Last night was not too cold, so we had a number of “visits” from the mosquitoes!  Oh well–we were eager to hit the trail today, and got up before sunrise to begin the steady uphill climb while it was still cool.  It was still very early when we reached Long Canyon Creek, which turned out to be another big thruhiker encampment.  There were tents everywhere, and bleary-eyed folks just starting to get up.  We gave them a cheery wave as we walked on by.  When the sun finally managed to come up over the mountain, we stopped for breakfast by very pretty Long Creek. 

And that was when we discovered to our dismay that it was NOT a good idea when we vacuumsealed the freezedried fruit that we put on our granola.  What was supposed to be tasty strawberry bits had turned into a hard brick that did not want to break apart.  Sigh.  We ended up breaking the brick in half and dunking it into our cupfuls of granola and powdered milk till it softened up enough to eat it. (It still tasted good, though!)

Then we began the serious climb up into the Laguna Mountains.  The trail was often rough and steep, but the views were spectacular, and we were cheering about being able to do the really tough climb early, while it was still cool, till Bill noticed a potential disaster— “Monty, your trek pole tip is gone!” Oh no! That was truly serious–it would be a long time till we would be at a place where we could get another tip.   So we turned around and walked back down, hunting for it.  Bill went a lot faster than I did, because I asked every hiker I met, “Have you seen a trek pole tip lying by the trail?”  Nobody had.  Finally, when I was almost all the way back to Long Creek, along came lovely Noga, a hiker from Israel.  When I asked her about finding a tip, she said, “Yes, I found one back there and picked it up.”  She took off her pack, rummaged a bit, and handed me back my lost tip.  Whew!

At this point, we had lost a LOT of time, and instead of heading back up in the cool of the morning, it was now very warm.  We chugged along as fast as we could, till we could see PINE trees on the ridges up ahead.  Pretty soon we were out of the chaparral, and into  the high part of the Laguna Mountains, dodging snow patches, and walking through green grass shaded by big pine trees.  We passed a lot of hikers as we went along.  One guy was actually composing a poem out loud as he walked.  

Finally we got to the Burnt Rancheria Campground “hiker faucet”.  It was turned on–hooray!  But the campground itself was closed, all the other faucets were turned off, and the bathrooms were locked.  So any hopes of camping there today were erased, and we decided to push on after stopping at the store.  The PCT travels along near the edge of a big dropoff into the desert below, and the views were awesome!  We strolled along, looking down and speculating about what it would be like to be a Spanish explorer on foot going through there with Anza’s expedition, till we reached the turnoff for the Mt. Laguna store.

The entire long porch at the store was lined with jolly thruhikers! We got a great lunch, and enjoyed talking to everybody.  A guy sitting by us was eating a pint of ice cream. “It’s a pint at every resupply now,” he joked. “Then farther along, it’ll be a half gallon, and by Stehekin, it’ll be a gallon!”   A “local guy”  who lives at Mt. Laguna came by and said, “You hikers are nuts!  I see you out on the PCT in wind and rain and awful weather.  Now you have a beautiful sunny day, and what do you do? Sit on the porch of the store!!  You guys are crazy!”  Well, actually the reality was “Everybody’s waiting for the post office to open so they can get their resupply box!”

Well, we had no resupply box, so after finishing lunch, we  moseyed over to the Desert View picnic area.  I wanted to rinse out my dusty, sweaty socks and shirt, and I desperately needed a nap.  I have not really slept at night since we left Campo, so I’ve been hiking on “happy power” and now I’m really, truly TIRED.  So I hung my rinsed clothes on a bush, and lay down for a two hour rest. By 2:00pm Bill was anxious to head out, so off we went, following the PCT as it wandered in every direction but north!  But that’s OK–the wanderings took us past one spectacular “big dropoff to the desert” view after another.   We did a lot of oohing and aaahing.

Along the way, we met Cloudbuster, who was very unhappy.  He had stopped at the Mt. Laguna store, leaned his pack and trek poles up against the wall outside, and when he came back, his trek poles were gone.  Somebody had taken them, either accidentally or on purpose.  He asked for our help, described the trek poles, and we promised to watch for them as we went along.  The sun began to drop lower and lower, till by 7:00 we’d reached another thruhiker encampment at the Pioneer Mail picnic area.

We headed for the water faucet to top off our water for the 24 tough, waterless miles tomorrow and behold, at the “Non-potable water–Horses Only”  sign, we found a CACHE of water left by a Christian.  Besides lots of water, there was a ziplok with mini-Bibles in it and a note that said, “Let not your hearts be troubled.”  I left a thankyou note, then we walked on a little way and camped in the chaparral just off the trail.  I prayed for Cloudbuster, that he’d be able to retrieve his trek poles, and thanked God for Noga, who DID retrieve my trek pole TIP!     (Note:  We found out later that Cloudbuster DID get his poles back–he spotted them with the person who’d taken them)

Walk to Rivendell: In woods near Stock-brook