Jims Journal

Tipped off by Mark Godley (see “Yosemite Hiking” preceding this blog), I found I couldn’t access the Pacific Crest Trail in Kings Canyon or Sequoia National Park because the trail runs on the west side of the crest.  I would have to hike several thousand feet up, then down and then back in a single day to do so.  Bottom line: spectacular day-hikes on the PCT through the most dramatic mountain scenery in America are mostly a no-can-do.  (If I have missed something here, I hope a reader will write, and I will edit future editions.)

That is not to say you can’t see great stuff ….. it will be by car.  To my list of the most dramatic road trips, add Hwy 120 from Lee Vining into Tuolumne Meadows. What sights from this mountain climb!

From Lee Vining I drove south on Hwy 395 for 150 miles, painfully passing Kings Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park mountains to my west because of these access issues.  I was headed for Agua Dulce, so small a hamlet it isn’t on any of my three road maps.

On the way south I detoured to Walker Pass on Hwy 178 and hiked on the PCT for a couple of hours through the high desert country that extends to the Mexican border: sage brush, rabbit brush, Joshua trees and Pinion pines.

So what is in Agua Dulce? you ask.  A trail angel.  Every thru-hiker knows the term, but very few others have ever heard of it.

Agua Dulce, south of Acton, which is south of Palmdale on Hwy 14 and maybe 40 miles north of Los Angeles, is home to Donna and Jeff Saufley.  As trail angels, they lend a hand to hikers coming through.  The PCT comes right down Agua Dulce Road, and the Saufleys live a few blocks off the trail on Darling.

Trail angels might offer to transport hikers into town to retrieve a care package from home or to buy groceries.  Hikers may be offered phone use, a shower, or a chance to do laundry.  At the Saufleys “Hiker Heaven”, it’s all of the above.  In an over-sized trailer next to their house, they can quarter up to eight with beds (couples get preference), but then there are cots; and when those are all spoken for, there are two couches and an acre of yard.  Remember, sleeping on the ground on a foam pad is no hardship.  The hikers do it every night.

There are towels, if the hikers want one, and soap as needed for body and clothes.  And there’s a campfire ring in the yard every evening for cooking and sociable time.  It’s all complimentary, though hikers continue to buy their own food.

Anywhere from 500 to 700 hikers leave the tiny town of Campo at the Mexican border in March and April for the 2,650 mile hike to the Canadian border.  The Saufley house sits at mile 454.4, so hikers have been on the trail for over a month by the time Donna sees them.

I asked if she doesn’t smell them first.  “Well,” she said, “it used to be worse.  But now there is a KOA south of us, so most of them get a pre-wash before they arrive!”

Over 1,100 permits are issued to long-distance hikers on the PCT each spring.  Many are section hikers.  A few will start in Canada, hoping to make it to Mexico before winter.  Some of the thru-hikers will drop out.  But trail angle Donna greets about 500 hikers in the early summer each year as they come through.

In recent years as numbers have increased, she has found volunteers to come and help her handle the crowd during peak times.  This year there were two, one from Oakland and one from Seattle.  I didn’t even ask her if she is suffering from burn-out.  She has been doing this since 1997.  She figures at least 3,000 hikers have stayed at her home since then.  Up and down the PCT every hiker has heard of the trail angel in Agua Dulce.

From the Saufley house I drove south on Hwy 14 for about 30 minutes until I hit I-210, and then it was about a half hour drive east until I hit I-10, again heading east out of the Los Angeles Basin.  Suddenly, the trip was over.  Simultaneously, I was filled with exhilaration and regret.  I-10 was going to take me to Jacksonville, a few miles from my home.  Nothing left to do now but beat my way down the highway.  I was both eager to get home and rueful that I was leaving those beautiful western woods behind.  Conflicting strains of emotion kept me awake for well into the night.

There was one stop left: a lovely and leisurely two-hour lunch at Bravo Restaurant in the Lakeside Shopping Center in New Orleans with Peck and Pam Hayne.  Five days crossing the country is supposed to be good time.  I did it in 95 hours, one hour short of four days.