PCT 2022: Julian to Warner Springs

Here is the 3rd installation of my 2022 nobo PCT trail journal (a few weeks off the present timeline as a safety precaution).

More freezing, wet nights and I’d think we we weren’t in the desert! Only the hot days make sense.

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Day 10: Tuesday April 5. Mile 101.1 to 109.3 + 0.1 to Eagle Rock + 1.5 in Warner springs (9.8mi).

We woke up to wet sleeping bags; mine had soaked through around my feet, but Keeper’s suggestion the night before to put my shell over my upper body on top of my quilt had been a good one and the rest of me was dry inside the bag.

On my way out of camp a guy told me that resupply was way better out of Ranchita, but the group had to stop in Warner springs anyway so we bit the bullet and kept walking. A man who sounded like he’d never heard of the PCT stopped Lindsay in front of me, and I walked up to him warning her about all the mountain lions in the area and telling her she should be carrying a horn.

The walk was warm already at 7am and only got hotter as I walked through the cow-nibbled fields.

“Whoever said the desert was hot, dry and ugly was objectively wrong”

Slowly Dying

Flowers of all sorts lined the way and highlighted the hills all around. Whoever said the desert was hot, dry and ugly (I’m looking at you PCT Nobo class of 2021) was objectively wrong. Yellow Goldfields, purple and pink lupine, red clover, purple storksbill, white creamcups, pink linanthus, baby blue eyes, orange fiddlenecks, bluebells, giant yellow desert dandelions and more.

I took the short detour to see Eagle Rock and was rewarded with some huge, thick black and blue lizards, as well as the really cool shaped rocks.

I spent some time walking with Pixar, Brujita and Taser, as well as Lindsay and Keeper, and Triage and Maj.

Keeper caught up to me as we turned off onto the spur trail into Warner Springs and we walked to the post office together to grab our boxes, hers with a full resupply to Idyllwild, and mine with the new Sawyer filter (that I ended up not needing since mine started working again, but I decided to switch out for the better flow rate since it was already with me), all the accouterments that come with a sawyer (none of which I use), hiking shirt (that I decided wouldn’t work better than the one I’ve been wearing), and my amazing new Atom Packs fanny pack that’s made solely of scraps of fabric from other gear they make! (Thank you so much Andrea for shipping the things, I feel bad that some of it wasn’t actually needed.)

I bought the sausage of the day (jalapeño) from the gas mart (the town is basically just the mart and the post office) with everything on it, and an ice tea/lemonade before going back for seconds and grabbing a Stella, since everyone else was thinking about drinking for a few hours.

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We had set up shop in the side parking lot of the mart, but were kicked out and asked to move to the abandoned lot next door, which was set up for hikers with a few picnic tables, dumpsters and a spigot.

“Paths that cross shall cross again”

Imrin

Keeper told us a great quote from Imrin that really resonated with us: “paths that cross shall cross again”.

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I accepted random food donations from various people that had overpacked for the next section, but still had to resupply $100 worth of gas station junk food (my worst resupply ever, way too many snacks and no actual food 😢).

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Raymond, a trail angel, showed up while all of our soaking things were drying in the sun (including the clothes we’d rinsed in the spigot and our wet sleeping bags), and he brought with him sodas, beers, cookies and strawberries.

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The group of hikers in the lot was at least 15-20, rotating in and out as people arrived or left for the trail; Pixar, Brujita (rocking pink KT tape on her knee), Noodle (sharing a giant bag of Cheetos with everyone), and Taser (water color painting a gorgeous painting) were there, along with us 4, Maj and Triage (we ended up swing dancing to Zoot Suit Riot for a few minutes, cracking each other up), Imrin, Sarah and Jeremy, and many more folks were enjoying Raymond’s hospitality.

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Raymond took us to the Community Center group by group as people finished getting ready, and from there we decided to hike 3 more miles to the next campsite.

But after getting a quarter of a mile away, I remembered my brick was charging and had to go back for it. Instead of hiking 3 more miles, I joined Triage and Maj going back 0.2 miles to camp.

I chose a cozy spot under a giant oak tree with limbs almost reaching the ground, and with several inches of leaves I moved for the night. We ate dinner together (mine was literally beef jerky and trail mix) under the stars and they asked for my best stories of PCT sobo 2021.

Day 9: Monday April 4. Mile 83.0 to 101.1 + 0.4 to Gate 3 water cache (18.5 mi)

Twinkle Toes woke me up in the middle of the night saying that he and Project were taking off because it was too windy and they couldn’t sleep with all the noise of their loose tent flapping. Then Keeper woke me up saying she was heading out just before 6am to get a start on the hot day. Project and Twinkle Toes were actually still around at that time since they had managed to fall asleep, so we got ready together.

We were still following the hot, dry, deserty ridge that looked down on the valley we’d been following all the previous day.

I saw a western patch nose snake slither across the trail and collected the best looking yucca blossoms for the others to taste when I saw them at the water source (nobody liked them, including myself, due to their bitterness and strange after taste).

When we all met back up near the water cache (our first of the trail), we yard-saled everything under some trees in the shade and took a 4 hour siesta, snacking, stretching and helping each other massage really sore muscles. Keeper and Project’s calves were so tight, my shoulders and lower back were a mess and poor Twinkle’s IT bands were excruciating.

I gave Project some dutch braids that were a little wonky since I mostly had only ever done my own hair, which was a very different texture.

Proj’s feet are literally covered in blisters, but that girl was a dancer for most of her life and barely has any feeling in her feet, so we’re just trying to keep them clean.

At mile 16 or so we realized there weren’t any good campsites until 18, so we forged on as it got darker.

Project is one of the sweatiest people I’ve ever met, and laid down in the dirt, only to stand back up covered in mud and plant matter.

We proudly hit mile 100 in the dark, attempting a group selfie while trying to see our faces and the rocks that spelled out 100.

The campsite we came upon as the trail flattened out at the bottom of a dry river bed was full of a bunch of tents, everyone already asleep, so we set up for a cowboy camp and sat around the cold fire pit eating. Project ran out of food before limping into camp tonight, and I gave her a bunch of my extra snacks to eat so she wouldn’t freeze and be up all night with an empty stomach. When we finally crawled into our sleeping bags, they were already wet and I was worried we’d be in for a long, cold night.

Day 8: Sunday April 3. Mile 77.3 to 83.0 + 1 around Julian (6.9mi).

I woke up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat. I’d gone to bed in my puffy, which the last few nights had barely been enough to keep me alive, but it was so warm even with the wind that I was baking alive in my layers. When I woke up to the sounds of everyone else in the campground packing up, everything was perfectly, impressively dry, since the constant breeze had kept all the air flowing.

We took hot showers, using the rest of the soap that Project had taken out of her pack when we shook it down, and caught a ride with Rayngel back into town to grab a massive diner breakfast and to finish our town chores. Town was cold and deep in a cloud, with foggy tendrils of cloud reaching down towards the street.

Twinkle Toes and I grabbed a ride to the trailhead together while Keeper and Project finished what they had to do in town. Under the bridge where all the trail magic had happened the day before, we encountered a bunch of hikers who were waiting on an unknown person, Nicholas, to pick them up–he had apparently gotten into traffic because of a rain storm, but we couldn’t figure out where the guy could have been since it wasn’t raining anywhere nearby. Those folks hadn’t heard of ultralight before, and were actually judging my pack for being too small.

We started up the incline, the breeze cool but the sun beating down mercilessly on the blooming cacti and the tops of our hats.

Twinkle was reaching down to tie his shoes when all of a sudden he leapt into the air as the startling sound of a rattlesnake’s rattle burst out from a medium sized snake a few feet from the trail. I got a video of it then hurried by to get out of it’s territory.

“Poor, naive little Project. Who would carry four beers all the way up the mountain just to not drink them?”

Twinkle Toes

Keeper and Proj were still nowhere to be seen, so we decided to prank them with the help of Casino, a hiker who was camped with two other folks in a windy saddle. When Project (lover of IPAs) walked by, Casino told her that she’d given Twinkle and I four IPAs that she hadn’t wanted anymore. Proj then texted us saying “I heard about the IPAs ;)” and Twinkle said to me “Poor, naive little Project. Who would carry four beers all the way up the mountain just to not drink them?”.

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Twinkle and I were of a mind to hike a few miles further but Proj texted to warn us that Keeper thought she had lost her charging brick and had decided to hike all the way back down (6 miles round trip) to search for it.

Since the sun was nearing the horizon and we were already a good bit ahead of them, we decided to camp for the night in the semi protection of some huge boulders that had a great view of the valley. There were two other people already there. Turns out Keeper hadn’t actually lost her brick and she found it when she searched her bag, only after hiking all the way down.

What’s Next?

Check back in in a few days for the next section’s trail journal entries!