At 3:00 am, Bill and I had to get up and rig the tarp. It had clouded over and a light mist was coming down. At 5:00am we really did get up, break camp, put on our packs… and when we came out of our cozy gully, we were shocked to see RAIN coming down, just across from us on the other side of the valley!  Out came the rain-gear. The wind was fierce, and got worse as the day went on— but it never really rained on us— we were on the “dry side” of the valley, with the cacti and ocotillas, all of which had at least some flowers! Very pretty, but walking a narrow trail with the wind slamming you around and cacti waiting to “bite” your ankles got tricky sometimes!  Now I understand why the San Felipes are such a great cactus garden–they are in a rain shadow zone!  The views were spectacular, especially when some sun broke through and there was a huge rainbow.  Part of the time, we were walking and talking with Colter, who is from Fairbanks, Alaska.

  Eventually it was warm enough to shed some layers  The PCT is a steady but gentle uphill, with some scary dropoffs right by the edge.  By 11:00am, we’d reached the famous “3rd gate water cache” where a group of thruhikers were hunkered down out of the wind. And what a wind! There were several times when I literally could not make progress against it!  We topped up our water, and hiked on.  The trail continued uphill, switchbacking in and out of every gully.  We kept leapfrogging with the “cache gang”.

The wind grew steadily worse, till several times I literally couldn’t make any headway against it–I felt as if I’d walked into an invisible wall.  Sometimes it blew me right off the trail.  But finally, after a particularly tough struggle with the wind, we rounded a corner where  we could see the Montezuma Valley!  We cheered and continued battling the wind till we finally reached the beautiful big oak trees of Barrel Springs. We headed straight for the springs, ready to fill up on water.  But oh, major bummer!  A sign by the spring warned that the water was no longer safe to drink, thanks to a NEW cistern that had been installed for the purpose of “making the water better.”  The new cistern had not taken MICE into consideration.  Apparently the little guys try to drink from the new setup, then fall in and drown, so the water is no longer safe at all. 

But as it turned out, we were still OK, waterwise, because near the spring was ANOTHER  hiker oasis!  Two retired couples with big ‘ol RV’s had parked in such a way as to create a windfree zone, and they had lots of free food.  We enjoyed hot chocolate, hot dogs, chili, coleslaw, brownies and conversation.  (Beer was also available, but it was just too cold for a cold beer!)  Turned out that these friendly folk live not far away, and had noticed the crowds of hikers passing through in late April/early May.  “Let’s do something for them!” they decided–and we are the beneficiaries!   A steady stream of hikers were arriving, all very happy to get out of the wind and rest and eat! 

The PCT at this point undergoes a radical change.  No more hills, cacti and chaparral!  Instead it’s gorgeous miles of lovely green valleys, huge wildflowered meadows, and sweeping views.  But the wind was still simply awful.  I was so tired from fighting wind all day that at this point, I was just plodding along, and couldn’t really enjoy the fabulous scenery.  But the famous Eagle Rock was as wonderful as ever!  Bill climbed on TOP of the Eagle this time, so I could take his picture up there! 

The sun got lower and lower as we walked on and on, still against the wind, looking for some sheltered place to camp.  At last the trail dropped down into a little valley with big oak trees.  Hooray–no wind, AND lots of SOFT oak duff to lie on!  Just as it was getting dark, we quickly laid out a “cowboy camp”  under a venerable oak tree.  I was busy writing notes by headlamp, enjoying the oak duff “mattress”, when a whole  herd of cows came over to watch us for awhile before they made camp, too, all around us!  I have to admit that it was a little spooky when they first arrived.  It was so dark that I could only see the yellow-orange glow of their eyes in the faint light from my headlamp.  But I knew they were cows, not coyotes! 

The cows soon lay down for the night, and as I went to sleep, I could hear their little cow noises, plus the sound of frogs singing in the nearby creek.  The wind which had been roaring in the treetops died down, too, so all was very peaceful.  Life is good!

Walk to Rivendell: The Barrow-Downs