2MoreMiles…

Day 35: (14.6 miles)
mile 463.4 – 478

Up early with Gear Slut, and off to make for Cinco de Mayo at the Anderson’s.  The night before we hiked till nearly 10pm as the temp and trail were perfect for night hiking…besides we had to burn off the food and beverages. 

We hit the first water cache (thank you trail angels) and cooked up some Via coffee and oatmeal. The path was easy to traverse and we were making pretty good time.  The trail wound through a semi wooded area sprinkled with poison oak so we had to pay attention…just a bit. 

Gear Slut and I

When we hit the second cache maintained by the Anderson’s we knew we were “home free” with only 7 miles to go.  We grabbed a soda each, sat a bit till we started to get cold, changed our socks and began the final trek to Casa de Luna, home of “Hippie Day Care” and a “must stop” for PCT thru hikers if not just to experience the ambiance and eat your fill of taco salad.  Of course the last 2 miles seemed to take forever.  However, we were graced with a ride in a “clown car”(you know he small little car at the circus where 10 clowns climb out of) just as we arrived at the road, otherwise it was another 2 miles to the Anderson’s house.

Five of us, including our packs, stuffed into a very small stick shift car made for an interesting ride. 

Ian

Luckily it had a sun roof, which for all practical purposes was the deciding factor that allowed us to “fit”.  We arrived at Casa de Luna and selected a Hawaiian shirt (required attire) from a rack of nearly 100 hanging from a rack in the front yard. After we had selected and set up our sleeping area from over 40 campsites carved out in their expansive backyard, we joined the festivities. 

Chinese Rock, Carlos, Beowolf, Monsoon

"Bambi"

About 20 other hikers, many we knew or had met previously on the trail were staying there as well.  Bear in mind that all the festivities take place on/in the Anderson’s front yard and driveway.  At first we wondered what their neighbors thought, but then they’ve been doing this for nearly 15 years so I expect it’s like living next to the train tracks…eventually you get used to them and/or tune them out.  Luckily most hikers are down for the count by 9pm.

Day 33: (10 miles)
mile 444.3 – 454.3 / 2275 ft – 2669 ft

Short quick day…no terrain photos as phone has been in a coma for two days now.  We have been relying on Halfmile’s printed maps for direction.  We passed by the “Golden Spike” (place with a mini monument where the PCT was dedicated upon its completion) as you exit Acton over the top of the railroad tracks and begin your 2000 ft climb over 3 miles.  We crossed under Hwy 14 via a long and mysterious tunnel into the mouth of Vasquez Rocks recreation area.  The area is Flintstone-esq and is the site for numerous movies and TV shows (Star Trek and an episode of Big Bang Theory come to mind).  We are eager to reach Agua Dulce, home of Hiker Haven (the Saufley’s) for a Nero and possibly a Zero, and to get to a Verizon store to get my phone out of its coma and/or replaced.  I am fearful I have lost all my contact and photos.  As luck would have it, even before we reach the Saufley’s we are blessed with our own, what would be, personal trail angels, Bill and Kathy.  We meet them on the trail near Vasquez rocks as their hiking route intersects with ours.  Paul asks them which of the three paths we have before us gets us to town the easiest.  They point us in the right direction and begin to walk and talk with us.  Paul walks ahead with Bill, and Kathy and I stroll behind.  Kathy is training for a half marathon she is going to do with her sister in San Diego, Bill and Paul talk about dogs and hunting.  We talk about the PCT and some of our adventures.  I ask Kathy if she knows where the nearest Verizon store is and why I need to go.  She offers to take us there.  I  graciously accept the offer.  Kathy asks when we want to go.  I tell her, whatever is convenient for her, but she’ll probably want to let us clean up a bit at the Saufley’s before she let’s us in her car at close quarters due to our hiker trash aroma.  By this time we are rounding the corner to Agua Dulce’s main street.  It is still fairly early in the day and we are hungry and spy the rest of the hiker crew at the Sweetwater Cafe eating under a big banner welcoming the 2014 PCT hikers.  Kathy and I catch up to Paul and Bill.  Bill tells Kathy about us needing to go to a Verizon store and that they could take us.  We laugh…funny you should mention that.  Bill and Kathy further offer to let us shower at their home and even spend the night if we want as they have a spare bedroom.  They explain that they only live a couple blocks away from the Saufley’s and they’d like to hear more about the PCT (Bill would like to hike it and is trying to convince Kathy that she would enjoy it as well).  We heartily accept their offer to town and the shower as well.  We are a little hesitant about the room as we are not sure what the set up is at the Saufley’s and do not want to inconvenience these wonderful people anymore than we probably already will.  They insist it is no trouble for them, and leave us to get a bite to eat and think about what we want to do as they have a few things to do before they are ready to go into town (Santa Clarita).  We drop our packs at the curb of the Sweetwater Cafe.  We sign our names to the banner and enjoy one of the best meals we’ve had in awhile.  Paul has an enormous breakfast burrito (that he initially wanted to share with me as he wasn’t that “hungry”) I decline and order chocolate milk and banana bread french toast…it was to die for!  We practically lick our plates clean although, honestly we really weren’t that hungry.  We don our packs and check the directions Bill gave us to his house.  We walk admiring the neighborhood.  We talk about how lucky we were to run into Bill and Kathy and think we must be doing something right for God to bless us with so much goodness.  We are continually amazed by the kindness of strangers we meet along the way and marvel at their selflessness.  We arrive at Bill and Kathy’s and are greeted by their champion hunting dogs.  They welcome us into their home and have fresh towels ready for us to use.  We leave our packs outside (no sense bringing in unnecessary grime). The shower is splendid, not only because the water is hot but also because the shower head is tall and we don’t have to duck or contort ourselves to get under the stream of piping hot water.  Now that most of the grime and stench is gone, we are ready to go.  They drop us at a Verizon store while they run some errands.  The guy at the store is able to “wake” my phone from its coma, but cannot replace it or upload my info so as not to lose it.  He directs us to the corporate store and begins to give us directions… We haven’t a clue where we are in southern California for the most part, and tell him verbal directions are useless to us, could we please just have the address.  While we are waiting for Bill and Kathy, we get a soda and a snack at BevMo next door ( yes we only got a soda…thought it would be poor form to have a beer or two before our trail angels picked is up).  We sit at an outdoor table and people watch.  Paul accidentally drops one of the pretzels on the cement, we look at each other, the pretzel, and then make a conscious (although seemingly unnatural) decision NOT to pick it up off the ground.  Hikers never waste food or water.  If you drop food on the ground the five second rule never applies.  Just pick it up, dust it off, and/or blow on it and eat it, no questions asked. Bill and Kathy arrive and agree to take us to the corporate Verizon.  We are done in 30 minutes or so as my phone has a clean bill of health, but I cannot use the Bushnell solar charger for my phone as it appears to be what was affecting my phone.  I buy a lightweight Motorola rechargeable battery pack as a replacement. On the ride back we talk about the trail and family, they again offer their spare bedroom.  We can’t resist and accept the offer and the angels accept our offer to go out to dinner. Deal. We return to their home for laundry and a tour of the awesome garden, chickens, quail and the coolest outhouse we’ve ever seen. The outhouse had a flushing toilet made from a beer keg that actually flushed. Sorry we didn’t take a picture! 
    Kathy and Bill even lent us their car to pick up our resupply box from the Saufley’s.  You should have seen the look on the other hikers faces when we arrived with a car. We were instantly inundated with questions, which we answered matter of fact like. Knowing full well we were the most fortunate hikers ever. We returned to our angel’s home for more socializing before going to the local French restaurant.  We return stuffed to the gills and retire to a soft bed and the best nights sleep in a long time. 

Day 34 (10 miles)
mile 454.3 – 464.3

In the morning we were treated to coffee, fresh egg omelet and toast before departing to the Saufley’s to prepare for an evening hike.   We hope to have Kathy and Bill down to our home when we finish the hike in an attempt to return their hospitality.

The Saufley's compound

At the Saufley’s we made plans with Imaginary Friend (aka. Gear Slut) to eat an early dinner and evening/night hike to beat the heat.

   After dinner at the local Mexican restaurant and a few margaritas we knocked out ten miles, mostly in the dark and camped.  Needless to say we went to sleep with big smiles on our faces thankful for how blessed we have been.

Day: 32 (14.1 miles)
mile 430.6 – 444.3 / 5878 ft- 2275 ft

We left from Messenger Flats and were back on the PCT.  The trail was not devoid of poodle dog bush, and in places barely avoidable.  I think this plant has something against hikers as it is a sneaky little bugger, interspersed amongst benign flora and fauna adjacent the trail reaching into the trail at ankle and hand level.  Its friend poison oak also made an appearance. That waxy leaf sneaks up on you when you least expect it.  Today’s trek required focus and concentration.  We (Paul, Poco Loco and I) thought we’d be smart and road walk a bit to cut out an uphill of poodle dog and blow downs.  Apparently we were too smart for our own good and almost missed getting back on the trail resulting in a bit of bushwhacking…dodging through poodle dog bush…Poco Loco got the worst of it as she got to the point of no return in her bushwalking and ended up just plowing through the stuff.  We reached the North Folk Ranger station happy to find its resident (USFS carpenter) ensuring plenty of water for the remaining leg to the Acton KOA 8 blistering hot miles away.  Once fully hydrated and “rested” we set off in the late morning sun to the KOA.  Loaded down with 4 liters of water as it was going to reach near, if not over 100 degrees, and the call of beers, ice cream…and a shower overrode and thought of sensibility of waiting till after the height of the heat had passed.  Heat stroke be damned, icy cold ingestible foodish products await!  The Acton KOA was like Shangrala, an oasis of sorts, and it arrived not a moment too soon as we hit the pavement we were both out of water.  The staff at the KOA went out of their way to make us welcome and see to our needs.  Beer run? Towels? Pizza? Our own thru-hiker section and hiker box with shampoo and soap…glorious soap and flushing toilets with near endless supply of TP and hot water.  The only odd part about the KOA was the unusual noises…freight and passenger trains that run till midnight… (normal people midnight), and the roar lions?  Beowolf asked the next morning, ” Did anyone hear dinosaurs last night?” Turns out what we heard were the roars of lions AND tigers…Michael Jackson’s, lions and tigers to be exact at a wildlife refuge called Shangrala… remarkable, who’d a thunk it?

Day 31: (23 miles)
mile 407.6 – 430.6 /  ft – 5878 ft

We awoke to sandy mouths (at least I did) and sand in our sleeping bags.  We were all watered up and “suited” up for battle with poodle dog bush.  I swear if the X Games ran out of ideas for events, have I got a great idea for them.  It would be like the steeplechase on steroids.  It would be 23 miles, and include the following obstacles: varied uneven surface with a multitude of uphill and downhill switchbacks,

poodle dog bush avoidance with 1/8 inch tolerances, a maze of charred downed trees interspersed with poodle dog bush,

an uphill road walk/run with varying pitches from 0-17 degrees, all while carrying a minimum of 25 lbs in temperatures to average at least 90 degrees.  The winner would be the person finishing the fastest that does not contract a rash from poodle dog bush and does not have to be treated for any heat related condition.  The commentary would be awesome.  I’d have someone with an Australian accent as the color commentator.  “It looks like Drew has run into a bit of a snag in his approach. 

Let’s see how he reckons he’s going to avoid that patch of poodle and vault that titanic deadfall.” “That’s right Ian, it looks like a bit of a blister factory to me.”…” Collin, what are you seeing at your leg?” “Well Ian, looks like Sarah’s gotten herself in a bit of a pickle and didn’t figure on having to negotiate 4 interlocked downfalls

…she’s only 5’4″… a bit of a pixie if you ask me.  Oh wait, she’s shedding her pack. Looks like she’s using the toss and roll method.  Now that’s using your noodle.” “Collin, I imagine she’ll get a bit sooty”. ” Ah ya, that she will Ian, but when you’re as tenacious a competitor as Sarah a slathering of charcoal is just war paint”. 

…and so it would go, and so it did for the most part, minus the race part.  The entire day involved contorting ones self around poodle bush accented by gusting winds and heat. 

We had to road walk a portion down to the Mill Station Ranger station which allowed Paul to listen to his radio and me to finish one of my audio books (without falling asleep). 

We watered up again at Mill Station with a little over 4 liters and started a 17 mile road walk on an old abandoned road on recommendation of the Forest Service Ranger.  It sure beat 30-60 mph gusty winds with burnt out trees, ready to fall at any moment, carpeted by poodle dog bush.  More than not getting a massive rash from poodle dog bush, we didn’t want to be crushed by a falling tree, as we were positive we wouldn’t be able to move fast enough to come out unscathed. 

After the road walk that wound itself through an old burnt out prison of sorts and the memorial to the two firefighters who died in the 2007 Station Fire, we ended up at Messenger Flats, and it turns out we had unknowingly caught up to our friend Eng (aka. gear Slut) and new section hiker, Joey.

Day 30: (22 miles…8 unnecessary)
mile 393 – 407.6

Hard way all day was the mantra, but it was not without some good unexpected surprises.  As we were packing up, who should approach but “Imaginary Friend” who had left the trail a week or so prior to finish a job in Berlin.  Apparently he goes by “Gear Slut” which frankly fits him perfectly.  We catch up. He moves on and we say we will see him at the end of the day…maybe.  An off duty Forest Service Ranger who’s on a day hike passes by and stops to talk. “Are you going to hike the detour trail or wuss out like some of the others and hitch to the next spot, he asks?”. He looks exactly like (and sounds like too) the Lorax from Dr. Seuss.  We tell him that were just about to head out to the Burkhart trail, and if we were going to hitch we would have camped closer to the road.  Finally we get on our way. The weather is perfect and our feet are really moving so quickly we miss read the signage and continue the PCT SOBO now for about 4 miles on the new endangered species (18.7 mile) detour before we realize we missed the hairpin turn. Crap! And we were really hiking fast.  Back we go practically running back to the missed turn. When we reach the spot we stop to change our socks, hydrate and have a bite.  Up walks Why Not , Poco Loco and Grasshopper!  They initially attempt to go the way we have been, looking for direction markers, but we motion to the turn and head (now) in the proper direction, saying ‘trust us…it’s this way’.  We get the opportunity later to explain ourselves after we had told them we got a ” late start”.  We leap frog for the rest of the day. I’m toast cause I’ve already racked up 12+ miles which should have been only 4 by now. We are still fuming at our blunder and then start to laugh as we wonder what our tracking points must look like on the Delorme and to our friends and family who are following.  We wish someone would have texted us, “Dude, where are you going?”. We make it to Three Points, Why Not’s group pauses as they are wondering what happened to Spirit… She should have been here by now or at least passed us.  We then break down and tell of our missed turn and extra miles.  Later Spirit arrives completely dejected, as were we. We tell her she’s not alone.  It’s too fresh for her and not funny yet.  We hike on to the next water source at mile 407 and camp on a road in between two locked pipe gates.  We figure we’re safe here…at least from being run over, but NOT the wind. Exhausted we bed down with dust swirling around and at us throughout the night.  Over 400 miles down now. Wow.

Day 29: (17miles)
mile 376 – 393 / 7768 – 9300 – 6553 ft

So we awoke to super gusty icy cold winds.  It was so cold that eating or making coffee was not even an option.  It was time to walk ourselves warm.  What usually takes maybe “2 miles” took practically all day.  Our packs were still heavy with food and water and the trek up to Baden-Powell alone is steep and laborious, so add freezing 50-60mph gusting winds and you have a recipe for colorful language, frozen faces, fingers and lots of snot. 

Nearly the top of Baden-Powell

More than once we were nearly blown off our feet.  The wind would gust, catch your pack and or leg as you lifted it to take a step and immediately you’d be struggling to regain your balance before being knocked down.  One time a gust hit me so hard at the top of one ridge that had it not been for Paul catching my arm as I was losing my balance and fighting to stay on the “uphill” side of the ridge, I probably  wouldn’t be writing anymore. Battling the wind, cold and elevation was challenging and exhilarating at the same time. Don’t get me wrong, this was far from fun, but still exhilarating.  We finally found a place out of the wind (not really, but at least it wasn’t gusty) and had breakfast. We cupped our coffee as make shift hand warmers and ate crushed “pop tarts”. We checked our maps and apps and figured we had 6 more miles till water at Little Jimmy Spring.  Onward we trudged with our heads bowed against the wind right past the turn in the trail that would take us to Little Jimmy Spring.  The trail we continued on was well worn and behaved like the PCT (taking you indirect routes to places you want to be)…all the way down to Hwy 2. A 1500 ft. drop in elevation. What? What the heck happened? Worse yet…we are out of water. 

Turns out we were now at Dawson Saddle six miles from where we want to be.  At least we were out of the wind.  Hmmm. What to do next?  Go back up or road hike?  After what we just went through, we were not going back up anything so road walk it was.  Several motorcycles passed us…going in the opposite direction.  An hour goes by, we have the two lane Hwy still all to ourselves.  A Caltrans snow removal type truck goes by (in our direction), Paul puts out his thumb.  The guy waves at us and lowers his plow face scrapping the asphalt spewing dust and gravel over us as he passes.  We stop in disbelief.  What a jerk!  We dust ourselves off and continue. No sooner does Caltrans go by, but another car comes up from behind us, slows beside us and asks if we’re hiking the PCT, and if wed like a ride. “We figure your off track a bit”.  Why yes we are and YES we will take a ride to Islip Saddle if you please…4 miles down the road. 

We are grateful that Dan and Susan that live in Agua Dulce and are familiar with the Saufley’s  (a house trail angle) and more importantly PCT hikers.  They apologize for the cramped conditions (its a Mustang they are driving and we would ride on the roof if necessary), but we don’t care.  They tell us they are headed home to Agua Dulce and by chance decided to take this route.  Lucky us!  They drop us off at Islip Saddle. We thank them profusely. They pick up another thru hiker who is thumbing for a ride at Islip Saddle.  Somehow we mistakenly think that there would be water at Islip, not necessarily.  There is parking, a pit bathroom and recycle bin. No water.  Decision time. Walk UP the two miles to Little Jimmy Springs from the Hwy, or…try and Yogi some water. Yogi it is. Thankfully there are two cars still parked in the lot. 

Paul contacts Allen who is throwing away trash. Score!  Does he have water, why yes he does! How much do we need, he asks. He asks about the PCT and all it entails. We talk for a bit as we fill up and camel up for our trek to Buckhorn Campground.  Off we go again. 

We hike 3 miles and the trail loops around back to the Hwy.  Crossing the Hwy is a picnic area which is the beginning of another trail detour. Oh joy!  The detour is to protect “the spotted frog”.  We now have to road walk 3 miles on the Hwy again. Arrrrrr!! After about a mile, a car heading in the opposite direction pulled over and asked the now familiar question ” Are  you thru hiking the PCT”? We proudly said “Yes”! 

Ed and Annette were local hikers and had seen this movie before and knew we were headed to Buckhorn campground, the trailhead and the end of the detour. We accept their invite for a ride and they dropped us off at the closest campsite to the trailhead. They were very gracious, told us some local intel, and gave us some awesome trail mix!

      We set up camp with our tarp as a lean-to and bed down for the night. The wind had plans for us, and in the middle of the night blew our tarp into the air with a big Wuush! We quickly collected our gear and were back staring at the stars laughing about how we thought the tarp could handle the wind. Good night.

Good morning!

Day 28: (24 miles…with a trail angel hitch)
mile 352 – 376 / 5401 ft – 7768

Today was fairly easy miles. We had  some lingering snow drifts to walk through, but they were manageable.

We finally encountered actual poodle dog bush.  It is tall, stinky and does it’s best to reach into the trail. 

We did our best to avoid it.  At times we felt like contortionists.  Other than that the trail was “easy” so we decided to “challenge” ourselves (we heard the call of beer and burgers) and take the dreaded Acorn Trail into Wrightwood to pick up our resupply for the trek to Agua Dulce. 

We found the nearly 3 mile road walk from the base of the Acorn Trail into town harder on our feet than the 2.7 mile downhill from the PCT.  While in town saw “Bambi” and “Zombie” and caught up with “Big Easy” and “Bulldog II” over a cheeseburger and a pitcher of beer at the Yolderer.  The owner let me charge my phone as we ate and talked. As we ate, who should appear but “Why Not”, ” Grasshopper”, “Poco Loco”, “Atlas” and “Spirit”. We were sure they were well ahead seeing we got such a late start and mainly because we are slow and they are fast., but they were either doing a zero or a nero in Wrightwood.  As we had not scheduled a Nero for Wrightwood, we needed to get going .  Big Easy and Bulldog had to stay another night as Big Easy’s new shoes hadn’t come in yet.  We hastily packed up our resupply food and realized at once that possibly had too much.  We have got to stop this as this stuff gets heavy…even more so as we had A LOT of uphill and elevation to gain right out of the shoot.  We decided that rather than backtrack up the Acorn Trail, (as we had walked the equivalent of the PCT miles which would have required a hitch back into town on Hwy 2) we would hitch to the trailhead where we would have walked out of had we not taken the Acorn Trail.  We were warned that it could take awhile to get a hitch out of town to the trail as there was not much traffic on the hwy.  We decided to take our chances.  As luck would have it, it only took about 5 minutes and we had a ride. 

Thankfully Dave was on his way to do a hike off the PCT and graciously offered us a ride.  He fed us homemade beef jerky and hiked with us for a while before he had to head home (he’s training for Mt. Whitney).  We ended up just past Lamel Springs (it appears we hike much better after a few beers) and put up our tarp in hopes of staying just a bit warmer against the building wind gusts.  Tonight is going to be interesting.

Day 27: (Nero, 10 miles)
mile 342 – 352 /  ft – 5401 ft

After attending our daughter’s event at her college, we headed back to the trail, of course not without going out to an early dinner with our kids at CPK (California Pizza Kitchen).  Our son dropped us at the trail and off we went to get some miles in before the sun went down.  As we started up the trail and our son went to drive off, Paul yelled back to our son, “Caanaaadaaa!” In all actuality we walked well into the night as it was “warm” and we weren’t tired yet.  We ran into, actually he passed us…(most hikers do), “Gringo” from Florida. He was a professional tennis player years ago.  We hiked till nearly hiker midnight (9pm) and cowboy camped in the turnout of an old dirt road.  We could see the lights of “civilization” below us off in the distance.

We are late on our blog updates as our phone decided to go into a “coma” and we couldn’t get it working till we got to a Verizon store (corporate). But we’re back online and will be updating over the next two days.

Day: (24-26)

Home for a day.  Busy. Busy. Busy.  Set up food for the next leg (Cajon Pass –  Wrightwood – Auga Dulce). Pack for the kick-off at Lake Morena. Its an annual 3 day event (but you can arrive there on Thursday) which started in the 90’s by the 1977 PCT hiker class to celebrate the trail, an opportunity for reunion with fellow thru hikers, and to help current and prospective hikers with their quest to hike the PCT. 

Watching the entries to short film night

The best way to describe it is “Hiker Woodstock”.  This year was pretty close cause it rained, and rained hard.  One of my friends from work that I fish with flew down Thursday to attend the kickoff with us.  She will be joining us most likely at Echo Summit.  This weekend she earned the trail name of ” Sister Mary Smart Ass”, it fits her well.  I think she had every article of clothing she brought as it was almost as cold as when we hiked through the blizzard.   She got to test her new tent though (Big Agnes Fly Creek UL1…worked well), we on the other hand slept comfy in the bed of our truck.  

During this break, we traded out some gear.  New sleep pads (REI flash).  Lighter but same R-value (heat generated) as our ExPed pads, and they appear to be of tougher material.

From the vendors at the Kickoff we added an additional piece of Tyvek for a roomier cowboy camp spread and/or for when we can only find single wide spaces we can go separate or long wise.  We also replaced nylon stuff sacks with Zpacks cuben fiber bags, one for my sleeping bag and another for Paul’s food bag.  Should have gotten more.  I suppose we can always order them and have them shipped to us. We now have ALL long tent spikes for our tarp and/or tent. Rain gear is back in the pack, mainly because Mother Nature and Mr. Murphy are on our ass and seem to have taken a special interest in our adventure.  We never took them for readers. (Pretty sure were gonna pay for that remark…bring it!). We saw many of the hikers we have been leap frogging with; Grasshopper, Why Not, Monsoon, Beowolf, Bipolar, Willie, Bambi, Zombie, Me Too, Colonel and several others whose trail names elude us at the moment.  In our campsite was a couple who had just finished the first 20 miles into Lake Morena. 

We got to talking about what we had experienced and seen so far.  Dan then says, “I thought I recognized you from somewhere.  And now I know. I saw you on the channel 10 news when you were at Mt. Laguna.”. Hmmm, so I guess we did make the news. Somehow we got to get a copy of that interview.   We spent time with our good family friend, Mike who is godfather to our son, and hiked the PCT in 1977.  What is funny is that somehow we never knew this until 2 years ago when we were telling him about our plans to hike the PCT.  He replied, “Ya I’ve done that”. Bullshit we call (Mike’s a pretty convincing story teller).  But as it turns out, he did and he did it with three other guys.  He has some pretty incredible tales of mishaps and challenges which earned their group the trail name of ” The Unfortunates”.  It was good to catch up and visit with friends.  Eat lots of food and consume adult beverages till we ran out.  Once they had the 2014 PCT class photo we headed back home to finish prepping for reentry back to trail.

Approx 1321 thru hike permits were issued this year

We saw our kids, and got to go to our daughter’s farm program event at her college.  We’ve checked the weather tonight’s gonna be COLD but dry, so we got that going for us.  Our son will drop us off at the Cajon Pass and once we hit the trail we’ll do a “quick” 5 miles and call it to set us up for the ascent to Wrightwood.  Uphill here we come!

Day 23: (13 miles)
mile 329 – 342 / 3370 ft – 3078 ft

I awoke to sounds of raindrops hitting the top of our tarp, and thought to myself, ‘good thing we put up the tarp to combat the “lake effect” (things get dewy in the morning when close to water). I lifted my head and was immediately blasted in the face with a shot of water. That’s NOT rain!…SPRINKLERS! Oh Crap! Paul wake up! The F’n sprinklers are on! “Oh we’ll be fine, we have the tarp up”, he replies groggily, then he gets blasted. Shit, what do we do? It’s not like we can immediately relocate. Chick. Chick. Chick. Chick. Chick go the sprinklers, nearly in unison. We’re being bombarded by three, count them three, industrial strength golf course style sprinklers that were tag teaming us. Paul then exits his sleeping bag, timing it with the passing of the sprinklers. He goes to the one on our left attempting to redirect its spray. Meanwhile I pull my ExPed pad out from beneath me and use it as a shield to ward off the two other sprinklers that are still on attack. I am hoping that I can keep our sleeping bags dry enough to sleep somewhat comfortably. (luckily last week I had “weatherized” the exterior of our bags as Paul had decided we were going to Cowboy camp). As the spray of the sprinklers overlapped I had to adjust my pad to protect what little was still dry. The sound against the pad was like a drum roll, and made me laugh at how ridiculous this situation was, and the irony that we had both recently retired from State Parks and were now caught in the cross fire of sprinklers…at a State Park. Paul was successful with the one on our left which was directly hitting the back of our tarp, he then moved onto the one on our right, at our 1 o’clock…success! Then onto number three at our 4 o’clock…success! Back under the tarp and into his bag he dives. He was not drenched, but he was not dry either. We settle in, and begin to laugh just a little as now we realize that sprinkler #2 is strafing the Russians who are fast asleep in their tents, most likely thinking it’s raining and now laughing at us for only having a tarp. Then we see it. Sprinkler # 3 is now watering our backpacks as they sit atop a brick structure once used as an open pit BBQ. Shit! Our clothes. Our food. Shit…our BOOTS! Out of the bag Paul springs again. He grabs both bags and our boots and relocates them to the sidewalk near the bathrooms. As he does this I notice that the tarp is sagging. I push up on the sag in the middle. Water thunders down the front face opening, drenching my pad that I had pushed out to the side to “dry”, just a little. So much for that idea. At least the tarp no longer sags. I now get out and tighten the guy lines so the tarp is taut once again. I feel the tops of our bags. They are wet to the touch, but remarkably not wet inside. Cool. It is now nearly an hour past hiker midnight (hiker midnight is usually 9pm) and there is nothing else to do, but try and go back to sleep. Sleep comes quickly. We awake the next morning (0530) to icicles hanging from the interior of our tarp and ice crystals on the outside of our sleeping bags. We are not cold, but see that the grass is frozen as is the outside of our packs.

Some lake effect huh? As we are going to be picked up once we reach Cajon Pass (and therefore McDonalds) this afternoon, we dress briskly and shove our stuff into our packs. Coffee this morning is a MUST, so we take time for that. We find that our boots were spared from an ice bath, as we had originally placed them under our packs before the waterworks began. Yeah for us! The rest of the group awakens and remarks how cold it is. It is now that we discover that we were the only ones attacked by sprinklers…go figure. I guess we shouldn’t have taunted Mr. Murphy and Mother Nature in our previous posts. Lesson learned. Now to walk ourselves warm. We are lucky that the air is cool and the skies are somewhat overcast as we are transitioning into an area mostly devoid of shade…especially toward the end of our trek.

The area is again greener than we’ve ever seen it, and because it’s on the cool side…snakeless for me, at least on the trail.

Green growy stuff (a “technical” term used by my crew at work) soon turned to ancient sand dunes eroded into spectacular canyons.

The trail is soft and pliable, which makes the edges of the trail fragile and susceptible to serious erosion, especially with the new “shortcuts” made by impatient travelers drawn by the imaginary smell of McDonald’s burgers and fries.

The most exciting part of the trail comes in the last mile (and no it has nothing to do with McDonalds).

We are now walking on remnants of thick asphalt that travels through a narrow high wall canyon paralleling a sparsely flowing creek, that at one time must have been even more picturesque.

We wonder what road this used to be, and its purpose. I make a point to research it once we get home. Paul then pulls out Halfmile’s maps as he recalled seeing some lengthy verbiage on the map.

It read, “Hiker going to the McDonalds or gas station mini-mart at Cajon Pass walk along a section of Historic Route 66 [now called Wagon Train Rd.] which also runs past a memorial