The Desert Portion

Katherine "Moon Pie" Becksvoort from Chattanooga is Going through the desert portion of the Pacific Crest Trail.

Walking through the desert is really all about the race for water and the race for shade. After leaving the Mexico border and learning the hard way that hiking at high noon in the desert is not a good idea, I’m strategizing my daily schedule for the 10 by 10 policy ... which means 10 miles by 10 a.m.

That sets things up well for the rest of the day, with an afternoon siesta in the shade around lunchtime. It’s necessary to do about 20-mile days, on average, to get through the desert before the hot summer days really settle in and the water sources dry up, as well as giving a hiker enough time to cover the 700 miles of desert before Kennedy Meadows, the official entry point into the Sierras.

If a hiker gets there too early, then the snows haven’t melted enough to cross through the high mountain passes at 14,000 feet. And if a hiker is too late, the water sources in the desert are too far apart to be passable. Needless to say, this makes for a tricky window of six weeks or so to plan your hiking time between the desert and the Sierras.

She writes well. Read it all. First installment here.