Episode 57 - PCT Update #5
Acton —> Tehachapi
Day #: 35
Total Miles Hiked: 559
Miles remaining: 2091
Percentage done: 21.1%
The navigation app that most PCT hikers use is called FarOut, and it’s a wonderful invention; it shows all campsites, road crossings, town stops, and points of interest along the trail. Crucially, it also shows all the water sources, and hikers can leave comments about the flow and availability at each spot. Fantastic.
FarOut splits the PCT into five different sections: SoCal, Sierras, NorCal, Oregon, and Washington. With the end of this week, we officially finish the desert SoCal section on FarOut, and geologically begin the Sierras! Mt. Whitney, here we come! So happy to be done with the desert now :)
As always, please feel free to mail letters, postcards, mail, or care packages! I always get so excited heading to the post office, and the next one will be in Bishop. I can’t wait to see what you send!
Address:
PCT Hiker — Dennis Gavrilenko
Bishop USPS
585 W Line St
Bishop, CA 93514
Day 26, 6/5/2025:
Today brooke and I hiked around 10 miles with about 1000 feet of elevation gain.
After our delicious pizza dinner the night before, Brooke and I slept in this morning until about 8 am and were planning to go to yoga. We had read that there was a yoga studio in Wrightwood that offered free sessions for PCT hikers, and had agreed to go there with a few other hikers. Unfortunately, we took a bit too long getting ready in the morning (classic), and therefore missed the yoga session. By the time we got there 9 minutes past 9, everyone was already in zen mode and stretching on the floor.
We made the best of the situation, however, and went to the hardware store and post office to see if we got any mail. There wasn’t much at the hardware store except a really cool hiker box, but at the post office, there was a wonderful care package waiting for me from my family! Brooke and I were so so so excited.
With package in hand, and with our spirits high, we walked back to the house we were staying at to unpack the care package and get ready for the rest of the day hiking. While going to the house, we met Jerry, who was doing some gardening work in his front yard. We chatted up a storm with him, particularly about the massive Bridge Fire that happened the previous year, and the subsequent fire closures along the trail and major highways nearby. Eventually, he even offered us a ride to the next town over where we could start hiking after the closure ended. Jerry, our hero!
Back at the house, Brooke and I unpacked our care package, and packed up our bags to head to the center of town to get more food. There was a cafe in the center of town that gave out a free cup of coffee to all PCT hikers, so Brooke and I enjoyed that along with a delicious pastry in the morning. We went around town to get more postcards and groceries, and used the café patio as our homebase where we left all of our belongings while we were out and about.
Around 2, Jerry met up with us at the coffee shop and offered to drive us all the way to Acton, the next town, where we could start hiking properly. The fire closures had closed all the major highways and trails, so us hikers had to decide to either walk 20 miles up the highway back to the trail, or hitchhike into the next town and start hiking from there. Brooke and I read that if we got caught hiking on the closed part of the trail we could get fined up to $5000, which we decided against since it was very much not in our budget. We therefore decided to take up Jerry on his offer to drive us and head an hour west to the next town of Acton.
Jerry is a wonderful trail angel. He drove us all the way to Acton, and wouldn’t even allow us to pay him for gas. We had a great drive over, chatting about his previous career as a firefighter in Rancho Cucamonga, his life living in Wrightwood, and how he raised his grandson in town there, too. He was talking about how his grandmother really trained him with his times tables when he was a kid and subsequently he got his son to became a professional times table multiplier as well. What an amazing car ride and what an amazing time.
We even stopped in Acton to see the post office to see if we got any packages there, but the post office lady said there was nothing for us there. Brooke asked the postal worker if she had checked the PCT hiker section of the post office, and the postal worker said yes, she had and there was nothing there. I then asked how she knew that we were PCT hikers, and then she just looked at me and said “I just know”. Hilarious.
After getting some delicious Shawarma wraps next-door to the post office (where Jerry actually used to be a salesman), Jerry drove us to the RV park trailhead. We said bye to our lovely hero Jerry, and he was off. What an absolutely amazing dude.
Brooke and I still decided to take a quick break at the RV park. There was a grocery store where we can get some food and cold drinks and also there was Wi-Fi where we could go check our messages and call people as needed. Also, with the Wi-Fi, we went ahead and designed and ordered some business cards to give out to trail angels.
While doing my super power day of 90 miles in three days, I had the idea of creating some business cards to thank the trail angels that helped Brooke and I out so much while we were hiking. Every time we would get a hitchhike, or free food, or drink on the trail, I’d be super grateful to those that helped us and and they often mention how inspirational we were to them for undergoing the trail and all of its epicness. I would then often offer them to subscribe to our blogs to follow along and figured that it would be great to make a business card to hand out to these trail angels after they drop us off and help us. I quickly designed it in Canva Pro, we went ahead and order the business cards through Canva Pro (what a genius business model), and left the entire back of the business card blank so that we can write handwritten notes there after we were helped. I am really really excited for them to come in the mail!
After our little break in the RV park, brooke and I were back on the road and back on the trail north to Canada. Now that we had traversed through the entire Transverse Range, we were basically heading north to Canada from here on out and no longer west. It was smooth sailing uphill, with great views and everything.
The destination for the day was Vasquez Rocks, a really famous and cool geological state park that is just a few miles from Hollywood. So close in fact to Hollywood, in fact, that it’s within the 30 mile zone and therefore a ton of movies were filmed in this park. I later learned that if movies and shows are filmed within a 30 mile radius of Hollywood, the studios don’t have to pay for transportation or housing expenses for their workers so that’s why a bunch of movies were filmed in Vasquez Rocks.
After walking through the fun tunnel underneath the freeway and getting into the park, it was smooth sailing with a beautiful sunset in the park and lots of cool sand formations for us to appreciate. We made it to our campsite by the time it was dark set up, had some Ramen for dinner, and went to bed. What a great first day back!
Day 27, 6/6:
Today we did 25 miles of hiking with 5000 feet of elevation gain.
Vasquez rocks is right next to the town of Agua Dulce, so the plan was to get up pretty early go to the visitor center in the park, and then have a nice coffee in town for breakfast and continue on the trail.
We woke up around 7:30, and started off the day with a very nice stroll in the park over to the Witch’s Hat rock formation. It was crazy. From about 320° around the rock formation it just looks like a random pile of stones with no meaning. However, in the 40° slice when you’re looking at it from the correct angle, this formation looks just like a witch’s hat. It’s actually unbelievably insane.
After the witches adventure and the nearby geologic trail, Brooke and I packed up camp briefly checked out the visitor center (it was pretty lame tbh), and headed into the town of Agua Dulce for breakfast. We ordered some really nice lattes at the mercantile store, then walk across the street to the grocery store to see if we can get any sandwiches or pastries there. We bought some coffee cake, and then were looking at the fruit section to see what we could buy. The pre-sliced watermelon in the tiny plastic cup cost $6.50 and after looking at that high price tag, I thought it might even be cheaper to just actually buy a full watermelon.
And the full watermelons were 33¢ per pound. That is the cheapest watermelon I have ever seen in my entire life. Brooke and I bought a big one for $4.50. Saving a ton of money on the cheap plastic pre-cut version, we headed back to the coffee shop to enjoy the coffee, bread, watermelon, and our fancy lattes. It was delightful, and I’m really becoming an expert at eating and slicing open watermelons with my tiny pocket knife from Alex.
After about half an hour, brooke continued on up the trail to continue on with our big day, while I just sat around and was a bum for the next two hours. I called Finlay, called Joanne, called my dad, and then I was off on the side of the road for 2 miles before reconnecting back with the main trail in the hills. It was just a long day of ups and downs, and some more chaparral bushes and long grasses, and I eventually caught up with brooke in the afternoon. We hiked and hiked and hiked until it got dark, and then we met a new friend, Eli.
Brooke and I were sitting on a bench about 6 miles from where we were going to camp that night when Eli walked out of the bushes and started chatting with us. We had an amazing time walking with him for the rest of the night. He’s going to law school soon and actually headed off trail because he had a waitlist interview with Harvard Law. Flex. We chatted about our philosophies about trail angels taking money (we agreed that if a trail angel is charging money, they’re not a trail angel), his dating life with a girl from Michigan (wild, includes tales of moving in together too early in Seattle and a PSYCHO covid dog), and so much more in between (including him getting ripped off by a “trail angel” in Mojave who charged him $40 and made him do yard work). Eli had previously hiked the Appalachian Trail, and was trying to hike the PCT before he starts law school in the fall. Really really really really fun time chatting with him, and I miss this man already. Brooke and I had the best time chatting with him all evening.
At 10 PM, we finally made it to camp at the fire station just 0.1 miles off the trail. We cooked dinner, filtered some water, and went straight to bed. Eli headed on off up the trail and was planning to hike until the wee hours of the morning since he took a day off for his interview. I’m not sure I’ll ever see him again, but what a wonderful time that we shared tonight!
Day 27, 6/7:
Today we hiked another 25 miles with another 5000 feet of elevation game.
Brooke likes to start off her mornings early and hike in the cool temperatures, while I like to sleep in and enjoy a slow morning with some instant coffee and oatmeal. The solution we figured out to this dilemma is that Brooke leaves before I wake up, then I have a lie-in in the morning, pack up camp, and catch up with her by lunchtime. That’s exactly what we did today; brooke left before I woke up, and I myself left around 9:30 am from the campsite. Before I did leave, I had a lovely chat at the campground with another hiker, Curious George, who was wearing speedboat 5s in contrast to my 6s. We talked about that for a bit, then I hiked uphill for 4 miles. Lit.
I began to regret my late departure time almost immediately, as it got roasting hot quickly and I was left to climb and descend steep hills all morning in the heat. Fortunately, there were some tunnels (abandoned mining exploration shafts?) halfway up one of the mountains, which provided a much-needed reprieve from the scorching temps and blazing sun outside. Really did remind me of Prospector’s Tunnel in Black Diamond Mines. Filtered some water a few miles later and chatted with the other hikers enjoying the shade there, then continued uphill to catch up to Brooke.
I was excited to take a break at the top of the nth mountain of the day, which the FarOut comments mentioned had a picnic table. It indeed had a picnic table, and someone just so happened to be sitting in it!
His name was Louis, and he was out dirtbiking on his day off. He works at the maximum security prison in Lancaster, and we spent the next hour chatting while I learning everything related to prisons — the racially organized gangs, rampant death, the creativity of prisoners who have nothing but time in their hands (fancy orange chicken from prison food, for example), Level 1-4 prisons, slang (shank, chomo, etc.), it was wild. One of the best conversations I’ve had on trail so far, plus the extra sandwiches he had were fantastic. Most delicious picnic table bologna sandwich I’ve ever had. After chatting a bit more and taking a selfie with Louis, I headed on off and caught up to Brooke. We walked another 5ish miles up a brutal hill, collapsed at the water source, watched the sunset, and headed to bed. What a day!
Day 29, 6/8:
Nice 18 miles with only 700 feet of climbing. It was chill in the morning, until it became insanely hot and we barely made it to our final destination.
Brooke and I woke up early today to enjoy walking in some cooler temperatures. We watched the sunrise, packed off camp, and began the long descent down the mountain!
Our goal for today was to make it to Hikertown, a notable PCT location where hikers rest and resupply before starting the LA aqueduct section. Hikertown has two different groceries store that famously hate each other, so I was pretty excited to make it there to see what all the hype was about.
Our descent began smoothly, with some beautiful oak tree terrain that reminded me of Morgan Territory. After around 5 miles, we stopped for a bit to find an ammo can geocache, which was padlocked closed and listed as a mystery cache. A bunch of combinations were written on the ammo can, and you had to figure out which one was correct! After about 10 minutes, I figured out that the true code was not any of the written ones, but actually the date the geocache was hidden. Brilliant!
We made it to the water source after 12 miles, and only had 5 more miles to go before Hikertown. It was ROASTING, and we were struggling massively. About 3 hours later, we stumbled into Hikertown (with only a brief scare where I accidentally took all the water we had and brooke was left with only half a liter!!!), thank goodness. After waiting an hour for a ride, we made it to the Neenach Market, where so many hikers were chilling and relaxing. Kyle, Scrub Daddy, and the rest of that tramily was there, too. We all caught up and ate SO much food, bought some more, and got ready to set off onto the aqueduct that night.
The LA aqueduct portion of the PCT is quite legendary; it’s ~15 miles of walking on a pipe and concrete road, and everyone does it at night to escape the heat during the daytime. Most folks also take a day off at Hikertown, but brooke and I wanted to make it to Tehachapi ASAP, so we skipped taking the day off and full sent it that night.
We left Hikertown at 10 pm (it was ghost town there, most people left way earlier), and walked all night until about 7 am. The pipe walk was rough (lots of bolts make for uncomfortable walking, and brooke and I were already so tired mentally and physically from the morning), the concrete road even more so, but eventually we made it to the bridge as the sun was rising. I have to say, walking from sunset to sunrise is quite the humbling experience.
We collapsed under the bridge, set up our sleeping pads, and went off to bed. Another crazy day.
Day 30, 6/9:
After the crazy push yesterday, we spent the entire day camping under the bridge. It was the only shade for 10 miles in either direction, and a group of us were relaxing there all day to not boil alive in the 100 degree exposed heat outside. We were basically homeless trolls.
Slept from 7 am - 3 pm, ate some ramen, chilled a bunch with Brooke, and napped on and off all day. It was also quite windy (hence the entire wind farm nearby), so I took the time to build a nice rock wall for us. Our plan was to hike to Tehachapi that night again, but by the time we left at 7 pm we were so mentally tired that we only went 6 more miles. Brooke and I decided to camp under the stream at around 11 pm, and decided to push to Tehachapi the next morning.
Day 31, 6/10:
18 miles with another 2500 feet of climbing. Tehachapi! We made it!
After the supreme mental exhaustion the day before, we decided to do the normal human thing and walk during the day. We woke up at sunrise again, brooke set off ahead, and I spent the morning catching up to her.
The big feature of the day’s hiking was a massive climb in the morning, then a long steady descent to Tehachapi following some more wind farms. The climb was smooth, the water cache and shady umbrellas at the top even better (thank you so much to the trail angel for setting this up, wow), and the descent down magical.
The wind farm was quite the sight to see, and allegedly the largest in the world. We made it to the road at about 2 pm, we got a quick hitch into town from a windmill engineer, and just like that, we were back in civilization!
I’m graduating from UCLA this weekend, so now that brooke and I were in Tehachapi, we could relax for a bit and then take a long series of buses back to LA (Tehachapi —> Bakersfield —> LA Union Station —> UCLA). The first bus option was the Amtrak bus, which was already full and supposed to arrive at 2:30. The tickets were sold out, but we figured that we’d wait for it to arrive and ask the driver if the bus really was full. These things usually work out for us.
Not this time! The bus never showed up. Brooke called Amtrak, and they told her that since no one had bought a departing ticket from Tehachapi and no one was getting dropped off in town, the bus simply never stopped there. Bruh.
The next bus was leaving at 6, so we had a few hours to kill, during which a great series of adventures happened:
we got some huge sandwiches at the German bakery in town
Some other hikers took a picture of brooke and I on their Polaroid camera and gave us a copy. It was so cool!
I strolled around town and checked out the library
secured a geology textbook from a small lending library in front of someone’s house
Walked into a candy store, chatted with the owner for 30 minutes, put on some of her perfume for sale, got a free sample of freeze dried candy corn (very crunchy!), and learned that the owner’s daughter was conceived in Kennedy Meadows (I didn’t ask)
Brooke and I later saw our trail friends Sam and Sky, who upon my recollection of the afternoon, told me that I always seem to find adventure in my free time. That made me so happy!
We were back at this bus stop at 5:30, and at 6 the bus… also doesn’t show up. 6:10, 6:20, then 6:30 rolls around, and Brooke calls this other bus company to ask what’s happening this time. Brooke’s becoming quite the bus-calling expert.
The situation with this bus was even crazier; a watermelon truck had tipped over on the freeway in front of the bus, causing a massive traffic jam for an hour and a half while the watermelons were being cleaned off the road. You really can’t make this up. The 6 pm bus finally arrives at 7:45, and we finally are in the way to Bakersfield. I have to say, waiting hours at a bus stop is very humbling. Really makes you appreciate having a car.
The bus drive was lovely (beautiful sunset and the Tehachapi Loop!) and hot (no AC baby!), and when we arrived in Bakersfield, we immediately Ubered to Panda Express. We devoured some food, and then were approached by an older guy who 1) somehow identified us as PCT hikers despite the fact that we were in BAKERSFIELD, 2) gave us $20 in cash each, and 3) offered us free housing in the extra house he had in Bakersfield that he had just finished renovating to rent it out. Unbelievable. The generosity of strangers continues to amaze me, and I’m becoming more and more convinced that the best thing one can do to restore their faith in humanity is to do a thru-hike.
Day 32, 6/11:
0 miles today.
We woke up nice and early to head back home to UCLA! We packed up our very few belongings in the house, gave the key to the neighbor, and walked over to the bus stop. Along the way, we got breakfast at the only open store that early, an Arab grocer. It was unbelievable. Amazing service, delicious breakfast pizzas, free samples, kind staff, and legitimately the second-best cup of coffee I’ve ever had in my entire life.
The first, of course, being the one Hudson’s mom brewed for me two weeks ago.
It was smooth sailing to the Amtrak station, where we bought discounted bus tickets (we still have our student ID cards 💪) and continued on to LA. Super chill ride: we met a guy from California City who was very impressed by our thru-hike, and secondhand-listened to Spanish YouTube shorts from the Mexican grandpa in the back with his phone on max volume. Life is good.
Once at LA Union Station (what’s crazy is I’ve been to Union Station three times in the last 2 weeks, and only once during 4 years at UCLA), we walked over to Little Tokyo to get some boba before heading back to UCLA.
Turns out, there were a bunch of riots happening in LA at this exact time, and we had literally no idea. Brooke and I walked straight through the middle of it (so many soldiers, protesters, graffiti, reporters, it was crazy), pet a parrot a random guy was walking around with, and headed back to campus. Life is crazy.
Rest of Days 32-36, 6/11-6/14:
The next few days were wonderful days of rest. I graduated from UCLA, met up with friends one last time this school year (including some delightful pints with Finlay and Lise), enjoyed some DELICIOUS Kbbq at Meat Love with my family, did one last Undie Run, went to the Skirball Center with Sasha, hid an Adventure Lab with my dad, swam in a rooftop pool, and ate lots of cherries.
But graduation, eh? I did it! I’m officially a UCLA alumni, what a crazy thing to think about :) 🧸
Congrats on graduating! & somehow fitting so much adventure all into one newsletter! PS in the picture of Brooke eating baby food, I totally thought it was a jar of mustard (which, as you know, would not be out of the question for Brooke). Happy hiking!