May 15 mission creek to mile 242

Slept great last night with the creek trickling in the background. Today is only a 16 mile day but has some big elevation gain and the dreaded poodle dog brush. The first 9 miles were wonderful. We just followed the creek up to it's source for about 3000 ft in elevation. Then right around the hottest part of the day I had to climb 1500 ft in 3 miles dodging a poodle dog brush infestation.

Poodle dog brush is like a cross between poison oak, Marijuana,  and a cactus. The plant itself looks very similar to Marijuana and is easily identified once you know what to look for. The problem with it is unlike the other poisonous plants it isn't oily. Instead the leaves are covered with a fine hair like substance. Kinda like fiberglass particles. If you touch it they get under your skin and cause rash similar to poison oak. This stretch if trail was trimmed enough that even mountain goat who missed the rock pointing out an example of poodle dog brush was able to walk past it just fine, but later down the trail there are long detours I have to take to avoid it.

The climb was a joke by AT standards gave me a fairly hard time. I mostly put this down to the altitude and heat. I was walking up the hill in 300 yard stretches moving from shade to shade till I reached the spot I agreed to meet the others for lunch. At which point I just rolled out my sleeping pad and took a nap. When the other guys caught up they were even more worn out and wanted us to take a shorter day than we planned. I agreed to stick with them since the only thing doing more miles would get me would be was walking into big bear on Friday night and taking a zero to resupply instead of hiking in and out.

May 14th ziggy and the bears to mission creek

I had a nice easy 8 miles from ziggy and the bears to a state park where I planned on hanging out at until dark. It was one of the hottest days yet and there was no shade to speak of before or after the park. Except for a small hill the terrain was mostly flat so the hiking was easy and I made it to the park well before noon. The park was an old trour hatchery that had been shut down when the river got diverted. It was really nice.  Like an oasis in the desert. Lots of shade and water and it didn't feel anywhere near as hot as the 95+ temperature.

I stayed at the park until 630 then started my first full moon night hike of the trip. It wasn't dark for 3 hours after I set out and the moon was hidden behind valley walls half the time. The rest of the time it was amazing. The moon was so bright I had to turn on my headlamp to see the trail because my shadow from the moon was making it hard to see the trail. But my phone still wouldn't take anything resembling a decent picture with just the moon as a light source. I need to fiddle with the settings more so I can get pictures next time. After hiking 8 miles I reached a stream where Fed-X and Mountain Goat were camping. According to the guide book there would be over 20 crossings of the stream in the next 5 miles. I decided that between the crossings and the fact that I'd mostly be in a valley that I'd end my night hike here.

May 13th fuller ridge to ziggy and the bears

We did an early dinner last night. We had dinner an hour before camping last night because there was a 20 yard stretch with no water. After hiking 3 miles carrying the water we would need to cook we realized that we were stupid and cooked dinner before reaching camp. While we were eating another hiker came along, mountain goat, and saw the wisdom in our eating and joined us.

It was by far the coldest night on the trail. It was under 40 with a constant 20+ mph wind. I had cowboy camped and was perfectly warm in my bag but had to get up and moving to cover the 15 miles to water before it got hot. And it was a hot one. Well over 95 by the time we reached the water. On the way down buzzard bait pissed off a big rattlesnake. We tried all kinds of things to get it to scram but it wouldn't move. Fed-X finally threw a rock at it and hit it fairly hard which got it moving. We got to the water right around noon and there was only a rock to grab shade under. Only 2 people could squeeze under the rock for shade. After a few hours mountain goat showed up and told us that a mile down the trail, on black asphalt, there was a trail angel who offered shade, water, and oranges. The mile was rough but it was so worth it.

Once it cooled down we hiked to another trail angels house, ziggy and the bear, who offer a place to stay and get cleaned up. It was a nice place and they gave us ice cream so it's top notch in my opinion.

May 12th Idyllwild to fuller ridge campsite

Had to hit the post office to mail my bounce box on to big bear. A bounce box contains things that you might need but don't want to carry with you, finger nail clippers are a good example. When I was packing up my tent the stuff sack that came with it ripped. So I had to make a detour to the local outfitter. I decided to get two stuff sacks instead of one so I can store my rain fly separately from my tent. If done right I can setup and take down my tent without it getting wet. The rain fly and footprint will be soaked but since everything is in separate sacks I should be able to keep the tent dry.

I got a hitch out of town with Fed-X, formally known as Andy, up to devils slide trail. This was a much steeper trail graded for humans not pack animals which would get us back to the PCT right at the end of the closed area. The trail was steeper than anything else on the PCT but only about as steep as the trails in Georgia.

I was feeling the altitude right away and had bad coughing fits the whole way up the mountain. I decided if I was still coughing that bad when I got to the hostel tomorrow I would go to a doctor. I think it was just being so short on oxygen at 9000 ft that my body needed the full use of my lungs and finally tried to get rid of the remaining goo from the cold I had before the trip.

Because of the trouble I was having with the altitude I decided to skip the summit and just hike to a nice campsite. There was some amazing views from the mountain and the peak is supposed to have the longest views in the state due to its height and lack of other mountains obstructing the view. I am definitely going to be coming back to summit it sometime.

There were some interesting things up on the mountain. There was a campground at 9000 ft with a porta potty. It was very strange. There was the biggest fallen tree blocking the trail. A trail maintenance crew with pack mules was up there clearing the fallen trees and when they got to that one they turned around cause they didn't have a big enough saw.

May 11th zero in Idyllwild

It's a zero.

May 10 Tule Spring to Idyllwild

Got up early to do 15 miles to hit the paradise valley cafe for lunch. It is a good restaurant 1 mile off the trail with the "best" burger on the trail. It is also where I was going to hitchhike to Idyllwild. The trail there was pretty easy except for one stretch where I had to climb 600 ft in a mile and quarter. It was a joke how easy it was. When I got to the restaurant I grabbed a burger but not the famous one since I don't like mushrooms and avocados. I got an easy hitch into town and stayed at the local campground for $3 a night.

May 9th Lost Valley to Tule Spring

Spent last night cowboy camping, basically sleeping without a tent. It was a perfect night for it, clear, cool, and no bugs. I got up and moving before the other hikers and headed 8 miles down the trail to a trail angels house where there was water.
I had planned on hitting the trail angels house and hiking a few more miles before it got too hot, but when I got there buzzard bait, the guy I helped on the first day,  was chilling and said there was free sodas and chips.  So I decided to stick around until after 3. The trail angel rarely is home but he has a hiker act as a caretaker during hiker season. After talking with the other hikers I decided to do 10 more miles and camp at Tule Spring instead of my original plan since it was supposed to be a better camp spot.

Buzzard bait decided to hike with me since he had to wait until Monday to pick up a package from town. On our way to the spring we ran into another hiker we had met 4 miles from the spring. She was eating dinner and recovering from having hiked in the heat. It seems the guide book she had had the mileage to the spring wrong and she thought she only had a mile left and used all her water on dinner. I gave her my spare liter and headed to the spring hoping she was alright. She showed up at the spring right at dark exhausted from doing 4 more miles than she planned but otherwise ok.

May 8th San Ysidro creek to lost valley

I had a nice peaceful nights rest with the creek trickling next to my tent. I had a nice easy 7 mile hike to warner springs where I was going to grab breakfast. I got so caught up in the hike across the beautiful open prairie that I missed a major landmark on the trail. There is supposed to be an arrangement of rocks that looks like an eagle on a quarter. By the time I realized I missed it I was 2.5 miles past it.

On the bright side I made it to town at 755 and breakfast started at 8 so all I had to do was drop my pack wash up and eat. It was nice almost all the other hikers around my were there so we had a good time chatting and catching up. The breakfast was put on by the warner springs community center.

While I was there I learned about the detour in the trail due to a fire thst I'd run into in 50 miles. I had to change my resupply plans which actually worked out for the better since I wouldn't have to purchase anything in warner springs. The detour has me getting off trail at mile 151 and hitchhike 17 miles to the town of Idyllwild then taking a dirt road back to the trail skipping miles 151 to 178. I had planned on going to Idyllwild anyway but I'll be going there a day early. Which meant I had enough food.

I decided to stick around after breakfast and grab a shower and lunch then hike 10 more miles to a spring for the night. The shower was desperately needed since the dust from the desert was caked on thick enough that I almost looked tan.

On the way out I walked through a private campground that had one of those rope courses. I was tempted to go play on it but decided not to since they were letting the PCT walk through their property. I did however come across a campsite that had a tire swing and I couldn't resist playing on it. Of course while I was playing around another hiker shows up and catches me in the act. But hikers are a different breed and he ended up joining me playing around on the swing. We continued hiking to the lost valley spring and ran into my first rattlesnake on the trail. It was a cute little one perched up on a sunny spot near the trail rattling it's tail at us. Not scary and mean like that guy on the AT.

May 7th dry creek to San Ysidro creek

Got up at the usual predawn and gor hiking around 630. I had a really hard time dealing with the temperature this morning. There was a strong wind that I kept getting hit by which brought the temperature down by like 20 degrees. Then the sun would make it like 10 degrees hotter.  As the trail wound around the mountains I would have temperature swings of 30 degrees within 20 yards.  I couldn't get a good layer going cause I would melt in the sun, couldn't hike too fast cause the sweat would make me freeze in the wind, and couldn't go too slow or the wind and shadows were freezing. The cold winds definitely helped me conserve water. Even camping and hiking all day I reached the 3rd gate water cache with 3.5 liters of water. I made really good time and got to the spot I wanted to camp at by 5. I could have kept going and hiked into the town of warner springs, but the spot I hiked was a cute little stream. Lots of old cow paddies everywhere but nothing fresh enough to stink.  So I decided to camp there next to the stream. I filtered a liter of water just in case but didn't drink any of it.

May 6th Rodriguez water tank to mile 86

I got up late planning on staying at the water tank since there was supposed to be a cold rain storm rolling through. Everyone else decided to go anyway. After reading a bit with no sign of rain I decided to go. I got moving around 930 with my pack heavily burdened by water. The next 32 miles was supposed to be no water. There used to be a cache of water after 10 miles but the hikers earlier in the year trashed the place so the guy maintaining the cache stopped doing it. I made the right call and didn't get any rain and was able to make really good time without needing much water. When I got to the place the cache used to be there was a hiker from last year doing some trail magic. He had a cooler with fresh fruit and cold drinks. After pigging out on his goodies I decided to press on since I was looking good on water and it was cool and cloudy.  The stretch I was hiking must be torture normally since there was no shade at all and no water. I hiked until 5 pm when I was getting hungry so I decided to cook dinner.  Right as I finished dinner a quick drizzle ended my plans to hike further. I tented up right next to where I was eating. It was a nice spot but it was a dry creek. So all night I was worried about possible flash floods and didn't sleep well.

May 5th mnt laguna cmpgrd to Rodriguez water tank

Got up feeling refreshed and ready hike.  As I was refilling my water I ran into Andy again.  It seems he had camped there the night before but I just missed them when I was trying not to freeze last night. We decided to try and push 20 miles to Rodriguez water tank.  That was basically the only place to get water so we didn't have much choice. The hike was nice and easy but got hot in the afternoon.  There was no shade since we were hiking through a burnt section.  About 5 miles away from the water tank Andy started to fall behind.  He had a bad case of blisters.  We managed to psych ourselves up by pretending there would be a party at the tank since it was may 5th and the name was very Spanish. So we got lost talking about all the great cinco de mayo goodies that would be waiting for us. The worst part was when we finally got a view of the tank there was a car parked and other hikers around it. But there was no party.

May 4th fred canyon to mnt laguna cmgrd

Started out pretty early so we could make the 10 mile hike up to mount laguna. It was a cute little town with a restaurant, outfitter, and general store. I hiked solo sinfe Andy the guy I hiked with yesterday,  got an earlier start than je since he didn't use a tent. Definitely going to try that the next clear day. Was a beautiful morning with great views.  I was a bit worried about my water supply since there was none where we camped last night. The morning was cool enough that I was able to walk all 10 miles to laguna with only 1 liter. I made a quick trip to the outfitters to grab the essentials of my lost first aid kit.  The restaurant was having a sloppy joe special so I got that instead of the usual hamburger. I then hung around the restaurant with the other PCT hikers until 330 to let the temperature cool. I then hiked 5 miles to the mount laguna campground. I had a hard time with this stretch.  I was on an exposed ridge in a burnt section with a strong cold wind blowing the whole time. By the time I got to the campground I was shivering and exhausted. I didn't even go looking for the other hikers. I just set up the tent and went straight to bed. I should have cooked dinner since it would have helped warm me up.

May 3rd lake moreno to fred canyon

I ended up sleeping in, ie I got up at 7 am. By then almost all the other hikers were gone. I was planning on doing a short day to recover and didn't get out of camp till 9. After hiking a little ways I ran into another hiker who had already done 5 miles so we decided to hike together since we were planning on stopping at the same place. Compared to yesterday today was uneventful. The temperature wasn't too bad topping out around 90 but I am not even close to being aclimated to it yet. At lunch time we stopped off at a campground where a trail angel was set up with a cooler full of cold beverages. I ended up hanging out listening to the trail angels stories until it cooled down. We then hiked on to fred canyon for an easy 12 mile day.

20 miles already! !

Well here we are. First day in and already did my first 20. I am exhausted. I should have done more training.  I did more hiking in the winter than I did in the month prior to the hike.

The first 20 is a bit of a challenge and a bit required.  There wasn't any water between the border and camp. There was a cache of water at mile 15 but its not something you can count on. So you  have to carry enough water for the entire 20 miles on your first day of hiking in the desert.  If you don't make it the 20 you pretty much need to do a dry camp. There were two people I passed that ran out and had to get the rangers come rescue them. I actually hung out with the second guy while we sent another hiker on to get the rangers.  Afrer a few hours resting in the shade he started to feel better so we hiked a bit toward camp to try get cellphone signal. The medics said he was ok just suffered from heat exhaustion. 

As fun as it was hanging out with a sick hiker for a few hours there was an even more interesting thing that happened. Last year when I did the AT I started out on katahdin with one other hiker. Guess who I saw on my first day of the PCT.  Yep the exact same guy. I have a feeling that this trail will go the same as the last. I won't see him again.  He was the guy I sent for the rangers and was in bed by the time I got to camp. I didn't get to camp toll 930 which is way past hiker midnight.

Here we go again

I'm sitting in the Spokane airport waiting for my flight to San Diego.  Why am I heading to San Diego,  well that's cause I'm going to hike the PCT.  I know, I know I said that I was only going to do the PCT on a pack horse.  That was before I learned that there was going to be a main stream movie about the PCT. I want to do the PCT before it gets filled with all the crazies looking to solve their life issues by walking the PCT like Reese Witherspoon. Considering the timing required to finish before the snow the trail is already getting crowded. I can only imagine how it will be in the next few years.

To be perfectly honest I'm not certain I'll do the whole trail this time. I know I want to do the desert and the Sierras so I'll do California then see how I feel. I might not even make it that far.  It depends on how I do with the snow. Unlike the AT where I could walk fast and avoid the snow,  on the PCT I'm going to run into snow no matter what I do. That seems to happen when you are walking at 10000+ ft instead of 4000+. Of course I could,  no matter how unlikely,  end up enjoying walking around in the snow, never gonna happen.  I will make the call after I finish the Sierras. For now I will just try and survive the desert. 

I am a bit worried about the resupply since the trail is more remote and can require hitches of over 15 miles.  I am also a bit worried about my plan to not have a map. The phone I bought for the trip has a couple of really nice apps that I am planning on using for my navigation.  It also has pdf copies of the maps. All that is great as long as I can keep it powered.  To do that I'm carrying a heavy 1.25 pound solar charger.  Everything I have read says there is an abundance of sunlight on the PCT. At least for California. I picked up the only solar charger I saw on the AT that managed to keep phones charged in Maine. I figure if it could keep them charged in all that rain and cloud cover it should do just fine in the desert.  If it doesn't work I will get a spare battery and a rechargable battery pack that can supposedly charge my phone to full 5 times between charges. I figure that will give me a week worth of moderate use. That was my plan for Oregon north if I keep going.

Outside of those concerns I'm extremely excited to get back out there and hike again. I'm really looking forward to doing this as a backpacking camping trip instead of a long hike in the woods.   There are no shelters on the PCT so I will be using my tent much more for this trip. There were a lot of times on the AT where I was seriously considering sending my tent home. I think I only used it about 10 times the entire AT, that doesn't count the times I set it up in the shelters for critter protection. We will see if I use it more than that on this trip.  Cowboy camping is much more common on the PCT since it is much drier but there are scorpions in the desert...

I'm also looking forward to hiking with the pack. The hardest part of the AT for me was seeing the big pack of nobos walking north while I was all alone going south.  Hopefully the loneliness that I had on the AT won't be as bad with all the other hikers around.  Of course I could end up missing my solitude and flop up north and go sobo to get away from the crowds,  but I doubt that.

Well the plane is calling and I must go.