Saturday May 31, 18.5mi/29.8km

Benton Town Park (625.1/5380ft) (CA) to Trail Canyon Lake (639.3/8050ft) (NV) +4.3mi alternate

I was awake really early and packed up my tent by 6 am, since I wasn’t certain I was allowed to camp where I was. I walked back into the park and hung out at one of the tables for a couple hours, eating first breakfast and reading my book. Once the cafe opened at 8am, I went and had second breakfast.

The post office opened at 8:30, which was perfect timing and I went and picked up my replacement air mattress.

My current air mattress has the “bulge of death” which means the internal seams are becoming delaminated. The company sent me a free replacement. Actually, they mistakenly sent me two free replacements. I definitely didn’t want to carry two air mattresses, so I mailed one away. I enjoyed talking to Sasy, the postal clerk, she was almost 80 years old, very chatty and knew all the town gossip. By now it was 9am, and time to leave town and start hiking. As I was leaving town, I noticed an actual working payphone!

It kinda makes sense since there’s no cell reception in the whole valley. I had a 3-hour roadwalk along US highway 6, which was pretty quiet except for the occasional truck. And also the herds of wild horses that were roaming around!

After 2 hours on the road, I had a small celebratory moment for entering Nevada.

Eventually I left the highway and turned onto a dirt road that led up into the mountains. The turn-off was marked by a famous defunct brothel, “JR”.

There were more wild horses roaming around this area.

The weather was a little warm so I was thankful when some clouds moved in and provided some shade. Shortly after, I entered Queen Canyon, with even more shade from the trees.

I saw tons of paintbrush and it was curious that it was growing in clumps here, usually it grows pretty scattered.

On the upper end of Queen Canyon, I came across some curious old buildings, I assume related to the defunct mining operation.

I took a nice long break, snacking and exploring one of the buildings. The other building had an old rotten wooden floor, so I definitely stayed out of that one. I had another hour of hiking to finish the climb up to the pass, it was surprising to look back down Queen Canyon and see how far I had already climbed.

I was nearing the top of the climb…

When I got to the pass, the clouds I was so thankful for earlier had turned into thunderclouds.

The view up ahead looked only slightly less threatening.

I quickly descended down the other side, or at least tried to, as the old road was steep and full of very loose little rocks.

After a mile, the descent eased up and I was traveling through a nice pinion-juniper forest.

Pretty soon I came to Trail Canyon Lake, one of the few water sources in this section. It was shocking to see so much water in a generally dry landscape.

I had drank a ton of water on the 4,000-ft climb, so I refilled my bottles and camped a short distance later.

I found a nice spot in some trees that was protected from both wind and rain, as the thunderclouds had now become very rumbly and sprinkly. New state, new weather?

Friday May 30, 19.1mi/30.7km

Wilfred Creek (607.0/7630ft) to Benton Town Park (625.1/5380ft) (CA) +1.0mi forgotten gear

I had a quiet night in my campsite, with no small animals scurrying around. My first task for the day was to hike up 2,500 ft on a steep hill, hiking XC.

It woke me up pretty quickly as I had to pay attention to weaving around all the different clumps of sagebrush. Once I was at the top I had an amazing view back to the Sierras, where I started in Mammoth a couple days ago.

I had a little more climbing to get to the top of the ridge.

And then thankfully I was hiking on a road, after all that XC climbing.

Surprisingly, there were still little patches of snow remaining up here at 9,800 ft elevation.

It was just a super scenic walk and I could see the road weave along the ridgeline for miles.

After a couple miles I came to a little forest, it was nice to have shade now that the sun was out in full force. Some of the trees looked very ancient.

Nice forested walk.

As I gradually descended, I left the forest and was back in the sagebrush.

I love looking at maps, and the view from up here into the valleys up ahead was like staring at a map.

I wasn’t sure what the white section was, perhaps some salt flats. The scenery up close was interesting too, these tiny purple flowers were everywhere.

After a couple hours I left the dirt roads and descended a couple thousand feet, again XC, though this time much easier and with less brush.

At the bottom of the descent I joined up with another dirt road, and had a pleasant but hot walk through the valley.

Pretty soon that road ended and I was on paved Highway 120 for a couple of hours. It was actually fairly enjoyable as there were almost no cars driving this road. And there were these cool rock hoodoos along the way.

I always see these elevation signs on road trips but I’ve never seen one on road walk before. Neat!

About halfway through the roadwalk I came to the historic town of Benton Hot Springs.

All the buildings looked ancient and historic and closed, I assume it used to be a mining town, but not sure. The one building that looked modern and open was the Inn at Benton Springs, which is a Hot Springs resort.

I stopped in and chatted with the staff for quite a while and got some ice cold water and lemonade. The three of them seemed very interested in the Hot Springs Trail that I was hiking, and one of them had even bikepacked across the length of California. Cool group. They were getting ready for a busy weekend of guests, so I left to finish my roadwalk. Unfortunately I forgot a hiking pole so I had to turn around and that added a mile to my day. I almost never carry hiking poles, as they don’t seem to have much use besides river crossings and steep downhills. Finally reunited with my hiking pole, I continued the roadwalk and said hi to lots of friendly faces.

It was pretty hot on the pavement with no shade, but I pressed on to Benton.

There are two convenience stores. One of them was already closed for the day, so I went to the Smalley’s convenience store just a couple minutes south of the main junction. Lots of cold temperature calories ensued.

It was nearing the end of the day, and I had to find a place to camp locally. I have a package at the post office which I will pick up tomorrow morning, which means I can’t leave this town quite yet. The guy at the convenience store said sometimes people camp in the Town Park, so I went over to check it out.

It was a pretty nice park with grass and shady trees, tables, and bathrooms with running water. I felt so civilized to sit at a proper table while eating dinner! I did all my usual evening chores, and even found an outlet to charge my phone. I didn’t really want to camp in the park in case people came in during the night, but I decided to camp on the other side of the fence from it and set up my tent after sunset. It’s technically a weekend, but this is a tiny town of only 200 people, so I don’t expect any rowdiness in the park tonight.

Thursday May 29, 19.5mi/31.4km

Laurel Creek (587.5/7430ft) to Wilfred Creek (607.0/7630ft) (CA)

I left my little campsite in the pine forest and immediately entered sagebrush terrain.

I had a pleasant roadwalk for a couple of hours, even passing by a little duck pond.

After crossing Highway 395, I noticed an increase in traffic on my little road, it seems everybody was driving to some hot springs in the area. I took a little detour to follow Hot Creek for a half mile to check it out.

After descending a couple of switchbacks, I had a pretty nice view of the river canyon.

I hiked along the river for a little while, and there were tons of people fishing for trout. Apparently this is the number one trout stream in California.

I talked to one guy who shared a bunch of information about fly fishing, types of fish, and the history of this creek. I continued on and soon came to the hot springs that give the creek its name.

From this point downstream, the water is too hot for fish and I saw no more people, except for one guy Mike. He said I looked familiar and that he commonly helps people on long distance hikers, he is currently supporting his friend Andrea on her hike from the East coast to the Oregon coast. We chatted for a bit and he sent me on my way with a nice cold Coors light. Maybe a mile later, I arrived at my first soakable hot spring for the day, Shepherd Hot springs.

It was very nice and there were a couple other people there, including a guy Randy who maintains a lot of the hot springs in Nevada. He was very knowledgeable and knew all of the hot springs and little towns that I will be visiting in Nevada next month. And he had built this neat contraption that cools down the water, since many of the hot springs are above 110° F, which is way too hot.

A couple other people showed up just as I was leaving, and they offered to take my photo. That’s a rare occurrence on this trail!

I hiked on, using an old dirt road and enjoying the amazing snowy mountain scenery.

And 10 minutes later I was at the next hot spring, Crab Cooker.

This one was way too hot to even put my feet in, probably how it got its name. I sat on the little bench there and ate lunch, and after awhile a couple showed up and offered me an ice cold Pepsi. Nice.

I moved on and enjoyed a short bit of XC hiking before arriving at Hilltop Hot springs. That one was a great temperature, but I only spent a few minutes there as a large group had just arrived. All of these hot springs are easily accessible by car, so there’s people everywhere. I hiked for another hour and came to my last one, Wild Willie’s hot springs.

This one was the most developed, it had a specially built parking area, boardwalk, and half a dozen rock tubs.

The temperature was perfect and I sat there for a while enjoying the hot bubbling mineral water. From there, I had an easy little XC hike to the Owens River, most of it was on dried mud flats, short grassy areas, and even some desert pavement.

Once I got close to the river I had to duck under a barbed wire fence, there was a fence on each side of the river and that was probably the hardest part of the river crossing. The river itself had some deep channels on the outer curves, but there were plenty of straight river sections that were shallow. I found a crossing spot with some gravel bars that made it quite easy.

Looking back, at where I had just crossed:

It was kinda the ideal crossing spot, never more than shin deep, and a nice gravelly bottom without any mud. From there I had a couple hours of hiking on dirt roads.

I was gradually climbing up toward the next mountain range, that I would cross over tomorrow. When the road ended by a creek, I stopped and camped.

It’s definitely convenient to camp near a water source, but usually hikers avoid these spots as they also attract mice, insects and other wildlife. Hopefully no visitors tonight!

Wednesday May 28, 5.1mi/8.2km

Mammoth Lakes (582.4/8020ft) to Laurel Creek (587.5/7430ft) (CA)

My body is used to the habit of waking up at 6am, so I had a leisurely morning in the campground before leaving by 7:30. One of the people I had met around the campfire at lake Isabella RV Park had agreed to meet me at a coffee shop here in Mammoth, where they live. I ordered my usual flat white coffee and we had a fun chat before he had to go off to work, and I had some errands to do around town at the post office, library, and gear shop. It was so scenic walking around town seeing the snowy mountains.

I got my warranty replacement battery bank at the post office, updated my journal at the library, and then went to Mammoth mountaineering gear shop to pick up my warranty replacement backpack.

So much new gear! And I get a warranty replacement Thermarest mattress in the next town. I ran into some PCT hikers at the gear shop and we walked over to the Vons grocery to resupply. My route splits from the PCT here in Mammoth, and I’m going to miss having other hikers around. I took the free trolley to the West end of town where this section officially starts, and stopped into the brewery for some rehydration.

I walked through the town of Mammoth Lakes, stopping by Schats Bakery to get a cinnamon roll.

They also had these ridiculously tiny jars of Nutella, they make my hands look huge, ha!

It was an easy hike out of town and then I followed a paved road for a couple of miles.

I stopped by the Sherwin Creek campground and filled my water, and now my backpack felt a little heavy, since I’m also carrying 7 days of food to get me to Tonopah, NV.

I debated stopping to camp at the campground, but it was only 5pm and they also wanted $16 and they only took cash. So I hiked another half hour and camped in the nice pine forest.

I’m guessing this will be the last forest I see for a long time, so I’m soaking it in tonight.

Monday May 26 & Tuesday May 27, 0mi/0km

Kern River Gateway Bridge (303.8/2650ft) to Mammoth Lakes (582.4/8020ft) (CA)

Monday was a day of relaxation at the RV park, where I didn’t do much other than eat, read my book, and do a little planning for the upcoming sections of the trail. In the afternoon I did the 15-minute walk down to the shopping plaza, and had a nice late lunch while enjoying the air conditioning and Wi-Fi of the local barbecue restaurant.

Tuesday morning I got up at 5am, packed up, and walked down to the bus stop where I caught the 6am bus to Bakersfield. I waited an hour for the next bus to take me over to Mojave, where I had a 3-hour holdover, waiting for the final bus that would take me to Mammoth Lakes. I hung out in Carl’s Jr with another hiker, we chatted for a couple hours about the PCT and everything hiking related, turns out he’s from Adelaide. I’ve met quite a few Aussies in the last few days! It was fun to compare experiences of our hikes in Tassie, the Larapinta Track, and Bibbulmun track. Small world!

The bus arrived at 2:30 and I sat with a couple PCT hikers who were headed north as well. Koen and Princess were from the Netherlands and Australia respectively. More fun chatting about hiking and tracks (trails) in Australia. I’m getting inspired to go back to Tasmania and do all the hikes that I didn’t do on my first visit. As the bus made its way North, I noticed the Sierra mountains were getting taller and snowier.

I finally got to Mammoth at 7pm, grabbed a quick dinner at a local pizza/ Italian place, and then walked across the street to the Shady Rest campground. Long day!

Sunday May 25, 14.9mi/24.0km

Lake Isabella RV Park (289.5/2560ft) to Kern River Gateway Bridge (303.8/2650ft) (CA) +0.6mi to RV Park

I slept in and had a lazy morning, mostly reading my book and eating bagels. I packed up and left the RV park at 1pm and started hiking the last few miles to Kernville, which is the end of this section. It took me a couple of miles to get across the freeway, but once I was on top of the dam, I had good views of the lake.

It’s a man-made lake, as I could see when I was walking across the rubble-dam. There were plenty of boaters out this holiday weekend.

The lake had a ton of little coves, and even those were chock full of people enjoying the warm weather and holiday.

For the first couple miles along the lakeshore, I was able to utilize dirt roads and avoid the paved highway.

This worked pretty well and allowed me to look around and enjoy the views. Then there was a 3-mile section where I had to walk on a narrow highway, due to private property in the area. It definitely wasn’t ideal and had some blind curves, but 99% of drivers were doing the right thing and crossing the centerline as they passed me. I left the road walk in the little town of Wofford Heights, and entered the Tillie Creek Campground. The entrance had this somber little monument to the Kern Valley Indians, who had been massacred here by the US cavalry.

It was nice to see a monument to a local tribe, rather than a conquering military force. It appeared that the Tillie Creek Campground had recently been closed, as all of the campsites were empty and grass was growing up in the cracks in the road. Still had nice views along the lake though!

I wound through a couple miles of dirt roads and little paths, and then emerged onto the paved road again at a cemetery. There was a nice dirt road paralleling the main one so it was a pleasant walk. Also most of the traffic was gone, it seemed few people drove past Wofford Heights. The last couple of miles to Kernville were sandwiched between some steep hills and the Kern River, which made finding a stealth camping site difficult. There were some definite possibilities in the abandoned golf course, which I saved in my brain for later. I arrived in Kernville at 6pm, and saw plenty of families out enjoying the park by the river.

It was definitely a tourist town with lots of kitschy little wilderness decor, including many bears.

The Kern River was flowing pretty hard, the kayakers were loving it but there’s no way I would cross that river on foot!

Looks like I made the right call in skipping this section, with the river looking so completely uncrossable. And I’m sure the other streams in the Sierra are equally swift and deep. After getting a quick meal at the brewery, I started to walk back toward the abandoned golf course to stealth camp. I saw a bunch of cars drive by, and then I got an idea to try to hitch back to Lake Isabella and stay at the RV park again. That strategy worked wonderfully, as I got a ride within 2 minutes by the third car that passed. A guy named Andy picked me up, he had been out exploring the forest on his mountain bike this weekend, and is also a talented wilderness photographer. He dropped me off at the Lake Isabella shopping plaza, I picked up some groceries and pizza, and then enjoyed the company of some nice families around the campfire at the RV park.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day, and there is no public transit running on the holiday. So I will take a zero-day here at the RV park. On Tuesday I’ll ride a series of buses all day to get to Mammoth Lakes, where I will continue the Hot Springs Trail.

Saturday May 24, 20.4mi/32.8km

Ridge on Bald Eagle Peak (269.7/6090ft) to Lake Isabella RV Park (289.5/2560ft) (CA) +0.6mi to RV Park

Fortunately it wasn’t windy last night and my camp spot on the ridge was a quiet evening. In the morning I had a couple hours walk downhill on a nice dirt road to town.

Leaving the Sequoia National Forest.

Looking down into Lake Isabella.

Once I got to a paved road, instead of heading directly to town, the route goes up Hooper Hill.

In addition to the nice views of the valley, there were also strange stone artworks.

There was a nice little herdpath leading down the ridge, and once I got to a different paved road, I cleaned the grass out of my socks and then headed to a hot springs.

Unfortunately, there was a sign in the parking lot, that the area was closed to the public. There was no phone signal in this deep valley to search for the details.

I hung out and had a break at the nearby Hobo Campground, and checked out the Kern River.

I decided to walk the road a little further, and see if there was another access point to the hot springs. There was! I went down an old ancient concrete staircase and a herd path down to the river where the hot springs were.

It’s called Miracle Hot Springs and somebody even spelled it out in neat little stones.

There were a bunch of little pools that appeared to have constructed walls at one point, and it looked like somebody recently removed the walls. I later learned that the Forest service had purposely destroyed the pools in 2022, some locals had rebuilt them the next year, and the USFS destroyed them again in 2024. Such a bizarre decision. They’re nice! I hiked the paved road back the 3 miles I had just come, and then headed into the town of Lake Isabella. Despite being near a lake, the town seemed rather poor and a little outdated, I even saw a Radio shack.

A little further down the main road I stopped for a late lunch at Nelda’s diner. They had 48 flavors of milkshakes on the menu and it was so hard to decide so I got three different ones. Plus a pulled pork sandwich!

They commonly get PCT hikers here and they had this cool little charging station for phones.

I walked out of the north end of town to the lake Isabella RV park.

It was pretty nice with lots of shade trees, good showers, a laundry room, and even a lounge to hang out in the shade and watch TV. There were like a hundred old movies on tape, mostly Disney movies.

I hung out with some other PCT hikers and watched a couple movies, apparently I was the only one who knew that the TV had to be on channel 3 for the VCR to work, haha. Afterward I went to the RV park office and collected my package which Toppy had sent me, an ice ax and micro spikes for the Sierra Mountains section.

Tomorrow I’ll hike the last 14 miles of this “Coast Connect” section to Kernville, and talk to the rangers at the permit office. Due to the snowmelt and high-running rivers, I’ll likely have to skip this section and come back to it later.

Friday May 23, 24.2mi/39.0km

Robin Bird Spring (246.7/6320ft) to Ridge on Bald Eagle Peak (270.0/6090ft) (CA) +0.9mi to Cold Springs

I slept great in my quiet little spot and hit the trail a little after 7am. It was a little chilly but after a short climb through some meadows I was warm again.

I had a couple hours of gradual descent on the PCT through a cool forest filled with boulders.

Just a nice shady pine forest up here at 6500 ft elevation.

After 6 miIes I turned onto a dirt road to leave the PCT. As I was taking a break, a group of very entertaining hikers stopped to chat with me, and were very curious why I was turning the opposite direction everyone else was. Bison, Wizard Spoon, and 2 others were asking about the Hot Springs Trail, and seemed genuinely interested in the details. Most of them had hiked some combination of AT and CDT, so they’re probably looking for their next trail. They seemed like a high energy and cheerful group and I might see them in a couple days in Lake Isabella. I had a mile walk on a dirt road, this sign made it hilariously clear there was private property along the road.

I left the dirt road to find a dirtbike track, which was easy to find but it didn’t have any signs or numbering. In less than a minute I had to cross a shin deep stream.

It was starting to become a hot day so the water actually felt pretty good.
Plus I had an almost 1,000-ft climb on that dirtbike track before joining up with a bigger dirt road. Looking back on the steep dirtbike track:

From there I hiked uphill a couple more miles on a nice dirt road.

I took a little break at the top where there was a trailhead with some pit toilets. There was a guy parked up there with his family, he offered me water and asked what I was hiking. He wanted to hear more details but he was busy with his toddler children, so we exchanged phone numbers to meet up in town tomorrow. After we each discovered we both had a 585 area code, a long discussion ensued about colleges (Nazareth and RIT), Garbage plates, the Lilac Festival and the Buffalo Bills. Small world.

I hiked on a couple of miles to Cold Springs to fill up my water and stop for lunch.

It’s kind of amazing, it’s completely dry up here on this ridge except this metal pipe has gushing water. a group of dirt bikers stopped by the spring too. They thought I was a lost PCT hiker until I told them I was hiking the Hot Springs Trail, and I showed them my little map. They gave me trail magic! A club sandwich, some kettle chips, and a cold Coors light. I got a group photo of them before they left.

The rest of the day was much quieter. I didn’t see any other people, just expansive views since I was walking on a 7,000 ft ridge.

Mostly it was through a nice pine forest though occasionally it had some burned sections.

Towards the end of the day, I had walked far enough along the ridgeline that I could see down into Lake Isabella.

A couple small clouds moved in and gave the sky a moody feel.

Looking ahead to where the road drops off the ridgeline. I ended up camping in the saddle on the right.

Pretty good views from my campsite!

Tomorrow I have about 16 miles to get to the Lake Isabella RV park where I will be staying tomorrow night. It looks mostly downhill, hopefully it’s an easy day.

Thursday May 22, 23.4mi/37.7km

Sweet Ridge PCT (224.4/5870ft) to Robin Bird Spring (246.7/6320ft) (CA) +1.1mi correction

I slept in a little later, probably because of weird dreams, Voldemort taking over the White House and nobody really complained. It was a pretty warm morning, and just as I was finishing packing, a hiker passed me.

I basically spent all day hiking along a ridgeline, with heaps of views and not much water. Though I did pass the Golden Oak spring about 3 miles into the day.

The trail kept criss-crossing with dirt roads and at one of the sunnier spots I saw this enormously long snake.

It’s definitely not a poisonous one but I’m curious what type. It felt like I had the trail to myself as I hiked along the well manicured PCT.

Cool lizard.

In the distance to the east I could see a little bit of smoke, but also the red fire retardant they had dropped on the ridge.

A mile later I had a better vantage point, and I could see a little bit of smoke but it looked like they had the Jaw fire mostly under control.

Up at an elevation of 6,000 ft, the trail passed through some nice meadows.

They were filled with friendly soft grasses, not those spiky desert grasses that get stuck in your socks and shoes. More epic views.

Every time I stopped today a few hikers would pass me, and then I would Leapfrog with them when they stopped. I did end up hiking with Jen for a couple of hours, she is from north of the Bay area and has done a bunch of hiking around California and has started to look elsewhere.

And I probably met the one other person on the PCT who has also hiked part of the Bigfoot Trail. She stopped early to camp, and then I ran into an Aussie hiker, and I had fun chatting with him about all the trails over there, we both agreed the Larapinta was our favorite Australian track. He pulled over to camp right at the 600 mile mark.

I forgot about these little markers! I should start making them for the Hot Springs Trail, ha! A couple miles later I passed by a creepy little metal shack, there were a bunch of unfriendly signs and it felt like it was inhabited by some sort of doomsday prepper.

Weirdly there was also a big sign with the ten commandments on them which just seemed very inappropriate, and trashy in this pristine natural environment. The rest of the trail was nice and green.

At the end of the day I stopped at Robin Bird Spring.

I setup my tent at the junction before walking down the little side trail to the spring, where I collected 4 liters for tomorrow’s hike. I also met 19 PCT hikers camped right at the spring, they were all very friendly but it felt a little overwhelming. I returned to my nice quiet campsite. a couple hundred yards away.

I might have to return to the spring in the morning and collect more water, I leave the PCT tomorrow and the next reliable water source is uncertain.

Wednesday May 21, 13.3mi/21.4km

Highway 58 PCT (211.1/3840ft) to Sweet Ridge PCT (224.4/5870ft) (CA)

I had a lazy morning in the hotel room, just snacking and watching TV. I checked out at 11am, went to the hardware store in the post office, and came across this neat monument on the walk.

Apparently in the 1880s, Borax was mined in Death Valley, and transported to the railroad here in Mojave CA. It was a long journey across mountains and desert, so it took a team of 20 mules to haul it. Hence, “20 Mule Team Borax”. Neat! I also got an answer as to why the Family Dollar store was closed, a family of aggressive squirrels was living there and they haven’t yet been able to remove them all. Ha! I caught the bus at 12:30 and was back on trail before 1pm. I noticed like a dozen hikers getting on the bus to go into town, seems to be quite a popular service. There was a sign posted at the trailhead, informing hikers of a wildfire about 30 miles to the north.

After hiking for only a couple of minutes I came across a water cache, which I normally would have skipped, but I saw they had lemonade powder and that sounded delicious.

The trail followed the highway for a couple of miles.

I could tell I was at a lower elevation with all of the blooming cacti.

And then I started a big 2500-foot climb up into the mountains.

It was pretty warm, but I just kept a steady pace and before I knew it, I was on top of the ridge.

Looking South, back to all the wind turbines and the town of Mojave behind them.

I was confused about the random bright red caution sign. There were no hazards nearby.

I followed the ridgeline for the rest of the afternoon, with a good portion of that hiking on an old dirt road.

It was pretty hilarious to see a speed limit sign since no one is driving this road.

Occasionally I would hike through a nice meadow where it was quite windy, which actually felt really nice when it was 75°F.

Much to my surprise, I came across a small group of wind turbines, I thought I was done with them.

It was pretty windy, so after finding a spot to camp, I followed my usual procedure in the wind, and made dinner in the tent.

I ended up using almost all of my water, but it’s only 3 miles to a water source tomorrow so it’s fine. It’s a quiet night with just the white noise of the wind turbines, the hordes of PCT hikers must be camped elsewhere.