Mount Laguna to Warner Springs (just kidding, Julian): or how we stopped striving and learned to slow down

We hit Mount Laguna early in the day, and after breakfast and packing up our resupplies from the general store (we had sent a box), we hit the trail. Given that we had already hiked 5 miles we figured we would follow the wisdom of the crowd and camp another 5 miles out of town at the Mount Laguna campground. Needless to say, we got there too quickly ... So we kept hiking.

It was an unseasonably cold day already, high of 48 in town. Once we had gone another mile or two from the campground, the wind decided to announce its presence at a nice 35 mph with gusts up to nearly 50 mph. Jenny got nearly knocked over by a particularly strong gust (I caught her before she fell backwards into a cactus). In the middle of this madness we hit fifty miles -- other hikers had marked it with stones.


Needless to say, we had to walk at least another 9 miles from the campground (14 miles from Mount Laguna) to hit a known spot to put our tent.

At around 5:45pm we found a little cove in the bushes just off the trail. We decided to set up camp there. The wind disagreed. Despite Jenny laying in the tent to keep it anchored, and my putting stakes in the ground and covering them with big rocks, the wind pulled up the stakes from the soft ground. We packed up and kept walking.

About a mile later we found the noted campsites in a boulder field, saw a tent set up and found a promising spot nearby. Lo and behold, we managed to stake in the tent, tie up all possible guy lines and have shelter from the wind and later rain. We were pretty excited.


We cooked in the vestibule. The mashed potatoes were delicious.

The next day we got up early and hiked 13 miles to a water tank. It was a beautiful walk down into a valley to get there: gorgeous views, wildflowers and the utter destruction of my knees.


Jenny walking through the Dr Seuss-esque landscape down into the valley.


Wildflowers and cacti abound out here!

When we arrived at the water spot, several other hikers were already there taking a siesta. A hiker we had met at the beginning, Blue Moon, lent his heavier water bottle to the rest of the hikers to attach to a rope and scoop water out of the deep well. We later learned there was a spigot down the hill. Go figure. We had fun pumping water nonetheless.






After lunch we decided to hike onwards towards Scissors Crossing on the valley floor. To put this in perspective we had been up at 6,000 feet and hiked down to 2,200 feet in a day. The trail circumnavigated rocky peaks, and then took us through an other worldly desert floor.






We knew we hit the road when we saw the tell tale thruhiker sign in the trail:



Although not part of the plan, we hitched into Julian, a small former gold mining town near the trail. A lovely woman, Karen, who worked as a manager at a hotel in town gave us a ride. We decided to rest our weary bones and ligaments. We weren't the only ones.

We are still getting our trail legs. In the meantime, we need to rest. It's a long 2,650+ miles to Canada, and we cannot afford to get hurt. Therefore, RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) pizza and board games with other hikers for the moment. Up next: Warner Springs.

Location:Main St,Julian,United States