May 3rd, 2022 by Jon
Today we went 24 miles in one day. What a feat.
We woke up to a very wet tent, once again the victims of camping by a water source. The wind died down completely overnight and we both slept decently well. We packed and then spent a leisurely extra 15 minutes on breakfast to enjoy a warm cup of instant coffee before hitting the trail by 6:45. I was pretty hungry this morning because we had those burgers yesterday around 3:30 and I didn’t eat dinner last night because of it. Thankfully, since we have been going faster than planned, I have plenty of snacks to munch on today.
Last night, we dropped off a ledge we were walking along to come down to the creek we stayed at last night, so this morning we hiked back up to it. We walked along the ledge for a long time, staring out at the valley and what we think is the San Andreas Fault. This section has very little in it, but Singsong and I hiked together and we had a good conversation about the trail so far and how we felt about everything. It feels good to be on the same page and it can feel difficult to have those conversations at the end of the day when we are tired. We’ve both been making an effort to check in with each other more often, earlier in the day.
After a few miles, the trail brought us down lower, and we came around the corner to see a huge dam. We were at the very bottom of it and it was weird to think about all the water of Lake Silverwood behind that dam. We took a break right next to the highway in the shade of some trees before walking over a highway bridge. Thankfully, there was a sidewalk, but it was a little jarring to have cars fly right by us. Once across, the trail continued alongside the highway, but at least we had 10 feet between us and the car now.
We walked past the dam’s power plant before beginning an ascent up and over a ridge towards the lake. We saw signs that we were now in California State Park land which also meant no camping for the next 5 miles. That was okay, though. We planned to camp after it. We got to the top of the ridge to look down into the lake basin and it was very beautiful. The lake was shimmering blue and there were a few boats out cruising across the surface. We took a moment to soak the image in, with the hills behind the lake, before heading onward. The lake itself has lots of “arms,” and so hiking around it takes a while because you constantly hike into and out of these little inlets. We passed by a few picnic areas, but we were headed to the one with bathrooms and water.
We came to a dirt road that led us down to the picnic area around 10:15, hiking 10 miles in about 3 and a half hours. We’re definitely getting faster, and without very much elevation gain, this last stretch we could really cruise. We came down to the picnic area and Seabiscuit was already there. There was a huge pavilion with 6 picnic tables all underneath in the shade. Bathrooms and running water, too, made for a great break spot. We decided to take an early lunch there. Since I had an extra dinner, I actually made a ramen there just because I could.
We had good phone service, so we caught up on a few things and checked McDonald’s hours to make sure we weren’t going to miss it. We lounged there for a while, and Seabiscuit tore off by 11:30, antsy to continue hiking. We stayed until 12:15 or so, enjoying the shade. We set out once again and saw Wilco, who had gone past the cutoff for the picnic area and was breaking at a stream a half mile up the trail. We chatted for a while and made plans to take another break in 4.5 miles at another water source. We walked underneath the highway and began our climb out of the lake area. The climb was the hardest part of the day; it was hot, exposed, and pretty steep. The trail itself had lots of rocks, which made every step challenging. You had to be careful about where you stepped so you wouldn’t roll an ankle.
Eventually, we got to the top of the ridge and could see a long line of high-voltage power lines heading towards Cajon Pass, away from the lake. You could also see back down behind us at the dry valley floor and the lake slightly above and next to it. We hiked downhill and after a few miles came to the creek we were looking for. It was nicely shaded and although the water was barely trickling, I found a spot where it was falling off a rock and was able to collect it without getting my filter all junky from filtering muddy water.
We stayed there for a while. Rune shared some of the hard candy he is carrying, which is always very kind of him. He has those round red-and-white peppermints and the Werther’s Originals (those butterscotch ones), which we like to call golden nuggets. We set out once again, and by now we needed music to power us up the last section of the trail to get us to our planned campsite. The view was mostly the same; we could still see the fault line and valley below, but we were looking at a different, greener valley than the one we had seen this morning.
We came to a dried-up stream bed with lots of good campsites around it, and there was Seabiscuit sitting in the shade waiting for us. Since the rest of us had all taken a break down at the spring, we all arrived within 10 minutes of each other. We had hiked 17.7 miles and felt good about it. It was at that moment that Wilco announced he was going to hike the last stretch into town, get McDonald’s tonight, and sleep at the hotel at the interstate. We all looked at each other for a while, which would mean hiking a 24-mile day. That’s a really long way. But a McFlurry did sound pretty good…
It was only 3:30, and the McDonald’s didn’t close until 8:00. Seabiscuit offered to hike ahead because she had already been waiting, and she would make the hotel reservations for all of us. Plan made, we all set out, already tired, but captivated by the town-food tractor beam. We ridge walked to the end of the valley we were in before a steep, short climb out of it. We walked right underneath the high-voltage power lines and listened to them sizzle far above our heads.
We walked up a dirt road, then had one last very steep climb, and at the top we had a spectacular view down into Cajon Pass and the mountains we would climb afterwards. The next 3 miles down were some of the most beautiful hiking I have ever done. It felt like we were hiking right on the spine of these narrow ridges, and the views and sunset were incredible in every direction. Halfway down the climb, we ran into Rune, Wilco, and Seabiscuit, who waited for us so we could all get in at the same time! We walked down the mountain, had a short canyon walk next to a stream, and came out next to the interstate. We saw the famous McDonald’s sign that told us we were 0.4 miles away.
When we got there, I had a Big Mac, a large fry, 20 chicken nuggets, and an Oreo McFlurry. I thought maybe I was overdoing it a bit, but I ate all of it. Everyone else managed to pound away a ton of food, too. Feeling very satisfied, we walked over to the hotel and grabbed our rooms. After a quick beer and cheers in one of the hotel rooms, we headed back, took a shower, and fell asleep before 9:00. It was a very full day, and a very happy one.
