Never expected to hear from me again? Neither did I! But here I am on a followup mission, retracing my walk route and calling on as many folks as I can who helped me navigate, sleep, eat etc. on my last trip through here and generally offered walk-sustaining moral support. Intention is to express thanks and make some small offerings. Am now in Spanish Fork, UT.
Challenges this time, as one would expect, are very different. But let me start in California... Awesome visits with my friends/sponsors on the ranch in the Central Valley, as well as another friend on the Coast and yet another in Kernville. So I saw some of the fallout from winter flooding inland and on the central coast, and also got to enjoy some ocean waves before starting inland. As mentioned above, many of the hillsides all along the way were totally carpeted with wildflowers, so much so that it could be seen from space in satellite view!
People were pulled off the road everywhere gawking and taking photos of the masses of yellow, orange blue. These photos hardly capture the drama of the expanses. After a ride up Route 395 on the east side of the Sierras I branched off to Route 6 after Bishop, CA. All of the passes over the Sierras were closed that far north, and the trailhead park for the PCT is not going to open until June(!), when they think they can clear all of the snow.
In the Nevada desert I was guided to a very remote hot spring that I never would have found without help. No signs at all. Got lucky, I guess. Heard later that the campsite can be overrun by herds of noisy and inconsiderate campers. But the one guy(Mike) I spoke with at any length was great. Then on to Tonopah where I had a reunion with Kevin and his family, who had sheltered me on the walk. And later met up with two Carols, also my gracious hosts on the remote stretch of Route 6.
Weather very changeable. In Tonopah I was in a T-shirt during the day. But that night the tempurature dropped into the 20's!! I barely stayed warm in my pop-up tent and didn't try to heat water in the AM. It was stingingly cold and I had some trouble just pulling down my tent top with stiffly painful fingers. The next day it continued cold enough that I stayed indoors overnight at the now-less-well-run Border Inn at the Utah state line. Which brings me to the relative, occasional poignance of this version of my last decade's walk - the graphic examples of the 'arising and passing away' of the stuff of our material world. While I am 'chuffed' to see some of the places where I camped or remembered for various reasons, there are also those places that have suffered closures/abandonment, either through attrition or the Covid years. Let alone the intense winter that seems to have been felt throughout the western states. The mountains are looking amazing and forbidding; snow is everywhere and at pretty low elevations. It'll be interesting (possibly scary?) to see what weather conditions I'll encounter along the way.
SAFE TRAVELS! as everyone says.
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