Tuesday, May 18 – Miles Today PCT 2 Detour 21 – Total Miles 386.1

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

may18_trailfalling

Neither of us had any sleep — the wind howled all night, and even with “all our layers on” inside our sleeping bags, it was hard to stay warm. By morning, all our stuff was wet and we headed out very early, hoping to warm up by hiking fast. It didn’t take long to reach the PCT at Islip Saddle, where there was a whole congregation of hikers.  We stopped for breakfast and talked to Charlie and Shin about their adventures on Baden-Powell.  Everyone was tired, and not looking forward to the “big Detour”  ahead, which began right there at Islip Saddle.  We got out the eight pages of maps for the 50 miles of what looked like a lot of roadwalking. 

But  the first leg wasn’t a roadwalk.  It was a lovely, cloud-misty hike down the canyon.  If we turned to look back, we could see snowy peaks towering above  us, and if we looked ahead, we could see sunshine in the valley below.  The trail eventually took us to a crude “dam” of rocks which we had to pick our way across to reach the South Fork Campground, where a lot of orange-clothed CDC crews were hard at work cleaning up the messes left by winter storms.

may18_sign

We crossed the river again and headed into Devil’s Punchbowl park. We were here in 2005 also, and wow! The trails and signs are much improved!  We soon discovered why–there was another group of CDC prisoners hard at work as trail gorillas.  I made a point of thanking each of them as we passed by,  hoping it would encourage them that doing good things is more rewarding than doing bad stuff.  The rock formations in the park are mind-blowing— all colors and sorts, bent, twisted and sculpted, the result of several earthquake faults intersecting in the area.  We started meeting a lot of “daisies”–mostly Japanese tourists.  When we reached the park visitor center area, it was swarming with school kids, so we retreated back up the trail and found a quiet spot to eat lunch and “hold a garage sale” to dry our gear.

Then began the many miles of roadwalking through the desert, passing Joshua trees, houses and more rock formations, and leaving the snowy mountains far behind.  We also passed Transient, who was sitting by the road nursing a  sore knee.  We were very concerned about him–what a major bummer it would be to have to end a PCT thruhike so soon!   By 5:30pm we’d reached the turnoff to the town of Little Rock, where we planned to get more water and eat dinner.

may18_horsies2

It took almost 2 miles of walking before we strolled into Ana’s Cafe, and when we came in, a lady who was also there eating took one look at us and said, “Are you guys hiking the PCT?” “Yes!” “How would you like to stay at my ranch tonight? I’ve got 4 other hikers who are coming, too.” That was a no-brainer! So we ended up with Dr. Gay (she is a veterinary doctor) and got showers, plus camping on her lawn! Her sister hiked the PCT, it turns out, and Gay was overjoyed to be able to help hikers.  It turned out her “first hiker of the day” had been Transient!  He looked much happier and more relaxed than he had when we saw him on the side of the road.

Dr. Gay’s place is full of animals, and it was a lovely warm evening. I walked around a bit to look at all the horses, etc., then we set up our tarp on the grass and enjoyed the feeling of being clean and safe.  Wow, what a difference from last night!

Walk to Rivendell: Camped in saddle of ridge on rocky ground with a gnarled pine tree.

may18_creekmay18_fencemay18_horsies

may18_roadwalkmay18_trailmay18_trail2

may18_trail3may18_vistamay18_vista3

Tags: , , , ,

Leave a Reply