The Adventures of...: Days 13-16

Day 13, 22 miles, endpoint PCT mile 214

We got an early start to the day and thought that might mean cooler hiking temperatures. By 7am it was warm, and by 8am it was hot. We spent nearly the entire day descending Mt. San Jacinto, dropping down almost 10,000 feet from the previous day. Once we finally meandered all the way down the mountain face, we were at 1,000 feet above sea level. We finished the 20 mile waterless stretch at a water spigot that a trail angel named Tarzan had set up camp next to. He brought a large canopy (which was awesome since the area had no shade and it must have been close to 100 degrees) and a vegetable platter with hummus for dipping. When you can't eat fruit or vegetables on a regular basis, a veggie platter is an amazing thing.

After this, we dropped down into a sand-filled valley that tediously approached Interstate-10. We walked as fast as we could, as it felt like the sun was trying its best to kill us. As we passed under the I-10 overpass, we found a cooler with soda and a box of cookies. Every day I am amazed at the random acts of niceness that other people do for hikers. We passed the outskirts of Cabazon, California--famous for its giant dinosaur replicas seen in movies like The Wizard and Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure.

We then made our way to the house of Ziggy and the Bear, a retired couple who, rumor has it, specifically bought a house next to the PCT so they could have their trail angel operation close to the trail. We showered, rested, ate, and had ice cream--a nightly ritual provided by the hosts. I think we stayed for four hours while the day moved to evening and the temperatures calmed. We decided to get in a few more miles in the cool air, so we set off at night. It felt strange hiking in the dark, creepy and a little clandestine, but much easier on the body. Tomorrow is supposed to be hot again, possibly in the low 100s, so we will try to get an early jump on things. We will have to get in some big miles to make it to our next town stop, Big Bear Lake, in 3 days.

Trail views

Trail view. San Jacinto still behind us.

Trail views. San Gorgonio Wilderness and mountain ahead on the other side of the valley floor.

Mile 200!

San Jacinto. We are about 9,000 feet below the summit now. It was extremely hot here.

The trail passes below 1-10 and a train bridge.

A very hot and miserable section into Cabazon, CA

Some love waiting for us under I-10

100 degrees in the shade!

Ziggy and the Bear's house.

Headed out into the night.

Snakes on the trail at night will wake you up.

Day 14, 21 miles, endpoint PCT mile 235

After our night hike, we woke up early in another effort to beat the heat. We entered the San Gorgonio Wilderness and the weather delivered as forecasted: crazy hot. We hiked for over 6 hours through nice enough rolling hills and ridgelines with views of mountains north and south, but it felt too hot to even enjoy it. 12 miles in we reached a running creek, which looked magical amidst the desert landscape. Someone had even gone so far as to plant two plastic flamingos by the creekside. Josh and I set up camp under the shade of a tree and decided to wait out the hot weather.

We ate food, rinsed ourselves off, took naps, and generally did a whole lot of nothing while the afternoon baked away. At one point, while I was laying on my back looking up through a tree to the sky above, I thought about how we could both be at work right at that moment. It made me appreciate even more how lucky we are to get to be doing something like this. At 5pm, we decided we had waited long enough, so we packed up and hit the trail again. And it was still hot. Finally, once it was dark, the temperature became comfortable. We covered 9 more miles and made camp in the dark. My camera battery died this morning, so until we get to Big Bear Lake, Josh will be the only one taking pics. Looking forward to getting back up to the mountains and out of the desert tomorrow.

Morning from camp... it's actually pretty dark out.

Entering San Gorgonio Wilderness!

It didn't take long for the day to get unbearably hot!

Rare running water and shade.

Passing over Mission Creek for one of many times.

Trail views. Already up off the valley floor again.

We really liked this area, it was just too hot to enjoy today.

Trail views.

The trail went along the top of a ridge for awhile giving great views.

Rattlesnake in the middle of the trail. We went around.

Trail views.

Night hike!

Day 15, 24 miles, endpoint PCT 259

Tired from last night's hiking, we slept in and saw a few other hikers walk by on the trail before we got out of the tent. Keep in mind this meant we were hiking by 7am, so sleeping in for me on the trail is not like sleeping in would be in real life. We immediately started climbing and within 3 miles we had left the desert floor and entered a mountainous, pine-tree covered forest. We were both so thankful to be away from the high desert brush and heat and into new territory that included trees, shade, and cooler temperatures.

We took a water stop at a creek with several other hikers, and ended up staying an hour and a half (ate breakfast, filtered water, and wasted a bunch of precious hiking time, essentially). By 10am we had only gone 3 miles; we were way behind schedule. We busted ass and hiked the next 9 miles in the same time it took us to go 3. Along the way we fantasized about Burger King in Big Bear Lake, tomorrow's town stop. Ever since we approached I-10 a couple of days ago, and Josh mistakenly thought there was a Burger King close to the freeway (there wasn't), he has been obsessed. I am hopeful tomorrow we can make his dreams a reality.

I don't want to alarm anyone, but today we saw bears from the trail. Three of them, actually. They were in cages less than the size of a pitcher's bullpen, and were dejectedly watching us as we walked by on the trail. I'm not exactly sure what the whole story of the bears-in-cages-next-to-the-trail thing is, but I think it is some kind of wildlife sanctuary. It was weird and kind of depressing seeing these enormous bears pacing back and forth with barely enough room to turn around in. Still no bear sightings in the wild.

One of the best parts of the day came at about mile 252 when we came upon a couch, a cooler with goodies, and a trail register. My feet were burning up at this point, and that dirty, dingy, beat-up couch felt like heaven. Inside the cooler were sodas, apples, and cookies. We signed the trail register and saw that Smiles and Andrew said hello to us in its pages; they are a day ahead of us, so we may be able to catch up to them at some point. Today also had another long waterless stretch: 16 miles. It wasn't as bad, despite all of the elevation gain (we topped out at 8,500 feet and are currently camped at 7,000 feet, up from 3,000 yesterday) because it never heated up like it had in previous days.

Today we were playing leapfrog with three hikers from San Francisco, two brothers aged 19 and 25 from Wisconsin, and a girl who goes by Miss. America on the trail. There are all sorts of interesting people out here. Tomorrow will be an easy hike and then a supposed easy hitch to Big Bear Lake where we will stay at the hostel there. It will be Cinco de Mayo, and everyone on the trail seems excited about this. Mexican food, Burger King, and margaritas, here we come. Should be a good time!

Carla thinking about food.

Lots of downed logs in this recently burned section.

Not the way we hoped to see the first bear on this trip :(

Mt. San Gorgonio

Trail love provided by the hostel.

Views from camp.

Sunset over the valley and the view from our tent.

Sunset at camp.

Day 16, 7 miles, endpoint PCT 266/Big Bear Lake

Today was an easy hike to the highway where a shuttle was waiting for us for the Big Bear Lake Hostel. Grayson, the owner, packed Josh, myself, and 5 other hikers into a station wagon that had previously been his mothers and was now used full time as a hiker bus. It was about a 20 minute drive to the hostel. We dropped off our stuff (we decided to pay the extra $5.00 per person to get a private room) and immediately went and killed a huge breakfast at the diner around the corner.

Then it was boring resupply chores, but this time the grocery store was miles away from where we were staying. We went to the bus stop and while we waited, we worked on our hitching skills. After about 10 minutes (and no bus), a car pulled up. Joe, an older guy who said he only pulled over because he thought he saw someone he knew, said he could give us a ride to the store. During the short trip, he told us stories about ancient Indian ruins in the hills above Big Bear Lake, a mysterious part-dog, part-warthog animal known to roam the area that biologists hadn’t even named yet, and his RV that was available to us should we get stuck in any impending snow storms. At the store we grabbed all the food we could, then took the bus back, a painfully slow process.

The hostel has a hippie commune/college dorm-like atmosphere, where people (mostly hikers, at this time) mill about, socialize, use the kitchen, and watch movies. It’s a strange place, but all part of this big, strange trip we are on. Some hikers are taking “zero” tomorrow, where they won’t hike at all and will instead stay for a second night. We are going to head back to the trail, as we want to save our zeros for other times when we need them more. Back to the grind tomorrow, where it is on to some new sights.