Wow, I actually SLEPT last night!  I have not really had a solid night’s sleep yet on the trail except at Warner Springs.  (Bill has no problem!  He puts his head down, and he is GONE! At the beginning of the PCT, we had this sweet idea of each night after we were snuggled into our sleeping bags, we could read a chapter of the Bible together.  It hasn’t worked.  Bill can’t read without glasses, so I do the reading, and I read about 3 sentences, and he is snoring!!)  Yesterday, I was feeling so sleep-deprived that at times I felt like I was hiking with my brain on “space patrol”.  Well, the fact that   A) I was actually asleep and  B)I had my hands way down in the sleeping bag to keep them warm, meant that  C)I did not hear the wristwatch alarm go off at 5:00 am!

So at 5:30, Bill was nudging me and saying, “Wake up–it’s daylight!”  Well, I will say this–it sure is easier to get going when you can actually SEE what you are doing!  But oh my, both Bill and I ache all over.  My knees are sore, I have a couple of little blisters, my shoulders hurt…you get the picture.  This PCT is unbelievably tough on us old folks.  We are SO ready for our resupply day at Big Bear City!

Once we got ontrail, poor Bill was limping badly.  His feet really hurt and he has horrible, horrible blisters.  His problems are from crossing San Gorgonio Pass in the heat.  I gave him 2 Motrin, and from experience we know that if you just keep hiking, eventually your feet “numb up”.   We distracted ourselves as we hiked along by looking at the spectacular views of mountains to the west and desert to the east.  Oh, for the camera!  We reached Doble Trail Camp for breakfast, and again, a dry water faucet with a sign saying “Closed till May”.  But we surveyed our water and decided we had enough to make it–barely–the Big Bear City.   There were a couple of other thruhikers camped at Doble, but they were just beginning to get up, all tousled and sleepy, when we left, headed for Van Dusen Canyon Road.

At Van Dusen Canyon, there IS water in Caribou Creek, but we looked at it and said, “No way.”  It looked very polluted.  So we began the long, dusty, hot walk down the road toward toward town.  Car after car passed us by, even though we had our thumbs out, trying to get a ride.  It was really discouraging.  Other hikers had mentioned to us previously that the best way into Big Bear City was to hitch in at the road just before Doble Trail Camp.  They sure were right!   We kept walking and trying to be cheerful about the thought of eventually reaching town.

Finally a husband and wife, with a pickup truck towing 2 horses in a trailer,  stopped and offered us a ride to town.  Hooray!  We climbed into the back of the pickup with the saddles and bridles and hay and stuff.  “Got one beer left in the cooler–you can have it if you want, ” they said, “and there are carrots, too.”  Perfect food pairing–beer and carrots!  We bounced and jounced and munched and sipped all the way down to town and they dropped us right at the post office!   Trail angels with horses–I love it!

Bill went inside to get our box, while I waited on a bench outside.  A man came out and sat down nearby to look at his mail.  “PCT hiker?” he asked.  So we started to talk.  “What are your plans right now?” he inquired.  “Well, get our box, get ice cream, find a place to stay, clean up, and eat, ” I said.  Then I asked him which way to the Motel 6 (a favorite thruhiker destination) and he said, “Well, it’s down that way–quite a ways down–but there’s a nice B & B for the same price only a block away–or if FREE sounds better, you guys are welcome at my place.”  Wow!  When Bill came out, we agreed to go with him.  The man had some errands to run, so he left for half an hour while Bill and I got ice cream and rested in the shade.  (In case you wonder why I keep calling him “the man”, it’s because he didn’t want his name mentioned).

On the way to his house, the man got his wife on the phone and said, “Honey, I’m bringing a couple of hikers home with me.”  Turns out this is normal for them–they are all set up for hikers!  So we were able to shower, do laundry, have a delicious lunch (a “cold collation” to use the Victorian term), and Bill, true to form, was soon involved in helping the man fix some things around the place.  And it was a beautiful place–out in the forest, with mountains all around, and a big green meadow.  The guy and his wife treated us like we were family.  And actually, it sort of DID feel like home, because there are bookcases and books everywhere!  Somebody’s obviously in the middle of a research project–there are ponderous technical tomes open and in piles on the floor.  Ah–a person after my own heart!

Besides doing laundry (and pulling  stubborn tick off Bill) my contribution was to help make dinner and wash the dishes.  We are very comfortable here, and wow, we have met THREE trail angels in only one day!  Tomorrow, the plan is to go to town and get some bigger shoes for Bill (to solve his swollen feet/blister problem) and some patella straps for me (to help my sore knees).  But for tonight, we are grateful to God for so many blessings today.

Tues, May 24    Miles today: 25.3     Total so far: 264.3      So. CA section C

We were up by 4:45 am this morning, concerned about another day of hiking in heat, but brrrrr, we quickly knew we were back in SNOW country!  But I do like what I call the “snow smell” in the air–it’s very fresh and clean.  By sunrise we’d reached the headwaters of Mission Creek (at last!) and collected enough water to take us till afternoon. 

Man, I wish the camera were working!  The views we had today were stunning–everything from great, forested, sweeping mountain valleys with snowy peak backdrops (looked like Oregon!) to dramatic drop-offs into deep canyons. While we were eating breakfast, along came Dave, from Southern California.  Bill and I call him “Steady Dave” since he hikes slow but steady.  He began the PCT at Campo with his 26 year old son, who soon grew impatient at his dad’s slow pace.  So they agreed to split up, and the son is now way up ahead somewhere.  We and Steady Dave sort of leapfrogged each other all day.

Eventually we reached the famous (to PCT hikers) ranch for retired movie animals.  Sure enough–there was THE grizzly bear we’d heard so much about–but with a brand-new fence obviously designed to keep us hikers WAY back from his cage.

After that, for awhile, the PCT had to go on logging roads because of private property issues, but I thought it was very interesting to see the huge, full-tree-diameter thick planks that had obviously been made right there on site from trees that had been cut down.  I wished I could have seen the logging and “planking” equipment in action!  We mushed up and over Onyx Peak, then down, down to Arrastre Trail Camp where there was supposed to be water.  No such luck!  The faucet was posted “Closed to public use till may” and it was shut off.  We grumped about “Well, doggone, it’s May 24!!!”  A lady was there resting.  I think she said her name was Pam, but I was (and am) so tired that I’m not sure.  She was a fellow thru-hiker.  When she saw us going to the creek to filter some water, she asked if she could also use our filter, and when she found how light it was, said she wants one, too!  She’s hiking the PCT to lose weight (Goal:40 lb. less) and have adventures.  She was very friendly and cheerful.  Then along came Steady Dave, thrilled to see the creek.  “Water! Water!” he said, and got out his food and stove to cook dinner.  Bill and I had already eaten dinner, and were getting ready to leave, as was Pam, when we discovered that Pam was totally out of food, with 18 miles left to go before Big Bear City.  Both we and Dave tried hard to persuade her to take some of our food, but she refused all offers.  “I want to lose that 40 pounds!” was all she would say.

By now it was really late afternoon, and we headed out, enjoying the beauty of the trail as it went winding up and through various dramatic canyons–Arrastre and Balky Horse.  (What names!)  We had glimpses of blue Baldwin Lake far away among forests and meadows to our left, and to the right, it was rocky, cactus-y mountains and the Mojave Desert.    We were just going through a particularly “Western” looking area, with the low golden sunset glow casting long shadows amid all the subtle colors in the chaparral, when along came two ladies on pinto horses, in Western getup.  Talk about classic!  We almost expected John Wayne to come riding along the trail, too.  Oh, for a working camera!

We hiked till after sundown, and found a breezy, pretty campsite on a ridge among the pinyon pines and wildflowers.  Boy, are we tired!  It’s been a long day!  Boy, do our feet hurt!  But what an adventure this trail has been so far!  We are mega-blessed.