Well, we made it— all the way across the fearsome Fuller Ridge! This morning was a rerun of the last 2 days— scary traverses, trying to figure out where to go. We did finally reach Castle Rocks, and beyond that, footprints went everywhere. We struggled along, but Bill finally realized that if he really stomped hard, as he crossed the snowfields, it was way easier for me. It was clear, windy and cold.

I put on my raingear every time we stopped, or I would start shivering. Finally Bill said, “Enough! We will just head down.” So we did— and spotted a road! Hallelujah— we followed it back up to the PCT. Along the way, another hiker popped out of the woods— boy was he glad to see us! We all collected some water and began the long hike down to San Gorgonio Pass, still dealing with some snow, but nothing bad. What a blessed relief! I ache all over.

Walk to Rivendell: Nearing edge of Midgewater Marshes

We waited until 6:00am to get up, to give the snow time to soften. The other hikers camped nearby waved at us from their tents as we went by. But it turned out to be an agonizingly tough day. We hardly saw the trail at all, except for one junction. I ended up covered with bruises and scrapes from many falls. Sometimes the ice axe “self arrest” worked, and sometimes it didn’t. One time when it didn’t, I (thank God) landed into bushes. The other thing that I ended up doing (since my pants were already torn) was to glissade down steep hillsides, where Bill would bootski or plungestep.

Turned out that though this was fast, it was scraping the skin off my rear end. I was in so much pain from all my bumps and cuts that I didn’t notice it. And on those scary traverses, I prayed way across, literally, I was so tired and terrified. Other than that, the weather was glorious, the views and scenery awesome, and around 6:00pm, among the rocks and snowdrifts, we found a campsite and collapsed— but with an awesome view of Mt. San Jacinto!

Walk to Rivendell: Yes, still in Midgewater Marshes

It took us 12 hours of hiking today to find and hike only 11 miles of PCT. Sometimes we were climbing across steep snowfields and I did a lot of chopping steps with my ice axe. Bill just walks straight across with his trek poles, then he sits down and waits (as long as 20 minutes) for me to creep across. Finding water was a big issue, too. At one point we even boiled some snow to get water, we were so desperate. Later we found water running down a gully, but had to chop away ice to get at it. Finally, while we were still “lost”, while I cooked lunch, Bill climbed up high on a rock and spotted a lot of footprints. After lunch we followed them and hurray! We found the PCT at a key location called Saddle Junction.

For awhile, the trail was clear of snow, and we bounded happily up until… no more trail… just snow again. We hunted and searched and slipped and slid (got kinda banged up in the process) until we were exhausted. At 4:00pm, we finally found a patch of bare ground and almost gave up and camped— but determined to keep trying, and were rewarded— we found a PCT post almost buried in snow. From there we found the trail, mostly snowfree, all the way to Strawberry Junction, where we stopped, rejoicing! It was so good to know where we were, but we were exhausted.

Walk to Rivendell: Still in Midgewater Marshes

Today was a long day (5:00am until 8:00pm) of great contrasts! (And some danger), but it began with a fabulous surprise. We were hiking along, hoping for a “breakfast sunpatch”, when the PCT turned and headed into a little valley with the highway and what looked like a thruhiker encampment. Turned out to be “Doc’s Place Oasis”— Doc was there to greet us with coffee and bean and egg burritos. We scarfed them up, PLUS our trail breakcast, and I said, “OK, that does it! This is not a thruhike. It is a Hobbit walking party, with food at every road crossing!”

From then on, the PCT goes up and up into the Desert Divide San Jacinto mountains. Awesome rocks— increasingly awesome views. We talked to several thruhikers and dayhikers. We also tried having Bill get water from Cedar Springs, which is offtrail, and he returned saying “Never again! Too far down the hill!” Several tough climbs after that, first to Fobes’ Saddle, then to the saddle above Apache Spring, where we had some crackers and peanut butter, then pushed on for what we thought would be 1 more hour of hiking.

Nope— make that 2 more hours of scaaary! First obstacle was 300 yards of icy snow on a very steep mountainside, with a “run-out” a hundred feet or so down. We opted to scramble around below it (scary in itself), and a thorny plant tore a big hole in my pants when I slipped and fell.

Note from Alexa: Sounds like the section when Frodo & Sam were in Mordor with those nasty dropoffs and razor thorned plants.

After that, it was more scary snow crossings until we finally found a small place between two boulders, where we could camp. Very tired!

Walk to Rivendell: Midgewater Marshes

A nice clear 30 degree morning, but shouldering heavy packs was a “groaner”. After a cozy breakfast in a sunpatch, we reached Chihuahua Valley Road and along came hiker Pat, fresh from overnighting at Trail Angel Mike’s place. Just up the trail we ran into a pack of trail gorillas who were cutting brush and clearing trail— boy did it need it! The trail today was mostly what I call “cozy”— no big broad vistas, just lots of winding in and out of picturesque little canyons bordered with wildflowers. We also talked for awhile with a hiker who asked Bill, “I’ve got a question for you. How’d you ever get a woman to go on this hike with you?” Bill answered by telling him the story of how the Lord brought us together and encouraged him to consider asking God to reveal Himself in a way that was clear. The hiker’s response was “Nah— I already tried that.” But we are praying for him.

By afternoon we’d reached Hiker Oasis water cache, and it was full of water— we could have saved ourselves a lot of energy carrying heavy water loads. One guy was reading a book on Attila the Hun, so we ended up talking history for awhile.

Note from Alexa: This is an insider family joke— Bill has been a big fan of Attila since I can remember and I grew up with I think a story about him every week or so. It is part of the reason, when I bought my bows, that I chose hand-crafted Hungarian imported archery recurves in the style the Huns had.

We ended up stopping early because we were both so tired, and camped in a sandy wash, with another hiker in his tent a bit “upstream” from us. By tomorrow night, we may be at Apache Peak, where the “snow fun” begins!

Walk to Rivendell: Camp at Chetwood