Friday, May 27     Miles today: 18.3       Total so far: 305.6

Bright side:  We crossed the 300 mile mark today!  Hooray!                                                                  

Downside:  Bill feels worse and worse.  It took from 5:00 am to 8:30 pm just to walk 18 miles.

Bright side: Walking so slowly gives lots more time to look at scenery (and there’s lots of it to look at!)

Downside: At this rate, we may run out of food before our next resupply.

Well, today we woke up to a cold 41 degree morning.  BRrrrr!  AND discovered that Bill’s watch had “died” during the night.  Getting new batteries will require a jeweler, and that won’t be for a LONG time!  Again, the beauty of this trail was a great consolation–awesome views everywhere we looked.  And the trail was easy going at first–good for poor Bill’s feet–but when we reached Holcomb Creek again, it got rough.

Where's the trail?

Last winter was pretty wild, with lots of rain and flooding.  Often we had a hard time figuring out where the trail went over all the boulders, logs and debris that were left behind near the creek.  But I’m happy to say that I finally did a good job of crossing on a log over the creek–I didn’t give up and “just wade across” this time!  

 And even better–on the other side, there were rock “ducks” to follow, instead of having to play the game of “where’s the trail now?”

Wrecked Deep Creek bridge

Once out of the Holcomb Creek zone, we were hiking through a forest fire burnout with gorgeous wildflowers, and looking forward to our first view of famous “Deep Creek Canyon.”  So when the trail finally started down, we were full of anticipation, but also worry, because we’d heard that the first bridge across the canyon was wrecked.  And sad but true–there it was, one end all wrenched and twisted by the winter floods. 

And I am ashamed to say that at this point I totally blew it.  Bill and I were standing and looking at the wrecked end of the bridge.  Bill said, “No problem–we can still use the bridge–just hold that one intact railing and sidestep across on the I-beam underneath.”  I was horrified and said, “No way would I do that–and the trail notes said to use the alternate.  I’m doing the alternate–it’s right there–cross any way you want, and I’ll see you on the other side.” 

I was looking at what to me seemed to be the obvious, VERY well-marked  (red posts!) alternate trail down.  Turning away from Bill, I walked easily down, crossed the river on steppingstones that were set up, and walked up to the other side of the bridge, all the while assuming that Bill was doing the macho “walk across the wrecked bridge” thing,  and I thought that when we met up, he’d be ready to tell me how easy it was and how silly of me to be scared.

But when I reached the end of the bridge–no Bill.  I looked and looked everywhere for him,  growing worried.  Finally I spotted him a ways down the river, soaking his feet, but I could not figure out how to get to where he was.  In the end, I had to scramble down a steep, rocky bank to reach him.   The discussion that ensued between us was not pretty.  I was mad because I could not find him and then had such a hard time getting to him.  He was mad because he felt I just “took off” on him, and he could not keep up with his sore, limping feet.  It turned out that he never even saw the alternate trail with its red posts, and instead bushwhacked down to the river, crossed on some rocks, and then sat down to wait, soaking his painful feet (lots of blisters and sores).

Once we calmed down, we realized that for the sake of Bill’s feet, we did need to take a break, so we had lunch and then spent 2 hours just sitting in the shade by the river.  Two fishermen came by, and we got to watch them at work–they were good!  I had already seen one fat trout go whizzing by, and the fisherguys managed to catch 3, very quickly!  They told us their secret was to sneak up on the creek so the trout could not see them. 

Dramatic Deep Creek gorge

Finally, at about 2:30, we climbed back up to the PCT and were on our way.  Wow!!  Deep Creek canyon is truly awesome!  We spent the entire rest of the day walking through spectacular scenery–roaring river cascades and huge cliffs.  The only bummer was that there were hardly any trees left because of the forest fire a few years back.  Sometimes the cliffs were so big and high that the only way the PCT could get through was by a bridge right against the cliff face.  If you are on the bridge and look down, it’s a LOOOOONG way down there! 

A real desert puffer-fish!

And then there were the places where let’s just say I focused by attention very hard on the TRAIL and tried not to look at the big dropoff next to it!  And that’s how I found what I jokingly called a “desert puffer-fish” (actually the dry shell of a wild cucumber fruit–it’s quite spiny and impressive!) .

We were eating our supper at a little side creek tumbling down into the canyon, when along came “Steady Dave”.  He was making for the famous Deep Creek Hot Springs up ahead.  We’d hoped to make it near there, too, but the sun went down and it was getting dark before we reached it.  Bill wanted to push on, but I am really bad at hiking at night, so I volunteered to scramble up onto a ridge above the trail to see if I could find a flat spot somewhere,  while Bill waited below with his sore feet.  I finally found a tiny spot just big enough for the two of us and we were glad to lie down for our night’s rest.  I had to spend some time talking to God about my carelessness and thoughtlessness that had led to our problems at the wrecked bridge.   At times like this I am MEGA-ly grateful that Jesus took all my suchlike garbage on Himself on the cross.  Before I met Him, I was a very proud and selfish person (though I outwardly looked “happy and nice”).  He has really changed me, and I am very grateful.

Thurs. May 26   Miles today: 13.7       Total so far: 287.3 miles        Big Bear City and beyond

The enormously kind “trail angels” who invited us to their house also gave us a wonderful breakfast of veges with scrambled eggs, wholegrain sprouted wheat toast, and peppermint tea.  People food, real people food!  Today it was errands, then finally back to the trail.  Our kind host offered to take us around, since he was glad for the “fix-it stuff” that Bill did for him yesterday.

This is definitely a "Hiker Town"!

The guys dropped me off at the grocery store, and Bill went to get new shoes.  His feet are a complete mess, and he is limping and hobbling badly.  Done with shopping, I waited for them by a very cute carved bear whose “Welcome” sign really sums it up about Big Bear City–this is a very hiker-friendly town!  Some stores even hang banners that say, “Welcome, PCT hikers”!  And hurray, with the new batteries I bought (lithium, this time–they supposedly handle extreme temps better), the camera is working again.

With Bill outfitted in new shoes, our host next took me to find some patella straps for my knees.  Way back at Warner Springs, my “bad” right knee (which had an infection in it about 10 years ago that did some damage) was really hurting, and Anna (of “Josh ‘n Anna”) had loaned me one of hers.  Patella  straps are great!  A lot of runners wear them.  They’re just a little strap that wraps around UNDER your knee and supports the kneecap.  I wanted to be able to give Anna back her strap, but didn’t want to give it up, because it REALLY works!   So once we found some straps,  I gave Anna’s to our host, who promised to keep a lookout for her and give it back to her.  (We found out later he succeeded!)

Then after a big Subway sandwich lunch, we once again hit the trail–our host dropped us off right where it crosses Van Dusen Canyon Road.  But a little way up the trail it hit me–duh, where’s my trek pole?  And then I realized I’d left it in the back of our host’s pickup truck when he dropped us off.  Now I needed to find some sort of “Gandalf staff” in the woods, but didn’t have any luck with that for quite some time.

A tough trail for sore feet

Fortunately, the trail was very easy going.  Sometimes we went by formations of real marble, and in the distance we could see the activity in a marble quarry.  We even went through a PCT stretch with marble right by the trail.  We also came to some REALLY rocky stretches of trail where I missed my trek pole something awful!  Our first rest stop was under a magnificent incense cedar tree.  We appreciate both their beauty and their shade! 

Yes, that's SNOW on the horizon!

 Eventually we climbed high enough for awesome views of Big Bear Lake and the snowy mountains beyond.  A strange-looking white building on a pier jutting out into the lake had us puzzled till we found it on our map–a solar observatory!  We cheered–Bill is a big fan of “sun science”, and we feel that the “global warming” business is a simple result of the fact that the sun has been highly active for a number of years.  For silly puffed up people to think that mere human activity could affect global climate is the epitome of delusion.  (End of sermon!) 

Sweeeeeet!

 I also enjoyed all the wildflowers along the trail–huge, very sweet-scented lupines, plus the many serviceberry bushes in full white “bridal” magnificence.

Eventually we came to where we could see into the Holcomb Valley, scene of an 1860’s gold rush.  Apparently it was pretty wild n’ wooly there–lots of duels over Confederate vs. Union sympathies.  There were several old gold mine remains in view.   Dinnertime was at Little Bear Springs Trail Camp, and the menu was frozen (now thawed) meat pies and nectarines.  Town food!   

Hope there's no cougar in those rocks!

 Soon we reached very pretty Holcomb Creek and its valley.  From that point it was getting toward evening and the trail was winding among large rock formations.  Since it was “cougar dinnertime”, I stayed close to Bill.  It was too easy as it grew darker, to imagine a hungry cougar mama crouched on one of those rocks.

But we had no cougar encounters, and instead I became more and more worried about Bill.  His feet were hurting worse and worse, and he could not walk very fast.  Finally we stopped for the night and hung our food well out of bear reach, while slapping the mosquitoes which came looking for THEIR dinner!  We were glad we’d had our daughter send us the net tent we thought we wouldn’t need till the Sierras!

(PS–if you are like me, and I HATE not knowing what is going to happen–I always read the end of a book first, so I can enjoy reading the first part without the “agony” of not knowing the end–then you may be wondering what became of Bill’s sore feet.  Well, here’s the “spoiler”:  We DID hike the whole PCT all the way to Canada, and eventually Bill’s feet got sorted out.  We give God the full credit for this!)