The wind blew all night, but we were well-protected at our campsite among the oak trees.  It was a chilly 40 degree morning when we got up, saying “Breakfast at Robin Bird Spring!”  The PCT was very pretty in the early light as it wandered through oak groves and pocket meadows.   And there was a nice warm sunpatch on the hill above the spring where we happily munched our granola.   Bill crawled under the fence to get more water and rinse our dirty socks, while I guarded the packs, since we’d noticed some “bear signs” in the area.  It is our joke that I am the official Bear Chaser.  No bear messes with me!  (Seriously, I actually have “run off” some bears!)

 Off we went again through a very pretty stretch of PCT— grass and trees like a park, then down through Jawbone Canyon, which is an ugly name for a lovely place— lots of trees for shade, and interesting rocks.  Several ORV trails intersect and cross the PCT route.

 Bill and I were hiking happily along (me especially happy, because I am feeling better today–still a bit weak, but I can do uphills, and I haven’t needed any extra rest breaks ) when we heard a strange loud noise up ahead. Before we’d even finished saying, “What’s that?” we had to LEAP off the trail because roaring around a bend of the PCT came 5 motorbikers in full “armour.” Yikes! Bad, bad! If we wanted to be trail nazis, we could have reported them.  After they passed us by and we kept going, we were very annoyed with the damage they had done to the trail tread.  Grrrr!

Shortly after, we came to a PCT trail register and discovered TEN hikers were a day ahead of us. Now we were worried. What if that meant no water left at 2 key water caches up ahead? And after the register, the trail headed into a forest fire zone of blackened, dead trees.  The day was getting hotter, and it was a bummer to not have shade–but wow!  The ground in the fire zone was carpeted with wildflowers.  Very pretty!  There was also one stretch of trail where the rocks were amazing–white rocks and black sparkly rocks in bands right next to each other.  And eventually we reached one little grove of trees that had survived and were shading the trail.  To our great amusement, one of the hikers up ahead had left a message there in the trail, “written” with twigs.  I will not repeat it, because it was pretty crude, but the essence was that hiking on a hot day is NOT fun!  Amen to that!

Finally we reached Kelso Valley Road, and hooray!  There was still water left in the cache.  The bottles were sitting in the sun, so the water was warm, but we were very grateful to get it!   Soon we were really truly hiking in the desert, with Joshua trees, cactus, sand, flash flood gullies–and gold mines!  Some of the mines looked like maybe they were in use again (not surprising, considering the price of gold!). 

Later in the afternoon, the wind began to blow, which cooled things off, but by 4:30, the gusts were strong enough to shove us around, and we were semi-staggering along the trail.  At suppertime, we huddled behind some big rocks so we could eat, and had a great view of the multi-colored rocks of the desert valley below.  Man, were we tired!   Especially me!  But I was determined to push on, and we made almost another two hours of walking before making camp behind some Joshua trees.  The wind had become a steady roar, and was very cold, so we had to be very careful as we unpacked.  We didn’t want anything to get blown away, and we could see it was going to be a cold night!

So now I am burrowed into my sleeping bag, very tired.   I still can’t hike as fast as usual, but I am happy that I was able to make it through the day without taking any extra rest breaks.  That’s progress!

Walk to Lórien: Crossing small stream near Rivendell

Tags: Jawbone Canyon, Kelso Valley Road, Robin Bird Spring, water cache