Category Archives: On the Road

Update – Mile 740 on June 10th

Note to all of Steve’s friends following his incredible adventure!

Just wanted to update you on Steve’s progress. He is still in California, but is in a “no cell” zone and has been for a few days. He was able to send me a quick email on June 10th. (I was hounding him for news and, like many of you reading his blog, was wondering how he was doing!) Here’s what he said:

“I’m alive at 10,500 feet will try to send everything if I can ever get to a place working blowing 100 miles an hour mile 740”

From this message, I am gathering he was about a day’s walk from Lone Pine, but assuming he would not want to go 22 miles off the trail to access the town (see the map below):

PCT Map: Steve’s location on June 10th, Mile 740, just North of Ash and Bear Meadows,

At an average of 22 miles per day, and assuming he stayed on the PCT, that would put him somewhere near mile 784 at his starting point this morning, which would be in the John Muir Wilderness area near Silver Lake.

Map of the PCT, mile marker 844 near Silver Lake. Estimating that this is where Steve is on the morning of June 13th!

Let’s see how accurate I am! I’m sure we’ll be hearing from him again very soon.

Meanwhile, please remember that he is doing this to raise money for the Escuela Verde in Costa Rica. Thank you to all of you who have donated. He really appreciates it. The link is below for anyone interested in learning more about how to help these great kids!

A big thank you and a shout-out to Half-Mile for providing all these great maps to the PCT. If you’d like to check them out more closely so you can monitor Steve’s progress, visit Half-Mile’s site here.

Thanks for following Steve Halteman’s journey for the kids of Escuela Verde.
Cirina Catania
Webmaster, Stories from Steve

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

If you’d like to help out and donate, please click here!

Day 28 – Calcium Wars and Wildfires

May 30, 2013
25 miles today
527 Miles total

Awoke to a perfect colon, knock on wood. Genetically, I got dealt one hell of a hand in that category. Slack was able to hike, so we began the descent to the desert, in effect on the run from something we didn’t know was chasing us. Stopped to watch an age-old strut battle between two male swift lizards. Again and again they rammed each other followed by outrageous push-ups. A detached female eagerly awaited the outcome with a jaundiced eye. The event took place in an amphitheater ring of new oaks that had grown up around a central dead master oak stump. It was worthy of the Romans.

Our goal was Hiker Town. A house surrounded by buildings that appeared to be the set of a miniature Western. As we bore down in Hiker Town the Nodo Worm bore down on my stomach. The race was on. My gut began to swell and buckle. Suddenly an inspiration. I had Tums – a cure all. I began chewing them like a kid eating popcorn during a horror movie.

An epic battle ensued, which peaked about a mile before arrival. A subtle shift, and the tide turned. Apparently the Nodo Worm had never faced off with a pound of calcium. A complete route. The worm was able to make it a escape at Hiker Town and hopefully died a horrific death in some dark septic tank. Refreshed, I had a hamburger and a Papa Bear sized bowl of ice cream. Always celebrate your victories. Talked heresies with the very relaxed Reverend Dude as the wind built outside.

After Hiker Town, the PCT parallels the California Aqueduct. At times the water is visible, but the majority of the time it is concreted over to reduce evaporation. Thus, the curious sensation of walking on top of a river, across a desert while feeling very thirsty.

Coyote crossing remember by the aqueduct

As I walked along the aqueduct, I noticed some smoke on the ridge of the mountains we had just left. Before long it became apparent that a wildfire was on the loose, fed by the vigorous exhales of the Mojave. By evening we were to learn that a section of the PCT was now closed, that the Andersons were threatened with evacuation, that the fire had spread to 1000 acres and that some hikers were missing.

Wildfire unleased

The firm of Orbit and Sons had been cleaved in two.

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

If you’d like to help out and donate, please click here!

Day 27 – Pancakes, Cherries & the Nodo Virus

May 29, 2013
24 miles today
502 Miles total

You have to leave home sometime. But before I self cut the umbilical cord, I had one more round of pancakes and cherries. Joe gets up every morning at an ungodly hour and prepares an unlimited number of hot cakes for whatever number of hikers happens to be there. I suggested he mix the cherries with the pancake mix. He kindly and gently told me to get the fuck out of his kitchen but come back for more if still in need.

Doc had arrived the night before and I caught up with his adventures. He planned to take a zero. Little did he know his medical skills would be called into play, with not a pie to be found.

Red Beard, Orbit and I, as well as Waka Waka and Tree Killer, grabbed a ride with Terry to the trailhead. She embraced us all in a way that manages to encompass an entire family reunion in one hug.

Arriving at the trailhead

The day started with a big climb. Orbit fell uncharacteristically back. By the crest she was out of sight. I doubled back to check on here, but she had already turned back, cut down by the now named Nodo Virus.

At the next water stop, Red Beard and I learned that Slack was lying by the side of the trail some eight miles ahead clearing his stomach. I walked on, with a cloud of doom shading my steps. Who but me could be next? I hoped that my stomas leprosy form the early part of the trip hardened my immunological resolve.

Slack managed to make some forward progress and we did not catch him until mile 501. Our pursuit took us through a beautiful section of the Angeles National Forest.

At the reunion Slack was full of illness stories, including fainting while pissing. His head was positioned at a weird angle so the impact must have been dramatic. We moved on together to a rainwater catch and bedded down.

I dreamed of a Nodo worm crawling into my ear to spread its venom.

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

If you’d like to help out and donate, please click here!

Day 26 – All the stars in the sky

Day 26

May 29, 2013
0 miles today
478 miles total

Double goose eggs. Sucked into the vortex that is the Andersons. Hammocks occupied, only to be lured to yet ever more inviting hammocks with a better angle of shade. Departure delayed. Acceptance. And the capture of that obsolete American pastime – true relaxation. Free from TV, lists of things to do, internet, phones (no coverage) and even conversation – Just time in a hammock with thoughts and naps for company. An annual relaxation day of zero productivity will be the basis of my up and coming presidential bid.

I did learn this from an astrophysicist. Lift your hand, palm up, to the night sky and gaze upward at it. There are more stars in the area covered by your hand than all the grains of sand on all the beaches in this world. That is one for the hammock.

Two traditions of note at the Andersons: First, as each new hiker arrives a slow rhythmic clap begins and builds to a crescendo. As the lounge is in front of the house, the ovations can be quite loud. The second is, everyone that stays at the Andersons/Casa de Luna must have their photo taken in front of a large banner signed by all the hikers that have passed thru. At the last second, before the photo is snapped, Mrs. Anderson or Terry as she prefers, moons the entire group. A non-smile is impossible. The origin of the Casa de Luna is immediately obvious. Although I must say that Terry’s ass is much more shapely than the moon.

And so the day passed. The only downsides being the porta-potty’s company’s tardiness in emptying the overflowing units and Red Beard coming down with some kind of aggressive virus. He was down and out for the day throwing up in all manner of locations. Slack left today for points north, as he wanted to get moving. I plan to leave tomorrow regardless of my knee’s opinion on the matter.

Spent the evening observing a large group having a conversation. There were three dominators and a multitude of folks content to sit back and listen. Personality is really fascinating. Fell asleep trying to inexpertly figure out how it is formed.

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

If you’d like to help out and donate, please click here!

Day 25 – New and improved tent pole?

May 27, 2013
0 miles today
478 miles total

Like all long term endeavors, balanced days off are strategically wise. Or if you walk a lot, a day spent sitting on your ass feels good. But too many days off spirals one into a deficit of ambition. For me, my knee has spoken. This day is one of rest, which is easy physically, but a challenge mentally. The call of miles is a strong one.

All day the large group that had stayed for the Memorial Day weekend party has been moving out. I did not know most of these folks as they had started the trail before me. An annual kickoff meeting/party takes place at the end of April for the PCT. This year some 400 hikers had attended. Most then start their hike. Because my group has been moving at a fairly quick pace, we have begun to catch the tail end of the large kickoff group, a good chance to hear new stories.

One individual I met named Handstand works in one of three locations – the South Pole, Greenland, or Palmyra. Palmyra is a tiny atoll in the South Pacific owned by the Nature Conservancy. He works anywhere from 4-6 months a year maintaining facilities at one of the three far-flung locations. He spends the rest of the year seeing what interests him. This year is it completing the PCT. In October he will return to Antarctica. His parting comment was, “I can’t stop laughing whenever I think that someone is paying me to work in those places.”

The taco salad affair was more intimate and subdued as the dinner crowd was greatly reduced.

The weather forecast, which basically means looking up at the sky, hinted at rain. So I set up my tarp, using my new and improved tent pole for the first time. A 25 mph gust of wind snapped it in half at the seven-minute mark. Can’t blame the tooth for that one, as it is back in my mouth.

Spent the rest of the evening concocting a new pole from the remnants of old trekking poles. Some pieces of equipment simply refuse to behave in a civilized manner.

The pole that would not go up

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

If you’d like to help out and donate, please click here!

Day 24 – Beer and Hawaiian Dresses

May 26, 2013
24 miles today
478 mile mark

The 24 Challenge is rooted in the distance between the Saufley’s and the Anderson’s, the next hiker welcoming home on the route north. The distance, 24 miles, coincides with the number of beers in a case. Twenty-four beers in twenty-four miles is the slogan. Red Beard, a traditionalist (? ) and man of honor, is determined to honor this specific tradition.

To spice things up he has arranged for dresses to be the uniform of the march. In support, the rest of us have committed to drinking a 12-pack along the way. The things one finds oneself doing.

I picked out a little Hawaiian number that accentuated my figure. Orbit and Red Beard went for minis. Slack went conservative choosing a non-revealing school marm number with shoulder pads. In our group photo he looks like the last orphan in the orphanage.

Pick out the orphan

Breakfast in dresses at a local café did not raise an eyebrow, as hiker trash in all manner of outfits are a common sight. And we were off. Red Beard, like most marathoners, was off to a fast start. I hydrated my beers with squirts of fruit mio. The miles piled up.

Unfortunately, a negative split (when the second half of the race is faster than the first) was not to be. For, as the miles piled up, so did the beers. Forward progress became less stated. Navigation became an issue.

With each stumble, items departed Red Beard’s pack. But the dire stage was never reached. Red Beard rallied in both distance and beer, finishing the 24th beer at the 24th mile hitch point. Honor preserved, he went to the dirt, a spent hiker.

If the Saufley’s is a river, the Anderson’s is a calm pond. You just slip in and relax in the best new hippy style. There are no rules. Music is constant. Hikers lay around in a spectrum of altered states. All you can eat taco salad – dinner, pancakes – breakfast and hot dogs/root beer float – lunch are the only structure. An impromptu dance party ran well into the night, but my exit was early.

Around 75 hikers were spread out through the Manzanita forest behind the Anderson’s house. Orbit had worked for the Andersons for two months in 2012, so she knew the sweet camping spot. I made my way to my bag, checked Red Beard’s pulse to confirm life and lay down.

The sounds of a didgeridoo serenaded me and I fell asleep in Australia.

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

If you’d like to help out and donate, please click here!

Day 23 – Knee brace & tooth cement

May 25, 2013
10 miles today
454 miles

Awoke to a swelling KOA, compliments of Memorial Day weekend. While others waited for caffeine, I took off. The goal was the Saufleys, well-known Trail Angels who open their property to hikers every thru hiking season. Ran into a 78 year old runner out for his long weekend run. His comment, ”I’m finally starting to slow down.”

On the road again

Passed through a hamster tube, under the zipping freeway cars above, and emerged into a gorgeous canyon.

Exclusive PCT tunnel

Right away spotted a rosy boa snake on the path. The canyon formed part of Vasquez rocks, the hideout of the enterprising bandit, Senior Vasquez.

former beach

Arrived at the Saufleys, sporting a throbbing right knee. Never really had knee problems before, so this is a novelty. The Saufley’s is basically a hiker processing center run on an efficiency that has been honed by years of experience. When you walk through the gate, you feel like you are standing on the edge of an unfamiliar river. At first you hesitate because the current is fast. But eventually you jump in and are whisked away pleasantly. Cots are there, computers are here, put your laundry over there, it will be ready in three hours, bikes are in the rack, films, food, fire and so the river flows. Everything a hiker could need within a thirty-yard radius. Donations, never mentioned, oil the machine. Hikers hobble around in various states of disrepair. The atmosphere relaxed.

Saufley’s camp – home

My issue was the sacred tooth, still in my pocket. It’s unlucky streak continued as my search for a dentist dead-ended with the realization that it was Memorial Day weekend. Personal oral surgery is not a phobia of mine, so I jumped on the shuttle to Northridge and went to a pharmacy. Found some tooth cement and returned to dental health. Next door was an all-you-can-eat sushi joint. No sane person can pass these up. Felling lucid, I stopped in and paid the $25 entry fee for 60 minutes of intake. By the end, I had gone through about $80 of sushi and the sushi chef was becoming progressively harder to find. I felt wise.

All hiker stopovers have a series of bins filled with unneeded food and gear, free for the needy. The obsessing with reducing backpack weight keeps these bins remarkably full. In one, Red Beard found me a knee brace and muscle relaxant cream. All I need now is Doc and one of his pies to return to full health.

With the tank still topped off from lunch, a margarita symbolized dinner. I went to bed contemplating tomorrow’s 24 challenge and all its implications.

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

If you’d like to help out and donate, please click here!

Day 22 Woke up in ice, walked through the burn

Day 22

May 24,2013
24 miles today
444 miles total

The tooth as a good luck charm was a bust. After all, it did get yanked out by a Mike and Ike, which in anybody’s book is a bad luck event. No idea why I thought its future luck would be better. Rubbed it last night for no dew. Cowboy camped when everyone else put up their tent. Woke up this morning cold. The cracking sound was alarming as I broke the sheet of ice that covered me. I think the tooth needs to go home.

Gladly climbed away from the saddle through burnt acreage. Orbit, who had suffered from the bite of the poodle in 2011, described its horrors in such a way that we ended up detouring around multiple sections of the PCT. A road, with very limited access, paralleled the trail so I stayed on that. While walking along that a security truck pulled up. The driver asked where I was coming from. I answered, “Mexico.” His partner in the passenger seat screamed, “Jesus!” The driver then asked where I was going. I answered, “Canada.” The partner screamed, “Oh, Jesus!” Maybe I made their day. They certainly made mine.

As I walked, I got to thinking about Red Beard and Orbit. Both had taken a shot at the PCT in 2001, a particularly bad snow year. Red Beard made it 1900 miles before shin splints took him out. Orbit made it 1000 miles before her money ran out. It’s a testament to their character that instead of entering this year at the point they left off at in 2011, they started once again from the beginning.

The detour continued through the Station Fire of 2009 that destroyed 160,000 acres of forest and took the lives of two firefighters. I paid my respect at their memorial and then came upon the ruins of the LA Country Firefighting Training Center. The compound was extensive and its destruction complete. I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story.

More destruction

Same camp

Camp cafeteria

Melted Gatorade bottles

Melted Quonset hut

Firefighting camp destruction

Irony – the only thing that didn’t burn

Finally rejoined the flow of the PCT, after too many miles of road walking, for a long descent into the Acton Valley. My knee was still bothering me, so I decided to loosen it up by running to the KOA Campground some six miles away. I was low on supplies so my pack was light and not much of a hindrance. Off I went. The exhilaration of bombing downhill for miles on a mountain path can’t be matched. Music thumping, twisting and turning down switchbacks, allows one to grab freedom that is mostly elusive.

Slack had the same idea. We raced to the end, where we skidded to a stop at the camper of a natural hiker. A famous 2006 PCT thru hiker who prefers to hike without clothes. Just returned from six year of missionary work in Peru, he celebrated his 65th birthday by serving us root beer floats in a transparent mini skirt.

Can this trail get any better?

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

If you’d like to help out and donate, please click here!

Day 21 – Killer poodles and Keystone Cops

May 23, 2013
Mile 418
24 miles today

Moonrise

Oatmeal, for something new and completely different. Every day when hiking I have the same breakfast of four packets of oatmeal and cold water, the combination of flavors irrelevant. I figure a dog never varies their breakfast, why should I?

The hike of four miles to the first water stop warmed me up to the hole in my mouth. As I filled my water jug in the stream, I had the misfortune to find a pair of sunglasses. Trail etiquette demands that I make a solid effort to track down the owner –which means carrying them. The bane of all hikers is new weight. Now I had bane. Slack is an ace at tracking down owners of items he has found on the trail. Currently he is batting five for six. All day I picked up my pace trying to track down hikers in order to return the misplaced shades. All to no avail. No one claimed them.

The infamous poodle dog bush

The trail today cut through the dreaded poodle bush territory. Poodle bush springs up after a fire has devastated a forest. Like all members of the poodle family its bite is worse than its bark. If you brush up against it, symptoms similar to severe poison oak haunt you for about two weeks. In this section poodle bush crowds the path. The spasmodic dance to avoid its touch is both comical and grim.

All day my right knee nagged at me. This was not helped by an incident that took place in late afternoon. As I came around a bend, a hand reached up and grabbed my right ankle. Ass over teakettle I went. Bits and pieces flying everywhere. Orbit, who was eight feet in front of me, serenely oblivious to my screams because her headphones were in. It was worthy of the Keystone Cops. As I sat up from my cloud of dust, I resolved to stop thinking and start looking out for evil grabbers.

Desert from 9,000 feet near summit of Baden Powell

1,500 year old pine at 9,000 feet

A long descent brought me to an uncharismatic saddle camp next to a fire station. The fire station appears obsolete, as the forest has already burned down. But who am I to question such things?

The moon is full and the dew heavy. Everyone has put up their tents except me. I opt for laziness, rub my lucky tooth in the hopes that it is not too damp tonight and head for slumber land.

400-mile mark commemorated!

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

If you’d like to help out and donate, please click here!

Day 20 – Beer angels & tooth globs

May 22, 2013
Mile 394
24 miles today

The smell of fresh scones yanked me from under the ping-pong table. Packed up and headed into town for a bulk-up breakfast. The walk was long, but the hitch proved easy and lovely, a 1956 Willys Sedan with the original motor. Ate like the starved and then tried thumb work back to the trailhead. The wait was 22 seconds and well worth it, a cherry red 1954 pickup so near to my truck, a 1951 GMC. Rode to the trailhead in the back, grinning all the way.

Hitching in the ’54 GMC

Arriving at the trailhead

Me in action.

Me not in action.

The trail proceeded in its customary gain and loss personality. Sometimes a jaunt to the top to have a chat with the oracle, sometimes to the valley to talk with their counterpart. Coyote scat covered the trail indicating territory. The climbs grew hot as noon passed. The old adage confirmed – only mad dogs, Englishmen and PCT thru hikers go out in the midday sun. At each summit a new panorama presented, and the endorphins came rushing back. Times like those make you feel too big for your skin.

Pinecone flood

I continue to be amazed at the lack of population in Southern California once one is removed from the coast. Reminds me of the population in Egypt clustered around the Nile.

Young Yucca

The trail crisscrossed the Angeles National Highway several times until being cutoff completely by a Park Service edict. Seems yet another toad was threatened so a four-mile section of the PCT was closed. Two options presented. A 17-mile alternate trail to cover those four miles or a three-mile road walk. Having taken our sanity pills that morning we hit the road. Traffic was light, so the spat factor was minimal. Shortly we arrived at an organized campground and set up for the night, once again a cowboy camp. In reality I have set up the tarp a total of three times in 20 nights.

Before long, a desire for a beer was voiced. On cue, Mike and Norbert, two trail angels from LA, pulled up and shouted, “Any thru hikers here in the mood for a beer?” Multiple affirmations were simultaneous. A huge cooler was drug out full of beer, soda and snacks. Then they were off to the forest to gather wood for a fire. The night went from a cold one, shoveling down couscous, to beer around a roaring fire.

The conversation rolled on until the angels had to return to Angeles. My guess is Mike would have joined the trek northward in a short second if he could have escaped the grasping embrace of Capitalism.

I tried to imagine Mike and Norbert’s mindset. “Hey, it’s Wednesday night. Let’s stock an ice chest, drive an hour out to Angeles National Forest, track down some thru hikers, and give it to them.” Fine specimens of humanity.

Part of the goodies left were a box of Mike and Ike candies, which are basically chewable globs. Irresistible. As I masticated a glob of five, I bit into a rock. Too lazy to separate the rock, I tried to swallow the glob whole. The dimension of my throat compared with the dimension of the glob prevented this. This was fortuitous, for further exploration informed me that the rock was a tooth and trying to place it back where it belonged, in the dark, after a couple of beers, made me sleepy. So I put the tooth in my pocket, lay down and dreamt of wilderness dentists.

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

If you’d like to help out and donate, please click here!