During the night last night, the wind began to gust and blow so hard that Bill got up and took down our tarp so it wouldn’t be damaged.  At 4:45am, a very fast-moving, hiking-by-headlamp guy passed us in the dark, and seeing us in our “cowboy camp” near the trail, sang out,  “You guys call yourselves hikers? How come you’re not up yet?” We cracked up laughing and decided he was right, so we hit the trail before sunrise. (Actually, if we had been worried about a hot day ahead, we would also have started hiking around 4 am!) 

It was a cool and very windy morning, and we were walking on the remains of the old Sunrise Highway.  One section was literally blasted through the rocks, and looks like a gateway.  Turned out that many people have put up memorials there–sort of “gravestones” glued to the rocks.  Since most of the PCT this morning consisted of a narrow strip of  trail along a steep mountainside with a BIG cliff right by the edge,  my “I will not be scared of big dropoffs by the trail” determination got a good workout today— but oh man, the views were awesome! It was a very pleasant day to hike— the only downside was an unbelievably rocky trail almost all day. The wildflowers were very nice— we stopped for our midmorning Snickers break in a lovely valley completely carpeted with yellow flowers.   Along with the flowers, though, we began to encounter more and more cactus plants, including what we call “anklebiters”–little low cacti right by the trail.  We had to watch our step!

By 10 am we were at the top of Chariot Canyon, where we got lost in 2005.  Not this time!  We were REALLY careful to stay ON the PCT, which proceeded to go very steeply down into the canyon, all the way to the bottom,  then did a killer uphill back up the other side.  Bill and I both agreed that our “lost” route was better than this!  The other annoying thing about the PCT as opposed to the “lost” route was that the PCT is unbelievably rocky and rough.  Bill can zip right along a rough trail, but I get really slowed down. Also, in 2005, the wildflowers were unbelievably spectacular, and this time they were nice but not  that remarkable. 

We’d heard a rumor that there was a trail angel at Rodriguez Truck Trail, and sure enough,  and the trail rumor turned out to be right— there was an awesome hiker oasis setup. It was around noon when we arrived, all hot and sweaty, so we headed straight for the free showers and showered with all our clothes on–that way both we AND our clothes got rinsed!   The breeze dried us in no time while we ate our lunch supplemented with cold juice and snacks.   

The  oasis is run by a husband and wife who run a store in Julian.  They had all kinds of snacks, drinks, and hiker gear for sale.  “Oasis Guy” is an avid horseman who told us about riding the length of California on the old “CA Riding and Hiking Trail.”    He told us that the “pre-PCT way” to go from Mexico to Canada was the CA Riding and Hiking trail, then the Oregon Skyline Trail and the Washington Trail.  But once the PCT was put in, the older routes became obsolete and mostly are no longer maintained.  “Not good!” was his comment.  “The old routes were better.”    But all that aside, he was having a blast hanging out with us hikers!  And apparently his hiker oasis has probably saved at least one life already!   A few days ago, when we were camping under a truck trailer at Campo,  “Oasis Guy” says that very late in the day, in bitter cold and rain, when it was almost sunset, he had just lit a lantern at the oasis, when he saw a hiker on the PCT, wearing only a thin shirt and shorts, and obviously in bad shape, walking unsteadily and acting very confused.  Hypothermia!   So Oasis Guy ran out into the rain,  grabbed the hiker, towed him into the tent and started giving him hot drinks and doing everything he could to save the guy’s life.  It worked!  Whew!

Some of these stories were being captured on film, because among “us hikers”  eating lunch together was a husband/wife team of videographers, who were happily shooting footage of us all hanging out.  Bill and I reluctantly  left, after filling up our Platypuses for the hot, dry run to Scissors Crossing, which is about 10 miles away, over very rough and rocky trail.  Bill was worried about having a run-in with an anklebiter cactus (which did happen to him in 2005–ow!!!) so he went ahead of me in order to see the trail better.  Also, the wind was really blowing, which made it hard to walk straight.  I will say this, though–this section of the trail is a sort of “cactus rock garden”, very pretty–as long as you don’t end up with cactus spines in your leg!

We mushed on to Scissors Crossing, where there was quite a crowd!  One of the hikers had a friend who’d made a “pizza run” to Julian, so we got to eat some of a great pizza in addition to our “trail dinner.”   The  big topic for all the hikers was “How much water should I carry for the hike into the San Felipes?   We were all hunkered down out of the absolutely HOWLING wind while we ate and chatted.  After loading up on water, all the others stopped to camp by San Felipe Creek.  But  we went on for another hour, bathed in beautiful “sunset light”, looking at the awesome views across the valley, switchbacking up to a cozy, sandyside gully we spotted in 2005.  We figured it wouldn’t rain tonight, so we made a great camp there, out of the wind.  My feet are very tired, but hooray!  We made over 27 miles!

Walk to Rivendell: Bonfire Glade in Old Forest