The crickets sang us to sleep last night, and they did such a great job of it that I totally zonked out, and didn’t even notice when Bill got up in the middle of the night and took down the tarp.  He told me that it got really windy (which meant the tarp was flapping and noisy) and all the clouds blew away.  To save wear and tear on the tarp, he took it down. 

When we started hiking, we passed several other thruhiker tents.  Strange–almost everybody uses a TENT.  Very few use tarps, and even fewer ever seem to cowboy camp.  I prefer cowboy camping! 

And so we began a walk I decided to name  “Learn to Love the Gullies Day”. We spent most of the morning contouring and climbing in and out of 10 zillion gullies, on our way around the valley to reach the Silverwood Lake dam.  I joked about becoming a “gully connoisseur”, saying things like “Ah, yes, in THIS one the creek is quite exquisite”  or “Observe the rugged rock formations in THIS one!”  The wildflowers continue to be awesome.  I could easily stop every minute and take another picture of all their different colors and arrangements.  Even the GRASSES are beautiful–all different colors and types. Views of the green valley below with snowy mountain backdrop were also very enjoyable.

We were sitting by the trail eating breakfast when the Japanese guy we met last night came by.  His name is Shin, and his trail name is “Turtle.”  Why, I don’t know–he is anything but slow.  He is very nice, and it turned out that his parents own a sporting goods store in Tokyo.  He is testing backpacking gear for them!  We talked a bit and Shin headed out.  After breakfast, we did, too.  Back to the gullies!

To our great surprise and joy, we reached the Silverwood Lake dam by just before 11:00am.  It was a lovely, warm morning and we decided on a goal of  “eat lunch at the picnic area”— on the other side of the lake.

But we’d forgotten it was a long, tough trail to get there–all around the lake and over hill and dale.  I got hungrier and hungrier and hotter and hotter and tireder and tireder.  I was seriously thinking about just saying “Phooey on the picnic area–let’s stop now and go for a swim!”  It took till after 12 noon to get there, and I was so exhausted that I just collapsed under a tree for 20 minutes. We had done 16 miles already! (But the hike around the lake really is wonderful— gorgeous lake views, lots of little pocket beaches.)

Lunch and plenty to drink revived us both to face the big climb up to the top of Little Horsethief Canyon. The climb was a bit hard, but it rewards you with ever-bigger vistas of rugged mountains and the lake, and waisthigh wildflowers!  Finally we reached the top and began the long contour along the canyon, and that’s where we met two very tired ladies who were doing the PCT as SOBOs from Tehachapi to Lake Morena.  Their tails were really dragging, since by now it was a hot afternoon.  Because of the Sierra snow, their plan was to hike SOBO, then go back to Tehachapi and tackle the Sierras.  Since they do only 13 or 14 miles a day, it’s going to take them awhile!  They anxiously inquired about how much farther it was to Silverwood Lake, where they plan to camp tonight, and cheered at the thought that it was downhill!

A few minutes later,  three BAD bike riders (On the PCT!  For shame, for shame!) cheerily passed us by.  We scolded them in a friendly way, and they just laughed.  Eventually we crossed the canyon and began climbing up to the powerlines where we planned to eat supper.  Along the way, we caught up with another hiker who is being slowed down by his battle with plantar fasciitis.  Bummer!  The wind was blowing, and it was still quite warm, so we found a shady gully to hunker down in while we ate.

And so in the late afternoon/early evening, we were headed into the spectacular ” Badlands” — awesome, knarly cliffs with big dropoffs!  We had one great view after another in the beautiful evening light!  And I tried very hard to be brave and actually LOOK at the dropoffs instead of just the trail.  I also had fun looking at the trains going by in the distance!

Note from Alexa: Did you see Voyager? Or any Bajoran ships?

Hoping to find a campsite by 7:00, we hurried along all the twists and turns of trail down to Crowder Canyon where we camped in a sandy wash.  While we were setting up our cowboy camp, I looked at the animal tracks in the sand.  Some of them were rather large.  Hmmm!  Coyotes?  The only animals we saw today were lots of horney toads,  several garter snakes,  a bunny and a number of squirrels…no large animals at all.   Oh well–Bill and I were so tired that we just wanted to dive into our sleeping bags.  Instead of crickets, our lullaby tonight is the sound of trains at Cajon Pass.  It’s a good sound–I love it!

Walk to Rivendell: Reached end of valley, fifth day from Weathertop

Tags: Horsethief Canyonm Crowder Canyon, Silverwood Lake