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).