Hikey Mike

Day 1 – 16 miles

The promise of breakfast meant that everyone woke up quickly at 6am, with the camp hosts cooking Oreo pancakes with coffee and fruit while providing last minute information before everyone headed south to the monument. Managing to dodge the border patrol, I was able to make sure I got my foot into Mexico and spend 5 minutes at the southern terminus.

The morning walking was largely uneventful, with quite limited elevation and a well cleared path, but it soon became clear that the biggest struggle would be water. The typical advice is to carry 1L of water for every 4 miles on trail but to increase to 1L per 3 miles in the desert heat. With a 14 mile carry to the first water in this stretch, that meant carrying 5L of water from the terminus, weighing 11lbs (over 25% of my total carried weight). Due to also carrying 5 days worth of food out of Campo, it meant my pack was already over 40lbs, the heaviest it will be until I reach Kennedy Meadows almost 700 miles later. Luckily the weight felt okay and I made pretty consistent progress to the water cache at mile 14.

The cache also gave me a view of what the morning would bring, a 1000ft climb over 4 miles up a series of switchbacks (where the path zigzags up the climb to reduce the grade, the entire path is suitable for travel on horse so can’t be too steep at any point). While quite ominous, this was tomorrow’s issue so I walked down into Hauser Creek to camp on night 1, joining 5 people already pitched down there with a my first camp meal and an 8pm bedtime quickly following

Day 2 – 11 miles

Despite the general fear over the morning’s climb, the bulk of the elevation was gained in the first mile and quickly flattened out, getting to the peak about 2 hours later. The reward was worth it, with a beautiful view of Lake Morena from the top and just a mile later, a visit to Lake Morena Malt Shop with a large breakfast and malt milkshake quickly devoured.

While the break for second breakfast was greatly appreciated, it did mean that most people didn’t start walking again until midday and the sun was slowing the majority of people down. The general feeling was that a short day was in order with Boulder Oaks campsite at 11 miles, while I wanted to go slightly further, the heat was having more of an impact than expected and a rumour of cold drinks at the campsite convinced me to go. Luckily the rumour was true and despite not having a can of coke in about 10 years, I managed to drink 2 in 5 minutes. Around 15 people decided to camp in the same spot that night and it was my first true experience of the trail community with everyone spending the full evening together until ‘hiker midnight’ at 9pm.

Day 3 – 16 miles

As per the norm for groups of hikers, the conversation last night quickly turned to how far everyone plans to go the next day. With a storm potentially coming in, people were keen to be in a proper campsite with as much wind cover as possible, but the next stop was at Mount Laguna, 16 miles and 3600ft climb further along.

Starting early at 6:30am, the weather had cooled down considerably and so I decided to commit to the climb, which while a considerable elevation was spread consistently throughout the day and so felt easier than expected.

What really made the day feel easy was my first real taste of trail magic. Trail magic is anything given to a hiker for free, including food, drinks, transport and accommodation, and is provided by trail angels. I had already received the benefits of the water cache on day 1 and free drinks on day 2, but seeing a sign for trail magic just 0.7 miles off trail, I knew I wanted to take every chance to meet trail angels (although adding an extra 1.5 miles to my day was not what I’d hoped for).

Luckily, the trail magic was more than I could have hoped for. Upon reaching the campsite, we were greeted by 6 people who were camping all weekend and offering free food and drinks to any hikers that passed through. They said their goal was to make sure no hiker left hungry, and they absolutely succeeded. I was given a ham and cheese toastie, pasta salad, orange, banana, capri sun and orange juice. I was also convinced to take a beer and avocado with me for lunch and to top it all off, we were even given a lift back to the trail.

Spurred on by the generosity, the remaining 10 miles felt much easier and we spent much of the afternoon walking as a group of 4, my first time consistently walking as a group. The climb was kept interesting by constantly changing environments, with the orange dirt of the desert quickly replaced by a pine forest as the elevation continued to rise up to 6000ft

As we got closer to the campsite, the speed and morale began to drop until we saw the unthinkable…

At our campsite, another group had set up with hot dogs and beers for PCT hikers. After 3 of each and an evening around the campfire, I was ready for bed but the winds had started to pick up and the temperature was dropping. It turns out the storm we were so eager to escape was hitting Mount Laguna the hardest and everyone rushed to bed before the winds became worse hoping for the best. With only one site somewhat protected from the wind, we managed to squeeze 20 tents into a space made for up to 8.

Day 4 – 0 miles

The best did not come. I was woken up multiple times by the wind overnight and by 5am my pegs were starting to get pulled out the ground. At 6am, the trail angel that was going to also be providing breakfast that morning came to our site to tell us that their whole campsite had been destroyed by the wind and that they needed to leave the area. He worked as a member of the search and rescue team for the national parks and strongly recommended no one hiked out today as the path was exposed and winds were going to be up to 50mph.

Checking my phone at this point I saw that snow was due to start in 20 minutes and so decided that now was the best time to pack up my tent before it fully came down. Needing to take off my gloves to sort my tent, I was slowly starting to lose feeling and so ran to the bathroom to warm up with it being the only building on the campsite where I could escape the wind. While the temperature was just above freezing, due to the intense winds the ‘feels like’ temperature dropped as low as -16°c and I had absolutely never felt anything like it before, especially only wearing leggings and shorts on my legs.

Most people had the same idea and by 7am, 12 of us were hiding in the two bathrooms. We all had the plan to hide out until the local tavern opened at 9am and we could get warm food and find accommodation. Around 40 hikers descended on the tavern at exactly 9am and luckily between a makeshift hostel and lodges in the town, everyone managed to find accommodation. The wind has remained between 45-50mph all day and the weather is yet to improve so after spending 5 hours in the lodge, following up a giant breakfast with enough beer to keep us warm, 4 of us have spent the evening in a small cabin watching an Indiana Jones marathon and drying out our snow covered gear (currently halfway through the temple of doom, a classic)

The wind is expected to die down by the morning and while temperatures won’t increase too much, it will be possible to hike and the more we descend down the mountain, the warmer it will get. The current plan is to walk an 18 mile day tomorrow, where I will be closer to 4500ft elevation and should enjoy a much better evening. With two full days, I should be close to Scissors Crossing where I will get my first hitch into the town of Julian, with a current plan to take the afternoon off on Wednesday and spend the night. Fingers crossed conditions will allow.