Month: May 2018

PCT 2018 Day 15, May 7, Monday.

Start 319.9 small campsite before Mojave Siphon

End 349.0 campsite on ridge climbing up from Swarthout Canyon Road

Miles walked: 29.1

A few miles and the trail passes Mojave Siphon. No explanatory signs, so this is a reminder for me to research it.

I meet Rodeo, who has an official trail angel patch and slack-packs in the opposite direction of her husband for the day. The path goes along Silverwood Lake for some miles. The lake has a twisty shape, so is much larger than any single picture from shore. Cleghorn Picnic Area provided a faucet and rest stop. After several more miles, the trail opens up to a grand vista, showing Cajon Pass and beyond some peaks we would climb. When walking to town I walk a bit faster. Today, the destination is not actually a town, but an Interstate crossing with a McDonalds only 0.4 miles from the PCT. Most of the booths were filled with hiker trash. This is not my favorite eating place, but I got something so I could say I did.
They had free wifi and let you fill up water bottles from their soda fountain, so kudos to this place. People were sitting in all the booths when I got my double with bacon. Normal me might timidly ask if they could share a table. On-trail Sagebrush persona calls out, “Who wants a new friend?”, and hikers laugh and wave me over. Rodeo is in the crowd, and offers me a ride to Subway, and gives several others a ride to Wrightwood, the next town.

Back on the trail, after a couple of ridges the traffic and train noise subsides, and I climb a few miles and stop at a campsite with Hussein and Holly, with SkinnyDip pausing to eat dinner and hike on. Hussein tells us about the start of the Serbian War when he was a child, and how he came to America. Several groups pass our tent late, practicing night-hiking.

PCT 2018 Day 14, May 6, Sunday.

Start 291.5 near a small creek

End 319.9 at small campsite

Miles walked: 28.4

The trail follows Holcomb Creek for a couple of miles, then follows Deep Creek, but up the canyon wall a couple hundred feet, for much of the day. At mile 308 is the hot springs at Deep Creek. The Forest Service warns of high Fecal Coliform counts and primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, so of course I did not go in. The hot springs area is quite the water park, with a maze of springs, pools, and streams. Back on the trail, I hike over the Mojave River Forks Reservoir Spillway. The reservoir is dry, as it is most years. A few more miles of not following water, and a tiny campsite is a welcome sight. I have seen no hikers today after the hot springs.

PCT 2018 Day 13, May 5, Saturday.

Start 266.1 road crossing and exit to Big Bear Lake and Big Bear Hostel

End 291.5 near a small creek

Miles walked: 25.4

The hostel provides several of us rides back to the trail |or a modest fee– Jan and Bob, Metric Ton with his giant new pack, Violet (from the UK), and myself in an enormous old station wagon with luggage rack on top for packs.

Jan, Bob and I walk together for a few miles, navigating around a short a mile fire closure using a route on forest roads posted on the pcta.org web site. The trail had not been signed with the alternate route, so it was good we did our homework. Here is a Joshua Tree that was caught in the burn.

Jan and Bob were ready for a break, and I wanted to keep hiking, so we said our goodbyes. Nice people– hope to meet them down the trail. The route turns westward for several days on a narrow strip of mountain range, with the vast Mojave Desert to the north. Later, when the mountains turn north again, we will short-cut the turn by hiking briefly in the desert. Terrain in mixed conifer and broken limestone, gradually descending in altitude through the day from 6.8k to 5.3k.

The temperature goes quite high in the afternoon. And another large burn area is by Holcomb Creek.

I stop at a small creek late in the day, not visibly running but with pools of water cool and clear, gratefully accepted