Although my journey on the Pacific Crest Trail was still in its infancy, I had already made quite a few solid friends and experienced a great variety in different landscapes. My First Week on trail had been an exploration of new trail realities and new-found friendships. This second week on the PCT was a continuation of shifting social interaction and discovery of new and interesting places. The landscape continues to evolve with every mile. Every day has something new to offer.
Day 8
After a night spent cowboy camping under the stars, I made an early head start to the day. Brightside and I started walking together in the dark, but soon our different hiking paces created distance between us. I was already starting the day low on water since I hadn’t planned water and shade accordingly in yesterday’s sweltering heat. I wanted to make decent progress in the cool air before the fight against the heat and allure of downing the remainder of my water became too much to bear.
The frigid desert mornings are so deceptive. Everyday I think maybe, just maybe, it won’t get so hot today and every time the heat exceeds my expectations. I guess with the notion of it being end of May in the desert means the heat shouldn’t really be a surprise, but I continue to be impressed by how much the temperature can range within 24 hours.
As I arrived at the location where a water cache was indicated on my map, I discovered it was still another pain-staking quarter mile off trail. When I finally laid eyes on the beautiful stacks of water jugs I felt so relieved. For the entire morning hike, I’d been worrying about the worst-case scenario what if there’s no water left? I greedily chugged a whole liter of water before proceeding to gratefully filled up my water bottles. I’d run dangerously low on water and really fought the urge of thirst in the last several miles. Plenty of streams have already dried up by now in southern California resulting in the necessity of water caches for hikers.
Brightside and I crawled under a big shrub to hide away from the sun. Flies of all sizes swarmed around us. They kept landing on my once again bloody knee – the scab kept getting torn open by the plethora of spiky plants that bordered the trail. I also had plenty of other scratches on my legs from these plants. It seemed that these spiky shrubs were either vengeful and out for blood or they had a great desire to grab hold of a hiker and join them on their journey.
Speedgoat, Snow Angel, and Dustbunny eventually came marching down the trail as well and rested in the shade of a shrub a little further down the path.
By 4pm the world finally started cooling down to a reasonable temperature. I set up my tent, got more water, and then tried to use wet wipes to clean up a bit. I was so dirty. I had dirt caked into the creases of my hands, and desert dust sticking to my legs, arms, and face.
Several other hikers joined our humble encampment. A tall guy with black hair and glasses named Treesmith from Arizona, a woman named Good Timing from Germany (who I’d actually met previously at the trail’s starting point), another woman named Marla from Washington, and a Japanese couple. They were all very friendly and a great addition to the joyous vibes. We were still pondering about Rod though. We hadn’t seen our elderly British tramily member for two nights now. He should’ve been here by now. None of us had his phone number so we had no way of contacting him, and were instead continually left wondering where he might’ve gone.
Day 9
Happy 100 miles! Today we finally reached our first 100 mile milestone of the hike. It was so exciting to finally reach a three-digit number! I tried not to think about the fact that it had taken us 9 days to complete 3.8% of the trail… we still had a long way to go.
Everyone from last night joined together at Barrel Spring. There was flowing water from the spouted spring, shade, and large flat sections to set up our tents. It was a hiker’s paradise!
Many hikers came through and stopped for water, congregating around the precious water source like a herd of zebras around a watering hole in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Many were headed to Warner Springs, a small town another 8 miles down the PCT. We decided to stay at Barrel Spring for the night because of the access to water and because it was a holiday today so the post office would be closed, which was something I needed to access in order to pick up my resupply packages.
We fell asleep to the occasional sound of tin bells clanking as cows grazed nearby, and the rather obnoxiously loud frogs croaking at the spring.
Day 10
I walked past grazing cows as I followed the trail that meandered through rolling grass hills. Some cows stopped their peaceful munching upon my approach and started marching away accompanied by the bellow of loud distress calls. I tried calling after them to tell them I’m friendly and they have nothing to worry about but they wouldn’t hear a word of it.
I’m continually astonished at how variable the landscape is, there’s something new everyday. Shifting from sandy desert with cacti to valleys of sagebrush, and now to rolling grasslands. It’s exciting, every day brings a new discovery.
I finally made it to Warner Springs – my first town along the PCT! It was a very small town that consisted of one main road, and several offshoot residential roads. I picked up my resupply boxes from the post office and then prepared a package of some things I wanted to send home in order to lighten my pack.
While I was at the post office another hiker walked in named Davide. He was a friendly, bald, Italian hiker with some intimidating piercings. He also smelled really good – a delectable aroma of rosemary and patchouli. Leave it to the Italians to smell good on a long hike. He offered that I could get a ride to the resource center with a trail angel named Offtrail who was currently waiting in the parking lot of the adjacent gas station. I quickly sent away my package and hopped into Offtrail’s battered old van. He was a friendly man probably in his late 40’s who had hiked the PCT when he was younger and now volunteers to help hikers who come through Warner Springs. He gave us a ride to the resource center which was a mile down the road, back towards the PCT.
The resource center was a blessing. There was water, shade, some picnic tables, wifi, and best of all they offered bucket showers – which is exactly what it sounds like. They had makeshift wooden stalls inbehind the building where you could bring your bucket of water and give yourself a sponge bath.
Davide shared a starburst candy with me and half of his hot dog which he’d bought at the gas station. It was so delicious and so generous. A hiker never forgets when another hiker shares their food with them. I definitely owe him one if I ever see him again. Meanwhile, Offtrail cracked open a beer at 10am on a Tuesday and joined us at the shaded picnic tables. The other hikers trickled in as time went by. I spent most of the day at the resource center, waiting for my bucket-washed clothes to dry and taking advantage of the free wifi to call home.
As I continued my hike later that day, I noticed thin, bright orange strings wrapped around some plants. At first I thought it might be from a group of rebellious teenagers who have nothing better to do than to run around the countryside victimizing poor plants with some sort of synthetic silly string. But upon closer inspection, I noticed it was a strange radioactive-looking vine. I later discovered that it’s called California dodder, or Cuscuta californica. It’s a parasitic plant that wraps around a host plant and steals its food and water. Allegedly it rarely kills the host plant, but I found that hard to believe given the ferocity with which this thin, orange, spaghetti plant choked its host.
Day 11
The trail slithered uphill all morning. It continued to climb until I was quite literally walking in the low-lying clouds. It was an overcast, drizzly day – a welcome change in weather to the previous hot days.
There was a section of trail where there were large, rounded, pink and white boulders scattered along the green mountain side in the mist. It was neat to see this abundance of arbitrarily placed spheroidally-weathered granite rocks. Maybe it was the eerie morning mist and a calorie deficit, but I kept thinking this would be a terrible place to be if there was an earthquake.
I strolled into Mike’s Place at about 1:20pm. This was a place along the PCT where hikers were welcome to get water and camp. But when I first arrived, I thought I was trespassing on a hoarder’s hideout. There were several shacks haphazardly placed on the property and there were all manners of different things strewn everywhere. I cautiously walked onto the property, wondering if I’d come to the right place and looked around for anyone who might yell at me for trespassing. Doubts washed away when I started seeing the PCT symbol in various places, but a feeling of unease remained.
Brightside and I were the first to make it there. Speedgoat, Snow Angel, and Treesmith soon arrived followed by Good Timing and Marla. We all wondered what was taking Dustbunny so long, since he was usually right behind me or Brightside, but as the hours went by, he never showed up. It’s really out of character for him, but maybe he decided to camp a couple miles back. We hoped he’d catch up to us tomorrow, since he’s an integral part of our tramily.
Another hiker named Adam from Washington joined us at Mike’s Place. He wore a beaded meditation necklace and ate cheese and honey for dinner. He’d spent time in Thai monasteries before deciding to hike the PCT.
Day 12
There was a water cache not far from Mike’s Place where I’d planned to top off my water, but when I got there, I discovered it was empty. Lesson learned: don’t rely on caches. We were all worried about the lack of water since a lot of streams were now dried up – one of the risks of starting in late May.
Brightside walked ahead of me. I followed her, watching her feet in front of me which kept my mind off of my pinching shoulders and hurting feet. I was also thirsty but didn’t want to drink too much of my water because it had to last me until tomorrow.
We found a nice shady spot beside the trail to wait out the heat. Payton zoomed by as she was trying to outrun the flies. She only stopped long enough to tell us that Dustbunny texted her to say there was a family emergency at home so he had to get off trail and won’t be coming back. That was sad to hear because he’d been a fun addition to our group but it was also a relief that he was okay. Now that makes two people who have left our tribe, Rod and Dustbunny. Crazy how quickly things can change.
By 3pm I was continuing my way down the trail. The break had been a delight and really helped to stitch my aching body back together.
Day 13
Brightside and I woke up at 4am to everything being soaked. We’d decided to cowboy camp last night to save on time but it turns out that had been a bad idea. A thick mist rolled in over night and drenched everything. My sleeping bag was wet, my backpack was wet, everything was wet. This morning took a lot of sheer willpower to get out of my sleeping bag and change into my hiking clothes. I was shivering in the chilly morning air.
Later that morning we came upon Mary’s Oasis. There was a water cache along with a little library shelf of printed poems, books, and large cut-outs of Walt Whitman, John Muir, and Henry David Thoreau. There was also a trail register. When I went to sign it, I noticed that there were two Canadians with presumably a dog named Ollie who were about a day ahead of me. Other Canadians?! How exciting!
This morning the trail felt endless. It just kept going and going and going. I was ready to simply fall over and lay there forever.
Everyone met up at Paradise Valley Café which was a restaurant about a mile off trail. Adam stopped by for a bit and then decided to continue hiking. Treesmith, Good Timing, and Marla decided to skip ahead to Idyllwild today, which was a small mountain town about two hiking days away. And then there were four… myself, Brightside, Speedgoat, and Snow Angel.
We hiked another 2.7 miles to our campsite. The terrain shifted into beautiful granite boulders and bedrock, and trees. It was really exciting to finally be surrounded by some trees. I laid out my things to dry, they were still damp from this morning, but thankfully it was still sunny and there was a slight breeze.
Day 14
There was a beautiful big full moon this morning that turned progressively more orange as it sank into the Earth and became replaced by the light of the rising sun on the opposite side of the horizon.
The next water source was down a steep 1 mile side trail. As I made my way down the path I started to worry that there wouldn’t be water. The first two stream beds the trail crossed were bone dry. I was bracing myself for impact. But the trail eventually lead to a surprisingly beautiful forest with tall cedar trees. The only thing skewing this wonderful little oasis were the pervasive flies and gnats that persistently buzzed around my head.
After filling up on water I trudged back to the PCT. There was a guy sitting there rearranging his pack. A man from southeast England named Necktie. We chatted for a bit and then I continued on my way. After 45 minutes of having parted ways, he came striding past with his ultralight pack and single walking stick. I tried to keep pace as we chatted on the go but soon fell behind as his long, unrelenting legs carried him away.
There were a lot of downed trees that had toppled over the path and there were plenty of trees and shrubs growing into the trail. It was a crazy obstacle course!
I eventually rounded a corner and saw Necktie again. He was stopped talking to two people with a dog. I immediately realized these must be the Canadians I saw in the trail register! Jenny and Michael were Canadian siblings from Saskatchewan (of all places!) and their dog Ollie was a 13-month-old golden lab. As we got talking, they mentioned that they had a meditation necklace from someone named Adam which they’d been given to by someone else near Paradise Valley Café. Since I knew Adam, I agreed to take it and return it to him, although I wasn’t really sure when, or if, I’d see him again since he was a speedy hiker… and so the quest begins!
Necktie, Brightside, and I set up camp at mile 168.5. The views from the campsite were spectacular that evening. We were on top of a mountain ridge overlooking the desert below. Speedgoat and Snow Angel only briefly stopped by to chat and then decided to continue on, they wanted to start doing bigger miles. And then there were two… myself and Brightside. Our tramily had fallen apart as quickly as it had sprung together. Our interconnected threads had loosened and unraveled, however, there was hope that our paths might cross again.
As the sun set behind our mountain, the moon rose up big and bold over the horizon in front of us. The big orange moon from this morning had reappeared, although it was a little more pink this time. As the night sky became darker, we could see the twinkling lights from the city of Palm Springs down below, like a sparkling golden lake amidst the dark desert mountains. It felt strange to be camping in the mountain near a big, posh city. Such a contradiction of lifestyles.
Hi, Isabel: I am totally enjoying your weekly posts. Your photography is spectacular. Harold and I are in awe of your accomplishment. Thanks for sharing it.
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you’re enjoying it!
Thank you! I still cannot get over the water situation.