A hard hitchhike to the trail

May 29th, 2015

I got off the trail at Onion Valley trailhead near Independence at 8 AM. On the way down I got a ride from a guy named John who was a mechanical engineer. He wanted to know a lot about the PCT and about my gear and whatnot. So during the 50 mile ride into town he shot off questions and I did my best to give him answers. After about 45 minutes he dropped me off at Vons supermarket and I went and bought some food and charged my electronics. After taking care of all that business I was ready to try to go back to the trail head which was a long hitch.  It was so easy getting into town I just assumed that it would be a piece of cake to get back.

I went down the highway and stuck my thumb out hoping for the best. I waited for a long time and no one wanted to give me a ride. I even asked people at the corner gas station offering money to anyone that was willing to give me a lift but no one was willing to take me.

After about 2 hours I was just about to give up hope and then a car pulled over. There were two guys in the car and once I got in the driver turned around. He said, “I got eggs in the backseat and if you break them… I’ll break your legs.” I said, “No problem.” Then we took off. 

The guy in the passenger seat was an avid PCT hiker. Since he was nine he said that he has been hiking large sections of the PCT by himself. He told me that he used to run away from home and basically live on the trail every summer. He also said that he would hike up to 60 miles in one day when he was on the trail last season… That’s about twice as much as I’m able to do! He also told me a story about running from the police on the trail. I never found out for sure why the police were looking for him but he told me that he ran from them near Crater Lake and got away. Then he hiked 700 miles south and then got caught near Yosemite. I asked him if he was going to hike on the trail this year. He said he wanted to but had to get visits from his babysitter. I’m guessing that he was talking about a patrol officer of some sort. His name was High Walker because he was into slack lining. It was a really interesting ride and I like it when the people giving me a ride do the talking. They dropped me off on the road that goes to the trail head. I was still around 11 miles away but I was happy to be closer. I ended up walking up the road and stealth camping at a campground near a creek. As I drifted off I heard the rustle of bug crawling on my sleeping bag.