Mon. May 16 Miles today 18:7 Total so far: 109.6 Warner Springs End Sect. A

We passed TWO milestones today—the 100 mile mark and the end of Section A! What a different day it was, too—cool and windy, with dramatic clouds building over the mountains ahead. We’d gotten up at 4:00 am again, worried about the potential for heat, but need not have been concerned. That’s the kind of surprise we like!  

After several miles of hiking, we said goodbye to the TOUGH San Felipe Hills, and stopped for breakfast in a cozy, sandy bend of the trail. An enthusiastic flock of tiny birds seemed to find us a fascinating show to watch; they perched and twittered and sang in the bushes all around us. Several more miles of wildflowered trail (which included a view of sand dunes, and a cave as well!) brought us to Barrel Springs, an oasis of green grass, big oaks and vines.

Barrel Springs runs into a nice big stone horse trough which many hot, weary PCT’ers have literally climbed into—but not us! It was a cool, windy 65 degrees. But somebody had left a beautiful red peony on a long stem floating in the water. Very elegant!

The water at the Springs didn’t taste very good, but the trail register at the spring included a classic Gary Larsen cartoon that gave us a good laugh.

On the trail beyond the spring, we finally reached the end of the area burned in the terrible 2002 fire. The scout leaders we met a couple of days ago told us that at its peak, that fire was torching one acre a second! What a relief to be out of it, except that I will say all through the burn zone, the wildflowers were spectacular!

We spent the rest of the morning hiking through miles of hills with grass blowing in the wind, and walking past rock formations, till we reached the famous Eagle Rock, and got totally carried away taking pictures of it!

A couple more miles of trail along a creek and we reached the town of Warner Springs, our next resupply. On the way into town we stopped for lunch by the creek, under a huge oak tree with a soft cushion of leaves underneath it…what a great place to just lie back and relax! But we didn’t stay long, because we started thinking about town goodies.

A short while later,  we were sitting in front of the store enjoying orange juice and ice cream, when a whole bunch of dusty, grungy guys in what looked like Star Wars outfits came in on equally grubby bikes. Turned out they are RIDING from Mexico to Canada! Just like us, they started at the PCT border monument, but they are riding dirt roads all the way to Canada. They told us their maps often give them a choice of routes, labeled “hard way” and “easy way.” One of them pointed to our packs and said, “You’re going the HARD way!”

The small but very hiker-friendly Warner Springs store folks encouraged us to spend the night at Warner Springs Ranch resort, where they have a special thru-hiker rate. I walked across the street to check it out, and yes indeed! The price was right, and now we have a comfortable room in a real adobe building. The resort includes a hot pool, showers. laundry, etc. Ahhhh! What a great place!