 pm; Weekdays 10 am - 4 pm. Standard parking fee is $5.
The reserve itself is open year round--sunrise to sunset.

Final note: "There could be VERY high numbers of the infamous Mojave Green rattlesnakes so please stay on trails- for your safety, and for the health of the habitat. If you encounter one, slowly back away and leave it alone - they're an important part of the food chain and will only strike people if startled or threatened. Dogs are NOT allowed on trails with the exception of service dogs."

The Reserve is located 15 miles west of Lancaster at 15101 Lancaster Road.
From Highway 14: Take the Avenue I exit and head west 15 miles. Avenue I becomes Lancaster Road.
From I-5: Take Hwy 138 east and turn right on 170th Street West. Make a left at the end, onto Lancaster Road. Follow the road two miles.

Wildflower Bloom Information Poppy Reserve Wildflower Hotline: (661) 724-1180
Theodore Payne Foundation Wildlflower Hotline: (818) 768-3533

Inspiration Hits!

photo of Praying Mantis by Susan Alcorn

After recently reading Richard Louv's Last Child in the Wilderness, I feel newly inspired to get my youngest grandchildren (Logan, soon to be 3 years old, and Madison, just turned 5) outdoors). Actually, not just outdoors as playing on the lawn, but outdoors as in visiting our regional parks and soon, camping. Of course playing on a lawn is superior to sitting in front of a TV or computer for hours each day, but a manicured, groomed space is a pretty sterile place.

I'm talking about going to the beach or to the woods. As Louv describes it, kids today are suffering from "Nature-Deficit Disorder." They don't have vacant lots, they can't play in the woodlots or the canals near their homes because the areas are fenced off. They can't even climb in trees in parks or other public places because of the liability issues. No wonder increasing numbers of kids are inactive and obese! I hadn't even realized that the medical profession had to change the name from "Adult Onset Diabetes" to "Stage 11 Diabetes" because it so frequently occurs before adulthood!

Anyway my commitment to helping keep our young grandchildren healthy has gotten a shot in the arm. Instead of taking them as frequently on outings to the zoo and the miniature train ride, we are taking them more frequently to open spaces and natural settings.

It's been an incredibly positive experience. What's totally amazing is that they don't need any special entertainment provided. There doesn't have to be any agenda for the day. We simply pack a lunch (peanut butter and jelly, milk, fruit and crackers), bring extra water to drink and sunscreen and a light jacket, and go! They soon become involved in throwing rocks into the creek, watching sticks race with the current, splashing through mud puddles, examining the underside of big rocks for sowbugs and beetles, and picking dandelions. On our last walk, Madison was enthralled by the fact that gopher holes go farther underground than her stick can reach. She was even more excited when one of the gophers came up top to nibble on grass surrounding it's tunnel's entrance.

In short kids will make their own fun given the opportunity to find pine cones, hollow trees, wildflowers, bugs, and water of most any sort! As kids, we did!

After our outings, from which our grandchildren return home exhausted and ready for a good night's sleep, we reflect on how much they have learned from their experiences in the wild. They learn that rocks sink and twigs float; they notice that redwood groves are shady and chilly and that relatively few plants grow in such places; they watch hawks flying overhead and learn that gophers need to be alert to such predators--they learn all this and more--informally, of course--and it sticks because it's been a "hands-on" experience.

I think that parents and grandparents who do not take their children into the woods are missing the best opportunities for playing with their kids. Because there need not be, probably should NOT be, an agenda (no need to hike any great distance), it's a special opportunity for everyone to relax and enjoy time together. Try it--and soon!

(2008 All contents protected by copyright.)

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