Dust in the Wind

After a delightful time eating and chatting with other hikers at Carmens in Julian, I got a hitch back to the trail with a man and his 3 year old daughter. They were going for an evening hike, and they were the most adorable hiking duo ever. As it was my first time in a while interacting with kids, I asked the ever famous "what do you want to be when you grow up?" When she replied with wanting to be a PCT thru-hiker, I realized my heart was the only thing that hadn't melted in the desert earlier that day. The father, who is a meteorologist, told me in detail about the high winds and rain expected for the  next few days. I guess this trail is intent on showing us its full personality right off the bat.

The duo dropped me off back at the trail, and a couple hikers and I went full troll and set our tents up under a bridge.  None of us could've been prepared for the fierce wind that night, as it blew some of our tents violently side to side and in some cases even dismantled them. I was lucky to have my tent stay up, but we all woke up covered with a layer of dust. We literally shook the dust off of ourselves, and like a crew of skinny coal miners, we began our day up the next ridge. By the afternoon though, it had started to drizzle a bit. I was just glad we didnt have to slog straight up mountains like we so often had to on the AT. Since the PCT is graded for horseback travel, the trail goes up and down moutains very gradually, which is great for going up but a little infuriating when it takes takes forever to get dowm. Right before I had planned to camp, I discovered a man made cave big enough for one person, so I hunkered down with a book I picked up in Julian and made it my home for the night. I just hope the hiker community doesn't start calling me bear or something, as I don't think I'll be finding more caves or growing enough body hair to fulfill the name.

After a wonderful nights rest, I awoke to snow flurries which turned into steady rain as I hiked off the ridge. I had planned on doing a short 13 mile day into Warner Springs (perspective is an amazing thing, isn't it?), and was greeted by what must've been 30 hikers crammed into their community center. Much like an army mess hall, people were sharing stories of survival, playing cards, and dressing blisters. I took this opportunity to give my feet an Epsom salt bath and disinfect them real well, to the relief of some squeamish hikers who saw my blisters. I reassured them that they don't feel as bad as they looked, and I realized that many times this hike I've faced things with a "could be worse" mentality. I guess having already done a long distance trail gives you a strong sense of perspective indeed.

At the community center, I mostly hung out with Rambo (who had thru-hiked the AT last year), Kate from Portland, and Shannon from Idaho. Rambo and I struggled to find trail names for them, instead opting for a crazy scenario in the future to present the perfect name. The 4 of us decided to rent a cabin for a night in Idyllwild, which was 2 days away and nestled up near the San Jacinto ridge. We also learned of a fire closure south of town on the ridge, and since the reroute involved mostly road walking, we decided to forgo that misery and rejoin the PCT by hiking up to the ridge out of town. All in all, we will probably end up skipping about 20 miles of trail, but we unanimously agreed that it beats road walking.

We hiked from Warner Springs to a piece of property off the grid called Mikes place, owned by a trail angel. Though Mike is only present during the weekends, we still got to spend time with his friend Josh, who grilled some chicken for us hungry hikers and let us camp in the yard. He showed us some of te classic cars that he and Mike have been trying to fix up, and I of course let him sign my hat. The next day, Rambo, Kate, Shannon and I hiked 25 miles to get to the road crossing to Idyllwild,  and we camped right next to a restaurant a little ways down the road. We planned on hitting it up in the morning to start our true zero day. We were disappointed to learn that the building didnt have a spigot, ao we rationed our water that night. On the plus side though, I realized my blisters were almost all healed up. The zero day tomorrow should bring me back to 100%.