Day 27

Trail miles: 21.1

Total: 341.2

Our longest day yet! It’s embarrassing the motivation we have for some trail McDonald’s, which is 1.5 mi away. Raechel says we are killing ourselves for food that will probably kill us. She also mentioned stopping at the top of a hill to see if she could see the golden arches. Guess we are already all tired of trail food. Cajon will be a nice place to stop in and get more fuel and snacks too. We have a huge hill all the way into Wrightwood with no water sources.

Today was probably my favorite day for views. We headed for the first water source near Silverwood Lake and the trail around the lake was the best thing I’ve seen yet! I couldn’t believe there was so much water out here in the desert! We saw fishermen and a girl stand up paddle boarding. And then the hills leading up to the campsite were also spectacular. Good motivation for a long day. 

We ran into a not so friendly hiker who we have seen before. The first time was when she shushed me for asked Brad a question in a public area while she was on the phone. Then she came up beside a bunch of hikers and let out the largest fart. Koa screamed “was that a fart?!” And Brad dated it a 4/10. Raechel says she thinks she’s all that because she hiked the AT last year. Well the story of today is that Raechel walked out of the bathroom and said “it’s all yours Krista” but fart girl walked straight in. We waited for like 20 minutes and she never came out. We kept hearing the sink go off and the toilet flush. It was like she was taking a sink shower in there! We gave up waiting and never got to wash our hands. Hopefully we will get the chance to do it at Cajon because hand sanitizer is not the same.

Along with the rain pants that have ripped, I now found a hole in my socks and a hole in my shoe. Guess those will all need replacing in Wrightwood. My sleeping pad has a hole in it too so I have to blow it up throughout the night, but I want to patch that if I can.

Day 20

Trail miles: 17.3

Total: 248.2

Another long day with a significant amount of climbing. It took until lunch to get to the top of the 10 mile hill. I filtered 4 liters of water because we had a 17 mile dry stretch. I cut my lunch short to try to make it to camp before 6:00pm so I could have time to relax before bed. I am proud I can make it through these miles. The biggest struggle I have is when my pack is on too long, my back hurts. I just have to take more breaks and make sure those breaks are short. A hiker named Freedom helped me adjust my tent pitch so I could open up my vestibule longer and it definitely helped. Early morning tomorrow to make it into today for taco night.

Day 19

Trail miles: 17.5

Total: 230.9

Well the long mile days back to back are starting to get to me. Lots of elevation, heavy pack, and heat make for slow travel for me, which forces us to hike from sunrise to sunset. I spend all of the day hiking, eating, or filtering water. I hope to slow things down after Big Bear, but the trail towns may be too far apart. Depends on the terrain if I will be able to keep up. I felt ok today until the trail started following the creek. I thought that would be enjoyable, with less water to carry, but it turned out to be a jungle maze where we continuously lost the trail. We basically gave up when the sun started setting around 7:00pm. Ok so enough of the bad, the best part of today was Whitewater River! It was a treat to rest along a river in the desert. And then the second one at our lunch stop. A short summary today because I think I’ll go to bed now.

https://open.spotify.com/track/6rhz5IdIWfnU30MFuiL7Di?dl_branch=1&si=XlO9sa-_TMyJzbNrEIFvSA

Day 26

Trail miles: 14.1

Total: 320.1

We made it to the hot springs! We tried to get there early but I guess 6:30am wasn’t early enough because the springs were already crowded with naked people. I wasn’t going to give up yet. I did some recon and a little bit of rock climbing and found the perfect empty hot springs. It had high walls for seclusion and two warm water falls. Perfect for the cold morning. We got in with our underwear on and people did not bother us the whole time. We were in there for three ours! We ate breakfast and Krista made coffee and Raechel made tea. Krista found the best cutout of rock wall for her mug to sit in. Some of the pool was even deep enough to swim around in. Definitely a great place to lose some mileage. We found out it was crowded because there was a nudist furry swingers community having a candlelight ceremony for a furry who was shot and killed a few days ago. The hiker that told us this was in his third zero at the springs. I think he ran out of food because it didn’t sound like he was planning to stay that long.

The days are starting to get hotter again. Good thing too because I don’t want to wear my rain pants anymore due to the fact that I ripped a gigantic hole in the butt of them. Hopefully I’ll get some frogg toggs in Wrightwood. We met some creepy men at our siesta spot who were excited to see some “boobies” at the hot springs. Raechel was able to resolidify her snickers by laying it in the creek while we were filtering water. Brad ran off again. We are hoping he will bring us chicken nuggets and fuel since both Krista’s and mine ran out today. Thank goodness that Raechel thought to buy a new one every town because she saved our butts! Tomorrow we plan to do a higher mileage day to get as close to the McDonald’s in Cajon as possible so we can get breakfast and lunch there.

Day 25

Trail miles: 20.4

Total: 306.0

We woke up to frost covering everything. With the wind finally died down, it created a good environment for our first night of condensation, which froze in my sleeping bag. Everything else was under the tent so it stayed frost free. But out of the cold night, the coldest was putting my wet socks and shoes back on. The sun came out quickly so we were able to warm up fast. We took a lunch break at Deep Creek, where we took the time to rest and dry out our sleeping bags and tents. We skipped on trying to hitch to the malt shop because we wanted to get as close to the hot springs as possible without actually camping there. We figured Saturday night might be rowdy. We are camped at a site that’s marked as a water source, but someone commented that there are 3-4 tent sites above the stream. We are spread out in the bushes. Tomorrow we will try to beat the local Sunday crowd to the hot springs and leave as soon as some old man takes his pants off. Anyway, we hit mile 300 today! And met some nice people at the water source who came in by quad. They offered Brad weed, but he declined and later told me he would have rather them offered him their hot Cheetos. A true hiker trash response. Also last thought, why is everything keep trying to stab me in the desert? Every time I knock into a bush, it’s sharp and dry as heck. I’ve had enough!

Day 24

Trail miles: 17

Total: 285.6

Not too much happened today so l’ll spend most of this post complaining about my night. It started off windy as usual, but this time I kept getting a face full of sand blown into my face from under my vestibule. I turned away thinking that would solve the problem, but I just woke up at midnight to a thick layer of dirt covering everything in my tent including my camera. I got up two or three times to redo my tent vestibule to lower the doors and block the sand before I just gave up and built a rock wall to stop it. After finally going to sleep again, I woke up to 3 inches of snow outside. Good news is the only thing that was wet was my socks, but I had a backup pair to use. I dug out some gallon ziplock bags to wear in between my socks and crocs to walk through the snow to the pit toilet. It was so beautiful outside so I couldn’t stay upset. We cranked out another 17 mile day and got into camp early because it was too cold to take long breaks today. I used my afternoon to watch a movie on HBO and stay warm in my sleeping bag. Krista is catching up with the Fantastic Beasts movies so we can watch the new one in town. Raechel read her book and mentioned how peaceful it was to get to camp like this and chill. There is no wind right now so fingers crossed it stays that way. We might hit 300 miles tomorrow!

Day 23

 Trail miles: 2.5

Total: 268.6

We have started making a habit of doing a short nero after our zero. We will eat a big lunch in town and hop back on trail in the afternoon to do just enough miles to the first campsite. And I can’t even use the elevation as an excuse to why we did short miles because there was none. We are camped by latrines in the cover trees from wind and access to water. 

In the morning, we packed up our bags and cleaned up the B&B before trying to catch the trolly. Today was a real struggle fitting in the 6ish days of food carry. I had to move some things to be outside until I make a dent in the food. We waited for the trolley this time because we all had our packed bags and nobody wanted to walk the 1 mile to town. The wait was probably 30 minutes. We went to the post office to send our microspikes forward to Grumpy Bear in Kennedy Meadows. Then we had the best masala lunch I’ve ever had! It was called Himalayan Restaurant. We caught a hitch back to trail from a ultra runner who we may see running the trail tomorrow morning. I made sure my tent was patched up and vestibules pulled out for the incoming snow.

Day 22

 Trail miles: 0

Total: 266.1

Zero days are very busy because we want to resupply but also eat everything and explore the town. First was resupply. The Dollar General had perfect serving packages for cheap. The best was that I could keep variety in my food supply which I learned I definitely need. Then I found squeeze peanut butter at Stater Bros Market so I got 2 of those. Much lighter than a jar of peanut butter and I don’t have to get my spoon dirty. We have over 90 miles to hike before the next town so 7 days of food, but this section includes the McDonalds on trail! So one less dinner to pack out. This section also includes the hot springs! I better not see any naked people or worse, poop. I picked up my new biker shorts at the post office and we then ate some appetizers at the Big Bear Lake Brewing Company. Raechel had her PT appointment with Dr Llach which she was raving about when we got back. Also we are glad she is feeling better after almost losing her camera photos and having stomach pains. For dinner we had a 7 hiker potluck and I made green bean casserole. Brad was very stressed because we had instant charcoal instead of the good stuff. I have no idea what that means, but I’m happy to listen. I feel very full! The weather looks cold for the next couple days so some people have opted for a double zero. We will decide tomorrow, but probably won’t.

Day 21

 Trail miles:17.9

Total: 266.1

Our first spotting of a Joshua Tree!

I woke up at 4:00am after my vestibule tent stake was ripped out by the wind and kept smacking me in the side of the face. I decided I wanted to get an early start before the sunrise so I could get ahead on this 18 mile stretch to town. I will definitely do this more often because it was so relaxing to walk while the light was getting brighter. Then my sworn enemy, the wind, returned. It was just enough motivation to keep going, because it was too cold to stop. Which means today we hit our first 10 by 10! Or 10 miles by 10am. This set us up to finish at the highway 18 parking lot by 2:00pm. Good thing, too, because I was hungry and all I had left was chocolate bars. About 15 minutes into waiting for a hitch, we got a ride from Perry and his son Andrew who were very lovely to meet and talk to about the town! We dropped our things at the bnb and spent taco Tuesday at the Hacienda Grill. Then the rest of the night was spent doing laundry at Wash and Wear. We met a very experienced biker and laundromat user who biked the state of California and knew which washer was best. Now I can go to bed feeling fresh and clean for a fun filled zero tomorrow! Hopefully we can figure out the free transit trolley’s that always seem to be on the other side of town.

Day 18

Trail miles: 19.8

Total: 213.4

Well, I don’t know how, but the wind got worse!! There was at least a mile section of trail where we had to walk into a constant 30 mph (I’m just guessing) wind tunnel. Out of all the troubles I imagined on the PCT, I didn’t think wind would be the thing to make me go crazy. At least that was the worst of it. At camp I am trying a new pitch for my tent so hopefully I don’t have to worry about it collapsing at the slightest wind. I’m too worried about cowboy camping with my blowup sleeping pad and all the spiky plants in the desert.

We walked just shy of 20 miles again and hit the 200 mile mark! My feet do not hurt as bad as the last 20 mile day so things might be getting better, who knows. It is difficult sometimes to think how many more miles are left but I have to keep reminding myself to look at things in smaller chunks or I will overwhelm myself. At least I can listen to podcasts when things get boring or my spirits are low, like today doing a 12 mile downhill switchback section on the same mountain. At the bottom of the hill, we filtered water and ate lunch. I tried to charge my phone, but yesterday I dropped my charging block, phone, and charging cable in the last water source, so it was lucky only the cable was broken. But it meant going into Cabazon to buy a new one. Luckily I found this out only a mile away from where hikers usually hitch. Brad was already planning on going into town to pick up a few things, so we set off together. In the parking lot, a truck was waiting and asked if we needed a ride. We threw our packs in the bed of the truck and hopped in. I think they were curious about the PCT and were there checking it out, because they asked where the trail went next. They offered to drive us around the city to where we needed to go and then bring us back!! I can’t believe we keep lucking out with such generous people. They even let me stop at In n Out to take back with me on the trail! Makes up for a lousy day in some aspects. Back on trail, we stopped for some trail magic under the I 10 bridge, which was a perfect spot to hide from the wind. Then we set off to the Mesa Wind Farm for camp.

Day 17

Trail miles: 12.3

Total: 193.6

It seems like we are never going to know a windless sleep again. I had to use a lot of rocks and a couple of trees to set my tent up because the tent stakes wouldn’t go down further than a couple inches.

We took an alternate route this morning to the top of San Jacinto. I am not sure how many miles this added on, maybe a couple? The app makes it difficult to read the side trail lengths and elevation. We didn’t stay too long at the top because the wind was so cold. But we got our pictures! There was a lot of snow on the way down depending on what side of the mountain the trail was on. I think this is what irritated my ankle so much, from the wobbly steps. I tried to ice it in the creek water, but snow runoff is cold and I couldn’t keep it in the water longer than 20 seconds at a time. I needed one of those feet covers they use for ice baths or winter rafting. Seemed like a short day but the elevation was tough and the 5 liter water carry might have been tougher. Tomorrow is all downhill though and the next water supply is in 10 miles. Oh and mile 200 should be coming up very soon!!

Day 16

Trail miles: 1.9

Total: 181.3

First I should mention that I won’t be able to post every day because there isn’t a lot of service up here on the mountains. I make sure to keep track of my daily blog in my notes app and post once I get service.

Even though it looks like we did a short mileage day, it doesn’t count the 2 1/2 mile side trail we took to get back to the trail and how it was still over 2,500 ft in elevation gain. But nonetheless it was a nice nero after our zero. We took our time getting ready in the morning, making sure to squeeze in another shower before we left. Of course our clothes never stop smelling, though, no matter now much I scrub them in the sink. I mentioned that trail angel Scott offered to bring me memory cards from San Diego today and he did! When I tried to pay him back through an app like Venmo or PayPal and he just said I could make a donation in his name to the Warner Springs Resource center where PCT hikers can charge electronics and wash clothes. And then he was off to rescue a hiker whose wife was in early labor and needed a ride to LAX. I can’t see how anyone can top his efforts in trail angeling!! Also why are you hiking if your wife is pregnant? Just saying. So my GoPro is fixed and hopefully more cool video to come. 

Debbie from the bunkhouse dropped us off in town where we did our resupply and had lunch. I really need to come up with some craftier ideas for trail food or I’m going to get sick of tuna and peanut butter very soon. Lunch was fantastic. Krista and I split a breakfast crepe (sausage, egg, bacon, and cheese) and a Hippo waffle (gelato, strawberries, whipped cream, and kinder chocolate). I also had my first town coffee, which was a blended coconut mocha. At least the eggs and sausage weren’t sugar. Then we caught a ride with the Idyllwild shuttle to the Humber Park trailhead. I don’t know if it’s getting easier, but I was able to make the long climb without stopping, even if it was a slow crawl at best. I snuggled up in my sleeping bag early because of the cold and made dinner in my vestibule. And I finished the last two episodes of Bridgerton. It’s funny that I miss mindless TV at night. While at the bar last night I saw Survivor was playing and reminisced on watching TV at night with my mom! I guess I’ll have to make the best of downloading Netflix on trail. Oh and hopefully Raechel and I can see Dr. Strange and the Dumbledore movie in a town soon.

Day 15

 Trail miles: 0

Total: 179.4

So the best part of today, hence why I added all three photos of him, was when we got to meet the mayor of Idyllwild, who is a golden retriever named Max. 

While working on chores before heading to town, I asked the PCT 2022 Facebook page if there was anywhere to buy memory cards. No one had any suggestions, but a trail angel who was planning on driving from San Diego to Idyllwild offered to pick me up a couple on the way! I plan to meet him tomorrow in town. Debbie from the hotel gave us a shuttle to town around 11. Breakfast from the Red Kettle was ok, but I wish I would have gotten the breakfast quesadilla which looked so much better. The rest of the town activities were mostly productive until 4, where I sat in the main town square to wait for Mayor Max. Then we were able to round up 11 thru hikers for dinner at La Casita. We split up into multiple tables in the corner and had a great time! The party continued as we moved to Idyllwild Pizza Company, where most of the place was filled with hikers! And you can tell who is a hiker because they all have puffy’s and fanny packs on. We ended the night with homemade cake baked by Violet and blondies baked by Cole’s mom.