PCT 2022: Mount Laguna to Julian

Here is the 2nd installation of my 2022 nobo PCT trail journal (a few weeks off the present timeline as a safety precaution).

With our first resupply down, we’re starting to actually feel like we’re on the trail for real.

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Day 7: Saturday April 2. Mile 63.6 to 77.3 + 1 around Julian (14.7mi).

Keeper and I had our best night of sleep since getting onto trail; we both slept like the dead through the night. Unfortunately we woke up sopping wet and the morning was very chilly in that little valley. I look forward to when we’re moving big enough miles that we can afford to choose our campsite based on how comfortable we’ll be and not on the limited number of miles we can cover in a day. Keeper started taking down our HexaPlex shelter, and managed to misplace one of my stakes (she tried to hint that I must have lost it the night before, but I’ve only ever lost 1 piece of gear in over 1,000 miles, and she loses several things every day).

The trail descended about 4,000 feet over the course of 10 miles, after 3 or so miles of gentle uphill. I saw a roadrunner from afar, and poor Twinkle Toes didn’t see it before it ran off.

As we came down from the mountain, we approached the basin which was more desert than the previous 70 miles of chaparral, with several different species of cacti and succulents dominating the landscape (opuntia, cylindropuntia, agave, yucca, Mojave yucca, and some little tiny buddies that like shade and water). I could see off in the distance the much drier hills with only a spattering of green that we’d be climbing into on our way out of Julian the next day.

My knee started its sharp pains again, even with the knee sleeve, so I was slowly getting further and further from Twinkle Toes and Project. Shockingly Keeper didn’t catch up until we were nearly at the road.

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The carpet of yellow flowers lining the trail, and the waist high red penstemon shrubs were amazing splashes of color.

Under a bridge by the road, Cheshire Cat offered us a bunch of fresh fruit and we chatted with him and Rue, a professional hiker, while Stella Blue his dog ran circles around us and begged to have a stick thrown for her. Then another trail angel brought freshly picked cuties. And then Orange Crush set up a barbecue and served us burgers with all the trappings, including a rootbeer and other yummies. Rayngel (Ray the Trail Angel) picked us up and took us into town.

We explored Two Foot Adventures, where I fully resupplied and they bought a few gear items they needed. Then we got free pie, ice cream and coffee at Mom’s Pie Shop, where they serve hikers with a PCT permit. We also stopped by Jack’s Grocery and asked the owner if we could start a Hiker Box in his shop since I had found some nice looking shoes in the trashcan that needed a home.

We met Triage, Emily and Maj outside and joined them for a brew at the Julian brewery down the block. Twinkle and I shared the cheesey bites and brussel sprouts while assisting Project in shaking down her immensely heavy pack. By the end of it we had at least 3lbs maybe 4 to send home tomorrow via the awesome owner of Two Foot, Charlie Brown. We found everyone from the first two days, Brujita (I ran excitedly to give her a big hug), Andy (now Ms. Pixar), Noodles, Taser and a bunch of others–they were already a few brews in.

We got a ride with Rayngel to the Banner Ranch campground ($27 for 3, but they cut us a deal).

We met some folks that came up for the weekend from a hostel in San Diego that were roasting sausages over a trashcan fire (not really, it was more like a moveable fire pit). As it got darker, we made moves to set up camp and Keeper started our own fire in the pit. After an hour or two the hostel group joined us, and then the others all came back from a bar super drunk.

I went to bed early, exhausted from the 14 mile day, as did Project and Twinkle Toes. It was super windy but the air was a lot warmer than the last few nights, so I was comfortable.

Day 6: Friday April 1. Mile 52.6 to 63.6 + 0.6 to/from water (11.6mi).

“At 12:53am I woke up freezing in my tent”

Slowly Dying

At 12:53am I woke up freezing in my tent. At least I’d gotten a solid 3 hours of sleep before waking up with the help of my new warmer gear.

I peed and then immediately dragged my quilt and pads to Keeper’s tent and knocked, said her name a few times and then shook her, asking her to move over to make room for me in her tiny one person tent. It was a tight fit with her touching the edge of the tent and getting covered in condensation and me basically dancing with the trekking pole, but we both got decent sleep.

Her alarm woke me up around 6, but she crawled into the other tent to wake the others up and then drew me into the cuddle puddle as well even though I was already done stretching and eating, so we didn’t leave the tent until well after 7.

Keeper and Twinkle Toes did some impressive aerial wrestling which was hard to explain.

And then we waited for twinkle toes and especially Project to get ready for another 2.5 hours.

The morning was beautiful, walking through some super rocky paths that were carved for a mining operation.

There were a lot of memorial plaques all around for hikers that had died.

We are a slow moving group with lots of stops to do various things, including trying to figure out a combo of leukotape and knee braces that kept Project’s knee stable enough to walk on.

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We stopped at the water that was a tank with a well on a pump, with slightly yellow water that tasted fine. We stayed in the only shade on the north side of the water tank and took a 5 hour siesta, eating and chatting and doing a massage train for hours.

A trail angel brought fruit and lollipops to the road nearby, which we were excited to enjoy. We also bumped into the family of five again, and they decided that either they were badass or we were really bad at hiking for them to be able to keep up with us.

On the last bit of the hike to the next campsite, the steep downhill was pretty excruciating for my knee, with sharp pain with every step. But we eventually made it to camp after walking through amazing blue ceanothus and red bud blossoms.

Keeper and i spent a little bit of time combining our tents into the HexaPlex™, which we found to be warmer and roomier than either of our tents alone once we were inside, but we’ll need to raise the trekking pole for next time so that I can have a little more head room.

They took to calling me Professor Slowly Dying since I was showing them more constellations and plants.

Day 5: Thursday March 31. Mile 42.6 to 52.6 + .3 from Mount Laguna (10.3mi).

We woke up and Shelley made us tasty coffee, toast, fruit and eggs.

We swung by the grocery store, splitting up into twos. Keeper and I went towards the 99¢ store, but derailed to the Krispy Kreme shop when we noticed it. We got free donuts and then bought 6 more to share with everyone before we grabbed a bunch of snacks from the 99¢ shop. We also went to Ross Dress for Less to grab a polyester shirt for Natalie since she was rocking a cotton one on trail. We did all of our chores and then went on the hunt for the other two who were still shopping for 3 days of food.

“Shelley was mildly horrified at the massive pile of junk food that we bought”

Slowly Dying

Shelley appreciated the sentiment of the donut, but doesn’t eat them, and Natalie appreciated the shirt but the sleeves were too short and made her pack straps chafe. Shelley was mildly horrified at the massive pile of junk food that we bought, asking us if we had the munchies.

“Rotting sadness”

Slowly Dying in reference to Kombucha

During the ride to the trail head, we were all cracking up because the three in the back were drinking kombucha and I told them that it tastes like “rotting sadness,” a comment that prompted them to occasionally call me Rotting Sadness instead of Slowly Dying.

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Shelley dropped us off at the Mount Laguna post office and general store, where they had shipped some things home and I discovered that my package wouldn’t arrive for a few days and that they couldn’t bump it to the next town for me. Shelley, being the awesome trail angel that she is, offered to pick it up and bring it to me further up the trail.

We got moving around 12:30, waving goodbye to everyone lined up on the porch, including the awesome family of 5 (3 little ones under 10! Luna, Odin, Autumn, and Samantha and Ryan).

We hiked a little together and a little apart, but always meeting up at breaks and at water.

We were shooting trail names at Natalie, including Puddles (she was struggling with PMS tears, period overflow and a yeast infection, poor girl) and Yard Sale (because she literally took every single thing out of her pack and spread it all around every time we stopped).

I hit the 50 mile marker during a section I was walking solo because I’d had to stop to put a jacket on and my knee brace.

At the first water turn off, everyone walked by before Twinkle Toes shouted “come back! The water!” and we had to come back a good ways haha. We met some cool people like Shark Boy and Lava Girl and Bear Claw.

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It started getting cold and windy and a foggy cloud rolled in as we were approaching the picnic site that we decided we wanted to camp in. There was water, toilets with TP and fire pits where Keeper built an impressively hot fire even with all the damp wood.

“She’s our project hiker”

Slowly Dying

A guy named Rick was also staying the night in the site, and he asked us some questions like how much hiking have we done. And when Natalie responded, “3 while miles before the PCT”, I joked “she’s our project hiker” and the trail name Project was born because not only is she learning everything about hiking right now, she’s on trail to work on herself and grow as a person. We spent hours looking at the stars and chatting around the fire, freezing night air only chilling our tooshes.

What’s Next?

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