Miles: 275.1 to 298.7 Mileage: 23.6; plus, 2.8 miles from the bottom of Van Dusen Canyon Road to the PCT Day: 16 After we peeled ourselves away from the cotton and comfort of our hotel (which took a couple of hours), we headed up Van Dusen Canyon Road and back to the trail. The grade […]
Miles: none Mileage: 0 Day: 15 To celebrate our first two weeks on the trail, we gave ourselves a day away from it. We slept in, ate a huge breakfast, lounged in a hot tub and did chores. Hiker chores include: laundry, body hair removal, wash pot and spoons, rinse gaitors, buy replacement gear (like […]
Miles: 256.6 to 275.1 Mileage: 18.5 Day: 14 The early morning air was cold. I spent the first part of the night tossing and turning because my aching feet kept me awake. I took some ibuprofen, my first medication on the trail, and was able to sleep. We packed up slowly because we stopped to […]
Miles: 231.1 to 256.6 Mileage: 25.5 Day: 13 This morning was the first time on the trail that I felt beaten before lunch. The first few miles followed Mission Creek upstream. It was a seemingly endless slight uphill grade on loose baseball-sized gravel or sand. These are my two least favorite hiking surfaces. By the […]
Miles: 210.8 to 231.2 Mileage: 20.4 Day: 12 Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the miles, but the hikers slept very quietly overnight at Ziggy and The Bear’s. I woke up a couple of times to shift positions and the rustle of my sleeping bag was all I could hear. Even with Interstate […]
Miles: 187.9 to 210.8 Mileage: 22.9 Day: 11 The wind picked up overnight and from our camp above 8,000 feet; it made a mockery of our tent. Stakes were pulled out of the ground and the temperature dropped. In the morning, there was frost on our sleeping bags. We slept in until 7:30 a.m. Richard […]
Miles: PCT: 178 to 187.9; road walk and side trail to PCT: 6.4 Mileage: PCT: 9.9; off trail: 6.4 Day: 10 We left town after a leisurely morning around 11:15 a.m. The road walk out of town was steep but not heavily trafficked. We took the South Ridge Trail up to Mt. Tahquitz and then […]
Miles: PCT: 1.6; Cedar Springs Trail Junction plus road walk to Idyllwild: 19, minus a 2.5 mile hitch along highway 74. Mileage: 18.1 Day: 9 When the light returned around 5:45, the rain and wind we still working full time and we were still in our sleeping bags dreading the moment when we stepped back […]
Miles: 140.3 to 161 Mileage: 20.7 Day: 8 At 5:30 a.m. I woke to hear rain pattering on the tent. I do not enjoy packing up in the rain, but I figured, it’s the desert! How long can this last? And I was right. The pattering stopped in 15 or 20 minutes and we packed […]
Miles: 115 to 140.3 (plus 1 mile to get water) Mileage: 125.3 Day: 7 We camped in a rare forested area next to a flowing stream. Once we started hiking, that didn’t last long. The whole morning was a long, slow climb through boulder-pocked desert scrub. The first few hours were cloudy and cold above […]