April 16th, 2022 by Jon
We awoke in our little clearing, and it was far colder than we expected. We wanted to get to town quickly to pick up our package, so we had a breakfast of cold bars to start our day. We got packed quickly and climbed a loose sandy trail on some switchbacks to get out of the canyon that the river was in. We stepped out in another part of the meadow and crossed a tiny dirt strip through a vast grassland. The cows were already out to pasture, and many looked down at us from grassy knolls as if to ask why we were there.
After a few quick miles, we made it to Eagle Rock, which is a large rock formation that looks like an eagle. It’s a pretty cool milestone and nearly everyone goes to check it out because it’s only about 100 feet off trail. Photos taken and rocks oogled over, we continued our trek through winding meadows that led to oak forests and streams. It was Saturday, and there were a lot of families out walking this morning. Many gave us kind smiles and hellos, but I just hoped they couldn’t smell us.
We got to town after 4 miles of hiking and arrived at Warner Springs Community Center. It’s a good pit stop for hikers where they have a huge gazebo set up with picnic tables and a hiker box which you can find in most hiker establishments. It contains snacks, discarded food, and gear, and it’s generally worth perusing whenever you see one because people get rid of stuff that you might actually use. They also had big cafeteria sinks on the outside of the building to do laundry if you wanted and bucket showers if you were into that. We skipped both because we had partaken of both back in Julian.
We enjoyed a bit of rest before heading back out on the road to the post office about a mile up the road. We crossed the street and stuck our thumbs out, and no joke, 20 seconds later, the first car that went by pulled over. It was a minivan and the guy driving already had another hiker in the front seat. We told him we were headed to the post office and he told us to jump in! Minutes later, we were standing outside of it, thanking him as he pulled away. What luck. We grabbed our resupply packages, which contained the 5 days of food we had sent ourselves for the next section that would get us to Idlewild, 70 miles away.
It felt too overwhelming to deal with organizing our food on the ground at the post office parking lot so we just threw it in our backpacks haphazardly so we could get back to the community center and organize there. We tried hitchhiking for about 15 minutes before deciding to just walk the mile back. Road walks suck because the ground is so hard and you definitely feel it in your feet by the end. We got back to the center and laid everything out, donated some extras to the hiker box, grabbed some soda from the box and made some lunch with the new supplies. More peanut butter and tortillas, but when in good company and with some Oreos to go with it, life was good.
We hung out, resting and texting family to make sure they knew we were alive. Around 11:00 we decided to head out. We left at the same time as another hiker trio made up of another hiker couple from Portland, Mary and Jason, and Rachel, who we had met back in Julian. We hiked through about 2 miles of meadow that gave way to more oak trees, and we realized we were about to go back up into the mountains that were on the opposite side of town from where we had come. The trail gained elevation slowly as it meandered up small hills and ridges, then brought us alongside a dry, sandy riverbed. The trail became sand, which feels like hiking through quicksand when you have a pack on. We persevered, and eventually we came to Agua Caliente Creek and hiked along its bank for a while before stopping for a snack break where the bank was a little wider.
Afterwards began the most grueling difficult 5 miles of the entire trip for me. Objectively, it was a moderately steep section, but with the long day we had yesterday and temps approaching the upper 70s, low 80s, I began to wilt. My left foot will especially ache after long, difficult days, and today was no exception. It helps to stop and take extra stretch breaks and so that’s what I did. The trail climbed 1200 feet in 4 miles and when we finally arrived I didn’t have the energy to stretch right away. I just threw down my pack, and sat on the ground in some shade and drank the last of the water I had. I rubbed my feet a bit and within minutes Ajia got to camp as well. There were already a few other hikers here, and we began to scope out and claim tent spots. I was still so hot and tired that I was having some trouble finishing everything and had to drink some of Ajia’s water in the shade while she finished getting the tent setup. We got the rest of our stuff inside and set up. Finally, it came time to go find the spring that was 0.2 miles down a small trail from the tent sites.
When we got there, we found a small concrete pool, but no pipe or anything to collect fresh flowing water. We gently scooped water out of the pool to prevent floaters from getting in and potentially clogging our filter. We each took around 3 liters so we had enough to camp and cook with and then make it to the next water source in 7.7 miles tomorrow.
Our campsite was on a ridge that would have been a nightmare to camp on if it had been windy, but thankfully, it was perfectly still, and we realized we would have an amazing sunset view. We sat on the ridge and began cooking dinner. I had dehydrated Pad Thai that was actually pretty good and Ajia had chicken and dumplings. Those meals are expensive, but they sure are convenient. We only have a few of them, so we save them for the nights when we need a boost. Today definitely felt like a night we deserved them.
We talked with other hikers for a while before watching a majestic sunrise in quiet amazement. We’re going to try to get a good night’s rest and go about 15 miles tomorrow.
