Ashland to Etna (making up missed miles)

Highlights:  We decided to go back to the fire closure area that we had missed earlier this year in order to cover missed miles.  Going from the desert up to Northern California was a huge change.  We started hiking on a foggy day.  Everything was wet and cold, and we were surrounded by green trees and ferns and rugged mountains.  It was exhilarating.  We hiked to Seiad Valley where we resupplied and met some very nice folks in the cafe.  We continued on through the Marble Mountain Wilderness which was heavily affected by the wild fires, and several bridges were burnt out.  The last couple days into Etna were extremely painful for me, as the suspected tendinitis in my hips was flaring up.  I knew on the day into Etna that our hike would end there, as every step was painful.  Plus weather was coming our way– precipitation probably in the form of snow was predicted for the day after we walked out.  But by doing this section, we finished the state of Oregon and left a wonderful 100 mile section to do another year.

Burn areas in the Marbles

November  6th:

The night before we started hiking we met another PCT hiker who was also a ranger in this area named Ken.  We were given his information by Halfmile, who met him during his NOBO hike.  When we called Ken, he immediately offered to shuttle us around to do this section, and told us the conditions of the trail (no snow..!)  We met Ken and several of his daughters in a Starbucks in Yreka, and were invited to spend the night.  Ken and his family are all crazy in a really awesome way.  Ken had let us into his life at a ridiculous time: his first grandchild was born today, and they were all going back and forth to the hospital.  Then we heard about his other daughter’s 5 year plan– even crazier!  She plans on doing the triple crown (AT, PCT, CDT) and the 7 summits (tallest point on all 7 continents) from sea level.  She’s already done the AT and PCT, and is working on the 7 summits by going with Ken to Africa in just a week or so’s time to climb Kilimanjaro. Amazing!  We agreed to get up early to depart Ken’s place to get to Ashland to resume our hike where we left off many months ago.

Day 124: Mile 1727 to Mile 1699.5, 27.5 miles

November 7th:

We got up at 5:30AM and Ken drove us in our car out to Ashland.  We thanked him and got on our way.  As we walked away, the thought only just occurred to us: Were we crazy for giving the keys to a car we just bought to someone we only just met the day before?  They already felt like good friends, and we certainly weren’t as crazy as they were!

As we entered the forest once again, we were overwhelmed by how green everything was.  Everything was wet too.  There were ferns and huge carnivores surrounding us.  What a change from the desert.  And no sand!  Solid ground!  No sun!  In fact we were hiking through a huge fog bank.  We hiked uphill for quite a ways and over the fog to see some amazing views.

We hiked well past dark– dark comes now around 5:30PM.  The moon was full and we didn’t even need our headlamps unless we were in thick trees.  My hips started to hurt, but I expected this as previously taking rest days had aggravated the pain in my hips.  We camped half a mile away from the Oregon border.

Day 125: Mile 1699.5 to Mile 1672.5, 27 miles

November 8th:

First thing in the morning we hit the Oregon/California border.  It was great to finally finish the state of Oregon, as we had only 28 miles left when we had to skip ahead, and it always nagged us that Oregon had been left incomplete.  We signed the register, and noticed that the last hiker through there was Buddy Backpacker (a family hiking with their 6 year old) roughly 5 days ago.

It took a long time to finish Oregon

As the wet season was just starting, water sources are kind of hard to predict.  There is plenty of water, but it is just hard to tell which sources will be running, and which won’t.

We get beautiful views of Mount Shasta in the distance covered in snow

Lenticular Clouds over Mt Shasta

My hips continued to hurt, but I had hope that maybe it would only take a few days for them to work themselves out again.

Again we hiked well past dark, and as the moon was rising, it looked almost like a sunset, only darker.  Looking down into the darkness I noticed stars reflecting off of a lake.  It was magical.

Day 126: Mile 1672.5, to Mile 1652, 20.5 miles

November 9th:

We got amazing views in the morning with the sunrise over blankets of fog in the valley.

Shasta in the morning

Fog islands

We descended into the fog to get to Seiad Valley, and all of the vegetation was wet from it.  Spider webs were covered in drops of water, as were my eyelashes quickly became as well.

Spider web in the fog

Walking down into fall

We hiked through an old burn area with many downed trees, and Dirt Stew and I were able to move several of the smaller ones that were blocking the trail.

We got to town and went into the cafe and ordered burgers for lunch.  We got chatting with a couple of locals, Bill and Peggy, who had done various parts of the PCT on horseback.

Seiad Diner conversation

 It was really great to talk to them about the intricacies of doing the trail on horse.  For example, I had no idea that horses do not understand that an approaching hiker is simply another person until they say something.  That explains why horsemen sometimes shout at us from far away.  We thought it was weird that they didn’t just wait until they were closer to have a conversation so that we could actually hear them.  In fact, they were just trying to prove to their horse that we were just humans and not monsters.  Especially hikers wearing big packs or carrying an umbrella.  Suddenly they look like a 7 foot tall monster.  And then if the hiker stands on the uphill side… then they’re a 10 ft tall monster.  And if they step to one side and quietly stand behind a tree… the horse is just waiting for the 10 ft tall monster to jump out from behind the tree.  And the horseman is then sitting on hundreds of pounds of dynamite.  Then it turned out that they were good friends with Ken.  Oh small towns…

Post Office at Siead Valley

Heart of the State of Jefferson

We resupplied and hiked out, walking 6 miles on a road before reentering the woods.  Here the forest was hit by the recent burn.  Everything was burnt for miles and miles.  As we hiked into the dark, we noticed that one tree that was reduced to just the trunk was still smoking.

Smoking Tree

A burn area in the Marble Mt Wilderness

A burn area in the Marble Mt Wilderness

We set up camp near the stream that we had been climbing up next to for many miles, for lack of a better place, and of course camping near water means a cold night.

Day 127: Mile 1652 to Mile 1627, 25 miles

November 10th:

As we continued through the burned area, we came across several bridges that were burnt.  One was still passable, and another was completely burnt out, and we had to ford.

Bridge out in Marbles

Dirt Stew tried to rock hop across, but the rocks were slippery, and he fell straight into the stream.  Luckily, it wasn’t too high, but he lost his sunglasses in the process, and of course got wet.  I looked upstream for a place to cross, and thought I found a better spot to rock hop.  I stood on a rock for a while trying to plan my jump, when I decided to signal to Dirt Stew to bring me another pole.  Since the stream was so loud, we couldn’t hear each other, and I was trying to gesture to let him know what I wanted.  He was gesturing something back, but I couldn’t tell what.  Eventually he made his way over begrudgingly and handed me the pole.  Unfortunately, it didn’t help, and I also slipped on a rock, getting both my feet wet.  He had tried to tell me that navigating over to me would be more dangerous than simply having me ford, and I should just get my feet wet.  Having not been able to properly communicate with each other, we were both irritated and annoyed with each other.  It didn’t help my mood that my hips were not getting any better, in fact they hurt more than ever.  I wanted to quit, but with so few miles left… it seemed dumb to do so.

Burn area in Marbles

Every day was getting colder, and even at 1PM the ground was frozen in many places.  Ponds were freezing over as well.  Luckily we were hiking through some of the most beautiful scenery, and I was happy we were able to see it at last.  The Marble Mountains were rugged, and full of great views.  At one point I saw a bear galloping away from us on an adjacent ridge.  We chose our campsite carefully as it was obviously going to be a very cold night.  I was afraid that we would have another cold night.  I wanted to make sure that we would get a good night’s sleep.

Marble Mountain Wilderness cold and wild

Day 128: Mile 1627 to Mile 1606, 21 miles

November 11th:  Last night was cold, but we both wore all of our clothing and kept warm.  Dirt Stew decided to tie a fleece around his waist and put his long underwear on over top of that to keep his butt warm.  The night before his cold butt kept him from sleeping soundly.

Clouds were starting to accumulate.  We were told that some weather was coming our way by in the next day.  It certainly was cold.  We bundled up, and hiked towards the road to Etna.  Water bodies were especially cold.  We passed “freeze-your-butt-off lake” which was freezing over, followed by “freeze-your-butt-off pond” with a complete layer of ice on the surface, and “freeze-your-butt-off stream” complete with rocks covered in ice.

Shasta in the morning

The Marble rocks

Unfortunately, my hips hurt like hell.  It was obvious to me now that there was no way we would finish this entire section.  I could not imagine doing another 100 miles.  I could barely imagine making the 20 miles to the road.  Time slowed down as the pain escalated.  Every mile was a struggle.  By the time we got to the road, all I wanted was to lay on something soft and not move for a week.  We got to the road right before dusk, and it was getting so cold and windy.  We hoped that someone would pick us up soon as we waited with our thumbs up by the side of the road.  A truck stopped, and the guy got out, holding a can of beer, and after finishing it and throwing the can into the truck-bed, he invited us in.  We threw our gear in the back, and nervously got in.  He was actually a good driver (for once).  He was a logger, and worked in the woods on the other side of Etna Summit.  He dropped us off at the Etna Brewery, and we called Ken.

Ken and his wife were out somewhere visiting one of their daughters, but told us our car was at their place, and we were welcome to stay in their house even though they weren’t there.  As we were on the phone with Ken, his wife was busy calling people in Etna, and managed to find someone else they knew in the Brewery that we were in who could give us a ride.  As Dirt Stew hung up the phone, he said “so… we’re supposed to talk to that woman over there who’s going to give us a ride to their place where we can stay…”  I raised my eyebrows and smiled.  He leaned in looking around and whisper “it’s unlocked…!”  Oh small towns….

We got a ride to Ken’s house, and took an amazing shower and then jumped in their hot tub.  I was so happy not to be walking anymore.  My hips were destroyed.  But hey, we once again hiked to a hot tub!  We were both very tired from our last stretch we were eager to get to sleep early.  As I lay down in the comfortable bed and closed my eyes, I thought about how we wouldn’t be spending another night on the PCT.  Not this year at least.  With just around 100 miles left, I had no regrets.  I knew we were making the right decision to call it quits right here.

Julian to the Mexican Border

Highlights:  We hiked on from Julian through Mount Laguna after which we started seeing border patrol more and more.  We saw a tarantula on Halloween, and on Halloween night it rained on us for the first time since the Sierra Mountains.  We arrived at the Mexican Border around midday on November 1st and were greeted by White Jeep, who took us back to San Diego to stay there for a few days.

Day 120: Julian to Mile 60, 17 miles

October 29th:  We packed up and at the breakfast at the hotel we were staying at and headed to the library to write my last blog post.  The library in Julian was probably the best library of the whole trail.  Lots of computers, that actually worked, and didn’t remind you of the 90’s with essentially no time limit.  Wow!

We got a ride with an arborist back to the trail and hiked uphill in the heat… drenching us in sweat.

Day 121: Mile 60 to Mile 36, 24 miles

October 30th:  In my last blog post I commented a lot about cacti, which were the dominant vegetation.  Now we seem to have hiked out of the land of cacti and back into the land of chaperral.  Chaperral covers the hillsides very well, making the look green, and leaving very few spots for camping or doing one’s business.  We hiked into Mount Laguna and were immediately given 10 apples by a school teacher who’s kids hadn’t managed to eat them all.  We wondered over to the Post Office with our fruit, and picked up a package that we had bounced from Warner Springs, and also inquired about a package from KEEN, hopefully containing some socks.  We were lucky enough to have been chosen by KEEN to receive socks every few hundred miles, but we probably completely messed up their system by going southbound.  In any case, we had been trying to get socks delivered to us at various addresses with very little luck, and this time we found out that they had managed to send a FedEX package to General Delivery at the Post Office.  Usually, the US Postal Service will not touch a FedEX package, but the post master there recognized my name and decided to accept it and attempt to forward it to Mount Laguna along with our other package.  Although this wound up not working out, I was very impressed with the Warner Springs post office for doing this!

We wandered around town checking out the mostly closed businesses.  The outfitter looked awesome, but was closed, and the cafe was mostly closed for food, but we were able to order a frittata at the drinks counter before heading out of town.  The folks at the cafe told us the forecast called for snow on Saturday, the day that we would be arriving at the border.  Mount Laguna is at 6000ft, and the border is several thousand feet lower, so there would be only rain for us.  But we couldn’t remember the last time we saw rain, and the prospect was very exciting!

The sunset was beautiful.  Clouds were building in the sky, but were light and fluffy, which makes for a spectacular sunset.  Since there is not much vegetation to speak of, we are always rewarded with beautiful sunsets and sunrises.

Pink sunset

Sunset

For the first time we started noticing border patrol aircraft namely helicopters.  From here on, border patrol will be appearing more and more.

Day 122: Mile 36 to Mile 11.5, 24.5 miles

October 31st:  Border Patrol became more and more abundant.  At every road crossing we saw them in their vehicles passing by.  We stopped at a campground with picnic tables to have lunch and one vehicle came into the campground and stopped right where the trail exited the park. Several other vehicles pulled in and out.  We sat there eating our lunch and watching them nervously.  As we exited the campground, passing right by the parked vehicle with the officer inside, the officer turned on the engine and exited the park.  From then on Dirt Stew was convinced our every move was being followed.  We passed a day hiker (undercover border patrol) who stopped and asked us:

“Since when did people decide it was a good idea to go Southbound on the PCT?”

He seemed annoyed.  Dirt Stew imagined this was because normally they have to have extra forces during northbound hiker season.

At some point in the day we realized it was Halloween and joked about dressing up as each other– the only “costumes” we were carrying.  I was excited that in the middle of the trail on Halloween, we saw our first tarantula.  I respectfully stopped and took a step back, pointing him out to Dirt Stew so that he could get his camera out.  Dirt Stew then proceeded to stick his camera about 1 inch away from the tarantula, scaring it into its hole, and all we got was a picture of a tarantula butt.

Tarantula’s butt

Not only were there border patrol helicopters in the area, there were also many military airplanes and helicopters as well, probably carrying all sorts of deadly weapons.  All in all, this didn’t exactly make us feel more safe…  Eventually, we came across this sign:

Ummmm…

As it got dark Dirt Stew was still convinced we were being followed by border patrol.

“They have infrared cameras, and they can see us even in the dark”  he said, half jokingly.

“Don’t they have something better to do than to follow a couple of PCT hikers who are hiking TOWARDS the border?”  I said.

Sometime in the night, the rain started.  It rained and rained and rained.

Day 123: Mile 11.5 to the Mexican Border, 11.5

November 1st:  In the morning, it was still raining.  We slept in.  As we had only 11.5 miles to do to reach the border, we weren’t exactly in a rush.  The rain persisted, so we decided to get up and get going.  Soon after we were packed up, the rain abated, and then stopped all together.  The sand we were walking on was now hard from being wet, and the footsteps we had been following for hundreds of miles had disappeared over night.  I suddenly realized that the people those footsteps we had been following were all no longer on the trail.  Sadie must have finished at least a day or two ago, and she was the next one in front of us.  Mother nature was reminding us that our journey too was almost over, and soon the land will forget us as well.

Why wasn’t there one of these signs at the Canadian border? We got the memo WAY too late… 🙂

We didn’t have far to walk, and as we headed towards a road that we were obviously meant to cross, we saw a truck parked where the PCT crossed.

“Border Patrol is waiting for us” Dirt Stew said, pointing at the truck.  I rolled my eyes.

As we got closer, we saw someone get out and wave at us, and Dirt Stew and I realized at the same time: “White Jeep!”  He had intersected us just 2 or 3 miles before the border to say hi, and offer us a honey bun.  From there there is a confusion of roads leading to the border with the trail winding through them.

So close!

As we continued on towards the border, we saw White Jeep’s truck again at another intersection, and behind it a Border Patrol vehicle.  “Just keep on going” White Jeep commented, as we passed him.  He drove on to the border, and I looked around for where the trail continued.  The Border Patrol officer, still stopped next to us, stuck his head out of his window and pointed down the trail “you’re on the right path” he said.  As we went on, he drove off, also toward the border.

“Ok, that one was definitely there because of us”  I said to Dirt Stew.

Finally we saw White Jeep’s truck by the gigantic fence of the Mexican Border, and we could just make out the monument marking the end of the Pacific Crest Trail.  Dirt Stew walked up next to me and took my hand so that we could walk the last stretch together, just as we had on the Appalachian Trail.  We walked up grinning, and walked straight up to the monument, looking at it for a moment before looking at each other for confirmation that we would touch it together to mark the end of our journey.

White Jeep was there to take many pictures, and I found the register on the back of one of the wooden pillars.  It was surprisingly cold and windy, so we didn’t linger for too long.

We made it!

Whee!

Yehaww!

Signing the register

The border was amazing to me.  I couldn’t have touched Mexico if I wanted to.  There was a huge barbed wire fence with a dirt road behind it that border patrol were driving back and forth on, and a larger impenetrable fence behind it, and then Mexico was somewhere behind that.  We could see Mexico where a hill would stick up over the fence, and that was good enough for me.

The border– with Border Patrol driving up and down constantly

And just like that, it was over.

But we aren’t thru-hikers yet.  The miles that we had to skip around the fire closure in Northern California are still nagging us, reminding us that we did not hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail in one year.

Since we’ve gotten off the trail, we’ve showered and stayed with White Jeep and Seminole in San Diego for a few days.

Showering was a bit strange.  It felt like I was washing the trail off my body for the last time.   I was happy to see that even after washing my hands several times, there was still some stubborn dirt stuck in the grooves of my hands. The first shower, however wasn’t nearly as hard as the second.  You never take a second shower while you’re on the trail until you’re totally dirty again, and so it’s hard to convince yourself to get in the shower again once back in civilization while you’re still basically clean.

We decided that we’d better at least try to go back to Ashland.  The weather has turned quite a bit towards winter conditions, so we’re preparing ourselves with warmer clothing and some extra gear, but we would like to at least finish the last few miles of Oregon to have completed two states fully.  If the conditions are miserable, we’ll finish in Seiad Valley, but we’re open to hiking further if weather permits.  Chances are we won’t complete the Pacific Crest Trail this year, but we did give it our all.  There are probably many “thru-hikers” that didn’t complete the whole trail this year.  We have less than 10% left, and maybe, just maybe we’ll be able to get through there before conditions get too bad….  Stay tuned!

Idyllwild to Julian

Highlights: We hiked out of Idyllwild with the intention of doing the road walk around the old fire closure there, and quickly decided the road that we were on was a death trap, and found a safe(ish) place to hitchhike around it. We got a ride to the Paradise Cafe where we had humongous burgers and hiked on via the trail from there. We are hiking through lower elevation territory with many cactuses and other plants all thorny or spikey. We are lucky that the weather is staying relatively cool. We hiked into Warner Springs to pick up our package at the post office and got intercepted by a trail angel there, Lawrence the spring guy, who coaxed us into staying for leftover spaghetti dinner with blueberry pie and showers at the community center. We carried on past Eagle Rock to Julian where we decided to spend the night, although we really didn’t need a night in a hotel- it would be our last one of the trail!

Day 116: Idyllwild to Mile 140, about 16 miles

October 25th: We got up and looked for a place to eat for breakfast. As usual, our hiker schedules meant we were up before anyone else, and the only thing open was the Town Bakery. This bakery had unbelievably delicious pastries and we totally pigged out on their egg and ham turnovers and the cinnamon buns. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. This bakery is even better than the one in Stehekin. No joke!

We headed out of town looking for the road to Paradise Cafe. We were armed with a map that Ziggy and the Bear gave us, but with no road or trail names on it, we decided to just ask some locals for directions. We were meant to walk on road 243 then on route 74 to get there. We started walking, and the road got more and more hairy. It was a Saturday, and Idyllwild is a tourist town, so everyone and their families were out driving this “scenic” (read: windy as all hell with no shoulder) road going 50-60mph. It got so bad that I started not being able to walk on the correct side of the white line marking the edge of the road because it was so close to the guard rail, and the other side of the guard rail was a 45 degree cliff. I could almost feel the cars nearly brushing up against me as they were trying to squeeze through these narrow corners, still going twice the speed limit. I was shaking and yelling at Dirt Stew who was walking ahead of me. “We’re going to die! We’re going to die!”

The minute there was a tiny amount of space on the side of the road we stopped walking and with absolutely no hesitation we agreed we had to get the heck out of there. Getting killed by walking on a highway road at the end of our hike would be the stupidest way to go. I was angry that we wound up hitch-hiking because we had done so many annoying road walks that now seemed pointless. In the end, the whole hike is in some sense pointless– sometimes you get carried away in the details of keeping a continuous footpath, or being a purist, or whatever your goals are. We all create rules for ourselves and then when reality forces you to do something different, you start to question the whole thing. Oh well, we could always come back and hike around Idyllwild, we said to each other.

We got to Paradise Cafe, and ordered burgers, which of course made everything better.

Huge burger!

As we hiked on, we ran into a trail angel, Mary, who had stocked one of the water caches for us, and was in the middle of trying to plant a cottonwood in hopes that it would provide some shade for hikers in the future. We tried to help her plant the tree, but cutting the plastic pot off of the tree roots was a one person job, so we thanked her and carried on with our hike. The trail was easy, so I worked on learning my state capitals and finally camped on a slanty spot near the trail sometime after dark.

Mary, trying to plant a Cottonwood

Day 117: Mile 140 to Mile 112.5, 27.5 miles

October 26th: The water sources have been quite regular in these areas thanks to many trail angels. We came across a cistern which was set up to catch rain water. As I admired the setup and looked in at the yellowish water, a cactus came up behind me and started stabbing me repeatedly in the back of the leg. This cactus had two lines of attack: it had larger, longer pointy spines for general stabbing purposes, and then if you managed to get past those (which somehow I did), it had much smaller splinter-sized spines which it deposited all over you by the thousand. I spent most of the day trying to pick these off of me, wondering how they’d manage to get into places like the liner of my shorts. Soon after the cactus incident, I managed to walk straight into a yucca, which jabbed me javelin style right into my shin. I grabbed my bleeding leg and hopped around on one foot whimpering. Everything was out to get me. We camped not too far from Warner Springs in a valley with oak trees.

Enemy #1

A relative of Enemy #2

Day 118: Mile 112.5 to Mile 100, 12.5 miles

October 27th: We woke up before the break of dawn to the sound of hooting owls and I lay there for a minute listening. We hiked into Warner Springs and waited for a short time for the Post Office to open. It was a crisp cool morning, and there was fog in the valley. By the time we got our packages and packed up, the fog had lifted and the cool air was quickly being warmed up by the sun. We had just got back on the trail when we saw a man walking up to us with a large hat on waving.

“I’ve been looking for you guys” He said. I wondered who this person was, but he obviously knew who we were.

“Looking for us?” I asked.

“Yes, Dormouse and Dirt Stew! The GPS team. Thanks to you, I met Robert and Adrian, and I’ve been looking for Sadie too.” He said.

He had read my blog and was using it to track down all the southbounders to meet them on their way through Warner Springs. He got some leftover spaghetti dinner out of his car, and promised us more food if we came over to the community center when it opened. Then he told us this whole long story about how he had done research to find an alternate route around the fire closure in Idyllwild, and printed out maps for us, driving them all the way to Ziggy and the Bear’s with an explanation of how we were supposed to go to avoid “Deadman’s road” as he called it (road 243). We had gotten the maps from Ziggy and the Bear, but with no explanation!

Discussing the Idyllwild fire closure

“You think you’re doing this low-impact hike, and then there are people like me driving all over the place trying to get you maps and burning gas…” He joked. I felt bad that we hadn’t managed to figure it out. Again, people were out there running around doing things behind our back to help us out while we are hiking along, blissfully unaware.

Lawrence the spring guy, Dormouse and Dirt Stew at the Warner Spring’s Community Center

We hung out with Lawrence for several hours until the Community Center opened up, and then had more spaghetti with meatballs, blueberry pie and took showers in the stalls they had set up for hikers outside. They had a couple of painfully slow computers which I quickly became to frustrated to try to use to update our blog, but I did manage to check my email and found a message from Mark, the guy we had given water to at the top of Fuller Ridge. I was very happy to see the email, knowing it meant he made it safely, but when I went to read it I was in shock. Despite our best efforts to help him by giving him all our spare water, he still did not have enough. He had resorted to drinking a quart and a half of his own urine to make it to the faucet at the bottom of San Jacinto. “If we hadn’t crossed paths, I would have wound up calling in a rescue…” He wrote. He was now safely at Ziggy and the Bear’s drinking Gatorade to rehydrate. For the rest of the day, I kept rethinking the scenario and wondering what we could have done differently. He should have gone back to the last water source once he realized there was not going to me another source. The desert is no joke, and from Fuller Ridge, where you are nearly at 9,000 ft and in pine trees, you don’t necessarily think about how hellishly hot and shade-less it will be once you go down 8000ft in elevation… If only we could have helped him more.

Outside the community center, a coyote was out in plain daylight trying to hunt. Lawrence told us that was unusual, as coyote’s usually hunt a night or dusk, but given the drought, it was probably desperate. They had gotten no rain yet this year in Warner Springs, and last year they got a grand total of 3 inches. How’s that for the desert?

Coyote, hunting in broad day-light in the middle of town.

We left Warner Springs with full bellies and miles to hike. A scorpion sat in the middle of the trail, welcoming us back. It was poised and ready to attack when we got close to take its picture.

Scorpion!

We made it to Eagle Rock, a rock formation that happens to look like an Eagle and then hiked a few more miles to camp.

Eagle Rock

Day 119: Mile 100 to Julian (mile 77), 23 miles

October 28th: We hiked on through what feels more and more and more like the desert. We got to another water cache, and I sat down next to the trail register to see how far ahead our friends were. “OWWWWW!” I yelped. I sat directly on a bit of cactus that was now imbedded into my butt. Dirt Stew started laughing. “Be more careful where you sit!” He said. I spent some time picking the spikes out of my butt, and cursed the desert. Half an hour later, Dirt Stew sat on the same stupid cactus.

Enemy #3, don’t sit on one, not even a little one.

Sign for “third gate” Water Cache

Despite the lack of water, there are a few animals and insects that live in the desert. We came across a humongous black insect with orange wings. It was the size of several quarters next to each other. I quickly walked past it as fast as I could, and then seconds later heard Dirt Stew scream like a girl behind me. “Holly crap! That thing flew straight towards me!” He said, running frantically.

We hiked on towards Scissors Crossing through the shade-less desert and hitchhiked into town. We got a ride from a level 4 maximum security prison guard, who told us stories about the mafia members he has to guard. “Not a job for everyone” he said. No kidding. We got a hotel room and finished our chores as quickly as possible.

Soon to be Enemy #4?

Cajon Pass to Idyllwild

Highlights: As we continue to hike the desert section of the PCT, we are enjoying the sections that are less desert-like, and melting in the sections that are at lower elevation.  We were surprised by personal trail magic; hiked up the Deep Creek area where weekenders trashed the area around the hot springs. We stopped in Big Bear, and lost most of a day waiting for our packages, then stopped at Ziggy and the Bear before hiking up into the San Jacinto Mountains.  We are now spending the night in Idllywild!

Day 107: Mile 363.5 to mile 342, 21.5 miles

October 16th-  We woke up to a beautiful sunrise and started hiking downhill towards Cajon Pass.  We are in the habit of picking up trash we find on the trail, and when I saw a beer can out of the corner of my eye, I pointed to Dirt Stew to pick it up.  He sighed, and picked it up as I hiked on.  “IT’S FULL!”  He shouted.  “Wow, who would have thought ‘trail magic’ would look so much like trash” I joked.  As the day grew warm and the trail was meandering a bit much, we decided to split the beer.  As we got close to Cajon Pass, I was surprised by how beautiful the rocks were.  They looked like the rocks at Vasquez Rocks- probably formed by the same tectonic plate movement of the San Andreas Fault.  Ironically, however, these rocks had power-lines running over them instead of being set aside as a State Park.  I’m sure if the Vasquez Rocks had not been preserved, they would have things built on them as well.

Rocks and powerlines

Dirt Stew and I made a beeline for the McDonald’s, and had some greasy food before deciding to stay in the Best Western across the street.  The Best Western had a hot tub, and I happily jumped in.

Did someone mention McDonalds..?

Day 108: Mile 342 to mile 318, 24 miles

October 17th- We slept in and went next door to the Del Taco to order a few burritos for the trail.  The lady taking our order asked us where we were hiking, and when we told her we had hiked from Canada she said astutely “Wow, I’m definitely not envious… but I think what you’re doing is pretty cool”

We hiked out and were thankful for some fog for the first half of the day, and soon got to a lake.  What a concept!  A lake with water?  We hadn’t seen one of those in a while.

A lake with water in it? In the desert? Wow!

We took water from the lake, but were very sad to see that around the lake was mostly trashed. People had gone so far as to dump whole trash bags full of trash by the lake.  Disgusting.  We hiked past dark, which is now our usual routine, and I was very thankful that my hips were not too sore.

Day 109: Mile 318 to mile 290, 28 miles

October 18th- After a few hours of hiking we came across brown bag by the trail which had “Happy Anniversary Dirt Stew + Dormouse, SOBO thru’s” written on it.  I was so touched my voice started getting squeaky.  “Awwww! That’s so sweeeeeeeet!”  I squeaked.  We opened it up and there was a note inside from “Just Bruce” with a big bag of fun sized Snickers.  Bruce had read our blog and wanted to leave something for us.  There was also a gallon of water.  The thought that went into this gift was amazing.  It is tremendous to find something seemingly in the middle of nowhere with your name on it.  Thru-hiking, especially southbound is a very lonely experience, and sometimes you feel like there’s nobody but you for hundreds of miles. This reminded me that we weren’t alone.  People care about hikers, and care that we are successful, and are there to cheer us on!

Amazing trail magic

We scratched “Thank you” in the sand next to where we picked up the magic, and took everything with us, so as not to leave any trash behind.  Soon we entered the Deep Creek area where many people hike up to the hot springs.  The area had more trash on the trail than we could pick up.  We were feeling down on weekenders and day hikers, seeing all the plastic bottles chucked next to the trail, and the graffiti on rocks.

And nature without graffiti..?

It seemed ironic to me that the people most likely to carry that trash out were the people who would have to carry it the furthest.  Something that Adrian, another southbounder from France said to us several days ago came to mind.  “I just take two things that aren’t mine off the trail every day”.  He said.  That was probably the best way to deal with the problem.  We couldn’t pick up all the trash if we wanted to, but if every hiker just took two pieces of trash that wasn’t theirs, the place would eventually get picked up.  Now if only we could convince everyone to do this…  When we got to the hot springs, there were so many people that I wasn’t even interested in going down to the springs themselves.  A vicious dog came running up to us barking and growling.  Immediately Dirt Stew and I put our umbrellas in front of us like shields.  The dog looked confused.  “Don’t worry, he’s nice, he just is afraid of your umbrellas”  Said a guy sitting on a picnic blanket with a sunburn.  Well, I wasn’t going to put my umbrella away to find out, so we move on quickly.  The whole area smelled like human waste, and there was toilet paper everywhere to support the smell.  There had been a warning in our water report about the water there being contaminated with human waste, and that it could potentially contain a deadly virus.  I have no clue why people go there.  It’s not like in the hot desert you’re ever really craving a hot spring…?  I don’t get it.

Day 110: Mile 290 to mile 266, 24 miles
October 19th- Today we hiked up into a nice forested area.  My hips were sore, but I hiked fast to get to Big Bear in time to do our chores and get to bed at a reasonable hour.  After waiting at the road for a while, a nice couple finally picked us up.  They stopped at a store for us to buy a few things, and we were grateful because we could now cook ourselves a pasta dinner at the hostel.  Once we got settled in the hostel and introduced ourselves to the myriad of strange characters there, we cooked 2 pounds of pasta and gobbled them up with a jar of pasta sauce and some apple turnovers for desert.  I fell asleep very early, probably before 8pm, and didn’t wake up again until 11 hours later.

Day 111: Mile 266 to mile 254, 12 miles

October 20th- After sleeping a ton, I was ready to get going again.  The only problem was that our packages had not yet been brought to the hostel by the owner.  Nobody was up, and we hadn’t done our laundry the night before, so we decided to do that while we waited.  We waited and waited.  Once other people started go get up, we asked about our packages.  We were assured the owner would arrive by 10AM.  We reluctantly waited.  10AM passed, 11AM passed.  Apparently this guy didn’t value our time.  Eventually around noon, our packages showed up.  We got a great care package from our friend Mike who sent us cookies, removable tattoos and pages of facts, song lyrics, poems, etc.  Finally we would keep our minds more active while we hiked!

Care package from Mike!

We started eating the cookies and then we realized we were actually hungry again.  We decided we may as well find a place to get a decent meal before we left town.  We found a burger place and Dirt Stew ordered a chicken pot pie while I ordered a burger.  The waitress was impressed that Dirt Stew finished his dish.  Apparently most don’t, but of course for him it wasn’t a problem.  He was soon munching on Mike’s cookies again.  We got a ride from a very nice lady who happened to be originally from Virginia back to the trail, and soon ran into a couple sitting eating snacks, looking a lot like long distance hikers.  We asked them what their story was, and they had flip-flopped from Big Bear and were finishing up their hike.  We were pretty surprised to see new hikers.  We finally found a nice spot under a cedar and set up camp.

Day 112: Mile 254 to mile 230, 24 miles
October 21st- The temperature at night was perfect, since we were at higher elevation.  In the desert the tree-line is reversed from the rest of the planet.  Instead of there being no trees above a certain elevation, there are no trees below a certain elevation.  Below a certain elevation (maybe around 6000ft), it just feels like desert.  Above that elevation, there are trees, and it feels more like forest.  At some point we went around a corner and the trail looked like it was covered in diamonds.  There were white crystals everywhere.  I’m not an expert on rocks, but I’m guessing they were probably quartz.  The whole trail was covered in a layer of them, and they all sparkled.  I felt like a princess walking on them.  We continued on, and were singing Moby (badly) at the top of our lungs when a heard a gigantic ROAR. I stopped in my tracks terrified.  Then I saw cages not far ahead and remembered that we were supposed to pass an area with animals in cages that are being kept as stunt animals for the movies.  The roaring stopped soon after we stopped singing.  As we approached, we saw a lion, grizzly bears, a cougar, and even a raccoon in the cages.  They looked unhappy, pacing about in their tiny cages.  I felt bad for them.

Cages with animals

We continued on down a valley where the trail had quite a bit of poodle dog bush, and was washed away in many spots where it crossed a stream.  Normally this wouldn’t be so frustrating, but we were losing the trail frequently, and we were supposed to be mapping it for Halfmile’s project.  Every time I tried to go ahead to find where the trail went and then summon Dirt Stew with the GPS unit to follow me.  It took much longer than had we not cared and just followed the stream bush-waking wherever we wanted.  We kept ourselves entertained by learning the state capitals, one of the pages of facts that Mike had printed out and put in our care package.  I liked spending some of our hiking time learning, and wished I had thought of this earlier.  We continued by learning the lyrics to “Let It Be”.  We decided to camp before dark so as not to try to find the fairly missing trail in the darkness.

Day 113: Mile 230 to Ziggy and the Bear (mile 211), 19 miles

October 22nd- As we walked down the creek further, it became hot as hell.  We were descending into the hot, hot desert, and it felt like the hot, hot desert.  I constantly felt like I was just over heating and covered in sweat.  We came across a wind farm that let hikers fill up water.  We went to get water and they invited us into their air-conditioned office building and offered us cold bottled water.  This was the best kind of trail magic I could have asked for.  We sat there long enough to cool off and rehydrate and then carried on a few more miles in the heat to Ziggy and The Bear, a couple of trail angels who let hikers camp in their back yard.  We chatted with Ziggy for a while and she gave us cold sodas, and then The Bear arrived with Chinese food and we were so thankful to eat some real food and chat about The Bear’s career collecting marine animals in Seattle for aquariums and Universities across the USA.  I was exhausted and we needed to get up early to put some of these low elevation miles behind us in the coolness of the early morning.  We slept under the stars in their backyard.

Dormouse, The Bear, Ziggy

Day 114: Ziggy and the Bear to Mile 188.5, 22.5 miles

October 23rd– Our alarm was set for 5AM, and I reluctantly got up and started packing up.  I was surprised to see The Bear was up to bid us farewell.  We headed out in the darkness and hiked across the valley to the next mountain range.

Desert valley at sunrise

The trail was washed out in many sections in this valley, and we eventually gave up on trying to follow it, and just walked on dirt roads that appeared on our map.  Just as it was getting light I was about to step on what I thought was quite a unique looking rock, when I decided to step to one side and take a closer look at it.  Thank goodness I did, because what I thought was a rock was actually a rattlesnake curled up in the sand almost flush with the ground.  Had it been any darker, and I would have stepped right on top of him.

Rattle snake disguised as a rock.

We took some pictures, and continued on, studying our steps more closely.  As it got light and we started climbing, it soon became hotter than hell.  Maybe you haven’t checked your elevation profile map of the PCT recently, but if you look at the elevation difference between Mile 211 and Mile 188.5, you’ll notice that there is almost a 8000 ft gain to get up San Jacinto Mnt.  If that doesn’t mean anything to you, let me tell you– that’s A LOT.  I don’t think I’ve ever climbed that much in one go before in my life, to be honest.  For the first 3000 ft or so, it was hot as hell, and there was no shade.  The next 1000-2000 ft climb there were short oak trees.  These are the kind of oak trees that will leave you covered in scratches without providing an inch of shade.  At about 6000 ft, real trees started to appear, pine trees and cedars, and the temperature dropped significantly.  The trail was poorly maintained until we got close to the top where they had obviously had started doing something about the poor conditions.  A few miles before we were ready to camp, we saw another hiker named Mark who was out for a section hike.  He told us there was a very small water source up ahead, which was news to us, since we had carried enough water to make it to Idyllwild.  He had thought that since he had found water there, some of the other sources would have water too.  No such luck.  His mistake meant that he only had around 2 liters of water to make it to the next source, which was only a few miles before Ziggy and the Bear.  He was also intending on taking 2 days to do the trek.  It was obvious to me that this guy was in trouble.  I had just taken one day to do that section, and as a small woman, I had drank probably close to 4 liters.  Since there was now water before Idyllwild, I turned to Dirt Stew and said “Do you think we can spare a liter?”  He agreed, and we transferred a liter into one of his water bottles before walking on.  A minute later I stopped and looked at Dirt Stew again.  “I still don’t think he’ll make it, can you go back and give him more water?  He needs it more than we do”.  Dirt Stew agreed, and we gave him more water to hopefully make it to the next source.  We also gave him our contact details so that he could let us know that he made it safely.  We have had so much help from strangers- from people leaving us trail magic to hikers offering us food when we were low in the Sierra to being offered someone’s condo to stay in!  It was certainly time for us to give back.  “You guys are angels.”  He said.  It really was the least we could do.  Us hikers have to look out for each other.

Wonderful trees at high elevation!

Day 115: Mile 188.5 to Idyllwild, 14 miles

October 24th– We got going with some energy since we knew we’d be getting to town today.  The San Jacinto mountains were absolutely beautiful, and we really enjoyed hiking through the trees and the cooler temperatures.

Beautiful trees!

We found the water source that Mark had told us about, and spent a good half hour or more collecting a few liters.  It wasn’t the easiest water source to collect from.  We had to take a side trail to get down to Idyllwild called the Devils Slide Trail, followed by a road walk into town.  We got to town quite early and stopped by a Mexican restaurant in hopes of getting an inexpensive big meal, but in this touristy town even the Mexican restaurant had small portions and the prices were kind of high.  Idyllwild is really cute.  It’s a mountain town at about 6000ft with tons of little log cabin vacation rental homes and cute touristy shops.  We found ourselves a hotel room and did our usual chores before watching a movie and falling asleep.

Agua Dulce to Cajon Pass

Highlights: We took it slow once we got to the Saufley’s by taking a zero day.  Sadie and Adrian went ahead. Adrian has a deadline based on when his visa would run out, and he had to do roughly 27 miles a day to finish in time.  When we left, it was very hot, and we passed by the Vasquez Rocks in the heat of the day. We then started climbing up into the mountains, and had to navigate through two trail alternates: the poodle dog bush alternate, which bypasses some of the trail where poodle dog bush is growing in an old burn area (poodle dog bush is a poisonous plant like poison oak).  We also had to avoid the trail closure to protect the yellow legged frog.  We wound up walking for some time on Hwy 2.  We then climbed up to the top of Baden-Powell Mountain, which is the tallest mountain in this area, around 9,300ft in elevation.  We were grateful for a few days of cooler weather.  We hitched into Wrightwood, where we quickly grabbed some food and got straight back on the trail with the intention of making it the next day to Cajon Pass, where I’m writing this post!

Day 102: The Saufley’s, 0 miles

October 11th:  I woke up exhausted after going to bed late two nights in a row.  It had been a fun couple days hanging out with our SOBO friends and staying with Trail Angels, but I was now a tired Dormouse!  Adrian and Sadie were ready to do a 27 mile day out, so I said my goodbyes.  Dirt Stew and I relaxed in the trailer of the Saufley’s fixing some of our gear, eating food, watching a movie, and calling our parents.  We wished the Saufley’s were home for us to meet them, but their son was house-sitting for them while they were out of town.  In this section we only found 1 natural water source in nearly 100 miles.

The Saufley’s trailer was an amazing spot to hang out!

The Saufley’s trailer was an amazing spot to hang out!

Day 103: The Saufley’s to Mile 436, 18.5 miles

October 12th:  We got a late start out of the Saufley’s and stopped by the local bakery to get some pastries.  It was immediately too hot out, and we took refuge in the “Interpretive Center” of the Vasquez Rocks, which were on the trail.  These rocks were created by the shifting of the tectonic plates on the Andreas Fault.  After a break, we kept on and hiked up through a section with no shade.  We passed a KOA campground which had water.  It seemed like there were going to be very few natural water sources in this section.  My hip started hurting at the end of the day, and we camped by a Ranger Station right after it got dark.  We weren’t sure if camping was allowed, so we stayed quiet as we set up our tent.

Grateful for cooler weather and shade!

Day 104: Mile 436 to Mile 410.5, 25.5 miles

October 13th:  After we packed up in the morning, a ranger stopped by asking us if we were thru-hikers.  He had water available, and he asked if we camped there the night before.  I said we had, and he told us there were better spots which he made himself.  I was glad to hear we weren’t breaking the rules.  The heat wave is supposed to break tomorrow, and we looked forward to cooler weather.  We headed out, and immediately walked through 2 miles of overgrown trail with poodle dog bush.  We decided that we would take the alternate once we hit the dirt road.  The dirt road was hot, and construction vehicles were zipping around on this dirt road doing some work nearby.

Ahh! Poodle Dog Bush!

Poodle Dog Bush.

Lots of poodle dog bush

We followed the road all the way to a Fire Station which also had water available for hikers, and we filled up.  A lady there told us there was no natural water in that section.  Our water report told us there was a spring coming up.  Because I usually trust local knowledge, we decided to take enough water to skip the spring.  Several miles later we got to the spring, and there was indeed water.  Grrr.  We took a liter just in case.  We realized at some point in the day that today was our two year wedding anniversary.  We shared a snickers in our tent at night to celebrate. 🙂

Day 105: Mile 410.5 to Mile 384, 26.5 miles

October 14th:  Today we came across an old Boy Scout’s camp which had a water faucet, and we took 35 miles to make it to Wrightwood.  We had to take an alternate to avoid a trail closure due to the endangered yellow legged frog.  We walked the road, Hwy 2, which could be a very scary road walk, except that there was only roughly 1 car per half hour.  As we walked down the road, we realized that we had the choice between continuing on the road one more mile, or hiking the trail 3 or 4 miles over a 1300ft mountain.  Normally there would be no question, obviously we’d hike the trail, not the road.  But my hips hurt, and I wanted an easier time into Wrightwood.  I probably would have taken the road, but Dirt Stew said “What are we doing this for? To walk on an asphalt road, or to hike in the mountains?”  I hated the PCT for doing this to me.  I love hiking, and I had the chance to take a short-cut and save 3 miles and 1300ft elevation gain, yet skip a hike.  It would be like a hike up San Bruno Mountain.  “I would feel like such a bum” Dirt Stew said, convincingly.  So, we hiked the trail.  I was angry with the trail for making me realize that I had forgotten why we were hiking.  My focus every day had been to just put one foot in front of the other to make it to Mexico without my legs falling off, and what for?  If I wasn’t going to enjoy the hike, it’s not worth it.  I’m hiking for my own pleasure, nobody is forcing me to do this.  As we hiked up to the top of the mountain, we took a break and looked out at the view.  “Isn’t it beautiful up here?”  Dirt Stew asked me.  Of course he was right.  It was.

Beautiful sunset!

Day 106: Mile 384 to Mile 363.5, 20.5 miles

October 15th:  The sunrise was unbelievable.  We climbed up Baden-Powell mountain, the tallest mountain in the area, and looked down at the fog rolling out below us in the valley.  I imagined the clouds as a big bed that I was going to fall asleep in.

Amazing sunrise!

Amazing sunrise!

Amazing sunrise

On the way up to the top, there was a tree which had a sign saying it was dedicated to some Boy Scout person, but more importantly, the tree was estimated to be 1500 years old!

1500 year old tree!

We descended one more time back to Hwy 2.  I was about to look at our map for the options of walking into Wrightwood, as we had only seen one car per half hour at best on this road, so hitchhiking would be tough.  I was about to pull out our maps when a car came past and I quickly put out my thumb.  The car stopped and we got a ride into Wrightwood.  Everyone in Wrightwood was very friendly and knew about the Pacific Crest trail.  “Aren’t you guys a bit late?”  People kept asking us.  “Late and walking in the wrong direction”  Dirt Stew would reply.  We went to Grizzly Cafe and ordered their special for the day, which was meat lasagna.  We had hoped to get new socks in the mail, but when none were waiting for us, we bought a new pair at the Hardware Store.  Someone offered us a ride out, and we were very grateful to get back to the trail quickly so as to hike a few more miles today to make it to Cajon Pass tomorrow and spend the night in a hotel.  As we started hiking again, I felt completely sick.  I had more than gorged myself on the lasagna, and now I felt like a pregnant penguine waddling up the trail.  Pepto-bismol was the only solution.  Needless to day, I did not feel like having dinner that evening.  Tomorrow, Cajon Pass!