Sun. May 15 Miles today 16.5 Total 91 Sect. A

Early morning light in cactus country

We got up this morning at 4:00 am hoping to beat the heat for what we knew would be a killer day. Packing up by headlamp is a bit tricky, but we were ontrail by 4:30, and hiked by headlamp till 5:00. It seemed like the PCT was just traveling along the edge of a large valley for a LONG time, without going down and across as we knew it was supposed to do. Finally the trail turned left and came down off the mountain, landing us in “cactus country”. It was a beautiful clear morning, but already warm. Not good. We hurried to reach the creek where we planned to eat breakfast, and poor Bill did not quite look where he was going and bumped his shin into an “anklebiter size” cactus right by the trail. Ow! We stopped, and I tried to pull out the more obvious spines from his leg, but it was still hurting so much that when we started hiking again, he didn’t notice that he had not picked up his trek pole, but left it lying by the cactus. Not till we were all done with now late breakfast, and loaded up on water from the Scissors Crossing water cache did Bill notice he was missing his stick. He had to hike 2 miles back to find it, and as a result, we were VERY late starting on an 8.5 mile climb into the hot, shadeless San Felipe Hills.

Hot 'n tired feet in the San Felipes

It took us 5 miserable hours to hike those 8.5 miles, because it was so hot (99 degrees and maybe more—I stopped looking at the thermometer) that we could not go far without stopping to rest. Many of the cactus were blooming, but I was too wiped out to photograph any of them except an ocatillo with its flowers that looked like flames. At lunch, I flat out said, “I am NOT cooking anything for lunch—it is too hot!”

The amazing, flaming ocotillo

What a relief to reach the top! I was exhausted. We pushed on, glad that it was more “flat” with only “some” climbing, plus an afternoon breeze, and reached the “San Felipe Hills 3rd Gate Water Cache” by dinnertime. With the breeze and the water, I was glad to cook dinner—tuna, rice and dehydrated green beans (the beans from our own garden, last summer).

Then we hiked on till sundown and camped by a bend in the trail—the only flat place we could find. We were tired and sore, but cheered by the fact that we’d met the San Felipe Hills challenge! Before crawling into my sleeping bag, I decided to try an experiment. I have been having a lot of trouble getting any sleep at night so far because I ache so badly all over by the end of the day, especially my knees. So what I did was take some Motrin. It worked—with no pain, I could sleep! We were looking forward to breaking through the 100 mile mark tomorrow.

Miles today: 22.1  Total PCT miles so far: 73.5     Miles spent being lost today: about 3?

As soon as it was light, we were up and headed for breakfast at Pioneer Mail picnic area, where we also loaded up (ouch, over 10 lb each!) on water, and started hiking along what used to be a highway, now converted to trail.  We had plenty of opportunities to continue the “oohs-and-aahs”  as we passed incredible rock formations, HUGE dropoffs to the desert below, and masses of wildflowers.  What amazed me was that there was so much beauty even though we were walking through the charred remains of the huge 2002 San Diego fire.  Determined shrubs and even the oak trees were starting to grow back from their roots.  The trail itself was really easy going–lots of miles of fairly level contouring along the hillsides. 

Lucky 5 water cache--chair 'n all

Eventually we reached the “Lucky Five” water cache, which turned out to be a wooden cupboard perched on the hillside by the trail, complete with chairs to sit on!  We topped up our water, wrote a thankyou note, and mushed on, as the temperature rose to the upper 80’s. 

A survivor--the miracle tree

 By 11:00 we were way overdue for a rest break, but despaired of finding any shade, till up ahead we spotted a “miracle tree”,  tall and green and broad-branched–a pine tree standing all alone in the middle of a grassy and wildflowered meadow!  We had not seen a living tree for miles, and boy did we enjoy our rest in the grass in the shade!

Shortly after moving on, we met two very serious gentlemen with big binoculars.  Seems they were from the San Diego Audubon Society, doing a study on which birds (and how many) had returned to the area since the fire.

Then we came to what we knew was a very important trail junction.  Two dirt roads headed down into Chariot Canyon.  We knew that one of them was the PCT, and carefully consulted our map to make sure we were on the right one.  We sincerely believed we had chosen correctly, and as it turned out, we were on the wrong one.  (Hmmm, I think there is something about this in the Bible.  A lot of people have a “sincere belief”…but is it right?  Is it the truth?)  Anyway, thinking we were on the right dirt road, we went cheerfully down into the canyon. 

Lost Boy 50 miler

 Soon we started meeting runners wearing numbers, who were headed UP “our” road.  They said it was the “Lost Boy 50 Mile Trail Run”.  We did not envy them as they sweated and slogged up that long hill, while we were cruising down in the shade of our hiking umbrellas!

But after a little while we began to wonder why our road to the bottom of the canyon WAS so long. “It’s supposed to only be a bit over one and 1/3 miles, but it seems a lot more,” we were commenting to each other.  “Sure seems weird.  I guess it just feels long because it’s so hot.”  When we finally did reach the bottom we stopped for a long lunch break.  There was no shade at all, and rigging our lightweight white tarp did not help a bit.  It felt as if the sun was glaring right through it.  After lunch, continuing to “follow the map”, we made a right turn, and at 1/2 mile along, looked hard for the PCT trail heading off away from the road.   But not a single PCT emblem or sign could we find, so we kept going and looking.  Finally we realized that something was seriously wrong.  We were now going steeply down into a rugged canyon where the PCT definitely does NOT go. 

Cold, drippy, sweet trail magic!

It was time to stop, get out the maps, look around, and think hard.  That was when we saw our mistake–we had taken the wrong road from the junction down into the canyon.  So we two very sad, very hot hikers slogged back up the hill, hoping that eventually we WOULD find the PCT again.  Just then, along came a pickup truck with support people for the runners in the 50 mile race.  They offered us big slices of watermelon and big cups of cold Gatorade!  Talk about “trail magic”!  Wow!  The driver told us we weren’t far from the PCT, and he was right–pretty soon we were back on the trail, refreshed by the cold snacks and blessed by the fact we were now walking through what I can only call “wildflower heaven”.  Whole hillsides in Chariot Canyon were “painted” in every color; in places the flowers were waist high, so thick that they overhung the trail and we had to push through them.

We did have one frustrating encounter with a large red rattlesnake sitting in the middle of the trail in the late afternoon.  He buzzed furiously and would not move even when Bill hit him square in the nose with a little rock.  So we had to climb up the steep hillside and go around him.

The PCT heads for Rodriguez Truck Road

By 6:00 or so we had reached Rodriguez Truck Road with its water tank and filled our Platypuses while talking to the leaders of a whole group of Boy Scouts.  The scouts were camped near the tank after just completing a  merit badge requirement that they hike 20 miles in just one day!  Those were grimy, but happy boys hanging out around the concrete tank!  I asked one of the leaders how he managed to keep up with the boys.  He grinned, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a bottle of Motrin.  “This is how I do it, ” he said.  Meanwhile, Bill was filling every water container we had for what looked like a grueling day tomorrow. 

Sunset on the PCT

Putting on our now HEAVY packs, we hiked on until we found a nice campsite near the trail, with a pleasant breeze blowing.  Man, it was good to be back on the PCT, not  wondering and wandering down another hot canyon!