Day 6 - Julian to some campsite

A view back towards Scissors Crossing.

Phew, today was a long day.
We started by having the continental breakfast at the lodge. I just had a danish and a slice of orange.
Then we went out to Mom's Pies, which offer thru hikers a free lunch. It was a bit early for lunch, but they made us the sandwiches and we got the drinks and the pie. We managed without the soup. We got it all to go.
Then was the long ordeal of hitching back to the trail. Took us well over an hour, until a very nice lady picked us up after dropping her son at the school. The live in the small town down by Scissors Crossing (where we had to pick up the trail). She told us that she often picks up hikers, both up to town and back to the trail.

A nice place to sit down and rest.

We finally set foot on the trail at 10:20 - way too late for such a long day. The trail ahead was mostly up and up, sprinkled with a lack of water sources, shade, or anyplace to have a nice rest.
Luckily, the "up" bit wasn't top bad. It was mostly graded, with long stretches of Ridge walking. We also got lucky with some clouds which hid the sun occasionally. With the infrequent wind, it was sometimes even pleasant.
The lack of water wasn't that bad, since we both started with 4 liters of water, so it was enough to get us over to the cache.

The view from the long climb up the mountainץ

Getting to the cache itself was fun, because I helped restock it just about a week ago. So when I recognized the trail leading to it I felt much better. I was also happy to finally sign the register, since last time around I felt like I shouldn't do it without actually getting there by foot.

Back at the scene of crime, near the 3rd Gate Cache.

During the day we leap frogged many other hikers struggling on their way up the trail. We met Micah at the cache, even though he managed to get a ride 40 minutes before we did, and some other hikers we haven't met lately. Everyone were pushing forward a bit, to make the next day into Warner Springs a bit easier.
We got out of there for some early evening hike. The sun was fully clouded by then, but I felt quite bear at that point. We managed another 3 miles or so, and now we are camped at pct mile 94.4.
Note to self: next time when I buy a dinner, I should make sure it's ready made, and only requires some quick heating. Currently I still have some unmade rice grains stuck in my teeth.

Day 5 - Paradise trail campsite to Julian

The trail down towards Scissors Crossing.

Last nice we just met a nice Canadian hiker named Micah, who came in just as we were finished eating and getting ready to crash for the day. We talked about splitting a room in Julian the following day.
We also met a couple of hikers named Purple and Carnivore, and only now I figured out that Roni, a friend of mine and Mega-Hiker (I just write that to do see he reacts to it) knows them as well. So next time I see them I will tell them we have a mutual acquaintance.
In the morning we saw no sign of Micah, so we just packed up and started our hike.
The day was another hot-yet-easy downhill, only this time the views were not as nice as yesterday. After the first 9 miles we reached this water tank where we filled up some extra water, and from there it was just cruising all along the crest down towards the valley, in scorching heat and no shady spots.

Chilling in the shade.

The last few miles were just walking in a straight line on the valley's floor. I just tried to speed through it until I reached Scissors Crossing, which is an intersection of two highways where a trail angel maintains a water cache.
It was a relieve to arrive at the cache, mostly because it's under the highway and it's in complete shade. The fact that there was a cooler with beers also helped.
We've met the hiker who walked all night. And also some others who were pushing on further, and Burning Daylight who is planning to spend the night there.
We went up to the highway to catch a ride, and the second pickup driving by picked us up. We rode at the back the whole way to town, and got to the Julian Lodge.
At first, we got ourselves a double bed room, but as we were getting into the room we bumped into Micah, who said he got a room he planned to split with us, so we cancelled our room, and moved in with him.
After a shower and some laundry, we went over to The Smokehouse, where I got a pizza for dinner, and now I am full and clean, and ready for my beauty sleep.

And a pizza for dinner

Day 4 - Mt. Laguna to Sunrise trail campsite

Kids, don't try this at home

All through last night I had to fight with the heating in the room. It was either too hot to breath, or too cold to let my leg out from under the blanket. Either way it was dry as hell.
In the morning we ate the yogurt and apple from yesterday and headed out. The weather was sunny and nice, and the trail was easy and graded.
It was easy to forget we are actually at over 6000 feet (around 2000 meters), because of the nice weather. After a while we started hiking along the rim of a beautiful valley. Way way below us we saw some small hills and a lot of flat fields. It was quite awesome.
The day continued along the rim of the valley, and we made a nice lunch stop at the pioneer trail head (about pct mile 52). We rested our feet, and filled up our water at the nearby trough.
From there, some more ridge walking. This time it was getting a bit too hot, and there was almost no shade. We just kept on walking, only stopping for short rests under some tiny scrubs along the way.
We finally reached the Sunrise trail head (pct mile 59.5) at around 16:00, and headed out towards the campsite with the water that's here.
We met some other hikers staying here overnight - Burning Daylight is out on his second or third thru hike, and his three buddies are escorting his to Warner Springs. Two other hikers have come in and filled up water to continue on their trail. One is planning a night hike tonight. I don't know why.
Later, Purple and Carnivore joined us. They thru hiked the trail before, or at least most of it. And also did the At southbound last year. And finally, Micah from Canada also appeared. We might split a room with him tomorrow in Julian.

Our water source for the night