Ridgeline proves treacherous in windstorm for Pacific Crest Trail Hiker
By Tom Peterson
Hiker Emily Peterson of The Dalles made it to the peak of Mount San Jacinto last week with an elevation of 10,834 feet, she said.
The 23-year-old was on a 115-mile stretch between Idyllwild and Big Bear in Southern California on the Pacific Crest Trail.
She intends to reach the Canadian border by October. She left on April 29.
Sunrise on the desert. It all seems so beautiful and calm...
“It was beautiful,” she said of the 360-degree view from the mountain top. “I wanted to do it at sunrise but we slept in. But it was insane. You could see the whole mountain range. There was snow and streams and then we dropped back down to the desert and cacti gain at about 5,000 feet.”
But the weather gods were fickle.
Peterson said she and her hiking buddy made it 14 miles that day and set up camp in the middle of some manzanita.
“You could hear it coming,” she said of the wind. “I tried to boil water for my potatoes but the wind kept blowing out my stove. I tried to boil water inside the tent but it sparked, and I thought, ‘this is a bad idea.’ So, I turned it off and had cold potatoes and went to bed.”
Good advice for a rough night.
By midnight, the wind had to be a constant 25 miles per hour, and it was gusting, she said.
“It blew the tent so hard it went down. The sand was soft, so it would not hold the tent stakes. So, I grabbed my sleeping pad and sleeping bag and tried to sleep on top of the tent. The wind blew my (small inflatable) pillow away.”
“You could hear the gusts coming all night. It was creepy,” she said.
Peterson said she looked at her phone every hour waiting for the sunrise so she could get off that ridgeline.
She started hiking at 5:30 a.m.
The wind did not relent as they hiked to Interstate 10. She said gusts made it difficult to navigate the steep ridgeline.
“There were points where I stopped walking because I thought I might get blown over,” she said.
Deprived of sleep and 12 miles to go, she said they worked their way toward the highway with the hope of catching a hitch to Cabazon, a small wayside with an In N Out Burger.
Staggered and weary, they made it to the Interstate and found a phone number of a trail angel that would drive them into Cabazon.
“He was the most hilarious Uber driver in a tiny Prius,” Peterson said. “Four of us packed into the car with all our stuff, and we were so stinky.”
“He told us he used to be the mascot for the Dodgers and he met celebrities Zach Efron, Larry David and Matthew McConaughey. He was this really tall dude in this Prius. And he had BadAss Billy’s Beef Jerky, and he would sell it to hikers while Ubering. He sold some to my hiking buddy.”
Seem’s like the right choice.
Peterson said they made a b-line for In-N-Out where she gorged on Animal fries, a burger and a strawberry milkshake. Animal fries are topped with famous sauce, a slice of melted cheese and chopped grilled onions.
Then she was off to the post office to pick up her first mailed resupply of food.
“It was way too much. It was 10 or 12 pounds,” she said. “I gave half of it away.”
But nobody got her Chomp’s beef jerky, M&Ms, Twix or Snickers.
“There was a lot of chocolate,” she admitted.
She then ordered a tea at the nearby Starbucks and charged her phone and her body for several hours.
Peterson said if hikers can go the longer distances of 20 plus miles in a day, it reduces the amount of water they have to carry because they can avoid dry camping where additional packed water is needed. Best to filter your water, by the way;) That’s not Gatorade.
The Prius driver returned them to the trail where they hiked another seven miles, camping at Whitewater Preserve near some defunct trout ponds. And the wind had slowed considerably and water was available.
Mile Marker 200 on the PCT. Just 2450 to go.
“I slept well that night,” she said.
Peterson has yet to receive a trail name and noted a hiking buddy from Canada broke their toe and was taking a few days to recuperate.
And now that food supplies are back up, it is difficult to eat in hot temperatures without feeling nauseous.
But her mileage is up to 20 plus miles per day.
“I have to start eating more to keep up. Some hikers eat 4,000 to 4,500 calories a day. I need to keep track better. I need to get it up to 3,500,” she said. “Every night I eat three huge spoons full of Nutella, that’s adding 500 calories about.”
She has made it three-plus weeks on the trail now - some say that milestone is a good predictor if a hiker can finish the 2,650-mile trail or not.
“I can tell why people might have quit in the first few weeks; there is much more to go,” she said. “My leg is holding up. If anything is going to hurt, it is going to hurt worse on the right side - it is just slightly weaker in every way. But, it doesn’t feel like any injury. I don’t think.”
Peterson broke the leg in several places in a skiing accident in January of 2020 and an orthopedic surgeon used several screws and two metal braces to put it back together.
She also said the combination of sunscreen and dust are making for a lovely stick-on tan.
“It will be awesome to take a shower; that’s for sure,” she said.
“The last few days have been the hardest. It’s felt very difficult. I’m not going to lie, I have cried a lot in the last few days,” she said laughing. “I knew I could do it; it’s just so uncomfortable at times.”
