Day 10 - campsite at 144 to campsite at 161

It's fun to be at the end of a long, successful, day.
The day started with a hike out to Highway 79, which has a trail famous Cafe 1 mile off trail. Everyone was talking about getting a burger or a breakfast there.
Just about 2 miles after we started our hike, we found the best kind of trail magic - unexpected, and just at the right time. Most people were heading to town from the cafe, but I was going to hike 2.5 more days until I reach Idyllwild, so after drinking a soda, and sending a postcard home (I hope they will send internationally) I also took two breakfasts and one Ramen noodles dinner, and ditched my Outdoor Herbivore breakfasts and one dinner over there. Much better now.
The rest if the morning was uneventful, and after about 2 more hours we got to the cafe, to find all the early starters already sitting there.

Idan is enjoying the Paradise Valley Cafe

The cafe was nice, and I stuffed myself with a full breakfast, and packed out a veggie burger with fries for the evening. I tried asking again if anyone wants to actually hike away, but they were all set on hitching to town, and were already making sleeping arrangements.
At about noon I headed back up towards the pct (add 2 miles to my daily total!) and then I crossed the road and entered the "other side".
A quick explanation: the pct is closed from mile 162.6, up to somewhere on mile 170+. My plan for tomorrow is to reach the closure, and then hike down and off the pct, and to walk on a detour to Idyllwild. Most of it will be on dirt roads paralleling the highway.
So, on I went, to climb 2400 feet (about 700 meters) in 10 miles. The section was completely empty. I only saw some horse tracks along the way. I tried learning from yesterday's mistake, and made a "long", half hour, break at a campsite 4 miles in, only leaving it at 15:00, when the heat was beginning to break.
The views were very nice and mountainy, with many shady spots, and places for rest. I walked rather slowly, and finally got to the campsite up here at about 17:15. A very nice and protected spot, up at 6820 feet (about 2000 meters). I hope it won't get cold tonight, but I can just put all my clothes on, and in my tent, under my quilt, I'm sure it will be all right.
I have finished the burger I was carrying, and am now debating whether I should cook dinner. Currently the vote is "no".

A nice little campsite for the night

Day 9 - Trail Angel Mike's to campsite at pct mile 144

Pancakes for breakfast!

Last night I learned the hard way that I can't cook the Outdoor Herbivore meal in their bags. All I got was some hard wet pasta, and threw it away. This morning I discovered that their cold breakfasts do work in the bag, but are just not tasty. I'll stick with Knorr meals and Quaker Oatmeal breakfasts from now on. #Fail.
Today was the hardest day yet, mostly because of our inability to take a break at noon, and our head strong approach to reach the campsite as soon as possible. Big mistake. The trail was his usual semi-hard self, but the sun was merciless, and we just kept on hiking, and skipped the side trail to what we now discovered was a spring full of shade.

My first rattler. At least, I think it's a rattler. I am sure it is a snake, though. UPDATE: Just a harmless gopher (Thanks to Mark)

At least we finally saw a big snake just at that junction to the spring. That was a first for me.
We also had a short stop at the water cistern at pct mile 139.5, but we should have just waited there two more hours. Instead, we headed out for the final stretch. That was the final nail. We were limping towards the water cache, and then from there, the final mile to our campsite. We got here early, but beat. Next time we will plan our day better.

I guess that's some kind of cactus with a nice flower

And here is the famous Paradise Water Cache

The campsite itself is rather nice. We got a good tight spot for our tents, and everyone else, who just came in lately, are cowboy camping around. But it is a very nice spot.
Tomorrow everyone will be taking the detour hitch hike into Idyllwild, but I'll continue further on the trail for 10 more miles, to camp just a few miles before the closure. The next day I'll hike down from the mountain, around the closure, and hopefully reach town at the third day. Wish me luck.

Tight campsite for us tonight

Day 8 - Warner Springs to Trail Angel Mike's

Monty made a huge breakfast for everyone, including omelets with spinach, cheese and tomatoes, hash browns and toasts. It was almost too much.
We got a ride back to the community center, and met all the hikers from last night, who were just getting breakfast themselves. Idan found out he forgot his hat at Monty's, so I hang around until he made another round trip to his house. It wasn't there, and was later found at the community center, having spent the night on the table there.
We finally headed out at 9:20, and started to cross the valley. After the 2nd road crossing we started zip zagging up along the Agua Cliente stream, crossing it several times, and climbing up.
The original plan was to hike 14 miles, to a dry campsite, so we had to fill up our water at some off trail spring. But when we got to its trail head we decided we'd just push to 17 miles and reach Trail Angel Mike' place.

Nice view, right before Trail Angel Mike's

We had some hot sections, mostly while climbing up, it seems. But there were also clouds for a long while, and even two very short drizzles. Nothing to get us wet. So it was fun.

And here is the nice welcome sign

We have finally reached Mikes' at 16:20, and were greated by all the hikers and trail crew who are currently here. It's just a house this Mike dude bought, by the trail, and he doesn't even live here. Kushy is managing the place, taking care of the incoming hikers and making sure everything is in place.

And pizza for dinner. Yum

There are sodas and beers, plenty of room to tent, a small bunk room and an RV to sleep in. Kushy made us pizza for dinner, and we also got leftovers from the trail crew dinner. All in all, a great place to stop.

Day 7 - some campsite to Warner Springs Monty's

We woke up in the morning to the sounds of rain drops on our tents. That was a nice change. It only lasted for a few minutes, and dried out by the time we got outside. But there is rain in the desert!
By the time we left the campsite everyone else were already gone. We had a nice breakfast (especially after last night rice fiasco) and packed up our stuff.

Crossing the 100 mile marker

We had about 6 miles to the next water source (the Barrel Spring), so we cruised towards it, down in the valley. The views on this side of the mountain were different to the other, more deserty side. It had green grass and oak trees. It was a very welcomed change.
The spring site itself was also very nice. We caught up with some hikers there, and had our 2nd breakfast.
From there I continued to run down the trail the remaining 9 miles to Warner Springs. Mid way I also put on some music, and was really enjoying the day.
The trail kept running up and down on some low ridges, all in the valley, before crossing a small stream, and then reaching Eagle Rock (which Idan missed).

Eagle Rock

From there I started passing all the hikers that were ahead of us since the spring. Yay for hiking with music!
We reached the community center at 12:20, met up with Micah (who spent the night at Barrel Spring, and just got the trail named Borealis), told Purple and Carnivore that Roni is saying "hi", and got our burgers.
I also met Little Package (or Puppy) after recognizing her orange van at the parking lot, so that was fun meeting her. She's hiking South towards the kick off tomorrow. Good luck Puppy.
We went over to the post office to get our food drops. In retrospect we could have just resupplied at the community center's small shop. A bit pricey, but it got everything you might need.
I got a "surprise" package from TrailDesigns with the cooking pot I originally ordered. It was only a surprise because I forgot about it. But now I had to get the other one from my pack mailed back to them. The pack was about a mile away...

Borealis with the pie he managed to score from a nearby store.

I got back to the community center and got the package ready, and managed to find some other hiker heading to the post office that agreed to ship it for me. So hopefully that's settled.
We called Warner Springs Monty to ask for a pick up to his house, and he showed up at around 15:30. Most other hikers are staying at the center, even though it seems a storm is coming. It does seem like a nice place to stay.
Right now at Monty's, we are showered and wearing some clean clothes he has laying around. We got here with a couple of Germans that are getting off trail for a while, and there are three other hikers who took a zero in here today.
I just got a blister treatment (I currently have four small ones), and dinner will be served shortly. So it's all good.

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