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.

Making Myself Useful

Last night I overheard Frodo mentioning that Jan is going to maintain her water cache, and I offered my help in carrying those water bottles to the cache. I figured I might as well do something useful while I'm here, since I only start my actual hike tomorrow morning.

This morning Jan was glad to accept my offer, and she took me, along with her husband Jim, to the cache. On the way there I heard many stories about the trail, and the trouble the PCTA and local maintenrs have with maintaining it, and making sure everything runs smoothly. It's not an easy task, but all those volunteers are doing it anyway, and we shouldn't take it for granted.

Before we got to 3rd Gate Water Cache (near PCT mile 91), we stopped by the Barrel Spring water & campsite (PCT mile 101), and met up with Lawrence. He was just done cleaning the spring, and replaced all the water in the trough. That's where I first met the actual trail. It was a bit exciting, yeah.

Barrel Spring

From there, we continued along with Lawrence to the 3rd Gate cache, and filled it up with more water. We also carried away the empty bottles and cardboard boxes. It felt nice to take care of the cache, and I can't wait to actually get there on the trail, so I can view the work done there in a different light, now that I know what it takes to maintain a cache (well - I got a small taste of it, at least)

The re-stocked 3rd Gate water cache

Next, we went up the side trail from the cache, back to the PCT. It's a small 5 minute hike. There is a register at the trail junction that Jan wanted to check, and the wooden "Water" sign was mysteriously broken, so Lawrence fixed it with some nails. Everything looks good now.

Climbing up towards the PCT, from 3rd Gate water cache

We went on, southbound on the PCT, for about a mile. One northbound hiker past us along the way. We were looking for an old "water" sign laying in the dirt, near a washed out road which no longer led to any water source. We couldn't find that sign near the junction, but Lawrence and I went down the washed out old jeep road back to the "main" dirt road to meet up with Jan and Jim at their car. It was a nice little hike.

Afterwords we moved on to visit the Warner Spring community center. Even though the site does not have a resort anymore, the community has put together a small store for the hikers, with the stuff that we'd need when passing through. There are also toilets and a shower, and a small restaurant that serves burgers (And - Veggie Burgers! That was really surprising), so we had a nice lunch there, before heading back for the long drive to San Diego.

It's been a long day, but I can't wait for tomorrow, to actually start walking this thing.