April 12th, 2022 by Jon
Well, we hiked our longest day yet at exactly 17 miles for the day. The trail has continued to really open up on some views and today was some excellent hiking.
The same, however, cannot be said about last night. It felt like hurricane-force winds, and we had torrential rain. Thankfully, we knew when we picked our spot to stake our tent out as much as we could and it held up to the task. Shout out to Sea to Summit for making a really great Telos 2-person tent. Sleep came in short bursts in between particularly hard gusts, and it got really cold. At one point, I woke up and checked the weather app on my phone since I had service and it said 30 degrees but with wind chill it was 18. I was glad to be pretty warm, actually, and ended up taking off a few layers I had gone to bed with. We found out later a number of hikers got off trail that evening to get out of the bad weather.
Eventually, morning came and our alarms went off at 5:30 per usual. We took one look around and decided it wasn’t worth getting up yet with how cold it was. We stayed in our tent for another hour, sort of dozing, sort of just delaying the inevitable. Eventually, we forced ourselves to eat some oatmeal (Jon) and grits (Ajia) and had enough water leftover to make my trusty instant coffee + carnation instant breakfast combo to get me going in the morning. We got everything packed which was no easy task considering how much dexterity is needed to get everything rolled up and put away nicely. It’s tough to use your fingers when it’s cold outside.
After that, we went to fill up water at the spigot, but it turned out it froze overnight and wouldn’t pump any water this morning. Thankfully, Ajia and I had 3 liters between us which was enough to get us to the next source in another 4-5 miles. That section was actually pretty easy and we banged out those miles to the next water in about 2 hours. We walked through a lot of brush and high up on a canyon wall, looking at the valley below that we will get down into tomorrow. Unfortunately, we were also walking through a long hanging cloud for most of the time so we only had views intermittently. The air was full of moisture that adhered to our clothing and generally made everything feel damp. One highlight from the morning was walking past our first mile marker! Hikers will use rocks to make numbers and signify how far we have come in our journey. Today we hit 50 miles and from here on out, we will likely see markers every 100 miles or so. We took a quick picture, then had to keep walking before the wind made us too cold.
Nicole, Ajia, and I had hiked the section together and when we got to the water source, Jenna was already there! She is not carrying a stove and instead uses the weight savings she gained to carry a water filter that works via gravity. Basically, the water flows from one bag to a second one thru a tube that filters it as it moves. They are a little heavy, but very nice to have. Since she had just finished filling water, she kindly offered to let us use it, which was WONDERFUL. Filtering water is one of those small, pretty easy things that I really don’t enjoy, so any chance to avoid it is a total win for me. We sat there filtering, snacking, and stretching before heading out for a spot we had picked another 6 or 7 miles away that we planned to eat lunch at and explode all the contents of our backpack on the ground so things could dry in the sun. Sleeping in a damp bag or a wet tent is no fun. Jenna was staying behind to wait for some other hikers and so the 3 of us headed out again for our next section.
Thankfully, the miles came easily. Nicole always stays in front because she kicks ass at hiking and barely takes any breaks. I usually go next and sometimes I’ll keep up with her for a while, but she usually leaves me in the dust after a little while. Ajia likes to bring up the rear. The views were great, as were the surrounding mountains and valleys; it felt like we were up on a ridge basically the whole time. We were leaving the Mt Laguna recreation area and transitioning into the Anza-Borrego forest. We took a quick break after 3 miles and some change and continued onward, looking forward to lunch.
We arrived at our targeted lunch spot which was where the trail led off 0.4 miles to a water source but we didn’t need it so we stayed on the PCT and took our break. Watching PCT hikers unpack is hilarious. Generally, we pack and unpack everything multiple times a day, and so you get really good at it. When it came to lunch time after a wet night, lots of things get put out to dry covering rocks, bushes, dirt, whatever. Thankfully, the desert is generally hot and dry most of the time, so things dry out pretty quickly. Lunch for Ajia and I was tortillas with peanut butter/Nutella. We kinda just slather it on and you eat it like a burrito or a taco.
We met another couple hiking the PCT while eating who were ex-pats living/traveling in Thailand almost recently before coming to the states a day before hitting the PCT. They were super interested in Ajia growing up abroad and had a great conversation. Eventually, they left, and Ajia and I started talking about our plans for the next two days. Originally, we weren’t going to go into Julian, but Nicole’s sister is picking her up at Scissors Crossing, which we plan to hit tomorrow. It’s basically where two highways cross each other on the desert floor. A shower and real town food sounded really good and since we had service at our lunch spot, we decided to start looking at how much a room might be. If we did a big 17 mile day today, we could hike just 11 miles tomorrow morning and crash there overnight, enjoy some real food, and then get back out to trail the next day. We were sold on the idea with some definite convincing from Nicole. As we called around to a few hotels in town, one mentioned they had a small trailer on the property that they rent out to PCT hikers at a bit of a discount. It comes with 3 beds, a bathroom, and access to the pool and hotel lounge area. It sleeps 4 and we decided to split it with Nicole.
Plans made and town food in our future, we hit the trail once again to try and bang out another 6-7 miles to camp. It was a big day for us and so it called for some music. I haven’t actually used my earbuds yet in trail since I’ve enjoyed the sounds of nature but today I needed the pump up to make miles. Today, the 3 of us spread out more than we usually do, each hiking at our own pace, knowing we would meet at a small tent site for a quick break 2 miles before our actual campsite for the night. The views were amazing and basically the same as they had been all day. Mountains around us and the valley floor far below.
We took a break at a nice, lush campsite at the bottom of the hill, and the hill we had to climb looked over us. We hung out with Adam for a while who was originally from England but has been living in Santa Cruz for the last decade. He was older then all of us and we had been leapfrogging each other all day which is when you pass each other when one group takes a break. It’s been fascinating to meet so many people and hear their stories. Our differences in age, nationality, or athletic prowess are celebrated and we all have the excitement of the PCT to bind us together. It’s truly something special.
It came time to leave and we all gave a little groan as we thought about the hike out of the canyon we were currently sitting at the bottom of. We all seem to have our sore spots. Mine is my left Achilles and Ajia had a tight muscle behind her right knee. But we stretch and massage them as often as we can, and as we hike, the stiffness tends to go away. It’s really once we stop that it comes back. Part of getting our trail legs I suppose.
Per usual, Nicole tore off like a rocket, and Ajia and I enjoyed each other’s company for the 2 miles to camp. We both enjoy the solitude of hiking alone, but we like time together too.
We made it to camp and there were plenty of spots to pick from. Ajia and I have a new routine of setting out our groundcloth where our tent will go and then we start stretching for 15-20 minutes. It’s hard to do once the tent is up because of how cramped it gets with us both inside and then we can lay on the groundcloth instead of the dirt. As we were finishing, we heard someone call out and we called back. Pretty soon, Jenna walked around the corner! She has been having some significant foot pain lately and she wasn’t sure how far she wanted to go today. We’re all glad she made it. We sat around and ate some dinner, talked about being in town tomorrow, and then got too cold because the sun kept going behind small clouds. Thankfully it’s not windy tonight and although it’s supposed to get down to 32, no rain or wind will make it a much better night.
Song of the day that hit me in all the right ways: Byegone by Volcano Choir
