Day 18

May 20, 2013
Mile 347
30 miles today

Restaurant geography dictates. It was 25 miles to the Del Taco at El Cajon Pass.
Some one else preparing your food is mile motivation. Thus the goal was set. Unfortunately, there was nowhere to camp in the vicinity of Del Taco and its freeway overpass. The first water cache was yet another 5 miles on. Mathematically, a 30 mile day. The formula as follows: walking 3 mph for 10 hours plus 2 hours for breaks / food / water = 12 hours for 30 miles = multiple burritos and strawberry milkshakes. Which is just another way of saying we started early. You can’t really walk much faster than 3 mph with a backpack, so the way to increase miles in any given day is to walk longer hours. At 6 AM the crunch of gravel was being broadcast.

The trail climbed and fell based on the dictates of geography. At one point, it passed the base of Silverwood Lake Dam, then it rose to give the lake itself a hug. Here I learned that the body of the missing hiker had been found. The police were questioning the veracity of her hiking partner’s statements. For the sake of our bus friend, I hope her father is cleared.

The path continued to meander in the general direction of Taco Haven. At times the 15 Freeway would make a teasing appearance, but the path appeared uninterested in it as a direct destination nor in my visions of Latin cuisine. Thus it went here and there, randomly picking a hill to climb and descend, with me as a hostage to its whims.

Finally the path got bored and gave me to Del Taco, where I got busy. In order: one large strawberry milkshake, 1 liter of Gatorade, 2 liters of ice water, one beef taco, one fish taco, one nacho grande chicken burrito, one liter of Mountain Dew and candy bars for desert. The chill of air conditioning, our first in 18 days, finally chased us out, and we resumed our northerly direction.

A conversation took place in which I was asked, “Do you think you will make it to Canada?” My answer, “Yes, unless something unforeseen happens,” the unforeseen being unworthy of examination because it lays in the future with its train wrecker of possibilities. I’ve grown tired of the future. It’s too heavy for my backpack. Right not I’m satisfied with the immediacy of the hiking day. Where is the next water? What mile are we at? And so on. The future will show up with all its unforseens whether I invite it or not. So why waste time juggling it in my mind before hand?

Full of calories, we arrived at a water cache located in a dry wash replete with lawn furniture and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. Predictability doesn’t seem to be a PCT strong suit. And so, I write at the kitchen table, with yucca plants casting moonshadows over my paper and kangaroo rates as distractions. Time to call it for what it was, a perfect day on the PCT, with all its unforseens now memories.

Steve Halteman
On the Pacific Crest Trail
Hiking the PCT for the Kids of Escuela Verde

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