Heading home

Yet again I sit in an airport waiting for my flight after having left the trail earlier than planned. I feel better about it than last time, though.

Leaving Warner Springs, I hiked about 10 miles. It was a different sort of hiking than I had done previously on the trail, as the first 5 miles were through some fields and the crisscrossed a stream. That felt a little more like hiking at home.

The next day, I woke up early and pounded out the 8 miles to the next water source: a water tank at Mike Herrera's place. The next water after that that wasn't a water cache was about 25 miles away, so I filled both my bottles and my bladder for a total of 7 liters. That was heavy.

Mike's place is another haven for hikers. An odd place, but a welcome one. It is a little down the road from the tank, but worth the extra distance. There is a porch that is enclosed in netting to keep the bugs off, multiple meals a day are cooked for the hikers, camping is allowed on property, and there are cold drinks. All he asks are some donations to keep the Magic coming.

I saw Roy there, so we chatted and chilled for a bit. I also got some food, which was great, since I hadn't had a real breakfast  (just some snacks, water was a concern). I chatted with some other hikers, too, and just before I was about to leave, Brandon showed up, so we exchanged hellos and off I went.

The next few miles were tough. All that water weight was making me drag. It was a cooler day with some wind and wispy clouds, though, so I figured it was a good day to try and make some miles.

Hiking solo all day had given me some time to think. I wasn't enjoying the trail. I wasn't sleeping well on the trail. Desert hiking is not like hiking in Washington.

I had already been thinking about WHY I was doing this, but I was having a hard time focusing. Texting my mom and getting some thought-provoking questions from her helped me work through the reasons. I realized most of them weren't very good ones, and others had already been accomplished.

That was a revelation. It also helped explain why I was having as hard a time with the trail as I was. I was forcing myself to do it, rather than really wanting to.

After that, it was like a weight had been lifted. I had a bunch of energy, and I ended up knocking out 20 miles by the end of the day. I felt like I could have done more, but I didn't want to overdo it.

I came to a place at the bottom of a small canyon with a few tent sites on sand. I prefer sleeping near other people, and that seemed like somewhere more people might post up for the night. I was right, as a trio of section-hikers from Portland I had passed a couple times that day showed, and then Tiny did, too. (Apparently there are 2 Tinys on the trail. I am talking about the actual tiny one, not the 7-foot tall one)

It was nice to see her one more time before I left. She is one of the ones who convinced me to get a hotel room in Warner Springs. If she hadn't, I probably would have left the trail from there, and on a bad note, not a positive one.

The next day, I got up around 5:30 (about normal for trying to start at first light and hike during the cool part of the day), broke camp, said goodbye to Tiny (she gets going a lot later, apparently), and headed on. I had 12 miles to cover to get to the Paradise Valley Cafe, and it closed at 3. It was another cooler day, and so made for much better hiking than some of the earlier ones.

Eventually I came upon Mary's place. She has a plot of land that abuts the trail, and that corner she uses to help out hikers and horseback riders. There is a place to refill water, a little free library, a couple picnic tables, an outhouse, and a shower. She also lets hikers camp on that plot. Every year she has a theme for the area, and this year she was celebrating the 150th anniversary of John Muir arriving in California. It was cute.

Brandon caught up with me there, and after we both took a break, we headed out together. Since I had had the necessary introspection the previous day, it was nice to have someone to hike and talk with. Mostly we talked about TV shows, but, hey, it helped pass the time. Along the way, we passed the 150 mile mark.

Paradise Valley Cafe was a one mile walk along a fairly busy freeway off the trail. Worth it. They had good food and drinks, and were very welcoming of hikers. I wasn't actually able to finish my burger, because I got one with two patties not realizing that each patty was a half pound. Oof. The cafe also had the number of a Trail Angel who gave rides from there to Idyllwild. Brandon decided to try and hike the fire closure alternate trail to there, but Renee (another hiker who happened to be there) and I opted for the ride.

Idyllwild is a cute little mountain town that loves hikers. Kind of like Julian, but higher elevation. Bigger, too. I got my hotel room, got a shower (felt so good), and went looking for food. I had seen Simba and Lauren walking around as we pulled in to town, so I knew they were there, somewhere.

The place that called my name, and I figured would call theirs, too, was the Idyllwild Brewpub. When I got there, there was blues playing over the speakers, and a bunch of hikers outside at a trestle table, including Kevin (another Seattle-ite), Jon and Jacob, who I had kept running into. They informed me Simba and Lauren were showing up in a bit, so I sat and had a beer. It was a really smooth Scotch Ale. A great end to the day. I also got their grilled cheese, which was interesting in that it was done on a hamburger bun and had veggies on it. Really good, though.

Simba and Lauren eventually showed, as well as a few other hikers I hadn't met, yet, and I informed people of my decision to leave the trail. They were all sad to see me go, but understood. We all toasted the Trail and had a bunch of laughs. It was a great send off.

I slept well that night. In the morning, I got breakfast, off-loaded some things into the hiker box (they don't like you to take fuel on the plane), and called a Trail Angel to get a ride to Hemet (the bigger town a bit away where I could have more transportation options). There, I got an Uber (first time doing so), and got a ride to the Ontario Airport, ending my journey.

Reasons I was doing the trail:
Doing it so others could live vicariously through me. Not good.
Doing it because I bought all the gear and done all the planning for last year's attempt. Not good.
Doing it to be able to say I had done it. Nope, not good, either.
Doing it to prove to myself I was in shape enough to do it. Better, but I had already accomplished that.
Doing it to experience the sense of community I found last year once again. Good, but not good enough to validate the entire trail.
To accomplish it to the point where I was done, not AJ Lucky. Very valid, and successful.
Doing it to help me make some changes, to see how I would come out the other end. A good reason, and a big part of wanting to do it last year, but flawed.

Going into the trail last year, I had been working retail for pretty much all of my life. I had only just completed my marketable degrees. I had only lived with my parents or in housing shared with others. I was not really happy with my life.

Over the 11 months between attempts, I added a couple industry certifications to my resume. I got a job that paid SOOOO much better than any I had had before, and that I actually enjoyed. I was able to afford an apartment all to myself. I was making changes to my life.

I wasn't able to truly enjoy them, though. Everything was kind of on hold due to my idea of attempting the trail again. I got free furniture, not necessarily furniture I wanted. I didn't put up any pictures or anything. I didn't really make the apartment mine. Also, all the money that wasn't going into bills was being saved for the trail, so I wasn't really enjoying that, either.

AJ had also gotten a job in her field over this time. A full-time teaching job, using her full degree. There aren't too many Ag Ed programs in the Seattle area, so, unfortunately, she got it in the Tri-Cities. This means she is going through some of the same changes, but I was not able to really experience those changes with her, as my job and apartment were still on the west side of the mountains. We saw each other most weekends, but that's not quite the same.

I am excited to see what my changes mean for me. What her changes mean for her. What the changes mean for us together. Can't really explore that on the trail.

There is a saying on the trail: "The Trail provides." It provided me with what I needed, even if I didn't realize what I needed when I started. I will miss everyone I met on the trail. I feel like they are all family, even though we hardly knew each other. There is definitely a bond that formed what with us all sharing similar hardships and triumphs. I gave a bunch of them my contact info, so I hope to see many of them again when they make it there. Provide some Trail Magic for them and hear about their journey.

100 miles!

First 100 down!

Warner Springs

Got a ride out of Julian at around 10:30 am. Not ideal hiking time, but such is life. The wind was blowing pretty steadily, which helped keep me cool. I planned to hike for a couple hours, take a break during the hottest part, then coninue on to the 3rd Gate water cache, for a 14 mile day.

That day was another of a lot of ledge walking, with very little shade. That being the case, I just walked on during rhe middle of the day. If it wasn't for the wind, I would have been in very bad shape.

Just after the first gate, I found a little shade and took a break. Saw a couple fighter jets buzz through the canyon. That was cool.

When I finally made it to 3rd Gate, I set up camp near some other hikers and called it a night. It wasn't very windy at that point, so I didn't drive my stakes very deeply. That turned out to be a mistake, as the wind picked up in the middle of the night. Gusts of up to 70 mph. I didn't sleep very well, especially after the wind ripped a couple stakes out of the ground.

The wind wasn't supposed to let up until 2pm, so I around dawn I decided to just pack up and hike on. Figured I would be ok as long as I didn't have to do much ledge walking, or if I did, the wind wasn't trying to push me off the ledge.

There was a bunch of ledges, but the wind was pushing me into the uphill side, so I continued walking. Caught up with Roy after a while, and hiked with him until he had to pause to deal with a hot spot.

Not long after that, there was a major change in scenery. Meadows, and some streams, and actual trees that provided shade. I got a picture of some hikers ahead of me in the meadows area. Two little dark spots in the bottom right quarter of the picture.

I caught up with them, and it turned out to be Jinx and Hannah. After some trekking through the meadows, we came to Eagle Rock. We took the obligatory pictures there, clambered around on the rocks for a bit, and waited for Roy so I could take his picture for him. The 4 of us then hiked the rest of the way into Warner Springs to end about an 18 mile day.

Warner Springs has a community resource center that lets us camp in the field, provides bucket showers and laundry, wifi, and other niceties. There is an outfitter in a trailer that helps people with pack shake-downs and has a surprising amount of gear for how small a space they have. There is also a post office, restaurant, and resort.

Hannah was meeting her sibling (trail-name Dragon) there. We all set up our tents, and then went to the restaurant for dinner. When we got back, it was bed time.

I didn't sleep very well that night, again. Partly because my face got really cold. Everything else was toasty, though. In the morning we went to the restaurant for breakfast, and then to the post office to pick up our packages. I still had a bunch of food left, so the resupply wasn't as necessary as I thought it would be, but it was still nice.

Back at Laguna, I realized that the Fivefingers I had been hiking in weren't going to work for the whole trail, so I had called my parents and asked them to ship a pair of the trail runners I had in storage to Warner Springs. It was a relief to get them. I am not sure what exactly was causing it, but my toes were a little numb from the fivefingers. I am hoping it was them, anyway. I will see if swapping to standard shoes lets that heal up.

I was totally exhausted, and not dealing with anything well that day, so Tiny and a couple others convinced me to get a room at the resort for the night. A shower and a night in a real bed with a controlled environment felt really good. Took another shower in the morning to let the hot water soothe stiff muscles and to get some steam up into the sinuses. Rehydrate them.

Felt better after a good night's sleep. I hiked back to the Resource Center to buy some sun gloves, as I was tired of putting sunscreen on the backs of my hands. They also had Leukotape, so I picked up some of that, too. Planning to eat something, fill up on water, and put in about 10 miles today.

Julian

Julian is a small, tourist-trap type town with great love for thru-hikers. Mom's gives hikers a free slice of pie (with ice cream, if you want) and a free drink. The Julian Cider Mill gives out a free cup of their cider (I got boysenberry-apple. It was delicious) and a small pack of snacks. I think there is another place that gives free stuff, but I don't remember where. Some of the hotels also give discounts to hikers. Ghost also does shuttling between Julian and Scissors Crossing at no charge.

The heart and soul of the hiker community there, though, is Carmen. This lovely woman opens the doors of her cafe to hikers, offering a free beer, cheap eats, and a floor to sleep on. She greets every hiker with a hug, no matter how sweaty and dirty they are. She also has a place for hikers to do their laundry. All at no charge (except the food, and as I already said, that's inexpensive). Unfortunately, she is selling the cafe, so she will only be doing this for another couple weeks. Her dog, Trigger is also here whenever she is and adorable.

Side note: Pippen is here, and has picked up a different trail name: Good Karma.

Also, a lady just came by and handed out custom Buffs to all the hikers who were here.

An unexpected stop

So, originally I had planned on hiking straight to Warner Springs from Mt. Laguna, taking four days to do so. I did not count on how brutal the 37 miles after Mt. Laguna would be.

The first day wasn't as bad as the second. There were a couple places with shade, and one guaranteed water refill. All signs pointed to no water on trail between miles 48.7 and 77, though, so I had to load up with enough to make it a day and a half.

I loaded up 6 liters there, double my normal water load. Man that made my pack heavier. Also made it more awkward, as I had to hang the extra 3 liters off my pack in a non-optimal way. I also made "dinner" and ate it there, so I wouldn't have to use water to cook, later.

Turns out there was another water source a few miles later, which also had some shade, so I was able to resupply some there. After that, though, it was seven miles to my campsite, for a total of 19 miles that day. I had planned on only doing about 15, but wanted to get through that dry stretch quickly. After multiple days of just 10-12, that was a stretch.

Luckily, some lovely person had dropped a water cache at my planned campsite for the night, so the liter and a half I went through on the way there was able to be replenished. It was very warm that night, though, and the campsite (Sunrise Campground) was right near a freeway. Combine that with the fact that I was all sticky with sweat, and I barely slept 2 hours that night.

Miles 59.5 through 77 were torturous. I got a bit of a late start, so I didn't get going until about 7, which was less than optimal for what turned out to be the hottest, most exposed day I had experienced so far. There was a lot of ledge walking, no tall brush, and no cliffs above that might provide shade.

At 68, there was a supposed water source 1.1 miles from the trail. Luckily, I had enough water, so I didn't stop. Might have been nice to verify the source for the Water Report, and maybe get some cooler water, but wasn't necessary.

I made the mistake of hiking through the hottest part of the day, but without good shade, stopping wouldn't have done much. The little shade I did find around that time was very awkward to try and sit under. It actually hurt to prop myself up on the slope, so I didn't stay long.

I finally found some decent shade about four miles from the end of the day, and stayed there for a while. I got bored pretty quickly, though, and there was the siren song of the end of the day, so I moved on after about 45 minutes. Also, it was around 4 pm, so the heat was waning.

The last 3.5 miles of the day were almost completely flat. It was boring, hot, and completely exposed. It was torturous.

When I got to Scissors Crossing, I was exhausted both mentally and physically. There were a few hikers resting under the bridge there, along with a water cache. I dropped my pack, enjoyed a little shade, and drank most of what was left of my water. I had not planned on going to Julian, but after the last two days, I needed a break.

After a bit, I hauled my pack back on, moved up on to the road, and stuck out my thumb. With 18 miles to Julian, hitch-hiking was necessary. Apparently the people nearby are used to hikers trying to get to Julian, and are willing to pick them up. Took me about 15 minutes to get a ride.

The guy had just gotten done with a round of golf. He lives in Julian and works at the Julian brewery. He and I talked about the trail and how he would live to do it, but he has kids, so he is just going to section hike.

Next stop, Julian.

Hayes Peak

I figures this panoramic shot deserved it's own post. This was taken on Hayes Peak, and covers about the 90 degrees between North and West.

Some landscapes from the first 4 days

Just some shots I took a long the way

Days 2-4

Day 2:
Woke up not hungry at all. Not a good sign, but not the worst, either. The original plan was to make it to Cibbets Flat Campground (15-ish miles) by end of day. Yeah, that didn't happen, for a couple reasons. First off, I was still recovering from the 15 mile push plus another 4-5 miles looking for water with low water on day one. Second, once I got hiking, I realized my ankle was bugging me.

Pippin was already up and gone by the time I got moving, so I hiked solo. I had just enough water to make it the 5 miles to Lake Morena Campground, but there was guaranteed water there, so I wasn't too worried. It was a bit of slow going with my ankle, and I knew it wasn't going to be a good idea to push on past there that day, so I took a Near-0 to rest and RICE my ankle.

While there, I met back up with Roy and Katie (she is the one who made the awesome patch). They started with me at S&F's, but were doing 10s to start. They are fun people, so when they asked if I wanted to join them for day 3, I said yes for the company and to take it easy on my ankle.

There was a campground worker who lived on site in his trailer. He came around to take our fee for spending the night there with his dog, Larry. Larry was cute, and I got a little dog fix, as I was missing both Lucky and Chinook (my parents' dog).

Forced myself to eat a burger and malt from the malt shop just off the campground, but it took a few hours to get through it. At this point I was a bit worried about this no appetite thing, but I figured I would get myself rested and fully re-hydrated before I raised a true alarm about it.

There were a couple guys doing Trail Magic at the campground. They came by the PCT hiker spot and offered rides to their campsite where they were doing Chili dogs and S'mores. Since I had no appetite, I turned it down, but they also said they were going to be at Kitchen Creek Crossing doing Magic the next day.

Also, there was a shower on site. $.50 for 4 minutes of hot water. It was wonderful. I also rinsed out my dirty clothes and hung them dry.

Day 3:
Woke up at 4 am to hike with Roy and Katie. They like hiking in the dark. It's not for me, as I prefer to be able to see more than just what my headlamp illuminates, but the companionship was good.

My ankle was feeling better that morning, so that was good. Roy and Katie like to knock out all their miles before the heat of the day and rest for the afternoon, so they weren't going super slow, but weren't really pushing it, either. Water was still scarce, but the guys doing Magic were going to provide water, so we weren't too worried.

At one point, Katie called a break. I knew we had to be close to where the magic was happening, so before I dropped pack, I checked the Halfmile App to see how far it was. We were .08 miles away. I asked if they were sure about the break because of that, but Roy had already plopped down, too.

I hiked on for about 3 minutes before coming upon the site of the Magic. The guys had water, sandwiches, pop, gatorade, apples, and chips. Heaven. I dropped my bag, told the people there (2 Angels and about 5 hikers) about Roy and Katie, grabbed an apple and Gatorade, and said "I am going to walk back and taunt them." Which I did, and it got them up off their butts right quick.

We chilled there for a while, enjoying the company and the food. I was even able to steal some ice from the hosts for my ankle and elevate it. Eventually, though, all good things must end, and we moved on.

We made it to Cibbets Flat Campground that night, a day behind my original schedule. Ran into a little more magic there: more apples and some more ice. My ankle was grateful for latter.

It was really windy that night. REALLY windy. A few people's tents had to be moved around so they wouldn't blow down. Made it hard to sleep. The wind also blew a bunch of dust into my tent, even with the door zipped and the rain fly on.

My appetite was back, so I actually made dinner and ate most of it. I took that as a good sign.

Day 4:
Katie and Roy woke up at 4 again, but I wanted to sleep in, so they left without me. I hiked most of the day by myself.

It was a great day for hiking. I was in the shadow of a hill most of the day, so the sun wasn't beating directly on me. My ankle didn't hurt at all, and the trail was fairly smooth and level after the first bit, so I made good time

Made it to the Long Creek forge, and there were Katie and Roy! I had caught up to them. Also there were Simba, Lauren, and DaviAnna. Simba got his trail name on the AT. Not sure why. I should ask.

Simba and Lauren had to make it to Mt. Laguna before the post office closed, so they booked it. DaviAnna, Roy, Katie and I hiked pretty much together the 4-ish miles to Laguna, arriving there about 11am.

We had lunch at the little cafe there, and went to the store to pick up a couple things. Then we set up camp at Burnt Rancheria.

The weather started being a little weird, with the wind coming up again, but changing direction a lot. It also blew a bunch of clouds (we are at almost 6000 feet elevation) through our campground. Windy and damp.

This campground also has a shower. I am not quite ready to be dirty hiker-trash, yet, so I used it. I wanted to rinse out my dirty, dusty clothes, too, but with the misty air, I figured they wouldn't dry very well.

The wind is still blowing heavily, so we will see how well I sleep tonight.

The Long Walk Home: Day 1

Up at about 5 to pack my stuff. The sinus junk had gone away, and I was feeling better mentally. Pack was ready to go by 5:30, which was when breakfast started. Scout and Frodo provided it all again, and it was really tasty.

26 of us were starting from S&F's. It was a lot to organize, but they handled it with an ease born of lots of practice. At 6 we loaded into the cars and drove to the Southern Terminus. There was a lot of good energy, which helped alleviate some of my nervousness.

I made a fairly big mistake that first day. Last year I had 2 1.5-liter Smartwater bottles for water. I forgot they made them that big this year, and started with 2 1-liters. Since I only went through one bottle last year getting to Hauser Creek, I thought I would be fine.

I arrived at Hauser bone dry. Hauser was also bone dry, and I still needed water to cook dinner and breakfast, as well as make it the 5 miles to Lake Morena. I ended up going upstream over a half mile to see if some pools still had water in them. No dice. After getting back to camp, I got a bit of water from someone who had extra so I could make it 1.6 miles to a cistern that was for sure full. Luckily I had enough light left to do it. I was completely exhausted after that, though, so I just purified some water to drink, put up my tent, and went to bed.

I hiked most of the day with a German guy whose name I can't remember. Big surprise, as I am horrible with names. When we stopped at the stream at mile 4.4, he said it looked like a good spot for Second Breakfast. Hearing that, I commented that saying things like that would get him a Hobbit nickname. He said he was fine with that, so I said "OK Pippin" and called him that the rest of the day.

We saw two pretty big rattlesnakes when we got water after getting to Hauser, so that was interesting