PCT Days 11-16

Day 10 ended up being a zero at Warner Springs. I hiked out early the next morning to start day 11, crossing another gorgeous meadow before beginning the day’s 2200 ft ascent. I was planning to go to Mike’s Place, a weird hiker haven in the middle of nowhere, 17.8 miles away. For the first time in over a week, I got out of my tent in the morning without bad foot pain, which made me happy and relieved. I covered the nearly 18 miles in about 8 hours, with a few bouts of rain in the early afternoon.

Mike’s Place is interesting. It’s a few acres, with a midsize house and a whole lot of junk. Mike is the owner of the property, but he’s not there very often. Instead, he trusts a few hikers a year to run the place. There’s ingredients for wood fire oven pizza, beer and soda, outhouse, camping, and water, and it’s all based on donations from other hikers. It’s a really cool place despite initial appearances, and definitely worth a stop.

Day 12 was an 18.5 mile hike to mile 145.4. The blister on my right foot returned with a vengeance, growing to at least the size of a half-dollar. I made the miles fairly quickly, considering the annoying pain from my blister. There were frequent views of Mt. San Jacinto, its peak of over 10,000 feet towering over nearby mountains. The south face remains heavily snow-covered, an indication of what lies ahead for us. Water sources have become questionable and spread out. Stagnant pools, murky cisterns, and dried up streams mean planning your day around artificial clean water sources, provided by amazing volunteers. I ended my day on the property of one of these trail angels, Mary, who offers water, shade, outhouse and bucket shower, and camping. There’s also a little free library and some neat cutouts of Whitman, Muir, and Thoreau. Mary stopped by with her dog in the evening and told us about how she got started doing this and how it’s evolved over time. I went to sleep with the desert ground still hot underneath me.

Day 13 included a trip to the Paradise Valley Cafe after a 6.7 mile morning. I ate an enormous breakfast burrito and then hitched a few miles up the road with Flower to buy cigarettes. A quick hitch back to the cafe and I was reunited with most of the people I had been hiking with, after outpacing them the day before. We figured out plans for Idyllwild and I booked a cabin for 8 people for two nights, Friday and Saturday. It has been a week and nearly 100 miles since my last proper shower and laundry, so I am looking forward to getting clean and relaxing a bit. We will see our first snow on trail tomorrow supposedly. Hoping to summit San Jacinto on Monday. I hiked another 4 miles to mile 155.9, taking a slightly shorter day to let my blister heal a bit hopefully. Not sure what the goal for tomorrow is.

Our plan for day 14 was to make it at least to Apache spring, 13.2 miles ahead. The day was spent mostly climbing the mountains southeast of San Jacinto as we gained elevation towards the summit. Water sources along this section of trail can only be found along either steep or long side trails, which ends up adding a lot of time, effort, and distance to the day. The views along this section were stunning though, as the trail eventually made its way to the north face of the mountains. From there, a hiker stands nearly a mile above Palm Springs and the Coachella valley. The peak of San Jacinto looms in the distance, covered in snow. Overall, the day was really tough, with the heat, sun, water, and elevation all playing significant roles. Day 14 in total was 14.3 miles of hiking, with 4300 feet of ascent and 2600 feet of descent, and was definitely the toughest day so far. We camped at Apache spring, overlooking Palm Springs. Awesome campsite though a bit windy. Tomorrow will see us tackling the first snow on trail before hiking down into Idyllwild.

Day 15 called for 10 PCT miles, plus a 2.5 mile side trail into town. The climb up from Apache spring is brutal, a half mile of steep uphill drudgery. Once on the PCT, it wasn’t long until the first snow appeared. These first sections were very brief and easily crossed. After climbing for 4 more miles, we reached the real snow. It was very easy to lose the trail by following the wrong footprints. The snow was slushy by midmorning in the 70 degree heat and sun, making hiking slippery at times. I didn’t have my microspikes yet, so traction was hard to come by. After sliding down to the Tahquitz Valley trail junction, we climbed to the Tahquitz Peak trail junction, a steep .7 mile climb up 500 feet, all snow covered. This was exhausting and navigation was very difficult sometimes due to many misleading footprints. Finally we descended to Saddle Junction and Benjamin and I had to hurry to get to town before the post office closed. A quick ride later and we arrived well in time, collecting our packages. I shipped a few things home to compensate for the added weight of microspikes and my fleece.

Eight of us rented an Airbnb cabin for the night and the next day, so we headed there to relax and do laundry and shower. Everyone else rolled in eventually, and we went to the market to get beer and wine and steaks and salad. We enjoyed a great dinner together and talked late into the night.