Hikey Mike

Day 8 – 9 miles

Today was the first bad day. You know going into something like this you will have them, but it doesn’t make it easier when they come.

Lesson learnt, don’t hike uphill in the desert when extremely hungover. In hindsight this seems obvious but now I know.

I could tell within 15 minutes of walking that it was going to be a rough day, and after just 4.5 miles I had to stop for a very early and very long lunch hoping it would help but after only another 4.5 miles I knew I was done for the day.

What made this difficult was that the first water cache of the day was another 5 miles away and I was down to my last litre of water, with 2 litres being the recommended to ‘dry camp’ with aka camping away from a water source. This is needed not just for drinking, but cooking meals and brushing teeth. I decided that my best plan was to ration out my remaining water as accurately as possible and leave myself with 0.2L for the morning to get me to the water cache, when it would be much cooler.

What this also meant was I would be isolated from the group I had started with for the next few days, with half of the group now around 10 miles ahead of me and the other half 9 miles behind me after taking a second day off in Julian to rest injuries. I went to bed with a lot of doubts on whether I was cut out for this walk, but knowing that rest and a fresh start in the morning would sort me out.

Day 9 – 15 miles

It’s crazy how much a good nights sleep can help. While I woke up the next morning dehydrated, I felt energised and made quick work of the 5 miles to the water cache, which was so comically large that it felt like a mirage in my thirsty state

After a 30 min break and 3L drunk, I was ready to start to catch up with the group ahead and spent the whole morning crushing climbs that I had previously been struggling with, and equally spurred on by reaching my first real milestone, 100 miles!

My walking was only interrupted once all morning by what was a rite of passage on the PCT, my first rattlesnake encounter! I was walking along quite happily when I suddenly looked down and saw a snake across the path just 3 metres in-front of me. At this point I had seen countless lizards, bugs and smaller snakes, and I had been told that I would hear a rattlesnake before I saw it, so I was sure it wasn’t a rattlesnake until about 10 seconds later it started rattling, what a great defence mechanism. I had already squealed and run backwards by this point, so spent the next minute bashing my trekking pole against a stone to try and make it move which it eventually did. An hour later I heard my second rattlesnake right next to me in a bush on the trail, but couldn’t see it and slowly arced around it

Reaching 15 miles, I was ready to take a lunch break and then continue on to find people when I ran into a group saying there was even more trail magic round the corner giving out free beer and pizza. My one craving heading into Julian a few days before was for Julian Beer Co, which apparently did amazing beers and pizza, but unfortunately due to the water issues they were closed, so I was thrilled to find out that this trail angel actually worked for the company and had converted an old trailer into a roaming bar where he provided products from the company as trail magic. Both the pizza and beer were as good as rumoured, a common phrase out here is ‘the trail provides’, and this is the first time I’ve truly felt that. One thing lunchtime beer and pizza doesn’t help with is afternoon hiking however, so I decided to camp in that spot and enjoy the evening (only drinking two beers, for anyone worried I hadn’t learnt my lesson from the previous day)

Day 10 – 14 miles

I woke up the next day to an ominous rustling sound outside my tent, I hid for as long as possible but when it didn’t stop I eventually braved the outside expecting the worst, only to find two wild turkeys aimlessly wandering the campsite

Knowing the day would be extremely exposed due to walking through desert ‘meadows’, I had the plan of walking as much as possible in the morning to avoid the heat with Warner Springs Community Centre around 10 miles up the trail, a spot that is open to hikers and offers outdoor showers, shade and a small shop for resupplying. The morning walking was peaceful and relatively flat, although with how little rain the area gets the meadows are not at all what I was expecting

After reaching the community centre, I spent the best part of 4 hours there, enjoying the shade during the hottest hours of the day and after showering and resupplying, finding time to FaceTime and nap.

I finished the day with a 4 mile walk through cow pastures and found camping by a creek, with the benefit of available water slightly offset by the swarming of insects all evening

Day 11 – 17 miles

Today marked another change in weather, with the heat of the last few days easing off and a morning fog setting in. While this does have some difficulties (as we’ll see tomorrow), it does make hiking easier and allow for lighter water carries

The only standout of the day was a stop at Mike’s Place. This home has allowed hikers to relax in the garden for decades and is usually vitally important due to the large water tanks that are kept full in what is usually a 20+ mile stretch of hot, dry desert with no natural water sources

Both Mike and the previous owner named ‘Off Trail’ (I’ll discuss trail names in a future post) were there when I arrived and offered me food and drinks upon my arrival, where I spent an hour with other hikers. In quite the twist, another couple drove down to Mike’s to offer their own trail magic which led to a weird somewhat friendly tension where both set of hosts were trying to get hikers to take their magic. It’s fair to say my hunger was starting to set in, as I got through 3 burritos, 3 cookies, 2 beers and a charcuterie plate. Hiking is hungry work.

Carrying on a further 5 miles after this, I set up for my second solo camp of the trip, and first time not hungover, so I expected to be scared by every noise I heard, but I’m so tired at the end of every day that I’m asleep within 5 minutes of lying down every night. A good problem to have.

Day 12 – 20 miles

I had originally planned for this to be an easy day, but that was thrown off slightly the night before when I finally got signal and found out that the recent cold spell was about to get worse and the mountain I was due to climb in two days time would be extremely cold, windy and icy at over 10,000ft. Because of this, most people were choosing to hitchhike into the town of Idyllwild slightly earlier than expected to wait out the storm for an extra day.

Not only did this plan mean being inside during the worst of the weather, but also meant I could catch up with half of the group that I’d become separated from. While I had enjoyed some aspects of the relative isolation over the the previous days, I had enjoyed camping with a larger group in the first week so after some time to think through my options decided to walk 20 miles to get into town today and catch up with the others.

The day was therefore quite tough, with over 3000ft of elevation for the second day in a row and walking without any significant breaks. Luckily due to the colder weather, this was much easier than it normally would be in the desert section

I eventually reached the interstate and managed to hitch within 5 minutes, with a lovely woman picking me up who is a delivery driver that has picked up over 50 hikers in the last two weeks.

Entering Idyllwild, I had the thrill of a hotel room all to myself, the first time I’ve had a bed in a private room since I left England.

I went for dinner with the group who were amazed I’d managed to catch up, thinking I might have fallen behind after my rough day earlier in the week, and we caught up on all the stories over the last few days. With a full day off tomorrow, we went wild and went to a bar with live music, staying up to the late hour of 9:30pm, well past hiker midnight.