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!

Wed., June 1     Miles today: 22.6     Total so far: 380       So. CA Section D

We woke up to a very pleasant early morning with a red sunrise that said, “hot day ahead.”  Weirdly, to the west there was fog down below, and to the east lay a brown haze of smog.  We were glad to be up at 6,500 feet, above it all!  We started hiking, eager to reach Guffy Campground, about 3 1/2 miles away, since we were almost out of water.  But the trail had other ideas!  Soon we were running into snowbanks requiring an ice axe for safe traverse.  I’m getting braver and faster about getting across these nasty icy things, but it did slow us down.  We finally reached Guffy, and oh no–the trail down to the spring was totally covered with snow.  There was a big old water tank, and Bill climbed up its very rickety ladder to look inside for water, just in case.  Nope–it was filling up with empty bottles and cans.  Sigh.  So poor Bill took our water bottles in a bag, plus his ice axe, and negotiated the steep, snowy trail down to the spring and back.  He said that if I tried it, we’d be there all day. (He was pretty fed up with me being slow on icy snow.)  I knew his feet hurt, so I was very grateful.  My only contribution was to be praying for him that he’d be OK on that steep snow.

This is why it was easier to walk the road!

Moving on, it wasn’t long before we lost the trail completely in the snowy woods.  Oh no, not again–just like back at Mt. San Jacinto!  But this time, no need to follow a compass heading–we just went over to the other side of the ridge and started walking on a dirt road that parallels the PCT.  The road was plowed, and some of the snowdrifts were pretty big!  The views from the road were awesome, and much better than the PCT side of the ridge, where forest blocks any views. 

Taking down the ski lifts

Pretty soon we reached a “ski zone” where things got a little unreal.  There were several weird-colored, fenced ponds which were for snow-making during winter.  At the ski lift area where we ate lunch, two guys were busy removing seats from the lift.  The ski runs were totally bare of snow.  In the afternoon, our views of Mt. Baden-Powell (which we may climb tomorrow) grew better and better.  When we reached another ski area, I had a look into he ski patrol hut and Bill had fun with the ski run map.  Turns out we were at the top of 2 runs–one called “Conquest” and the other, “Inferno.”  Hmmmm.  Sounded like pretty macho stuff, but neither had any snow–just a few wildflowers.  Our hike for the rest of the afternoon was often slowed down every 5 or 10 minutes, not by snow, but by large, fallen trees.  One of them, fortunately, fell in a way that you could walk UNDER it instead of around it.  And at one point, we found an official PCT mileage sign!

Should we tackle Mt. B-P....or not?

But more and more, we were concerned about whether or not to tackle the 12 mile Mt. Baden-Powell climb.  Obviously the mountain was well-covered in snow.  And the closer we got to the base of Mt. “B-P”, the more snow we could see, and the more worried we got.  At about 5:00 pm, we came out of the woods into the “B-P” parking lot, and what should we find but an official, “B-P Base Camp” big tent, AND the whole gang of thruhikers we’ve been running into all along the trail–Josh & Anna, Panda, Bethany, etc.  Turned out that Josh and the other GUYS had just come back from summiting B-P, while the GALS waited at Base Camp.  Josh & Co. said it was very do-able, but very tough.  We hemmed and hawed some more, factoring in that at Base Camp, it was very cold and the wind was blowing hard–up top at 9,300 feet, it would be worse, and the long trail down the other ridge was totally covered with snow, so we would have no trail there. 

Anna and Bethany had already decided they did NOT want to tackle “B-P” and wanted to go by one of the alternate routes.  There were two of these.  Route #1 was the now-closed Sunset Highway (closed by avalanches covering the road).  The other guys said they’d heard that it was a dangerous route due to collapsed road and unstable avalanche fields.  Route #2 was a lower-elevation trail route,  shown on a map in the B-P parking lot.  We decided to go that way.

At first the trail was nice, but then we began coming to avalanche debris fields that were made from frozen snow mixed with trees, pieces of road, and in one of them, even a wrecked car!  It was scary and slippery, trying to pick our way across this stuff!  Ack!  And then there were the creeks–so roaring and full that Bill could not cross by his favorite method of rockhopping.  I, as usual, just waded in where it looked least nasty, and walked across.  But at one creek, Bill, who is not used to fording, slipped and fell into the water and got totally soaked.   Fortunately, our clothes are the type that dry very quickly, so he didn’t stay wet long. 

Wood panel trail engineering

We did enjoy one section of the trail there very much, however!  It went through a wide, sandy area with rocks here and there, and somebody had moved the rocks to form “edges” for the trail, so that it looked like a garden path.  I enjoyed that part!  We also passed some weird rock formations and encountered a variety of “trail engineering” efforts designed to TRY to support a path across a steep, loose hillside.  One method I had never seen before was sturdy wood “support panels”.  The success of these was rather mixed. Some worked, but some had collapsed, making it definitely scary for me, and even Bill admitted that they were a challenge to get across. 

But the highlight of the evening was when we saw a large, round, furry brown BEAR, right on the trail ahead of us.  He didn’t even hear us coming, but when I said loudly and firmly,  “Hey, Mr. Bear, we’re coming through!  Move over!” he looked up, and then took off up the mountain like he was shot out of a gun.  (By the way, I learned from a guy who lives in the Sierras how to handle California bears–you have to act like an “alpha” bear so that the REAL bear will respect you).  We hiked on till after dark before we finally gave up any hope of finding a flat spot for a campsite, and slept right on a side trail that came into the PCT.  We did hang our food first–didn’t want that bear to get it!   It’s been a long day,  but I was pleasantly surprised that even with all the obstacles we had to face, we still made close to 23 miles.