Julian to Warner Springs

We last wrote from the comfort of Julian, a little touristy town that nobody planned to stop at ... But then everyone did. Turns out, there's a ~35 mile stretch with no water. Halfway through that stretch, there's a road though. You can hitch to the right and get water at an RV park, or to the left and get water in an adorable town that offers, among other things, free pie for PCT hikers. Obviously, we went left. So did everyone else. It was pretty hilarious to run into all our new hiking friends in town and have the same conversation.

Hiker 1: oh, so funny to see you guys! I thought you were way ahead.
Hiker 2: yeah but the water situation... And the pie.....

We took a full zero in Julian (day where we walked zero miles) because Justin's knee and my
Achilles were acting up. It was great to have a day of recovery - the hotel where we stayed (decorated in the same Victorian style as my childhood home - when Justin noted there was nowhere comfortable to sit in the hotel, I gave him a look that I hope implied "try that for 18 years") was super nice and kept giving us bags of ice. We watched several movies on our phones, the best of which was "Dope," which we highly recommend.




Free pie for hikers!

An unplanned zero sets us a day behind schedule though. Not a huge deal, but we do have a somewhat important deadline in July. It's incredible how easy it is to fall behind schedule (slow down the miles, take an extra day), and how hard it is to make up a day (skip a town stop, do 40 miles on day instead of 20?!). Hopefully we don't have too many more unexpected stops.

We hitched back to town with a man who wasn't even going in the direction of the trail. He said if he went home, he was going to have to do laundry, so he was putting that off for as long as possible. So he drove 20 minutes out of his way, just to drive us to the trailhead. Thanks, Mr. Mitchell! He also has a custom woodworking company making natural items out of local woods, so here's a plug for Mitchell Woodworks.

The trail was awesome from the the trailhead (known as Scissors Crossing). Trail magic donuts in an underpass (thank you, we'll take two), then a gentle climb up 2,000 feet with flowering cacti on both sides. It was incredibly sandy and gradual and the plant life just kept getting cooler. At one point, I announced I was going back to school to get my phd in desert botany. Justin correctly noted that might have a negative impact on my already staggering student debt load. So the idea is on hold for now. The trail snaked laterally along the side of a mountain range that whole afternoon, so you could see where you were heading for miles. It was really incredible - my favorite stretch so far.



Awesome flowering cacti!



Still awesome.



Keeping the rain clouds at bay.



Trail sunset.

The next day was sunny with blue skies! Our first perfect weather day since day 1. We took it real slow again, hoping to not exacerbate the injuries. Highlights included hitting mile 100 (!!), seeing Jack Haskell sign into a trail register right before us (he's the face of the Pacific Crest Trail Association - the magical place that maintains the trail, issues our permits, and does other incredible things to keep this footpath running), and walking through like 2 miles of valleys field with purple wheat unexpectedly at the end of the day. We obviously sang "America the Beautiful" to commemorate this unexpected desert moment. We're now camping about 4 miles away from town (Warner Springs - really just a post office), and are hoping we can pick up our resupply box and post this blog all before lunch. It rained last night and is supposed to thunder tomorrow, so we're getting the full range of weather.




Celebration at mile 100!



Oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. (Memories of 4th grade chorus coming back)



Little rain overnight in the desert!

One last thing. One of our PCT apps tells us the total elevation gain/loss before we hit X destination. Typically, it's helpful to see how much climbing we have to do before, say, lunch. But Justin, cheeky fellow that he is, decided to see how much climbing we have to do before Canada. Answer: 468,000 feet up, 467,000 feet down. That's right, we still have to go from sea level to the peak of Everest 16 times. Guess we better start walking.

Update from Warner Springs. We made it, got our boxes (thanks mom and carol for the love!) and then had lunch with the man the myth.... Jack Haskel! We spent the whole lunch talking about the PCTA's strategic plan. You can take the consultants out of the team room....

Location:Highway 79,Warner Springs,United States