Sierra Loop - Walker Pass Tiki - Saturday, September 8, 2018

Waning Crescent Moon

Leaving Lone Pine, it was over 100 degrees and my main concern was for the health and safety of Spugly the Spectacularly Ugly Palomino Transporter. That silly little needle on the dashboard started to creep from the "C" toward the "H" ever so slightly, indicating that Spugly was not so happy about transporting Palomino in the "H" of the day.

I played games with Spugly to see if it would respond. For instance, I said out loud with an optimistic tone, "Let's see if we can get to Haiwee Reservoir without exploding, Spugly. Maybe we can find some shade and a breeze there." Right then, about 200 yards ahead, a mountain lion crossed the southbound lanes of the highway. When I say "crossed" I mean it shot across the road like a rocket before it disappeared into the thick, neck-high sagebrush on the super-wide median. How can anything going that fast be under such total control? It vanished into the thicket as fast as it streaked across 395. Voosh!

Then, after Haiwee, I said. "No shade there, Spugs, let's go for Coso Junction" and then "Fossil Falls" and then "Pearsonville." We never stopped until we got to Brady's gas station and desert souvenir convenience establishment, where I snagged a marginally cold blue Gatorade and a bag of ancient, possibly Pleistocene, Fritos. I popped the hood, hoping against hope that the slightly sub-boiling heat of the engine fluids would transfer to the brain-stalling, asphalt-melting, Kern County desert troposphere.

It worked. A quart of sugary blue energy drink and a sack of stale salty corn chips later the needle was back to normal and Spugly roared to life. In no time, I was cresting over the much cooler pass and staring at the roadside plaques touting the "discovery" of this pathway across the Sierra Nevada. Do they really think anybody still buys that B.S. in 2018? What a joke!

The history of the world apparently began in 1834. Way to go, Joe!

Around and down a few hairpin turns is the entrance to the Walker Pass Campground, a free BLM  site with a potty and a few pull-in campsites, plus room for tents to sprawl in the meager shade. The Pacific Crest Trail runs alongside the dry camp and crosses the highway at Walker Pass, heading for the promise of water and cooler temperatures of the South Fork of the Kern River and the high peaks of the Sierra Nevada beyond that. I was eager to set foot on the trail again after several years. I have hiked this section between Bird Spring Pass and Kennedy Meadows more times than I can count. It feels like home.

There it is, a couple of feet wide and 2,650 miles long, the PCT.

I walked slowly from the campground to the pass, about a mile, stretching my legs and filling my head with memories from every season. Those little brown plastic markers with the stickers on them seem to last forever, except of course when people shoot at them.

The trail is hot and  dry now, but I have walked this section in snow up to my knees.

One of the things I most wanted to see was the carved wooden tiki statue and meditation bench at the base of a Joshua tree on the north side of the pass about 20 feet to the east of the trail head. I first saw it in about 1994 or so. The last time I saw it was in 2010. In between, I stopped and paid my respects whenever I was nearby. These are the only two pictures I have, taken in 2010.

This time I was deeply saddened to find the large Joshua tree toppled, the tiki gone, and the bench nearly destroyed. Natural disaster? Human destruction? I don't know, but as maudlin as it may sound, I felt like a piece of my life had been stolen from me. I wish I knew the true story of the tiki's demise. I hope with all my heart that the artist who created the tiki and left it here for so many hikers to enjoy for so many years got it back intact.

Peace, Love, and Hope for the Tiki,

Jim

TBC