Category: PCT 2018

This morning started with a conversation with Charlie (Spicy). He was so worried about us girls not cooking a big meal last night OR breakfast this morning. We kept telling him we ate in small amounts and that we were conserving water. He was super cute. He explained to me this morning that he was having the whole bag a spaghetti for breakfast this morning because it was the energy he would need for the full day of hiking. He also told us that (jokingly) his wife is upset that she is not hiking with him. He explained that her not being there allowed him to eat the whole packet of spaghetti instead of only half. Such a nice man and inspiration as he’s 65 years young and cranking miles harder than we are as he started a day later than us. Impressive.

Once we got going we knew we were headed to Mile 151 for our pickup ride to Paradise Valley Cafe. We luckily had 2 water sources today, one of which was a cache another which was on private property of a trail angel named Mary. The water cache had been well stocked last on the 30th of March and was almost empty today as I took one liter to get me to Mary’s Place. At Mary’s, which was mile 145, she had just dropped off a large jug of ice cold lemonade. Her little hiker oasis was pretty cool. It was complete with tent spots, a water tank, benches underneath a canopy and a makeshift portapotty and shower. I rinsed my head off as I could feel how matted my hair had been for the past few days. The simple things can fee so good.

After Mary’s all we could think about was those burgers calling our names at mike 151. We hiked as fast as we could. Took a quick photo at mile marker 150 and found our awesome trail Angel Kel. Man, I have some great people in my life.

Kel rolled up, let us put our dirty bodies in her car and brought us cold beverages to hydrate us. She said she could quite put her finger on the “smell” that us 3 girls wreaked of. Since I had told her we’b be there by noon which turned into 2:30pm she was about to do some of her own trail magic. She helped a few hikers by giving them rides to Idyllwild and to the Paradise Cafe.

During lunch a few of our trail mates walked up. Spicy was one of them who crammed into the car ride back to the trailhead. Kel went back for Justin, Sam and Dahlia after their meal was complete. Those three ended up night hiking just past us a few moments ago.

Our spot tonight is beautiful altho I did some super shady setup on my Zpacks Tent so tonight could be the night that my house blows down. I can’t even close the doors!!! Oh well, it’s all part of the adventure. Also today Kel brought me some supplies that I wanted to switch out so I’m onto a different pack and some different hiking clothes. I also found a blister on my left heel so now I’m included in that club. Thank you Paul for sending the knee brace. I’m going to give it a try tomorrow. The compression braces seem to be aiding my cause so I’m looking forward to a new style of brace tomorrow.

The plan from here is to make it to Idyllwild sometime Friday. By trail it 25 miles although there’s a fire closure from years past so we will have to figure out which trail we’d like to take from here. Saturday will be a complete rest day. It’s time. It’ll be a laundry and relax kind of day. Idyllwild is supposedly a pretty cool town to hang out in, so that should be fun.

Putting the feet in the sleeping bag… goodnight!

Today just didn’t feel like my day getting started. For whatever reason I just couldn’t get all my things back in my pack. I started some rice in a cold soak prior to leaving camp and hoped that by the time I found some sunshine I’d be able to unpack my bag and eat all in one stop. Not so much. I was able to repack but it still wasn’t really to my liking. I felt like my pack was against me all morning for some reason. I asked Kel to bring out my Hyperlite pack as it’s a lot simpler to maneuver.

We broke camp pretty early today. I didn’t really sleep much last night, not sure why. Could be all the body aches. I stayed plenty warm even on the ridge we were at and with the clouds that hovered over us most of the night. We (The girls) and Sam and Dahlia were all gone by 730. We whispered goodbye to Justin who was still wrestling in his tent.

We knew we had 5 miles to hike before finding our next water source at “Mikes Place.” Just from the water of water, it was a perfect stop. I can’t speak from personal experience but I’m just glad we didn’t venture in for anything more. That’s all about that. We filtered what we needed, ate a snack and went about our way. We did finally run into Justin again but didn’t see him the rest of the day.

Our plan for today was at least 15 miles. We ended up pulling 19 miles though and honestly I feel like my legs might fall off right now. During the day you just keep pressing on. When you stop for the night you can barely move. Emily and her speedy legs found a sweet camping spot at mile 138.8 for this evening. Laura and I trailed behind and I went at my normal “I don’t hike fast pace” and Laura slowed down as her ankle pains came back today. She may take a few days off in Idyllwild depending on how she feels tomorrow. We are roughly 12 miles from where highway 74 crosses, where we planned to have lunch at the Paradise Cafe.

The terrain today was still lots of hot desert. Still pretty in its own fashion, but man some of these days just feel like we’re torturing ourselves. It’s hot, water resources are slim and carrying water for “dry camping” really takes it out of you when the sun is blazing all day. I’ve been carrying 4 1/2 liters of water once we fill up and have to dry camp. That seems to be the magic if you fill up, have miles to go to a campsite, cook dinner–just add water of course–and water to get you going for the mornings next few miles. I’ll start tomorrow with 2 1/2 liters which I will ration for those 12 miles on trail. Just getting started early helps the water consumption. And we sure do guzzle it up when we get a chance.

One more lizard for my brother Glen. Lots of these guys out today. This one was small though. And I thought I heard a rattlesnake today but I didn’t linger long enough to find out. I was having to dodge a bush on the left side of me which pushed me into a bush on the right, which is where I thought said snake could have been. It all happened so fast…. but I survived.

So if you’ve ever wondered what the refugee camp at the Warner Springs Community Center looks like, that was it this morning.

I slept really well last night. That 18 mile day was a doozy. Knowing that our plan for 15 today was slow going, we actually ended up only doing 10 miles this afternoon. Today was a chill day BUT we had a personal lunch delivery by Doran and Cooper (the dog) from WichWich. Doran met us 2 miles out of Warner Springs with sandwiches for Laura and I. After our roadside picnic we all hiked a few miles down to the water where Cooper could douse his body and cool off.

Laura and I were both kinda dragging after eating so much which turned out to be a good thing since we were both wearing new shoes. Prior to leaving Warner I also picked up compression sleeves for me knees. They seem to help today and since we kept the mileage down it gave the body a little bit of a break. There was quite a good deal of climbing today and looks to be like there more in store for tomorrow as well. So far the new shoes and sleeves seem to be a good thing. Got a very minor blister but nothing in comparison to the ones I’ve seen on others feet.

We are currently camping at mile 119.6–that is Emily, Laura, Justin, Dahlia and her brother Sam. We had decent sunset with the cloud cover that was coming in.

Looking forward to another great day! Love you all.

Oh yeah, after a full resupply of at least 5 days of food, 3 liters of water and full fuel, pack is still stuffed at 37 pounds. Not bad. Have a few things I will drop and exchange on Wednesday.