So after a relaxing Monday in Big Bear it was time to get out on the trail again on Tuesday morning. Big Bear Hostel had said they would give me a ride back to the PCT at 8:30 in the morning and so I walked from the International Hostel to the Big Bear Hostel around 7:30. It was only .7 miles from one to the other but I did not want to be late. Of course I was early and they were late :). Got a ride with 3 others up to the PCT. 1 guy was a loner even by my standards and he did not say a word and got out of the car and was on the trail before the rest of us were had hardly opened our doors. The other two were a couple, Allison and Alex, and this is the couple I mentioned earlier that seemed to be in lockstep with each other. Either they had exactly the same pace at all times or Alex was just very good at going at Allison’s pace because I never saw them except that Allison was leading and Alex was a step or two behind. For the most part the PCT trail is never wide enough to walk side by side. They were a nice couple and in no hurry and because of that I saw them quite a bit for two days as we would pass each other while the other was on a break. It was fun watching and listening to them work out when they were going to stop, what they were going to eat, how much water they were going to need.

So on the ride the PCT the driver pointed to the mountains across Big Bear Lake and told us that is where you will be walking. The trail goes on the other side of those mountains mostly but comes back to this side once and when it does you will be able to see the Big Bear marina and actually see the Big Bear Hostel. I thought to myself this would probably take about an hour to happen. It took way longer and I was shocked that Big Bear Lake was still visible the next morning. Other than Allison and Alex I did not see any hikers today and I thought that rather odd as generally a number of people will catch and pass me. Must have been some lull in the number of hikers starting the trail.

Since I started on Tuesday rather than Monday, I knew I was not going to make it to my next destination which was Wrightwood and so Lenora and I worked out that she would pick me up on Sunday early sometime at the McDonald’s on I15 in Cajon pass. So I have been walking since April 6 and on May 2 I should reach Cajon pass and I15 which will take Lenora about 2 hours to drive to. I figured I could make that distance pretty easy as it was only 80 miles and I had 5 days to hike it. So I stopped after 12 miles on the first day and set up camp. I’m not sure when it hit me but some time that night I realized that 5 times 12 is NOT 80!!! I think I did that bit of arithmetic while I was gasping for air going up some mountain. So now I had some catching up to do. During that night I decided to come up with an actual routine. I have always been a morning person and yet I was getting up on the trail later than usual and getting a late start. I have so much more energy in the morning than the afternoon and if I was going to make more miles it was clear I had to hike more hours. Faster was just not happening. So the routine for the rest of the week and probably the rest of my hike was going to be this:

4:30 wake up
5:00 really wake up
5:45 have a little bit to eat. Small piece of summer sausage generally
6:00 start hiking
9:00 to 10:00 stop and have a big piece of summer sausage and some hot chocolate (so at least a 20 minute rest)
1:00 stop to have lunch. Generally a package of smoked Salmon
3:00 stop for some sort of snack.
5:00 start looking for a camping spot. Set up tent and fix evening meal. A hot meal and eat a lot.

This is Sunday and was suppose to be a day of rest in Big Bear, but I was still 13 miles from Big Bear. In the tent I was trying to make a decision. Should I stay in the tent and just rest for the day or should I push on to Big Bear and try to catch a late Mass. I thought this day was suppose to be repeat of yesterday with a cold miserable day, a possibility of snow, and a night below freezing again. Based on this I decided I really should get up and walk. Turns out the forecast was the same AS yesterday and not for today. The day turned out to be a beautiful clear and fairly warm day and it was a nice hike into Big Bear. I was not at all sure where I was going to stay in Big Bear. I figured it was going to be the Big Bear Hostel but they were not answering their phone and they has posted signs on the trail that there was not room at the hostel for the 24th and 25th. No mention was made of the 26th. Also on the trail was an advertisement for the International Travel Hostel which offered a discount to hikers and provided both an evening meal and a morning breakfast as no charge. I called them but they also did not respond to my call. So there was a little uncertainty during the day but I figured someone in Big Bear there would be a room open that I could stay at. About 4 miles from Big Bear I ran into 2 young ladies walking the trail from Big Bear. They both had backpacks on and were actually walking towards the PCT hikers to offer them some refreshment. They had juice drinks, candy bars, and beer. I opted for a juice drink and it is really amazing how such a little thing can lift you up and propel you forward. I figured if I had a beer, I would just lay down on the trail and go to sleep and tomorrow they would find me frozen to the trail. They told most hikers were opting for the juice drink rather than the beer. Below is a picture of the magic they gave me. I saved the can and took a picture of it later at the hostel.

The PCT intersects HWY 18 about four miles from Bear City and 9 miles from Bear Lake. As I reached Hwy 18 there was a car operated by Papa Smurf (one of the next big Trail Angels) and he was bringing 3 people back to the PCT to continue the hike. He asked if he could pray over the hikers, they said yes, and he said a little prayer for their safety and that they would enjoy what they experienced. I was very moved by this. I would have like to stay at his place but his place was like Ziggy and the Bear’s with only an open area. I asked if he had ear plugs and he did not and so my snoring paranoia kept me from going to his place. He taxied me to the International Hostel which has private rooms for $25 a night. Papa Smurf said he wanted to get a look at the place. I gave him a good donation for doing that for me and will probably send him more later to further his ministry of helping PCT hikers.

The hostel was a comfortable and an interesting place. The free dinner they had that night was BBQ. Great. So what was set on the table for dinner was BBQ hot dogs, BBQ hamburgers, BBQ chicken. I had 1, 2, 2 respectively. There was nothing else on the table and so a balanced dinner it was not but it was good and I enjoyed it. The next day, Monday, I spent the day getting resupplied for my next section. Lenora was not able to be at Big Bear but sent a package to the Big Bear Hostel which I picked up. While there they gave me a hard time for not staying with them. I explained I tried but since they refused to answer their phone and posted messages about no room being available I did not even check. They finally admitted that they were closed for the whole weekend. However they said they would give me a ride back to the trail when I was ready. The hostel had dozens of inspiration sayings taped all over the lodge. Here is an example of one:

It was a cold night of camping. I did not get cold in the sleeping bag but I certainly had to have a long talk with myself to get out of it, pack up, and start walking. Eventually I managed to convince myself that there was not alternative and once I got started it was not bad…. for awhile… but then the storm moved in and the rest of day was really quite miserable. Cold and in the clouds with the strong wind. This should have been a very scenic walk approaching Big Bear but very little could be seen. I was in the cloud layer and could not see much. About two hours into the day it started to snow and I put on my rain gear. My rain gear is really quite good and I was not cold while I was walking but just got tired with the up and down and battling the wind. At one point there was trail magic that I missed. Apparently someone has set up a bon fire and was roasting hot dogs for the hikers and those that noticed (everyone but me I think) had a pretty good time that night eating hot dogs and talking around the fire. I missed the whole thing and when I set up my camp there was a freezing rain. I got the tent set up with minimal water getting into the tent and once in the tent and the sleeping bag was pretty comfortable. Getting up in the morning, my tent was covered with a thin layer of ice and the water in my water bottle was frozen. I again had to battle myself to get going. I should have been in Big Bear at this time has I kept my schedule and would have missed this storm. As it was, I was either going to just spend Sunday out on the trail as a day of rest or I was going to spend Sunday walking towards Big Bear. Most of the time the wind was strong enough to blow ice off of the trees so that it came raining down on my head. So really not a great day of hiking but strangely a satisfying day. Only bad thing that happened was the wind was so strong at one point it blew my hat off my head and down the mountain. Not sure why I can’t just have things fall on the trail but why they have to go somewhere down the mountain There will probably be more NOT PERFECT days I will face so this was a great opportunity to know that I could.

Short video of the day

Here was my campsite last night:

Before I went to sleep last night, I met a new hiker named “early starter” because, you know, he starts early in the day. Turns out we start at about the same time but he is faster and I have not seen him since. He was about my age and also had a device that his wife could use to follow his location and be assured he was OK… or at least still moving.

A little later this morning I run into “Glide” again and it is at this time I find out his name is actually Glide. It is the first I have seen him since Warner Springs and he tells me “I did not think it would take me this long, but I have finally passed you” referring to my parting statement at Warner Springs. He was no longer with his nephew who he said got a bad knee and had to stop hiking. Glide was now on his own. I have not seen Glide again.

Beautiful and fairly easy walk today. We just kept wandering up one valley, then another valley, then another valley and just kind of wandering around with a gentle increase in elevation. Started out at 3128 and ended at 7928. That is a healthy change but it was gentle. I like gentle increases in elevation. Here are some pictures from the walk. Just when you think you are going to run into a wall of rocks the trail will turn and head up another valley that you could not see right off.

As mentioned, I started out this day with Chardonnay and Mike but that only lasted for about 2 miles. At that point the trail heads up a valley and heads straight towards a saddle. Here is a picture Mike took of me just before the walk up the valley to the saddle.

The trail gets, or seemed to me to get, fairly steep and first Chardonnay and then Mike head out ahead of me and then Mike moves out past Chardonnay. I have about half way up to the saddle when I see first Mike and then Chardonnay disappear over the horizon. By the time I make it to the stop, both of them can no longer be seen. At this point the trail now descends back to the desert floor. After the difficulty of the saddle for me the rest of the day is easy enough and I felt good most of the day. A number of people pass me along the way. A number of people divert after about 8 miles to the Whitewater Preserve which is a hiker friendly camping site. I did not know it at the time but the picture below shows the very white desert floor which is where we are heading and the location of the Whitewater Preserve.

I took the trail less taken… I just continued on the PCT and bypassed Whitewater. I figured if I went there it could be another Ziggy and I would stay there the rest of the day.

A little later on I continue to follow the PCT. No diversions today 🙂

After awhile on the desert floor you ascend again to the crest and then of course descend again to the floor. I on the second descent to the floor I decided to camp pretty close to a stream. About an hour before getting there I was warned by a day hiker going the other way not to get too close to the stream as it was raining in Big Bear and the water could rise quite a bit during the night. So I camped a safe distance away. While coming into this camp, there was a lady on a horse that passed by going the other way. We just nodded at each other and said hi. This gal would become very important to me later on. Below is a picture that is fairly normal for the trail on the crest. The trail is wider and is clearly marked by the holes made by trekking poles. I wonder if these trekking poles are causing problems with deterioration of the trail in those cases where the pole is making holes right next to the edge of the trail causing it to be loosened and collapse.

Got up pretty early in the morning with intentions of doing a lot of miles. Here is a look down at where I was going:

I was already behind and needed to make some progress. I had myself getting into Big Bear early on Saturday but was already behind that schedule and it was time to start cracking. Still had 5 miles to get to the desert floor. It was an easy 5 files and once down, there was a faucet that provided water (the first in 20 miles). Here is a picture at the faucet looking back:

Along the way I passed another hiker that must have passed me while I was in my tent the night before. Her name was Chardonnay and she was walking alone. She was still in here camp and we basically just said HI at that time. However by the time I got down to the faucet, she had caught up with me and we got some water. She did not get much cause she was going to Ziggy and the Bear’s which was only 4 miles away. I got a lot of water because I was not going to Ziggy and the Bear’s which is the second of the great trail angel locations. However by the time I walked across the desert floor and crossed interstate 10 and got to Ziggy and the Bear’s place I decided to check it out and maybe rest for just a little while. After about 10 minutes there that all changed. This is an amazing place that provides FRUIT and other goodies and hot chocolate with whipped cream and you can take a shower and you can wash your clothes and you can sit in a protected area and just rest and talk with others and you can soak your feet in Epsom Salts AND just when I arrived they had ordered a bunch of pizza for everyone to eat. About 10 of us at the time. Seriously there was no leaving this place!! The walk across the desert to Ziggy’s was interesting because up to this time the trail was easy to follow as it was generally the only trail around. However on the desert floor there were trails everywhere. Generally you knew where you wanted to go which was towards I10. But they marked the trail well with big sign posts so all you had to do was look forward and walk towards the next big sign.

Here is a picture of the scene at Ziggy and the Bears just before lights out. About 20 people here by now and we sleep outside on the outside carpet. Ziggy provided ear plugs for everyone. I suppose I was not the only person who ever snored on the PCT.

The guy in the image is not me, but Mike. We had a good talk at Ziggy’s and we along with Chardonnay started out the day together the next day. That did not last long. I was too slow. Chardonnay separated first, followed by Mike who then past Chardonnay. Have not seen either one of them since.

Here is the view from my camping site last night:

While I was in Idyllwild, I decided to get some new lightweight shoes. The boots I had been wearing were too narrow and had given me blisters on the outside of both little toes (poor me) and a big blister on my heal (poor poor me). Almost everyone else I was seeing was in the lightweight shoes and so I switched. It was a good decision but it did have a temporary side effect. My ankles were not prepared that they needed to do a lot more work. Where the boots had provided ankle support, the shoes had done. This 20 mile descend was for the most part VERY rocky and each step had to be made with care. I am amazed that more people don’t have to end the journey because of ankle injuries because of the rocky nature of some parts of the trail. So very easy to hit a rock wrong and twist the ankle. So I was careful with each step and my ankles were angling this way and that and by the end of the day they were very sore. There was also a little bit of snow I ran into and I can see where the story would be so much different and the trail so much more difficult if there were a lot of snow across the trail.

But it was basically grand walking above the clouds:

I actually found this section of the trail to be dangerous. I had told everyone that in all my training I had never found a section of the trail that I considered dangerous. Well I have now. This 20 mile descent definitely had some sections that made me pause. Places where the trail was starting to deteriorate and was only 1 foot or so wide. In some places there were plants on the high side of the trail that would push as my backpack and push me towards to ledge side of the trail. Because of the rocky conditions and what I viewed as dangerous sections, I did not make the 20 miles down in one day goal. I had an accident on this part of the trail but not on one of the dangerous sections. I was simply not paying attention and my foot hit the high part of a rock as I stepped over it. I was flat on my face before I knew what had happened and the weight of my pack was tilting to the right trying to pull me over the edge. I was able to hold on by applying pressure with my left arm on the trail to stop from rolling down but I did not have enough leverage to get me fully on the trail. So basically I was just hanging on considering my options. I really was not quite sure what would happen if I let go but I was pretty sure it was not going to be pretty. There was a small plant close to my left hand and I decided to reach for it and hope for the best. I took hold of the plant and it provided just enough leverage that I was able to right myself. Once I got right, I looked down and I think there were some rocks about 100 feet down that would have abruptly stopped my fall. Glad I did not test out that theory however. So the only bad thing was the plant was prickly and my hand was sore for awhile AND I lost the knife that Martha (my daughter) had given me many years before. It was in my shirt pocket and it went down the mountain side. It was a beautiful little switch blade knife that up till the PCT was used to punch holes in the lids of Starbucks cups to allow the coffee to flow freely. For the PCT it was used for many things. I miss that knife. I asked a number of people if anyone else thought that trail was dangerous and I got no real response other than 1 guy who said he had hiked it 3 times and never been hurt. Perhaps it is just me. Reminds me of a story. Some years back, Lenora and I were with good friends Phil and Carolyn in Arizona to watch some spring training baseball games to the look for birds. There was one bird that none of us had seen that had been reported in the mountains around Fort Huachuca. A Spotted Owl. It was a pretty good hike to find this bird and at one point we were on a narrow trail and then the trail became very narrow. I was VERY hesitant about continuing but Lenora just went past me and over the dangerous section to the other side. Phil was behind me and what he said has been argued over the years. Phil is not the kind of guy that would say what I about to tell you. I am the kind of guy that would make it up and blame him for saying it BUT I swear he said in a low soft voice “someone is going to die today”. Whatever we all went across and Phil and Lenora continued up the canyon while I stayed behind having had enough. They came back a good amount of time latter and had a nice hike and saw nice things BUT not the Spotted Owl. So it could very well be I am over sensitive to dangerous!!!

But…. here is a picture of a sign that has a warning. This warning was not to be seen going INTO the area from the South to North PCT direction unless I missed it. It was only a warning sign you see when coming out of the area which is just a tad late don’t ya think?

At any rate the dangers of which I speak were actually below this sign. Some wild flowers along the way:

Here are some pictures from where I decided to camp. Looking back at where I had come from. Looking at what appears to be a storm moving towards me and looking down to where I will be walking tomorrow.

Idyllwild has a wonderful Catholic Church with a dynamic Priest. Sunday was a relaxing day off and more time spent eating and listening to some local musicians. Lenora joined me that evening and we had a relaxing morning and then it was time to hit the trail again. Only got 7 miles in today because it took 3 hours to hike from Idyllwild back to the PCT. Dear Springs Trail is a 4 mile trail that takes you from Idyllwild at 5400 feet to the PCT at 8048 feet.

I am very slow going up hill, especially when it is fairly steep. Beautiful walk however. Lenora and I will probably return to Idyllwild to do some hiking because of the beauty and protection from the sun by the trees. After reaching the PCT it continues to go up and at one point I asked a couple if we ever get to walking downhill hill. She looked at me rather matter-of-factly and said, yes in 3/4 of a mile. Sure enough after awhile you reach an elevation of 8987 feet and then you start a descent. At this point I learned to be careful what you ask for because once you start going downhill, you do so for about 20 miles!!! I was seriously sick of going downhill at the end of that. So I decided to just start accepting the slope of the walk and stop hoping for things. So the plan is: when on a crest, hike to the valley, and when in the valley hike the crest, and repeat as many times as necessary until someone offers you a Canadian Beer. I stopped early and figured I could do the 20 miles down with ease the next morning. I was wrong of course. Here are some views for San Jacinto mountain.

A real nice evening. I am getting fond of camping out and sleeping under the stars. Listening to the sounds of the night. So far it has been chilly but not cold at night and the tent and the sleeping bag keep me real comfortable. So today I have about a 12 mile journey to the famous Paradise Cafe. Everyone stops here to have a meal or two. Sometimes two different meals like lunch and dinner and sometimes just two meals at one sitting. Even at this early stage in the PCT trail, when you get to a place that will fix you something to eat, you eat, and eat, and eat as much as you can. Paradise Cafe is at the corner of Hwy 371 and Hwy 74. Great food. You should try and eat there when you have a chance. It is about a mile off the PCT itself. One of the other features of Paradise Cafe is that MOST hikers (all but 3 that I talked to) hitch a ride from Paradise to Idyllwild. You can hike about 10 miles on the PCT from Paradise but then you reach a section where the trail is closed because of a wild fire in 2013. After hiking those 10 miles you are at about 7000 feet and have nowhere to go because of the closure but straight down and back to Hwy 74 and then along Hwy 74 to Idyllwild. So, it is just skipped by many because walking along Hwy 74 is dangerous. Lots of traffic. High speed. Narrow shoulder. Not worth it to me and so I was shuttled by Lenora, after taking Sunday off, to Idyllwild to continue. There are people I talked to that did the complete walk along the highway. There are those that went the 10 miles along the trail then back to 74 and along the highway. It was not worth it to me but then I am not on the same quest as some of them. Anyway the 12 mile walk to Paradise is a nice hike. You wander up and up and up and then do a deep descent to the desert floor and then a steep ascent back up again and for awhile you walk along the edge of a mesa and have incredible views down into the desert. Beautiful, BUT for reasons explained no photos. When you get to the desert floor you have about 2 miles to go to get to Paradise and I have to say that it was the longest 2 miles of the hike so far. Could be because it was hot, could be I was looking forward to seeing Lenora, could be because it is really longer than 2 miles!! I demand an accounting 🙂

It was a pleasant night in the desert among the pink boulders. In the morning there was a quail that woke me up but I could not tell exactly which species of quail it was. I like birding and when a bird makes an appearance right in front of me I try to take note and record (on the ebird site) what bird I saw. I don’t go out of my way to see or identify birds simply because that takes too long. In the future when I get to places where there are likely to be birds that I have never seen, I may spend more time looking and identifying. So I start walking to Mike Herrera’s place but there are lots of pretty wild flowers along the way. Since there are so many, I keep my phone in a pocket for easy access. It is generally in a zippered pocket. Turns out this was a mistake, as someone along the line, when putting the phone back into the pocket or when taking off and putting on my backpack, the phone fell out of my pocket without me noticing it. When I got to Mike’s place and started to fill up with water there was a sign I wanted a picture of and then realized the phone was gone. Earlier I had made the decision not to take any maps with me because the phone has an application on it (Halfmile app) that lets me know exactly where I am on the trail and where upcoming water and camping sites are located. Without a phone and without maps you are hiking a little blind. There is no problem following the trail, at least in this section, and I have hiked this section in training, and so I was not worried about getting lost (besides I heard a voice in the distance say “let the force be with you Don”). I was worried that my phone also had sensitive financial information. I really figured there was little chance of me walking back and finding it. So I called Lenora on the satellite phone and let her know and that if at all possible the phone needed to be erased. She ran around with Apple and with AT&T for awhile and the phone was set to be erased and display a message to call Lenora’s phone if it was found and turned on. I waited at Mike’s place for the hiker that was camping close to me in the boulders hoping he had found it. He arrived about 30 minutes after I got to Mike’s but he did not see any phone and so I moved on. Later in the day some hiker did find the phone. Turned it into Mike. Mike turned the phone on and got the message to call Lenora. He did call Lenora and they arranged for him to give her the phone and I got it back on April 17 when Lenora met me at the Paradise Cafe which is one of the hot spots on the PCT for their food and friendliness. I had no protective cover on the phone and screen is just one series of cracks BUT it still works BUT as instructed the phone was cleared of all data. The last backup occurred before the PCT hike started and so all pictures were lost. Given that the phone was damaged so much, I figured it must have been flung out of my pocket during the sometimes violent movement that I use to hoist my backpack up on my back. The phone is working but I will be getting a new one as bits of the screen are falling out and the cracks are turning into open sores on my phone. Towards the end of this day I arrive at Tule Spring which is about a half mile off the PCT but offers a good place to get water. There is a water tower there and it feeds a hose. Nice place to not only get water but also a place where you can clear your clothes and body a little. Since I was there alone I did just that and felt pretty good. I camped a couple miles later. Around this time I met a couple. His name was “bear snack” and I did not catch her name. Her feet were bad and she was slower that he and arrived about 15 minutes later than he did. Since he was faster than her, I was wondering why his name would be “bear snack”. Seemed if anyone was going to be a snack for a bear it was going to be her. It is not abnormal for couples to be walking the trail together but be quite a distance from each other at various times. It is easy to walk at someone else’s pace on level ground but very difficult when going up and down hill. When going up and down, you really need to do it at your own pace. So couples will get separated at times. There is only one couple (which I meet later in my journey) that I have never seen apart. She leads the way and he is always a couple steps behind.

Lenora’s Note:
The great lost phone adventure begins. I’m getting ready for 4 days on retreat, chilling stew, packing a bag for the mountain, a bag for the weekend with Don, arranging cat sitter, remembering my final exam and fighting with AT&T and Apple over replacing Don’s phone. I feel like Wonder Woman without the power bracelet. Now, late arriving on the mountain I wander around trying to find out where the kitchen crew bunks and where I am supposed to be. I’m excited and full of apprehension. What does a coffee-ista do anyway? I can make coffee but what is the formula? how much? how often? Does anyone have a job description for me? The character of the Cursillo movement takes charge and I am quickly absorbed into the mood of the weekend. Constant work, constant prayer, constant smiles and help and a sense of joy that we are all exactly where we are supposed to be on this particular weekend.
Since coffee-ista duties start at 4 am and end at 10 or 11 pm I am in for a big weekend. Excitement wins out when I meet my roommates and they are incredibly welcoming to the newcomer to the room and I meet the other coffee angels and we start planning our weekend activities.