We woke up to a very cold, windy morning.  I wore all my layers plus fleece hat & mittens.  We have enough breakfasts that we can still eat a full breakfast, hooray!  Last night before I went to sleep I was trying to figure out WHY we are short on food, and finally had a “duh” moment.  I had planned our food based on Ray Jardine’s chart for a 4 1/2 month hike.  Ray’s chart was based on resupplying at Wrightwood, not at Cajon Pass.  It’s almost a day’s hike from Cajon to the Wrightwood turnoff.  No wonder our food supplies are short!  Well, today we planned to put a good dent in the 54 miles we have to go. 

By 9:30 we passed the 400 mile mark at “Camp Glenwood.”  From there, we had lots of nice downhill trail,including our last crossing of the Angeles Crest Highway, where Bill almost took a wrong turn.  What happened was we have a policy that on any given stretch of trail, whichever of us is slowest goes first.  Lately, that’s usually Bill, limping along on his sore feet.  But he took some Motrin at breakfast, and by the time we reached the highway, the “motrin effect” had kicked in, and Bill was charging ahead instead of limping ahead.  In fact, he had gotten way ahead of me!  And at a trail junction, he took off down what looked like the PCT–but no, the sneaky PCT had gone slinking off sideways into the bushes.  Fortunately I was able to shout to him and get him back on track.  At that point I said, “OK, now I’M going first!” 

After that, we spent a lot of miles going through sort of a chaparral tunnel.  At one point, there was a confusing fork in the trail where it looked like BOTH trails were labelled with the PCT emblem.  What the??  Well, a bit of more careful observation showed us that the two emblems were NOT the same–one was PCT, the other the Boy Scout Silver Moccasin Trail.  

By noon we’d reached the little creek near Sulphur Spings Camp, whre I cooked a “short rations” skimpy dinner and Bill went down to the campground for water.  Some other thruhikers also arrived and stopped for lunch, so we were able to talk.  Bill returned with bad news for all of us–the water at the campground was shut off.  We looked at the creek–but no way, the water in it was gross.  All of us were really low on water, and a big climb of Pacifico Mountain lay ahead.  The guidebook said there were springs on the mountain–we all hoped so!

So the whole gang of us started the upward trail, which was often overgrown by very pretty yellow flower bushes.  The guidebook said there were 2 springs after 3 miles.  The first spring was not even trickling and was yucky.  Not good.  But half a mile later–oh boy!  The second one was clear, sweet, and in full flow.  We all filled our bottles with cold, delicious water, and drank a lot of it on the spot!

Monty crosses a pine cone "river"

Seven more miles of climbing and a 1,600 foot elevation gain brought us to the top of the mountain.  The trail on the other side was long, narrow and at times looked like it wanted to just slide off down the mountainside.  One interesting part was a little side gully that looked like a “river” made of pine cones, there were so many of them covering the ground and the trail. 

What's with the little yellow markers?

 We passed Pacifico Mountain Campground, where it looked like somebody was doing a science experiment–there were little upright plastic net squares in different colors sticking up out of the forest floor.  As we hiked on into the afternoon, the views were great, but we were really getting tired, and the topo map showed no flat places to camp in for a long way.  But about 1/4 mile from Mill Creek Summit, we spotted a little flat place!  Even though it was a while till sundown, we stopped for the day and made camp.  For once (with the sun still up) it was warm enough, AND we had enough water that we could actually take “wipe-yourself-off-with-a-wet-bandanna” baths before bed.  Usually when we stop it’s just about dark, and it’s cold, and every drop of water is too precious to waste on “baths”.   Of course, as soon as the sun went down, the mosquitoes came out.  Hooray for the net tent, so we can sleep in peace!  And it is a blessing to have plenty of water, both the kind you get from a spring, AND the “water of life” that Jesus gives.

When we started hiking at first light this morning, we discovered we’d only been 1/4 mile from the South Fork Campground!  Oh well.  Bill’s feet hurt very badly, so he sat and rested  by the campground, while I ran around trying to figure out where the trail went next, since we had no proper map, only the notes from the sign back at “B-P Base Camp.”  It looked like the trail headed across the river, which was a moderately tricky ford.  We made it OK, but then discovered that on the other side, any semblance of a path just vanished in the chaparral.  Bummer.

So I left my pack with Bill, and while he rested some more, and dried his damp papers (still wet from when he fell in the creek yesterday), I spent almost 2 hours going up and down the riverbank and climbing around in the bushes trying to find the trail.  I got well scratched, bumped, and discouraged–and all this before I even had breakfast!  You can guess that I was asking the Lord “Please, PLEASE help me find the trail!”  When I was almost ready to give up and try some more after breakfast, I was looking around and up on the side of the canyon was a rock formation jutting out.  It is hard to explain, but as I looked at it,  it was like God said to me, “There is the trail.”  Then I REALLY looked hard, and right next to the rock formation–yes, there was something that looked like it might be trail.  I beat my way through the chaparral, scrambled over some rocks to climb up there, and hurrah!! The trail!  I followed it back down to the river, and turned out it crossed way upstream, far away from where we’d crossed earlier.  I scrambled back along the rocks by the river to reach Bill, very grateful to God for helping me. 

Pump, pump, pump!

So now we could relax, filter some river water, and eat breakfast. 

A flower to enjoy, after all that scrabbling in the chaparral!

I could even enjoy looking at wildflowers!  By 9:30 am we were on our way again,into Devil’s Punchbowl County Park.  But the trail got scarier and scarier.  A number of places were washed out.  One was so bad, I didn’t think I would make it across.  Even Bill was scared on that one!  What made it possible was hanging on to little tree roots that were sticking out.

Awesome FOLDED rock strata

But wow, the rocks were amazing!  And sometimes the trail supports actually did work! 

 Then we came to a fork in the trail, with no indication of which way to go.  We finally chose the left path (correctly!  Whew!) and a little while later met a young guy dayhiking, who helped us figure out where we were, and where to go next.  That was a relief, but the trail was very tough–lots of long, steep ups and downs.  Bill’s feet were in bad shape, and he had to stop periodically and try to tape them as best  he could. 

Trail a'winding down below

We stopped to cook a 1:00 pm dinner by the trail, of freezedried sweet n’ sour pork with peas, and I was just getting ready to “dish up” into our cups, when along came a guy on his mountain bike.  He saw the pot of food, grinned a big grin and called, “Yo, mama! I sure got here at the right time!”  He also advised us that we were on the right trail, but warned of many long steep miles ahead. He was right, but we were cheered by being able to actually SEE in the distance the pass we were headed for.  And the climb to the top was brightened by the beautiful rocks and wildflowers along the path. 

Pretty PINK yucca flower

 When we finally reached the top, called “Burkhardt Saddle”, it was a time to rejoice and enjoy the views as we headed down, down, down to the PCT.  On this side of the mountain, the yuccas were blooming, and they were really pretty.

Many miles of downhill later, and we were finally back at the PCT.  After a bit of cheering, we charged ahead, and of course, the PCT welcomed us back with its usual behavior–having to cross the same creek 2 or 3 times!  Then we had a steep 1 1/2 mile climb to Cooper Creek Canyon Camp, where we finally had a very late cracker and cheese supper.  Weirdly, just as we were eating, a huge clamor of what sounded like whooping and hollering and cheering started up, just down the trail.  “Must be the guys who went the Baden-Powell route today,” I said.  “Boy, they must be glad to spot this campground!”  But no bedraggled hikers ever appeared.  The noise continued for several more minutes, then stopped.  What was it?  We had no clue–coyotes?

Bill and I were both exhausted, and the sleeping bags felt good in the cold, windy dark.  I was disappointed and worried, though, when I calculated our mileage.  We have 54 miles to go, and at this rate, we don’t have enough food.  We’ll have to go on short rations, starting tomorrow.  But though this was a tough day, we feel we have met its challenges, with God’s help.  It is a good feeling.  And I am especially grateful for His help in finding the trail this morning!