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I slept like a brick in that shed-like cabin while the wind howled outside all night long. Absolutely no regrets.
The morning also saw fit to grace us with a rainbow! Whats at the end? Probably a cactus.
In the morning we gathered our things and started the walk to the road to find a ride back to Scissor’s Crossing. Before we had even managed to leave the campground however a car pulled up and the driver, wearing a PCT sun hoodie, offered us a ride there! The trail angels were clearly out in force that day and we benefitted greatly from it. Our angel, called Rangel, brought us right to Scissor’s Crossing where we discovered Legend and his wife Bee were still serving pancakes! They were enormous, delicious, and a great start to the day.
Fantastic trail angels, and equally as good pancakes.
After that, it was time to climb out of the valley. Along the way we passed what I can only describe as “the cactus zone” in which cacti were everywhere. It didn’t last long but I passed countless barrel cactus, ocotillo, prickly pear, and other cacti I don’t know the names of. It didn’t take long to climb out of this spiny eden but it was fun while it lasted, even if i had to step carefully in my running shorts to avoid a leg full of pain.
Cactus city.
The breeze slowly picked up as I ascended until, rounding a corner, it slammed into me with incredible force. The wind was back with a vengeance, seemingly determined to push me into the side of the mountain. All afternoon this went on, massive gusts coming and going, so strong that sometimes all I could was widen my stance and brace myself against the hillside until the squall passed. It slowed my pace to a crawl and continuously toed the line between type 2 and type 3 fun. Multiple times, during particularly strong and long gales, I screamed into the storm but every time the air sucked my voice away. Shorts again proved a mistake as my calves were getting stung by bits of grit and dirt picked up and flung at high velocities.
Also troubling me was my right foot which was struggling with the shoe change. My right leg is a little weaker due to some old injuries and the new shoes were causing that weaker ankle some difficulty.
All this combined to make a very hard day. I was doing my best to channel “embrace the suck” but wow it was not easy. The only upside I found from this experience was that wildlife couldn’t hear me over the wind and that made it easy to see some of the more skittish characters in the desert section. I saw a rabbit and what looked like a chipmunk for a few seconds each before they visually noticed me and hid.
I finally reached the gate three water cache at around 5pm. I managed to find a rather cozy space under a tree in which my tent barely fit and settled in. This camping area was pretty full, not surprising given it’s the only water source in a 23 mile stretch. The area did provide some protection from the wind but it still promised to be a blustery night.
Day 11: Drowsy Walkin’
Alas, it figured that the worst night of sleep would come right after the best night. The wind screamed all night long, loud enough to hear through my earplugs and strong enough to rattle my tent. My smartwatch said I got about 4 hours of sleep total and that seemed about right with how my body felt. I awoke about 6 and figured that if I was up I might as well be hiking to cover as many miles as possible before the poor sleep caught up to me.
Ate a quick granola bar breakfast to get out of camp faster and avoid boiling water. My foot was feeling better than the previous day thankfully although partway through the day I discovered I had a cactus spine lodged in the back of my knee. It must’ve gotten in there the previous day as I was wearing pants today but I couldn’t figure out when. The wind this morning was strong but a bit reduced from the day prior.
Climbing up from the water cache.
To my delight, after about 2 hours of hiking uphill in the wind the trail crossed to the opposite side of the mountain and steadily descended. I think it was very fortuitous that I managed to get through the hard part of the days hike at the very start, when I still had some “fresh out of bed” energy going for me.
The first blaze I saw not on a signpost!
I passed the 100mi mark at about noon and reached the next water source an hour later. While stopping to eat lunch myself and a few others got trail magic from some day hikers in the form of a cold can of Coke.
The 100 mile mark! Felt a bit surreal.
My energy mostly spent, I hiked pretty slowly through cow pastures to cover the last few miles to my campsite for the night. Didn’t see anyone else all afternoon and crashed early. The river nearby was incredibly silty but I was able to thread my bandana onto my dirty bottle and catch the silt there instead of in my filter. Unfortunately, all the nearby cow patties made it feel prudent to double up with chemical filtration as well. Chlorinated water may be drinkable but it does not taste particularly good.
Day 12: The Gang’s All Here
It rained on and off all night long and I awoke to wet ground. While I was cleaning up, a deer wandered through camp. We both frozen and started at each other. To properly communicate how this encounter went, I will attempt to narrate the deer’s thought process.
“Ho hum, I’m a deer, walking around, looking for food and-”
“There’s something there.”
“It’s not moving now but I saw it for a moment. Maybe if I hold still, it’ll move again and and I can verify.”
“Okay, I held still and nothing moved. I must’ve been wrong, let’s keep going and-”
“There’s something there. Hold still and see if it moves.”
“Okay, I held still and nothing moved. I must’ve been wrong, let’s keep going and-”
“There’s something there and I’m getting the hell out of here.”
And off it went. A funny encounter during which I was almost completely still.
Unfortunately, the rest of the day was less fun. It was overcast, cold, and windy all morning. My calf was still hurting so I walked the last few miles to Warner Springs pretty slowly. I did pass Eagle Rock along the way and stopped to take a few pics there.
The entire landscape looked entirely out of place with the rest of the desert sections of the PCT thus far. If I didn’t know better, I might’ve guess some of these pictures were taken in Scotland.
Is this really the southern California desert?
Finally I reached the Warner Springs community center and ended up hanging around here the rest of the day. I blogged a bit, called my family, and ate some microwave food. The folks here at the community center have set it up to be a central depot for PCT hikers coming through and it works really well. They have wifi, charging stations, and a surprisingly good selection of hiker food staples for purchase as well as gear consumables. More impressively, they have hot showers as well as bucket laundry with a working dryer. I did all my food resupply here but skipped on the shower as I’d had one in Julian a few days back. I did regret this later, lesson learned: never turn down a free shower.
Due to leg concerns, I elected to spend the night at the large campsite about half a mile away. I wanted to make it to Idyllwild so I could single or double zero in a nicer town. Here’s the list of things I decided to do to help me get there without potentially worsening whatever was going on with my calf.
- Less daily use, so shorter miles. Try to aim for 12 per day maximum as that’s a distance I know I can do without pain. Also see about getting better sleep when possible, but that’s not always up to me.
- Reduce inflammation. The community center had a freezer so I iced my calf a little while there. I also decided to keep Ibuprofen in my system for 36 hours to help bring any swelling down.
- Calf compression. They make sleeves for this purpose but what I had right then was my Ace bandage wrap, so that’s what I used.
- More rest breaks during the day. I would sit down, sit back, and elevate my legs on my backpack, a rock, whatever was available.
The campground near Warner Springs was shockingly full. After many days with at most 3 other people it felt deeply unusual to be around so many others. I counted 17 tents just before sunset which made it feel like a real town, just one that would inevitably disappear tomorrow morning.
That’s a lotta hikers.
I went to bed to the sound of owls hooting and coyotes howling in thr distance. I did consider it prudent to put my earplugs in as the larger the group, the greater chance somebody in it snores. I wrote my journal, put my water filter and electronics in my quilt, and hoped for a windless night.
Trail Stats
Catholes:5
Stops to filter water: 10
Resupplies: 3
Hitches: 2
Zeros: 1
Crys on trail: 2
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