Magic on the PCT Day 4-6

*these posts are coming straight from trail, I apologize in advance for typos!*

Location: The Desert
Start: Tent Site – 34.3
End: Laguna Campground – 47.5
Miles: 13.2
Ascent: 2054 | Descent: 1470
Sleep: Tent

Today was another really good day on trail! We got up early and left camp at 6:20. Our goal is 6 and so far we’ve gotten closer and closer each morning. We started the day in a ridge and cruised over that for a while. Hiking first thing in the morning is the best because it isn’t hot and I’m not as worried about snakes and creepy crawlies.

The trail took us down to a creek where we filtered water. We covered 4 miles before 8am, we were moving! The terrain makes for super easy hiking, but we haven’t slow way down in the heat. The water at the creek was cold and refreshing, we all got chilly sitting around waiting for the water to filter. There was even some frost hanging around in the grass by the creek.

From our water source it was about 4 miles into the town of Mount Laguna. We had to climb out of the canyon, but once we were up we were hiking around 6000”. The desert shrubbery turned into tall pine trees with pine cones the size of my head! It looked so different and was a welcomed change.

We continued through the forest until we eventually came out in a campground. The campground was closed but connected us to the road to walk into Mount Laguna.

The first building you walk past in town is the Pine House Cafe and Tavern. It’s an adorable French restaurant with delicious food! I got a breakfast croissant that had ham, egg, and cheese on it, plus it came with fruit and home fries. The croissant was so flaky and it was so good to have fresh fruit! Everything was delicious and I was absolutely stuffed. We hung out there charging our stuff for a while until we decided it was time to resupply.

All the FarOut comments talked about how overpriced the store was so we were weary going in. We decided to get 2.5 days worth of food to get us until Julian so we hoped we wouldn’t rack up a big bill. I was pleasantly surprised by their selection and honestly their prices were too bad. For Truffles and I both it was $40.

We repacked our packs and walked over to the National Forest visitor center to loiter for a bit and enjoy their picnic table in the shade. The visitor center itself was awesome, they had all kinds of cool taxidermy animals that were native to the area like mountain lions, birds, foxes, snakes, and more. We hung out there for a bit before deciding it was time to hike out of town.

There was a big group of us that decided to go in together to split a $35 campsite at Laguna Campground. The cabins in town were full, plus there was a large no camping area around the town. I just made sense to hike the additional 5 miles out of town.

The hike out was pretty much all climbing. The 5 of us hiked together for a bit, plus we picked up a new friend named Shawny. Truffles and I were feeling good so we hiked ahead of the group. Everyone caught up to us a this crazy view and we proceeded to hike the rest of the day together.

When we got to the road to walk to the campsite, we got our first trail magic from a trail angel named DJ! He and his dogs, Bandit and Moose, were set up with a cooler full of drinks in the parking lot. We hung out there for a while talking to him and the other hikers as they arrived. After a while DJ fit 8 of us in his truck bed and shuttled us to the campground.

Once we arrived we set up with Luke, Mickie, Barbra, and Shawny. We sat around chatting about our plans for the next stretch of trail before eating dinner and getting ready for bed. It’s supposed to be in the 40s tonight but it feels colder because of the wind. Hopefully I’ll sleep okay!

Location: The Desert
Start: Laguna Campground – 47.5
End: Tentsite – 59.7
Miles: 12.2
Ascent: 1261 | Descent: 1781
Sleep: Tent

Today felt like a very full but easy day! We started the morning nice and early at Laguna Campground. We were in the trail by 6:30am and got to catch the tail end of the sunrise as we were leaving. The campsite had a TON of acorn woodpeckers so we were also serenaded by their songs as we departed.

We got back to the trail and knew we were in for a chilly morning. This was the first cloud cover that we’ve seen yet, and the windy was very strong. The combination made for a cold start to the day. That was good motivation to keep moving.

We stoped at the 50 mile mark where someone had arranged rocks in the shape of the number “50”. Officially 50 miles down, 2600 to go! Truffles and I talked about those first mile markers on the AT. I remember hitting 30 miles because that was the longest backpacking trip I’d gone on at that time. The 100 miles marker was a big deal because it was at the Albert Mountain fire tower. Hitting triple digits was a huge accomplishment.

Shortly after the mile marker we reached the junction with the Garnet Peak trail to the summit. We dropped out packs and climbed the half mile to the top. The comments on FarOut made the trail seem much more difficult than it was and we reached the peak in good spirits. We had 360 views from the top and tried to take it all in without getting blown off the mountain.

Once we reunited with our packs, we continued north for several miles before stopping for water at Pioneer Mail picnic area. We had a brief break to filter water and reapply sunscreen before setting off again. The trail was cut through the rock face and offered spectacular views with steep drop offs. The cliffs felt a little sketchy but we made our way across them just fine.

At one point we started seeing ribbons on the shrubs. A comment on FarOut said that the Oriflamme 50K Canyon Trail Run was happening today, so we figured the ribbons were probably course markers. We started seeing runners in the early afternoon and it was so fun to cheer for them as they ran by!

We made it to our campsite pretty early on and set up before backtracking a half mile to the water source. This cattle pond looked like something we’d have to filter out of on the AZT, but thankfully there was a spigot with cleaner water. We filtered several liters and headed back to camp.

We enjoyed a relaxing evening in the shade with the same group we’ve been camping with: Mickie, Luke, and Barbra. It’s supposed to be cool again tomorrow so I’m looking forward to easy hiking again.

Location: The Desert
Start: Tentsite – 59.7
End: Tentsite – 73.1
Miles: 13.4
Sleep: Tent

Today felt like a really long day. We woke up early to a delightful surprise: Gooey finally found us! There were a couple of cowboy campers that arrived at our campsite late last night and we didn’t even know they were they until this morning. As we were packing up we realized that one of the guy’s gear looked familiar, and upon closure inspection we realized it was Gooey! He hadn’t know where we were camping at but chose that campsite at random. The trail provides!

It wasn’t that cold over night, but the wind made it very chilly when we started hiking. We left camp around 6:30am with the goal of finding a campsite just a couple of miles outside of Julian so that we can Nero in tomorrow morning.

The day started off easy and cruisey. We made good time to our first water source 3ish miles down the trail. There were several people camped out there who remarked that must have been up early since they were just packing up. It’s so miserable to hike through the heat of the day, the only way we can tolerate it is to wake up early and hike while it’s cool.

We got water and kept on hiking. The trail took us all the way down the mountain to a dirt road where we then had to hike straight up another dirt road. The trail followed the ridge, but going from ridge to ridge means there has to be a valley in between. After the short but steep climb, the trail was once again pretty open and shrubby. We made it to the next and final water source around 10am.

This is the last water for a 22 mile stretch (no counting water caches). We are going to break it up by going into town. We hung out at the where source until just after noon. It felt dumb to hike out when the sun was at its hottest, but we didn’t want to just keep sitting there and decided we’d rather sit around at camp.

The terrain the rest of the day felt brutal. The hiking wasn’t hard, but doing it with 5 liters of water under the scorching sun was tough. There was absolutely no shade all day, I was so thankful for my sunbrella. I helped the time pass by listening to podcasts and my audiobook. Today was the first day I felt bored on trail and wanted to use my book as an escape. I was pretty miserable hiking in the heat, I was glad Outlander kept my mind distracted.

We managed to make it into camp around 2pm. This campsite has some huge holders that provided some much needed shade during the afternoon. We all had from the sun for several hours until we cooked dinner and decided to explore a little bit. There is one giant rock overlooking camp that Hangman figure out how to climb on top of. We all made a trip to the top of the rock to admire the view, I was only a little scared on the height.

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