PCT Journal #7

[Escher]

May 7th Evening
Elevation: 5050 ft
Trail Miles: 138 miles (17 today)

After arriving mid day at warner springs and getting some much needed R&R, we set out around 11 am this morning.

The R&R went something like this (a little spendy and I hope its not regular):
Arrive, shower, celebrate cinco de mayo with lots of food and beer. Rest on the bed a bit.
Hop in the hot springs. Hop in the pool...repeat Go to the cantina bar and have alot of Sierra Nevada. Buy drink for birthday hiker. Have more drinks.
Go to hot springs.

Go back to the room and sleep in.
Repeat above for all day friday, only meet more thru hikers to drink with and fill the bar with, also eat a lot of food. Then go to hot springs and pool, then back to the room where a fireplace and wine await.

Wake up in the morning, eat, and say bye to the hikers who aren't heading out and then go back to the trail fully refreshed from the hot springs.

We got on the trail at 11 this morning and had a real good day of hiking. As we rose up into the mountains we passed a natural spring where we replenished our water. This was our only break today. We covered 17 miles in 8 hours with a 1.5 hour lunch break.

The trail was all relatively even uphill grade. The first five miles wandered along a small stream which we crossed 4 times. After that it rose up into the foothills of the San Jacinto Mountains. The early part was the standard desertlike trail that I have seen plenty of, but about 10 miles out of Warner Springs the landscape sightly changed.

The dense chaparrel covered land started to be covered by massive redbrown granite rocks and Forget-Me-Nots (the state flower of alaska if i recall correctly). As we wound through the foothills the trail was winding through vast fields of rocks, until it found itself wandering through vast hillsides of little white flowers.

As the evening wore on we decided it was time to set up camp. It looked as though rain was on its way. We wanted to stop a little earlier, but we were not successfully finding a good campground. Around 7pm we took a moderate site, cooked up dinner and now are in bed.

May 8th - 25 miles
May 9th
Elevation: 6880 ft (highest yet)
Trail Miles: 153 (18 today)

Today was much different than yesterday. Though we did cover 25 miles yesterday and only 18 today, yesterday was far easier. Hiking 25 miles through a hot dry desert does not compare to what we experienced today.
But first yesterday, we hiked 25 miles which went by fairly smoothly until the last 5.


The last few miles of every day are always the hardest, but this time we had one guide book saying 8 miles to the highway, while the other said 10. It turned out to be 10, or at least felt that way. What made it hard was that the last five were all uphill.
We were shooting for the Palms to Pines Highway so we could hike a mile down the freeway and catch a burger at Paradise Cafe. We made it just before they closed and ordered lots of food and beer. I was so hungry I even ate my garnishes and cleared the plate of all its scraps. Its interesting how the hike over the day feels quite different when you know there is good food to be had at the end of the day. We planned on punching it all the way to highway 74 so that we could go to Paradise Cafe. Needless to say, the last 10 miles were spent with the song "Cheeseburger in Paradise" stuck in my head.

When we finally arrived at the highway we put our packs down in the shrubs and walked over to the highway where we walked the mile to the cafe. With Dave, Jessica, and "T-Pot" left behind, Jon, Debi, and I got burgers with three new hikers we found. Heidi from Minneapolis, Jean Luc from Seattle, and Allen from Anchorage Alaska were to be our hiking partners for the next day.

See Journal #7.2 to read all about our brush with death...or at least one hell of a storm.


Happy Trails, Inner Peace, & Harmony


Escher note--he hasn't sent it yet...but sent me an urgent email telling me to call a phone # that doesn't work!!!

[Robyn1007]

Yikes, Escher, I hope everything is okay!

Thank you so much for posting these journals, I really am enjoying them immensely.

Robyn

[Kayaksoup]

Oh no, a cliff hanger....
I have to admit, I am absolutely hooked on these journal installments.

[Escher]

Escher Note: Ok, the phone call was to handle some personal details for him on the homefront...the reason he has to split up his entries is because there is a 6400 character limit on his transmission device....

Here is 7.2 and 7.3:


Continued from Journal#7

After a great 25 mile hike we woke a little later than usual with hopes of covering 18 miles. Which we did, but probably should not have.

The day started with an ascent up the hills up into the higher elevations of the San Jacinto Mountains. While the view was great, the experience was the most physically stressful event I have experienced so far on the trail.

The day started with the typical hot dry desert conditions. But as our elevation increased we started moving out of the hot dusty land and into the pine forests. We wandered back and forth for several miles picking up the granite trail through dense chapparal, manzanita, and ribbonwood, and then up onto the hill where the desert was left beind the the trail became a soft pine needled pathway.

Slowly we rose out of the desert floor into a more forested trail. By the time we hit lunch we had a great view of the mountain we were climbing up into. San Jacinto Mountains and more specifically Tahquitz Peak. A mountain said to be cursed by a legendary Native American demon whom when displeased gives the weather a turn for the worse. Apparantly he was displeased because as we were working our way to camp the weather worsened.

At first the high winds were a fun callenge. We hunkered down, tightened our hat straps and walked up the granite slope, letting the wind drive into us. Near one of the passes Heidi and I stood leaning into the wind fully supported by the speed with which it was blowing.
As we struggled our way over the mountain the weather started to get bad. Water resupply was a mile off the trail, so we decided to just push the last eight miles to camp without resupplying our dwindling water supply. This was a bad decision.

As we passed our last opportunity for water we had three miles to go before camp. This would typically take 1-2 hours. However with winds in the 40-50mph range with gusts easily up around 80mph our progress was slow.
Then the rain/sleet started pounding into us. We took a moment to put on our rain jackets and pack covers. As we crested the very steep terrain all we could think about was the warm beds that awaited our arrival, and I had the Modest Mouse song "The Good Times are Killing Me" echoing through my head.

At the top of the mountain we took the side trail down to Apache Peak Campground. The trail down was incredbly steep and heavily covered in manzanita bushes which shredded our exposed legs (legs which should have also been protected from the driving sleet).

Once down to camp we found Jean Luc sheltered there under a tarp flapping wildly in the wind. As we were all cold we crawled under the 2ft high tarp to make a plan for setting up camp. Shortly after the plan was made we all wandered around madly working to shelter ourselves.

With the wind blowing heavily, Jon and I helped Debi get her tent up, as she was needing to get warm quickly. Once her tent was up, she stripped down and hopped in her bag to get warm. With the extreme winds and cold, and lack of water through the day Debi was not doing so well. I too was exceedingly cold, but I had the presence of mind to eat food and drink water before I went to sleep.

Luckily Jon got a fire going and was able to put some dry clothes on. After he was dry, he cooked dinners for Debi, Heidi, and me, and brought them to our tents so we could have some warm eats before trying to sleep.

I say trying of course because we were cold and the wind was blowing ferociously. Twice in the night Debi's tent collapsed, and once my tent partially collapsed. As the night wore on, I could hear the waves of wind roll up the mountain, readying itself to beat down on us like an unforgiving oceanwave.

After a sleepless night we all awoke to find our wet boots frozen, and the wind still howling madly, as if the mountain were screaming get off of him.

May 10 - Evening
Elevation: 5430 ft
Trail Miles: 180 miles

Rising early after a sleeples night and fully bundled up and ready to hike out and off the mountain in 10 short miles we set out to meet up with more problems.

The first six miles took us up to the saddle right next to the peak. The wind had died down and we were offered amazing views down into Palm Springs through fragrant white pines and manzanitas.
Once we crested we were put on the North face of the mountain. The face where the sun never shines, hence the snowy side. We knew that in four short miles we would come to the junction where rangers were routing backpackers off the mountain because of impassble conditions. We just had to get there first.

See Journal#7.3 for the last 4 grueling lost miles.

Continued from Journal #7.2
After cresting the mountain and dropping into the north side of the San Jacinto Mountains we were faced with high levels of snow. The weather was warm enough that the snow was not a problem. The problem came with the fact the snow covered the trail.

One mile beyond the summit we lost the trail. After consulting the guidebook, using a compass, and looking at the surrounding peaks we established a rough estimate of our location, and started walking across the snow in the direction of where we hoped to ind the trail junction to get off the mountain.

Since Jean Luc is a fast hiker and knows the area around here, he set off blazing his own trail through the snow. Heidi, Allen, Jon, Debi, and I crept slowly around the basin occassionally slipping on the snow. What usually would take us an hour to hike took us three.

About every half hour we would consult my altimeter watch and the map to get our berrings. Eventually we found what seemed to be the trail. It was in fact just someone elses tread through the snow which was in close proximity to where the trail was suspected to be. It is my assumption that the path we were following belonged to someone with a GPS system, because it was fairly accurate to the trail which was burried six feet under snow.

After 7 hours we coverd 10 miles of land. Usually in 7 hours we can cover 18 miles. Getting lost and traversing steep snow fields slowed us down. Nevertheless, although I was lost, I did not worry because I had food for 3 days, good company, and a good idea of where I was heading.

We more or less hit the trail junction perfectly. Jean Luc beat us to it and left a smiley face in the snow for us. Allen decided to continue a little further, while Debi, Heidi, Jon. and I took the 2.5 mile steep descent down into Idyllwild.

After wandering out of the snow and down the hill we met two people at the trail head, Christine and Mike Poe. Debi asked for a ride into town, to which the were kind enough to do for us. Being new to the area, the had not met any thru-hikers and were quite impressed that we had hiked 180 miles to get to Idyllwild.

After dropping us off downtown (Thank You) we found a cottage to stay at. Showered and refreshed we set out to get some Mexican Food. While out eating, Jon saw Jean Luc, so we invited him to come join us.

Now the five of us are sharing this quaint little cottage in another small beautiful trail town. Tomorrow we will take a "Zero Day" where we will go over our food supplies and buy any necessary gear.

I am getting a Jacket and possibly crampons or an ice axe. The San Jacintos (though half done) are a nce hint of the future Sierras to come.

Time for a solid nights rest.

Happy Trails, Inner Peace, & Harmony

[Robyn1007]

I'm so glad that it wasn't anything bad!

[MusicMom]

Thanks again for sharing your brother's journals. His stories are fascinating.