Rather than subjecting you to a linear narrative, there are a couple of themes to highlight from these few days:
1. "We will decide when we get there"
For anyone who has ever met Jenny, you know that planning is a borderline compulsion, and also the only reason we were able to both get married and hike 2,650 miles in a year. The trail however has a mind of its own. You can't really decide things too far in advance. For example, we thought we were going to catch a ride from a hiker out of big bear based on a Facebook post. They flaked. We called a trail angel, Papa Smurf, who picked us up 2.5 hours later. We spent the intervening time kicking it at a delightfully off-beat breakfast joint, the Grizzly Manor Cafe, where the waitresses kept our coffee and waters full. We started hiking at 11:30am after getting up at 6am (and a little prayer for us by Papa Smurf). You just can't plan some things.
Another example, every water decision we make. The desert is rife with 10-25+ mile sections without water. You always want to carry a little more water than you'll need, but no more than that. Water is heavy! When it was cool out we would drink 2 liters every 15 miles or so. But when it got hot I could drink a liter or more every 5 miles. We simply couldn't decide how much water to get until we got there, or if we even needed it. It's also impossible to predict whether water caches will be full, and how exactly the water sources look once we get there. Some might have a surf board and a library that you must stop at. Who knows?
The biggest example is the Sierra. There was another serious snow storm in the northern Sierra around Mammoth a few weeks ago. Some hikers are going through now, while others say they'll wait till the end of June. We, well, we'll decide when we get there.
2. "Hiker trash"
It's probably not a huge stretch of imagination to realize that thruhikers quickly begin to look like filthy, uncultured creatures. There's a phrase for this, and it's hiker trash.
Hiker trash can manifest itself in different ways. One way it appeared in this section was at the Deep Springs hot springs, an on-trail set of natural hot springs that brings out a hippie, party element of the community. There were boxes of empty Tecates and more illicit offerings that locals brought in, lots of tents in front of a 'day use - no camping within 1 mile' signs.
We walked another mile to camp in a super buggy spot. We were hiking on a narrow trail on the side of a canyon wall for most of this section, which limited our options.
Perhaps a better illustration of hiker trash emerged from the water situation between miles 326 and 364. There is only one reliable water source in the middle of this stretch, and it's at 341: the McDonalds. I'm not kidding. The trail goes through the San Bernandino Mountains from Silverwood Lake, a dam-made lake on the edge of the desert, to Cajon Pass where it goes under I-10 and then UP to 8,000 feet towards Mt Baldy and Wrightwood. You have to walk 4/10 of a mile to the McDonalds and Chevron to get water.
For us, we arrived around 11am, after a very quick 14 miles that we started at 6:30am. It's been getting hotter so we've been getting up earlier to avoid the heat of the day. We spent >5 hours at that blessed McDonalds. When we stumbled in we could barely speak coherently, and just sat facing friends in the glorious air conditioning. After which we proceeded to eat burgers, fries, milkshakes and sodas. There were more than ten backpacks around the entrance, with many more dirty hikers hobbling around in crocs or flip flops.
After getting our fill inside (first mcdonalds in a decade or so for both of us) we carried our packs outside, and pulled out our mats under the shade of a tree in some cut grass and took naps. We even did blister care. There was one homeless guy also taking advantage of the shade under a nearby tree. We didn't look meaningfully different.
There were a dozen of us at any point in time. Some shuffled to the best western nearby to spend a night inside, our friend Swiderman crossed the highway somehow to go to Subway, and others just hung out. We saw Beast of Bourbon performing yet another act of service to a hiker needing medical attention. We used the McDonalds soda fountain to fill up all of our water: 7 liters each! It was hot. We didn't leave until 5pm, and proceeded to hike another 7 miles with Swiderman - a friend who's been living in Vail.
3. "The PCT giveth, and the PCT taketh away"
There is a karma to life on the trail, a balance that emerges between the awesome beauty and kindness of the experience and the unexpected hardships involved. This is something we first discovered while hiking in 2024, and it's still oh-so-true.
In this last section, we saw both clearly in a single day. The day after the hot springs was our hottest day on the trail to date. We carried 3 liters of water each for a 15 mile stretch from a glorious stream to Silverwood Lake. The trail was exposed and the heat climbed up past 90. Poison oak creeped towards the trail. Rattlesnakes seemed likely at every little patch of grass. (A thruhiker was Med-evacuated from this section due to a rattlesnake bite last week.)
On my advice, Jenny tried to duck under a branch of poison oak that stuck across the trail. A full water bottle fell out and rolled down the ravine. No Bueno. This was far from leave no trace, it was water we really needed, and poison oak got all over the pack during the confusion. A few miles later a weirdly bro-y hiker intentionally threw a banana peel into the woods despite a trash bag nearby. Jenny had what she called a meltdown, snapped at him that there was a trash can right there, and proceeded to hike at a four mile an hour pace till the end of the day. I couldn't keep up.
However, we got to a campsite at Silverwood Lake where everything changed. A family who was camping with their 2-year olds we met on the way in were so excited to meet PCT hikers that we were obliged to take chips and bars that we didn't even need but they insisted on giving us. The friendly rangers waived the camping fee, and gave us quarters to shower. Rolph, a charming German hiker who's a wind turbine mechanic when he's not hiking, shared his Dr. Bronners soap with us to help make the shower worthwhile. We ordered pizza and soda to the campground based on the collective wisdom we'd heard from other hikers. At the end of the evening, we had feasted, showered, thrown away trash and slept soundly without our rain fly. The PCT giveth and the PCT taketh away.
Lighting was tough.
4. "Trail Magic"
Oh man was this a section for trail magic. Trail magic is basically unexpected acts of kindness on the trail, though it's most often used to refer to food, drinks or rides given by strangers. Swiderman wisely noted that a friendly conversation is trail magic when you're having a rough day. He couldn't be more right.
This section had several overt moments of trail magic:
- a ride by Papa Smurf to the trailhead
- a dumpster filled with water and canned goods early out of Big Bear
- a water and Gatorade cache maintained by Papa Smurf and Mama Bear
- a cooler of cold water, bananas and cherries left by Team Turtle (the scene of the banana peel-throwing incident)
- a water cache run by the Mountain Hardware store in Wrightwood 5 miles out of Cajon pass
- a hitch by a lovely couple and their dogs from Highway 2 down to Wrightwood
However, the Extreme Adventures hiking group out of San Diego takes the cake for probably the best trail magic we had ever seen. Although none of them have ever thruhiked, Brittany, the leader of the group decided last year to offer trail magic out on the notoriously hot section from Cajon Pass up towards Mt Baldy. This is nearly two hours from San Diego and up some dirt roads. It's not an easy place to find.
We walked up to see a set of cars and thought we were going to see a bunch of folks shooting guns at targets (we heard some shots earlier). Instead we saw two couches, a photo booth with props, a shade canopy, charging station, tables, leg rollers, coolers filled with beer, water and gatorade, candy bars, chips and more. If that wasn't enough, Mama Beer (not to be confused with the several Mama Bears we've already met - this one indeed loves beer!) made bagels with cream cheese, tomatoes, onions, and capers; Amanda (I believe!) made delicious buttery grilled cheeses; and Jaime, a chef by trade, made carne asada tacos. The tacos were a work of art: a charcoal grill for the meat, pickled onions, chopped onions and cilantro, tomatillo salsa, roasted cactus, guacamole, radishes, a homemade hot sauce and limes. Needless to say we ate our faces off(tacos, grilled cheese, bagels, ice cream, fruit), drank a beer each at 10am (why not?) and enjoyed some Gatorade.
I'm using some of Brittany and Greg's photos below, because they are, well, better than mine.
The scene.
Swiderman, Rolph and me.
IT band is tight!
Me and Swiderman at the Taco bar!
The taco
Us with the chef, Jaime!
The photo booth, hanging from a tree!
Even crazier still it turns out that Greg Kump, who picked us up at the San Diego Amtrak station, showed up with camera and cocktails in hand. Small world!!
The group does this trail magic once a year out there. We were incredibly lucky to cross their path. It was a generous, warm and fun group that clearly got super jazzed up about helping out hikers. Last year they asked hikers what they would want, and my did they listen! Extreme Adventures for the win! We also loved the sense of family and community in the group. A hiking group is definitely in our future!
Suffice it to say trail magic showcases the unbelievable generosity and hospitality that the trail engenders. Far from the dangerous crazies that some fear we will encounter, almost everyone we meet is kind, helpful, curious and supportive. We are so grateful.
5. "Infrastructure"
While this probably doesn't deserve quotes per se, Jenny and I were fascinated by the big infrastructure projects we walked by, under or over in this section. We walked underneath the Mojave Forks Dam, a purely flood control dam that was completely dry on both sides. Apparently runoff from the San Bernadino Mountains can cause flash floods in the area, though from the trees growing on both sides of the huge mound of rocks comprising the dam, it's hard to imagine. I wonder how frequently these floods occur.
We also walked underneath the very real dam that holds back the man-made Silverwood Lake. It's a little terrifying to know that much water is behind a wall of rocks.
We also walked under a creepy tunnel under I-10, and a cool tunnel under some railroad tracks.
We are wrapping up in Wrightwood now, where we picked up a bounty! Thanks to Jenny's friend Diane I witnessed the woman I will marry eat 4 cans of mandarin oranges. Thank you? Jenny's mom Sharon sent my absolute favorite Trader Joes chocolate covered almonds with salt. I ate half already. They're heavy and delicious.
Another huge thanks to Sharon who just received our wedding invitations and is sending them out!!!
We are off to Agua Dulce and Hiker Heaven!
Below are a smattering of pictures from this section:
Big bear lake
Mt Baldy and Baden Powell in the distance
Jenny cooking!
Trees in the desert!
First Joshua tree!!
Sunrise heading towards Mt Baldy
A horny toad
It's hot out there!
View heading down to highway 2
Doing laundry!
They get some PCT hikers in Wrightwood!
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