I spent several hours at Walden, adding a new layer of lacquer to the picnic tables and putting the trash cans and cooler (filled with soda) in place.

On Saturday, May 6, I will be hosting the fourth annual Celebrate Anza event at my place along the Pacific Crest Trail in the tiny community of Anza, east of Temecula. Hot food service begins at 11:30 through the mid-afternoon or later.

I love hosting this family-friendly event at my property each year. It is a chance for friends from “my other life” to experience all the beauty that the desert mountains of southern California offer at the height of the PCT thru hiker season, when 50+ hikers per day are passing by enroute from the Mexican border to the Canadian border many months away. Mingle with the hikers over lunch and ask them the question everyone wants to ask: “Why are you doing this?” The answer you get may surprise you and get you thinking about what you are doing with your life. The wild flowers this spring are the best in years (we are at 4200 feet in elevation, so our wild flower season is just beginning), and there is plenty of time before and after the event to take a hike yourself. … Canada is just 2,500 miles away.

Friends coming from a distance are welcome to camp at my place, with access to a bathroom and meals (Friday late dinner through Sunday breakfast) supplied at the ranch house. RSVP to pct145trailangelmary@gmail.com is requested for supported camping. No RSVP for the event itself, but you can contact me at this same email address for driving and parking directions. My place is two hours from San Diego, two hours from Orange, two and a half hours from downtown LA, one and a half hours from Riverside, and thirty minutes from Idyllwild.

Last year, despite an early threat of rain, we had a great time, with 24 invited guests and 27 PCT thru hikers served lunch.

With the cool weather this weekend, it was a perfect time for a hike with the local group of 4H kids.

 

Well, we are approaching the time of year when our local section of the PCT becomes “the Street,” with 50 or more hikers a day passing by. The most recent calendar of PCT long-distance hiker permits starting at the Mexican border shows we have over 40 hikers per day starting at the Mexican border beginning today (March 23), with the max of 50 hikers per day starting March 27. A solid 50 hikers per day continues through May 24.

With the announcement that there will be no Kick Off event, typically held the last weekend in April, I am now able to schedule my fourth annual Celebrate Anza event at my property along the PCT. As of the date of this post, the 50-per-day limit of thru hiker/rider permits starting from Campo is maxed out from March 27-May 21. With snowmageddon in the Sierra this year, late starts seem prudent, but that leaves hikers and rider dealing with the late spring/early summer heat of the desert. In any event, there will be plenty of hikers through my place on May 6. … More info to follow.

It’s official (and as we suspected for a while now): Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kick Off is no more. From the ADZPCTKO website:

They say all good things must come to an end, and so it is with Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kick Off.

 

A major storm system passing through SoCal this weekend caused the four-day work weekend to be shortened to two. Luckily, the gang had a chance to do some tread work near my place around PCT mile 147.5, to improve the trail for stock. And, most importantly, we didn’t have to skip dinner at my place on Friday evening.

I’m always looking to add something new to my “work” as a PCT Trail Angel. Since I have a passion for good cooking and an interest in honing my culinary skills in contexts outside the traditional kitchen, I thought I would try a series of meals at my property along the PCT during the northbound thru hiker season. Dubbed PCT Pop-Up Gourmet, the event will feature restaurant-like ambiance (to the extent I can create this in the “wilderness”) and gourmet food in the classical French tradition. The date for 2017 is Easter Sunday. I chose this date, both because this is a traditional date for a good meal, and because Paradise Valley Cafe, a popular restaurant for hikers seven miles further down the trail, closes at noon on Easter Sunday, so hikers won’t be able to eat there.

Any thru hiker who wanders by will be invited to partake at no charge. My friends are invited to attend with RSVP. While there is no charge for the meal, donations will be accepted from non-hiker guests to defray the costs of the ingredients. If there is any money left over, it will be donated to the PCTA.

Intrigued, but want more information? — Feel free to contact me. If you know for sure that you want to participate, please fill in the form below.

Walt’s image was the first sign I ordered and I shared my office with him for several weeks prior to hoisting him up on his sign post adjacent to the PCT. I know Leaves of Grass so well, and Walt through this work that was his life blood, that I found myself engaging in conversations with this new, unexpectedly-taciturn, office mate. … “So, Walt, what do you think of that?” When Walt failed to respond, I simply responded for him, uttering what I knew he would say, if only he could speak.

I love this image of him. It is a reproduction of the frontispiece for the first edition (1855) of Leaves of Grass. According to Ivan Marki, it is stipple engraving, based on a daguerreotype of Walt taken the previous year. (Walt would have been a vigorous 35 years old when it was taken, a “goodshaped and wellhung man,” not the elderly Walt shown in most of the photographs of him.)

The quotation is from the end of “Song of Myself” and is, I think, most appropriate for sharing with PCT thru hikers:

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
…
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.

Walt Whitman, from Leaves of Grass