Well, we should have set up our tarp last night, because when we woke up, our sleeping bags were soaked with dew–very wet.  Yuck!  Figuring we’d dry them later, we headed out for a long day of what turned out to be mostly up, up & up.   There were some pretty menacing spiky pine cones lying on the trail…hmm, wonder if they would make good weapons of some sort? 

Trail cut in the rock

 The trail construction crews who worked on this stretch did an awesome job–at times it looked like they literally had to cut through solid rock.  We had breakfast with a great view of some range cattle (complete with cowbells!) far below where we were perched by the trail.  The wildflowers are still wonderful–big perfumed lupines and many others, including one that almost looks like a bouquet coming right out of the ground.  And I should mention that every single day since we left Campo, we see lots of hummingbirds.  They are so friendly–buzz right up and say “hi” and look so cute.  I am sure they don’t mistake us for flowers in our khaki clothes–they must just be curious.

Looking up toward the Desert Divide

As we climbed higher and higher, there were more and more interesting rock formations–very distracting, at least for me!  I keep wanting to stop and get a good look at them, and if I weren’t thruhiking, I would be seriously tempted to take a small rock sample from some of them.  As the trail climbed ever higher, I also got distracted by the fun (at the top of each mountain saddle) of looking back to see where we’d been on the trail. 

Dramatic dropoff

But I will say this–the PCT is tough, much harder than we’d expected.  We did a lot of training before we went, but to be able to make it on this trail, you sure have to be not only trained, but DETERMINED.  This trail is NOT for wussies or the fainthearted.  Today included, for example, climbs of 100, 300, ,400 and 1,100 feet.  There were rocky steep descents, too, of 1,000 and 300 feet.  But all that aside, who cares!  This is an ADVENTURE, and and adventure is about pushing the limits of what you thought you could do. 

We got to see the “Ghost Forest” high up on a ridge, and since we were on the Desert DIVIDE, there were awesome views in both directions.  The altitude is high here (7,000-8,000 feet), so the knarly oak trees are just beginning to leaf out. 

Sleeping bags in "solar dryer"

By noon, it was so hot that we conked in the shade of some live oaks for lunch, after first hanging our damp sleeping bags up to dry–I hung mine on a trail junction sign.  While we waited for the sleeping bags to dry, a friendly dayhiker came down the trail.  He said he’d planned to climb Spitler Peak, but it was so hot and the trail so steep that he just could not make it, and had turned back.  Hmmm–the Spitler Peak trail was where the PCT headed next.  And the worst of it was, there was supposed to be a trailside water cache at the junction where we were.  The cache was there, all right–and no water left.  We figured we were OK, with enough water to last till Apache Springs, 3 miles ahead.

But shortly afterward, along came Chris, one of the thruhikers we met at dinner in Warner Springs.  He looked exhausted, and had no pack on.  Turned out he and his wife Barbara were totally out of water and were counting on the cache.  When we told him there was no water in it, he looked pretty grim.  So Bill and I said, “Tell you what, we can give you some of our waater.  We’ll leave ourselves just enough to squeak by till Apache Springs.”  Chris gratefully took our water and headed back to Barbara, while we hoisted packs to begin the 3 mile, 1,400 foot CLIMB to the Apache Springs side trail.  It was still hot, and the trail was awful–one long, very steep hill after another.  I had seen this part of the trail from down below and thought “Oh, that couldn’t possibly be the PCT–it looks like a fire road.  The PCT would never just go straight up a hill like that.”  Oh, yes, it could, and it did!  I was reduced to hiking at a crawl, very discouraged, and carefully rationing my bit of water.  Heat + steep hills + me does NOT equal happy hiking! 

But at last we reached the sandy chaparral saddle with the side trail to Apache Springs.  Bill headed down with our empty water bottles and I waited by the packs.  About 20 minutes later, along came Chris, who promptly dumped his pack by ours, grabbed his water bottles and headed after Bill.  He said Barbara was somewhere behind him.  Soon Bill was back, with an extra bottle of water for Barbara and I to drink from right away.  It was nice and COLD, with only  a few floaty things in it, so I gratefully drank half of it, and just as I took my last swallow, along came an exhausted, discouraged Barbara.  She was thrilled to get fresh, cold water!  I talked to her a bit and commiserated with her about how slow, hot and miserable we’d been today.  “I don’t know if I can do this,” Barbara sighed.  “I thought Chris and I were in really good shape.  But today it was all I could do not to break down and cry.”  “Well, pretty soon you’ll have plenty of water, and there’s a nice downhill ahead” was all I could think of to say to her.  

So off went Bill and I, to tackle the 3 miles to a gap where we planned to cook dinner and camp.  The trail was now much nicer–mostly downhill and with awesome views of deep gorges and the Coachella Valley with its thousands of houses far below.   There were also some more amazing (and scary) bits of trail engineering where the trail was literally carved out of the face of sheer cliffs.  Finally we reached the “gap”–a nice flat place on a ridge, where we cooked up a hot dinner of cheddar mashed potatoes with jerky bits and peas.  Our “dinner view” was over the edge of a multithousand foot dropoff with a fantastic view.  In many ways, the whole “look” of the place reminded me of Yosemite. 

Our campsite tonight is at 7,000 feet and couldn’t be nicer–a soft, sandy flat place surrounded by huge boulders and dwarf live oaks.  Off to one side we can see the big dropoff with lights twinkling far below.  And as a precaution, we put up the tarp tonight.  We’ll miss watching the stars, but dry sleeping bags are nice, too.

Fog down below at sunrise

A cool windy night felt good to us, snuggled in our sleeping bags.  But today promised more tough, hot hiking, so we got up at 4:00 am.  There was fog down below in the Anza Valley at sunrise, but it disappeared quickly, and pretty soon we were hiking in and out of cactus-enhanced chaparral in the early morning light, anxious to reach our “breakfast goal” of Tule Springs.  It was a worthy goal!  Ahhhhh!  A concrete tank had a spigot coming out with TWO hoses attached–one for water in your water bottles, the other for SHOWERS!  Yes indeed, somebody ran a hose up a cottonwood tree and attached a shower head!  We thought about taking showers, but were concerned because we knew other hikers could come strolling in at any time.  But we did use the shower to “sloosh off” as best we could without taking EVERYTHING off.   It felt really good!

Beautiful--just don't get too close!

After that, it was lots more chaparral, a pretty canyon with lots of grass, trees and a creeklet where we met a fellow thruhiker getting water (pump, pump, pump).  Then we were headed up and up some more to a very dramatic section of trail with great views and precipitous dropoffs.  I am learning not to be afraid of heights, but I am very cautious in all those spots where you have a 3 foot wide trail and then a CLIFF!  We did meet one very polite rattlesnake who didn’t even buzz,  but hurried away.  (Fortunately he wasn’t at one of those “dropoff” parts of the trail!).

Hikers' Oasis

Finally we reached the “Hiker’s Oasis”, a welcome water cache where we loaded up enough to get us through 14 steep, hot miles ahead.  We are learning to be obsessed about water sources–you have to be when you’re a thruhiker.   Just ahead lay a climb of 1,000 feet in 4 miles, and it was a hot day. 

Juuuust enough shade!

 But we chugged along till noon when we spotted a group of huge boulders just off the trail, and sure enough, they made enough shade to relax in and cook dinner (freezedried beans & rice).  I was also grateful that my sore ankle is better–many thanks to all our friends who love us and are praying for us!

Desert mountains up ahead, waiting for us

By 2:00, there was a nice breeze and we pushed on into some very dramatic topography.  They should make this a field trip for a geology class!  After going down into and up out of  Alkali Wash, we found ourselves walking along the edges of some amazing cliffs.  Looking at the height of these obviously sedimentary formations makes you realize the immense forces of water at work during Noah’s Flood.  Very sobering.

Late in the afternoon, we reached Highway 74, and there resting by the trail was a PCT hiker waiting for his friend who’d gone down the road to a restaurant for a hot meal.  We decided to have an early supper right then and there so we could talk and eat.  Turned out the hiker was Swiss, from Zurich, and he was known on the trail as “Swiss Herbert.”  He was hiking the PCT with an American friend, and said that other than the heat, he was having a wonderful time. He had not gone to the restaurant, because, in his words, “Ven I hike, I only eat ze colt food.”  His goal was to hike as much PCT as he could before his vacation was over and he had to go back home.

More dramatic topography!

Then Swiss Herbert’s friend arrived, dropped off by a “trail gorilla” who not only works on PCT maintenance, but also provides water caches.  He told us where the next one was–right across the road, actually, hidden by the monument to a trail worker who died while building the PCT.  So we strolled across the highway, stocked up on water, and headed for the Desert Divide.  We hiked as fast as we could till almost dark, following the trail as it wound among huge boulders.  We had just time to set up camp before it was too dark to see, and then we crashed.  Tiiiiired!