Some of My Fellow Hikers

 

From the left: Hamburger, LavaGoat, Easily Distracted, her sister Rear Guard, and Dusty Bottoms



Scalawag, from Temecula, CA. He had been working in the water filtration industry, but was laid off. He decided to do the PCT with only 3 weeks notice!

Easily Distracted (from Florida, did the AT), with the Michigan Wolverine (from Ann Arbor, did the AT) in the background

 

LavaGoat, right after she face planted. She is such a champ! In her 30s, married, living in San Diego, I feel like I have more in common with her than with other hikers. She is a very capable outdoorswoman and it's my challenge every day to keep up with her.

 

Style (did the AT) and Rear Guard (Easily Distracted's sister. This is her first long hike.)

 

Dusty Bottoms (did the AT with Easily Distracted), signing the log book for a Geocache we found in the shade of a manzanita bush. Dusty Bottoms is a sweet boy about my age with an amazing sense of humor; he sees beauty when I'm too tired to appreciate it without prompting. He cares about everyone he meets.

Hamburger, a true gentleman from Hamburg, Germany. He has a wonderful sense of humor and genuine warmth. Here he is in Warner Springs, right before heading out in the evening.

Lunchbox has been living in Davis for a couple of years, so it's fun to hike with him and talk about familiar places. He recently did a cross-country bike tour to raise money for Habitat for Humanity, and as he went he helped to build houses. He's looking forward to doing the AT and building his own minimalist house. Mt. Everest is the very last thing on his bucket list.

Here GipCGirl and LavaGoat watch Scalawag (in the red bandana) go through the hiker box in Warner Springs. His resupply didn't arrive at the post office, but he was able to scrounge up enough cast-off food to make it to Idyllwild. GipC is a retired woman from Australia. She did most of the AT in 2010 but broke her leg. She returned in 2011 to thru hike it. She finished just 7 months before starting the PCT this year.

Neon and OnnaMove from Arizona. I ate breakfast with them my first morning in Julian and they told me about their section hikes on the PCT last year. Really friendly people.

From Left, Houseparty, Tim (from NOLA) and Little Cubit (so named because she has short arms) at Mom's Pie in Julian. They fed us on the house there. It was wonderful. That was the last time I saw Houseparty and Cubit; I hear they were in Palm Springs recently. Tim and his brother Jeremy are also staying at the Motel 6 here in Big Bear.

Mi. 211-- Cabazon, CA

Let me tell you, it's frickin hot in Cabazon, CA. Last night we camped at mi 206, where there was a water spigot at the road. After climbing 20 miles down Fuller Ridge with not-enough water, it was a wonderful sight to behold coming into camp just before dark. Jeremy greeted me with a liter of filtered water; I had run out of water nearly 5 miles before in the heat of the day. I guzzled it down and caught up with Lester, Marcus and Jeremy about the day's hike; we had all been attacked by the hive of feral bees, seen a rattlesnake at a serendipitous water source, and as a result of missing that water, had run out well before the spigot.

Today we came the five miles to a trail angel home. They have tents set up in their back yard to shelter us from the heat of the day; I started walking at 6am and by 7 it was already blazing hot. The place is a little odd... They have a nice setup, but it stops short of being hospitable. Hikers aren't allowed in the house, no fires (so no cooking I reckon), there is no place to purchase food, and hikers are not allowed to ride in their car. I wanted to leave a donation but didn't have any cash. The hostess had mentioned she was going to the store, so I asked if I could ride along to get some cash back. She pursed her lips, gave me a sour look and said that was NOT okay. The alternative was to give her my ATM card and my PIN number and have her get the cash for me! Hell no. So no donation. Another hiker mentioned that they lock up the computers at 9pm. Yet another hiker told me that their website mentions a 10 dollar minimum donation required. When I heard those reports, it felt more like a distrustful, money making scheme than trail angels. To their credit, they gave us a bowl of water to wash our feet, had plastic flip flops for loan, let us sit under the shade structure where they had two laptops set up, and let us rinse our clothes in a sink hooked up to the garden hose. All of these things were wonderful treats in the heat. I wish I had been able to leave a few bucks to extend my appreciation for them.

Style gave me a sassy haircut-- it's spiky now!

 GipCgirl, who had been travelling at least a day ahead of me, showed up at the house an hour after I did. She reports that the next stretch is also waterless and difficult and she suffered from dehydration. She had to hitch hike back to this point to recover. She and Damsel decided to rent a car to get to Big Bear City (Damsel is hiking with her dog, Lucy. They got lost in the desert and made it here scratched up and dehydrated, but safe.)

Sherry, the ag teacher in WS

Since I last updated, I've been to Warner Springs and Idyllwild. In Warner Springs, the resort went bankrupt and now there is nothing there but a school and a tiny post office. To stop the gap for us hikers, Warner Springs Monty worked with the school district to provide resupply, camping, showers, and BBQ for us. It was really wonderful. Sherry, the ag teacher, was wonderfully hospitable and made us feel totally at home (with Apple cobbler cooked in dutch ovens in campfire coals and pot upon pot of cowboy coffee).

Lawrence the Spring Guy goes around
to the springs in the area and cleans them
so they'll be safe for us to drink from.
This is the Chinese place where we
bought him lunch in Idyllwild.

After WS, it was 40 miles to the Pines to Palms highway at mi 151. Lawrence the Spring Guy picked up Scalawag, Style, Ori (a fellow from Israel), and myself and drove us to Idyllwild for lunch. I zeroed there the next day and since I had arrived ahead of schedule, I caught up with a bunch of people I haven't seen since kickoff. I learned from Anchorman that Ranger-- my hiking buddy from my first day on the trail-- dropped out. He had gotten a hitch forward to Julian and left from there.

Just before leaving Idyllwild.
I got lost a couple hours later.

After my zero in Idyllwild, I decided to go up the Devil's Slide Trail and travel South to make up the miles that I hitch hiked. On the way, I met OnlyATest who told me she had taken the Tahquitz Meadow alternate trail. Since it was .7 mi shorter and involved 450ft less climbing than the official PCT, it sounded pretty good to me. Well... after a few miles the trail forked to the south, but I continued east. Hours later, I was lost and off my map. I came to a cliff... where I could see the city of Palm Springs below me. That wasn't right. So I started backtracking. Finally, around 5:30, I came to the place where I messed up. It was 18 wasted miles of hiking. The next day I said "screw it! I put in my miles on San Jacinto!" and I hiked the 5 miles back to Idyllwild where I hung out with OAT, Dusty Bottoms, Lunchbox, Easily Distracted, and Rear Guard.



The Michigan Wolverine took this
picture of me in camp with Mt. San
Jacinto in the background. We had
climbed over it from Idyllwild that day.



We hiked out the next day (Saturday). It was only an 8 mile day, but it kicked my butt; it was entirely uphill and STEEP. And that brings us back to the beginning-- my miserable, hot, dusty, knee-busting, thirsty 20 miles coming down Fuller Ridge.

Overall I'm doing well. My little blister on my toe is looking good and my muscles are doing well. However, the last two days killed my knees. I woke up today stiff-legged and took a while to get going. Also, when I arrived in camp last night I had lost sensation in my toes. Today it's restored to all but my big toe. I can feel pressure, but not other sensations (another hiker told me that the same thing happened when they hiked the AT, and it took months to come back to normal). I'm considering joining GipC and Damsel in their car up to Big Bear.

More than anything I'm homesick, but that is starting to get a little better, especially in camp and in towns when I'm surrounded by a group of people who all have the same priorities as me (take off the pack, air out the feet, set up camp, filter water, cook food, go to bed).

Mile 77.6 - Julian, CA

I wrote this in response to a message from my mom, but its such a good summary, I decided it would do double duty:

Walking straight downhill for long distances, I've learned, is extremely difficult! I've been doing a lot of that and my poor little knees are tired. After the very first day, I had Jon order me some poles and he's sending them overnight to Warner Springs. I bet you wished you had brought yours to Carlsbad!

I'm in Julian today. I hitchhiked with two guys, and we got picked up by a British ex-pat in a luxury SUV! His son is looking at colleges in nor cal and I talked to him about UCD. It was a pretty good first experience with hitch hiking.

I got off the trail because I was feeling tired and discouraged by the news that all of the water for the next 25 miles is dried up. The first 13 of those miles are straight up out of a canyon! But I came here, got a room, showered, ate. After I talked with a lot of other hikers and townies and read the Facebook messages of encouragement I decided to rest here today and get back at it tomorrow. I met a lovely couple at dinner last night who took a great interest in me and gave me their phone number so I won't have to hitch back to the trail.

Fantastic breakfast at the
Julian Gold Rush Hotel

The b&b where I'm staying is full of hikers; they have a special rate for us: $70 for a private room with a bathroom, free WiFi, afternoon tea at 4, full breakfast in the morning and they do our laundry! it's extremely quaint, like everything else in Julian. Downstairs they have sitting areas with beautifully carved rocking chairs, board games, and a library. My favorite part is the bed! It's covered by gorgeous quilt upon gorgeous quilt and it's extremely comfortable! I closed the curtains so I could sleep past sunrise, but I only made it to 645 (I've been sleeping with the sun).

Speaking of sleeping, the night before last I cowboy camped for the first time. That is, I slept without a tent under the stars. My tent kept whipping around in the wind while I was trying to set it up and I finally said "screw it!". I laid out my groundsheet, sleeping mat, and sleeping bag. I got inside and started to cook my dinner when these yellow-jacket looking things started to hover around the edges of my sleeping bag. They weren't agressive, but they worried me. Finally I thought "crap, maybe they are ground nesting bees and I'm on top of their nest." So I rolled up my stuff in my ground cloth and moved away. Sure enough, they all landed and crawled into teeny holes in the ground. So I slept about two feet to the side and watched all of the bees come home as the sun set. It was so cool.

I haven't camped alone yet so far, and I've kindof fallen in with a group that travels about the same number of miles as me. Gipcgirl (gypsy girl) is a retired lady from Australia, near the city of Perth. Hamburger is a retired man from Hamburg, Germany. LavaGoat is a young married woman from San Diego. Lunchbox is a guy about my age from Placerville. OnlyATest is in her 30s and from southern California, I don't remember exactly where. Bolts (has bolt earrings in his ears) is from Sunnyvale and reminds me of Matt DeGroot. Jason is a nice kid about my age but I don't remember where he's from. Everyone is hiking solo. But it's worth mentioning the group of four 20something Israelis who are always nearby, but stick to themselves (in fact, they have the room just down the hall from me). There were also two brothers from NOLA, but they pulled ahead of us the night before last and I haven't seen them since then. [Edit: I just ran into them in town.]