Sections C (pt 2) & D
We started out of Big Bear Lake on the opposite side of where we had stayed the night before, producing beautiful views back over the water, overlooking the town and small ski resort above it. We descended about 2,000 feet in the first 15 miles surrounded by a dense forest of towering fir, pine, and cedar trees. Once settled, I was treated to one of the most beautiful sunsets yet over the jagged peaks of the San Bernardino Mountains.
Shortly thereafter we passed Lake Arrowhead en route to Deep Creek, likely my favorite stretch of the trail thus far. The tectonic uplift of the San Bernardino Mountains provides a steep elevation gradient for the creek as it weaves through the canyon, dropping almost 3,000 feet through boulder strewn reaches and deep pools en route to the East Mojave River. Our approach began with a massive bridge, towering more than 30 feet above the water and we had our first river swim of the trip, much needed after a hot day!
The highlight was the naturally occurring geothermal hot springs, with 10 pools of perfectly clear water going up to 110 degrees, nestled on the bank of the creek (which got as low as 45 degrees itself); perfect for hours of hot and cold plunge therapy. The site was first used by the Serrano people for spiritual rituals. It then became a haven for counterculture movements of the 60s & 70s, which cemented its designation as a clothing optional site. It always astonishes me that nudists insist on getting very close in conversation, regardless of where you are in the world.
After a short desert section that included a compound resembling Walter White’s mobile meth lab, we passed through the man-made Silverwood lake, where a dozen hikers sheltered from the mid-day sun spoiled by the modern conveniences of potable water and flush toilets.
A few miles later was one of the most talked about points on the PCT - the McDonalds at Cajon Pass. The pass is notable as the gateway between the San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains. Initially used by the native peoples of the region, it was then utilized by the Spanish to travel between their Californian missions, and eventually added as a part of the original Route 66. The pass remains one of the most highly trafficked thoroughfares in the American West.
Coming immediately out of the pass we had a steep, 3,500 foot climb into the San Gabriel Mountains. While it brought striking views, it was relatively short lived as it also led to our first major trail closure, a result of the 2023 Bridge Fire. We descended down off the detour and walked Highway 2 into the idyllic mountain town of Wrightwood.
Once in town, we were hosted by a local trail angel named Liz. She completed the PCT 15 years ago and in 2023 decided to retire along the trail so she could host hikers on their own journeys as a way of giving back to all those that supported her. She housed, fed, and drove us for two days as we resupplied and recuperated. She sent us to bed with warm hot chocolate, cookies, and homemade marshmallows every night and hosted a delicious Memorial Day barbecue, giving some of our foreign friends a true American experience.
We then road walked out of Wrightwood, almost immediately crossing into Los Angeles County and Angeles National Forest. We followed Highway 2, which has been closed to vehicular traffic, until it intersected where the trail reopened. A short and steep climb later we summited Mount Baden-Powell, named for the founder of the world scouting movement (ie. Boy Scouts & Girl Scouts). We were incredibly lucky to have made it up as, unbeknownst to us, the Forest Service had shut that 10 miles of trail down that morning, and we were likely the last to see those views for months or even years to come. Did we commit an accidental felony punishable by 6 months imprisonment? Yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely. The views were sweeping in all directions with the various mountain ranges we’d previously summited behind us and the flat expanse of the Mojave desert just ahead.
Following the natural order of things, the summit was immediately followed by our descent out of the San Gabriel mountains. This wound on for a couple of days and the scars left by the local population were clear. It shouldn’t have been a surprise as this section has the highest density of trash people per capita (which I believe should be an officially tracked statistic) on the entire PCT. People came from all over the Inland Empire to use every turn off as an opportunity to do donuts in their cars and shot magazine after magazine into the air in celebration (of what, I’m not entirely sure).
But just as I was becoming disillusioned with society we came across a parking lot at the end of a 20 mile day, when we were tired and in search of a campsite. There sat an older gentleman, next to his parked van, which in most other times in life would be something to avoid, but in this case it was a (literal) god send. Bob was a representative from the Christian wilderness camp a mile down the road and had drinks and snacks to offer for those on the go, or a ride to camp where a bunk bed, shower, laundry, and dinner would await. We jumped at the opportunity and watched a beautiful sunset before a lovely nights sleep.
Trail magic continued in the coming days. First with a hiker named Snow Angel handing out breakfast burritos, next a truck filled with sandwiches and sodas for the taking, and then two older ladies handing out sandwiches of their own. For two days on the trail I ate almost none of my own food, sustained by the generosity of complete strangers, proving that there’s still a lot of love and kindness in this chaotic world.
Finally, we found our way into Acton, taking my one millionth step along the way, and camped in the backyard of the 49er Saloon. The next day required just a short hike to Agua Dulce through Vazquez Rock park, formed 25 million years ago due to activity from the San Andreas Fault. Having stunning sedimentary rock formations so close to Hollywood has drawn the eye of directors for decades, serving as the backdrop for productions including Star Trek, The Flintstones, Austin Powers, Little Miss Sunshine, and many more.
In Agua Dulce, I got 24 hours to recover and was blessed by a visit from old friends Erin, Tyler, Alex, and Mery who brought sandwiches, homemade baleadas, and an all important Amazon order. Now it’s time to head back on the trail with one of the most infamous sections ahead: a 50 mile stretch through the dry and unrelenting Mojave Desert.
By the numbers
Hiker Profile
Moritz “Quail” Geiseler, 23, was born in Berlin but has lived the majority of his life in the smaller German city of Düsseldorf. In between the two, he spent a year living in Spain, which was where he first developed his love of travel and adventure.
I first saw Moritz (or Mo, as he goes by in the U.S.), in Warner Springs at the local community center run for hikers. He came inside while his laundry was drying, towering over us at 6’ 4” and dressed in nothing but boxer briefs that left little to the imagination. The sweet 70 something year old volunteer named Linda nearly fell out of her chair. I immediately started to chuckle and knew a) that he wasn’t American and b) that he was a character I needed to befriend. It was simple, as Mo is one of the happiest and kindest people I’ve ever met. In the weeks since, he’s become my best friend on the trail, hiking and camping together each night.
Traditionally Germanic in many ways, Mo isn’t shy about asserting his opinion and presenting it as a command. “Put on your jacket, you’re going to get cold”, “take off your shoes to rest your feet”, and “you need to take more water with you” are things I hear throughout the day and he’s almost always right. But counter to the stereotypes about his cultura Mo is extremely warm and giddy. The two of us can laugh all day but also slip into modes of intense focus when warranted.
He’s also obsessed with America’s cultural nuances. Relatively benign things such as gated timeshares, soda machines, burnout marks, lifeguard stands, lifted trucks, and mega highways are all photographed and accompanied by his favorite tagline “this is so American.” Mo speaks phenomenal English, with a vocabulary than a lot of native speakers I know, but he still produces little errors that are very entertaining. The Indians are “The Indianas,” you eat a salad with letters instead of lettuce, and you’re going to kiss the dust instead of bite it.
Mo is a welder by trade, having recently finished his apprenticeship. But his passion is jewelry making, often working with coarse metals adorned with precious gemstones. Upon his return home he hopes to start a graduate program in Vienna focused on developing bespoke products that optimize for both aesthetics and function.
This environment has hyper accelerated the rate at which friendships are developed. Of course there is the fact that we spend all day every day together, but the nature of the journey itself: sharing hardships and resources in times of scarcity really shows you who others are. This experience also promotes a degree of vulnerability that I’ve not seen before. And most of all, by hiking with someone day in and day out you are implicitly trusting their character and judgement, knowing that they could be responsible for making a snap second decision when your life is in the balance.
It’s incredible to think that you would risk your own life for someone you just met a few weeks ago and know that they would do the same for you. I’ve had “friendships” with people for decades where I know they wouldn’t do the same for me. But for now, Mo & I will focus on making animal calls in canyons to see how much they’ll echo and giving each other endless shit, living every day of this experience to the fullest.
What I’m Listening To
I’ve started to listen to a lot more music in the last few weeks. Going back through my Spotify downloads, I’ve focused on revisiting some of my favorite albums of all time. The requirement for inclusion below was that I had to immediately replay the album after finishing it the first time through. I’ve highlighted one song from each that stood out.
Whether it be the first CD I ever bought for myself over 20 years ago or music from the last year, genres run the gamut from jazz & bluegrass to rap & reggae. Collectively, it’s a good sampling of my musical taste. I hope you all enjoy!
Early Morning | Sentimental | Introspective
“Duke Ellington & John Coltrane” Self titled (1963)
“Angelica”
“Plans” Death Cab for Cutie (2005)
“Soul Meets Body”
“Chet Baker Sings” Chet Baker (1956)
“But Not For Me”
“Parachutes” Coldplay (2000)
“Shiver”
“Blindfaller” Watchhouse (2016)
“Wildfire”
“Home” Billy Strings (2019)
“Long Forgotten Dream”
Mid Day | Up Tempo | Celebratory
“Rumours” Fleetwood Mac (1977)
“Go Your Own Way”
“KAYTRAMINÉ” Self titled (2023)
“4EVA”
“Le Tigre” Self titled (1999)
“Deceptacon”
“Carpe Lucem” Kylon Eiley, in Collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola’s Hideaways in Belize (2022)
“Caribbean Girl”
“Tropical Indie” a playlist curated by Melodic Magazine contributor, Sarah Space (2024)
“Take Your Time”
“You’ve Come a Long Way Baby” Fatboy Slim (1998)
“Praise You”
“SOS” SZA (2022)
“Ghost in the Machine”
Evening | Ephemeral | Joyous
“Matahari” L’Impératrice (2018)
“Là-haut”
“Ella and Louis” Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (1956)
“Cheek to Cheek”
“Currents” Tame Impala (2015)
“Let it Happen”
“Play & Play B Sides” Moby (2008)
“Porcelain”
“Look Whose Talking” Jank Setup (2022)
“Mylah”
“Golden Hour” Kasey Musgroves (2018)
“Rainbow”
“Jaguar II” Victoria Monét (2023)
“Alright”
Personal Check-In: Month 1
When I first told others about my plans to embark on this journey almost everyone asked me what I hoped to get out of it. And either because I’ve gone a few of solo journeys in the past or because this one came on so spontaneously, my answer was that I didn’t have a real objective. I almost looked at this through a shamanistic lens - the medicine will give you what you need - and in this case the trail is my medicine. As I reflect on this first month, I’ve already been gifted something: a reclamation of my joy and zest for life.
I grew up an eccentric and goofy kid, with hobbies & interests that didn’t align with the mainstream. It’s something that often ostracized me from others but was so core to who I was. I didn’t appreciate how stunted I’ve felt over the last few years, battered down by the realities of work life, the toxicity of our societal state, and the drain of having people in my life (often that I chose), that didn’t align with my values and didn’t appreciate that side of me. Slowly I became someone other than myself. I lost that youthful & jovial energy. People throughout my life had told me as much in recent years and I sought to get it back, but there’s no playbook for undergoing such a fundamental rewiring.
Since starting, being around so many incredible people, who have a smile on their face all the time, being immersed in such dramatic, breathtaking settings have brought it out in me again. It’s reminded me that oldies music in the hardware store is meant to be danced to, that when presented with the opportunity, you always take the mini shopping cart, and, in a pinch, trekking poles can enhance an air guitar routine. That sewing and pickling and acting are useful pastimes and not things to be ashamed of.
If I had to leave the trail tomorrow, I would have achieved what I would hope to have set up to do, which was to give what the trail needed me to have and that was a new lease on my outlook and a desire to seek out joy in life above all. As I look forward to the next four months on trail, I cannot wait to see what else this experience has in store.
(No) Shower Thoughts
Seeing my own evolution in real time has caused me to reflect on healing and reform in a broader sense. Just before this trip, I watched a documentary called “26.2 to Life” covering the marathon club at San Quentin, a maximum security prison in Marin County, California. In the film, you follow the lives of inmates in various stages of their incarceration, most of whom appear to have been truly rehabilitated and they attribute it in part to their club membership. Even within the confines of prison walls, the notion of having a goal (particularly something physical), to strive towards every day had an outsized impact on their personal growth.
It’s data points like these that really have me think, as impractical as it may be in practice, how much more effective our systems would be if instead of locking people up in cages surrounded by others also deemed dangerous, our inmates were in nature. A thru hike specifically would check a lot of the boxes: it’s a physical task with some degree of difficulty, you’re remote, and immersed in nature. There is plenty of time to think and reflect on your actions (and their repercussions) as your demons tend to be inescapable in the wilderness. You spend time around a diverse range of people that are physically and mentally healthy, hoping to share their perspective with you.
I think this concept goes well beyond criminal justice and applies to all forms of institutionalized healing. I often think about a something my Aunt Catherine told me years ago. She has suffered from schizoaffective disorder since her late 20s and has spent most of her years since in halfway homes around the country. She said, in her very matter of fact way, “Connor, the worst thing you can do for someone who’s mentally ill is surround them with more mental illness. It just pushes them further into their own psychosis.”
Often when we think about how to solve a problem, our instinct is to isolate and surround with similar circumstance. This is true of mental institutions, tuberculosis sanatoria, senior living facilities, prisons, and countless other congregations. There is a certain utility in the concentration of resources for treatment or improvement, but I’m not convinced that, at an individual level, it leads to better outcomes. If anything, we should be giving those in need of healing more family time, more strangers to exchange with, more intellectual stimulation, and certainly more time in the natural world. While I’m not vouching for taking sick family members out of hospitals away from their care or allowing criminals to run unchecked throughout society, I’m also not vouching for locking people up under fluorescent lights and stale air solely for the purpose of keeping anything unpleasant out of sight and out of mind.
Illness, delinquency, and old age are fundamental parts of life. Some aren’t “treatable,” but to separate all that is unpleasant from society, stigmatizing and secluding those who need our support most will not improve their circumstances. I hope we can all find it in ourselves to extend love and grace to those who need it and develop holistic systems for growth where all can thrive.
Much love always,
Connor
Bonus Content
While I did not take this video, one of my friends witnessed two rattlesnakes starting their mating ritual on the trail after falling out of a tree. It’s extremely rare to see so I had to share.
Useful Links
Grande amigo. Las fotos del viaje son increíbles y las historias que cuentas son muy entretenidas. Sigue creciendo, caminando y reflexionando. ¡Un fuerte abrazo!
I cannot believe that you finished one MILLION steps already that number seems unimaginable. Also amazing song choice of Fleetwood Mac, rumours