[pct-l] hiking the desert in winter

[Janet Grossman]

Message: 7
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2010 15:03:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: Bernard Mines<minesbernard at yahoo.com>
Subject: [pct-l] Winter Hiking the Desert Section
To:pct-l at backcountry.net
Message-ID:<281887.2025.qm at web51707.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
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I'd be curiuos to hear educated opinions about hiking the desert section in winter.?

Bernard,
I hiked from Agua Dulce to Hwy 58 in March 2009, thinking I wouldn't be too hot. Well, I wasn't too hot, but I did freeze my butt off at night. I encountered a total of 2 people on the trail, both day hikers. The water was not on at Cottonwood Bridge, so I was really glad I'd filled up at Hikertown. March certainly wasn't "winter," and I enjoyed the solitude and beauty, but was surprised to keep waking myself up with convulsive shivering at night when wearing all my clothes including my rain suit inside my 20-degree Western Mountaineering bag.
Janet