PCT 2019 Day 5 May 8/19

Daily mileage 24
Total mileage 109
Hiked from 6:00 am to 5:00 pm

A day of snakes.

My little wind sheltered camp site worked out just fine last night.  A few gusts got in there and shook the tent but overall it was a good night.

I got rolling with a single mission in mind: get to the water cache 6 miles up the trail. I had enough to get there, but only just.  Again, I cannot thank these trail angels who haul hundreds of gallons of bottled water up a remote dirt road  enough.

I was cruising up the only long hill of the day when I saw something silver stretched across the trail.  Snake! But there was no rattle attached to the end of it so my anxiety went down immediately. If anyone knows what kind of snake it is in the picture I would love to know.

So then it was on with the task of completing the climb.  The day was neither hot nor cold.  The wind did kick up a bit but not as bad as the last couple of days.

Over the top and down the other side to Barrel Springs.  I was the only person there, so I took a prolonged break that included a big lunch and just general down time.

Old mine shaft. How did these old timers know this was the right place to dig?

Then it was off to cover the last 8 miles into Warner Springs.  The profile looked pretty benign so I was thinking of an easy cruise.  Silly me. None of the hills were large, there was just a bunch of them.

100 miles in the bag

As I was mindlessly wandering up one of the hills, I saw something black poking out from behind a bush.  This one definitely had a rattle on the end of it and it was a big one. Luckily it was fairly flat terrain so I could walk around it.  It showed no inclination to move otherwise.

The rest of the hike into town was without incident. I had decided to stay at the only hotel/resort rather than tenting it.  The call of a shower was mighty indeed.  So now I am at the Warner Springs Resort for at least one night, likely two.

One thing about a small place like Warner Springs is that there is but one restaurant in "town" and it closes at 5:00 pm. I got here just after 5 which is why I am enjoying a couple of delightful frozen microwave burritos for dinner.

Home for the night

PCT 2019 Day 4 May 7/19

Daily mileage 21
Total mileage 85
Hours hiked 6:00 am to 4:00 pm

The day that not very much happened.

I got up near first light after an unexpectedly poor sleep and was away quickly. The miles just came hard today. It was in no way a punishing day elevation wise and the day was cool, albeit extremely windy, but I just was not feeling it.  But I am still early on in this hike.  The trail legs will come.

Random sign post

The trail ahead

I cannot recall being filthier in my life.  The last natural water source was Oriflamme Creek yesterday around noon.  Since then we have relied on the generosity of trail angels to provide water.  It would be the height of ingracious behavior to use donated water to do anything but drink it, so the filth gathers. Oh well, I should be in Warner Springs later tomorrow or early Thursday.

I know that before the start of this hike I said I would stretch out my hiking day rather than picking an arbitrary distance for the day.  Well, there goes that notion. What I had forgotten or ignored was just how whipped I am at the end of around 20 miles.

The cacti blooms are stunning

The trail behind

The misty fog on the hills I hiked in yesterday

Granite Mountain

Well, here is hoping for a calm night.  I am tucked away from the wind somewhat, but Big Agnes is getting rocked a bit already. BTW Big Agnes is my tent you filthy minded readers.

Home for the night

PCT 2019 Day 3 May 6/19

Daily mileage  22
Total mileage 63
Hours hiked 6:30 am to 4:00 pm

Easy hiking and lots of wind.

I slept very well in my dingy little cabin.  The wind gathered strength throughout the night and I awoke to a very misty and windy morning.

The profile for today's hike showed basically flat ending in a steep downhill.  And that is what the trail provided.  Basically cruiser trail.  I even managed my first ten by ten (ten miles by ten am).

The mist burnt off around mid morning meaning I could take in the sweeping vistas.  Just stunning.

Misty morning trail

Clearing up

I believe that is the Salton Sea in the upper right

Oriflamme Creek.  Yes I did get drinking water from there!

An abandoned section of the Sunrise Hwy repurposed to be part of the PCT

By late afternoon a few rain clouds made a brief appearance.  Just a few sprinkles but enough to urge forward progress.

At the end of the hiking day, I decided to grab a rather luxe campsite and get set up early in case of rain. I could have milked a few more miles out but stopping seemed prudent.  Now I am regretting that decision as I listen to a loud group in the site next to me going on about how they are bad ass hiker trash.  If you have to announce that status, then you probably are not.

Home for the night

PCT 2019 Day 2 May 5/19

Daily mileage 21
Total mileage 41
Hiked from 6:30 am to 5:30 pm

Trail magic and a very long hill.

I slept like a log last night despite the freezing temperatures.  To put an exclamation point on that, there was ice on my tent this morning.

I got going a bit later than I would have liked.  Just not in the routine yet.  The first six miles were flat and fast.  Then the trail showed her mean side. That was a three thousand foot climb over the course of about 13 miles. I am sure that later in this hike when I have acquired my trail legs, a climb like this will be no problem.  But at this stage of the hike, it is a problem.  Oh well, I made it to Mt Laguna whipped but no worse for wear.

Goodbye Interstate 8

The geology around this area is fascinating

A wet winter equals a green desert in places

About half way up the climb, we came to a highway crossing.  And there was a car parked there with a gaggle of hikers around it. That can only mean one thing.  Trail magic!

Leigh and her trail magic

Leigh from Pine  Valley is providing trail magic every Sunday which made us a lucky bunch of hikers.  Gateraid, cold water, sandwiches, fruit and candy. What more could a hiker ask for. If you ever read this, you rock Leigh.

The day started out cold and never made it past warmish. Add to that a final elevation of 6,000 feet as well as a brisk wind and it was actually quite cold by the time I got to Laguna.  So, to stay in my tent or get a room at the only "Lodge" in town.  Well that was easy.  So here I sit in a cabin for which I doled out way too much money and had to endure the grumpiest inn keep I have ever dealt with.  But I am warm, freshly showered and listening to the wind pick up out there.

Every now and then we get to hike through forest instead of chapparel

Home for the night

PCT 2019 Day 1 May 4/19

Daily mileage 20
Total mileage 20 (duh)
Hiked from 7 am to 6 pm

That was some kind of welcome back there PCT.

My ever patient wife and son got up at 4 am so that we could travel from Anaheim  (we spent four days doing things that are the complete antithesis to hiking) so I could get an early start to my day. 

After signing the register and taking the obligatory photos, I was off.  Actually my son was off with me for the first two miles.  We met up with my wife at the designated place and then I was off on my own.

At the Southern monument

Walking with my son. I could not convince him to carry my pack

The day broke cool but sunny.  It did not take long for the cool to be replaced by pretty darn warm.  Not outright hot but definitely warm.

One unexpected cool thing that happened was there was a training hike happening in the opposite direction on the trail.  It was for an upcoming fundraiser for the San Diego branch of the Make a Wish Foundation.  The same event that I walked through in the Big Bear area in 2017.  This year they are estimating that they will raise almost a half million dollars in the event.  Pretty cool.

So back to my hike.  To put it simply, it started well and then the trail kicked the crap out of me.  I was really struggling with the two largish uphills, particularly the second one out of Hauser Canyon.  It was warm and it turns out that I am old and not in tiptop shape. 

Dry hot trail

Fauna

Flora

Typical scenery

Lake Morena at last

But, with the aid of a couple of breaks that may have involved naps, I made it into Lake Mareno.

Home for the night

PCT ver 2 getting close

In less than 10 weeks, I will be back on the Pacific Crest Trail.  And guess what? It is snowing in the Sierra like crazy. Not 2017 levels, but well above average.  Man, can I pick them!

So, given that this will be my second crack at this trail, I do get asked just what it is that I will do differently this time around.  I need to preface the answer to that question with the proviso that I am very proud that I was able to complete over 1350 trail miles in one of the most challenging hiking years on the PCT in recent memory.  What I am trying to say is that I don't believe that I have to make gigantic adjustments, but several tweeks are in order.

First, there is food consumption. I lost about 28 pounds over the course of 73 days on trail.  While it was nice to revisit my high school weight, it was obvious that I could not continue loosing at that rate.

This was me on Day 1 at 186 pounds

This was me on the second to last day of my 2017 hike at 158 pounds

So this time around, I simply must make a bigger effort to eat more.  Unfortunately food weighs a lot. But c'est la vie. I will just have to suck it up.  Also, taking town food like a burger or sub out will help.  And I have to quit being so conservative on the consumption.  Several times I ended up packing food into the next trail town because I was always lording over the calorie budget.

Next up - gear.  I really liked the vast majority of the gear I carried.  But minor upgrades are good. I have gone out and bought a very lightweight closed foam sleeping pad.  This will serve two purposes. First, it will make a first rate seating pad.  But it will hopefully also protect my inflatable sleep pad.  I had lots of issues with small holes in the pad last time.  My theory is that if I put the foam pad under the inflatable one it will reduce the incidence of punctures.

This time, I am going to carry a cell phone right from the start.  Seriously, these new portable telephones are incredible.   Everyone should try one. 

The other item that falls under gear is footwear.  Simply put, I asked too much of my trail runners. I will have to figure out a way to replace these shoes on the fly more frequently.

Yeah, maybe 850 miles on a pair of trail runners was too much

Another change I want to strive for is on the mental side.  Simply stated, I want to be more flexible regarding the duration of my hiking day.  Rather than arbitrarily setting a distance goal each day, I want to just hike each day until it feels like I should stop.  Oddly this will likely mean more mileage rather than less most days.

Also on the mental side of the ledger, I know I will have to be cognoscente of the fact that the social side of the hike will be different this go round. I was extremely fortunate to fall in with a group on the trail in 2017 that was amazing.  The chances of recapturing that lightening in a bottle are slim.

The group I hiked with in 2017.  We were known simply as "The Big Group"

Finally, I want to take more photos and video. So many times on the trail, I would get past an outstanding feature, person or event and then wonder why I did not immortalize it at the time.  In my defense I am of the generation where a photo had to be developed and printed at substantial cost.  OK that is a poor excuse but it is the best I can do.

So there are the tweeks I think are necessary for my PCT 2019 adventure.  Now it is back to the couch for some more training.