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.

The breakfast provided by Warner Springs Recreation Center was great and as I left, and I was the first the leave, I announced to everyone that I would see them soon when they passed me. And indeed, everyone but one did pass me that day. Glide did not pass me that day and I wondered about that but not for long. So on leaving the Recreation Center you head out to the North 40 and bypass the city of Warner Springs (really just bypass walking on a busy highway) and walk in the fields for about 2 miles to the other side of town where you cross Hwy 79 again. It is a real easy first 2 miles especially in the early morning with no heat. A different story in the afternoon and it is 104 as I had found out on one of my training walks, but today was easy. Saw my first rattle snake during this 2 mile section. It was a small one, that was just resting across the path. I took a picture and just walked around him. You will find out tomorrow why I am not posting any pictures (no, I am not psychic and I can’t tell the future, but since I am writing these posts after the fact there are things that I know). After crossing the Hwy you start heading towards the mountains and it is pleasant walk again for a mile or two but then it starts heading up and the heading up never seems to end. A nice enough uphill walk however as there are lots of trees for most of it and you are crossing streams and in the shade. Almost everyone when they leave Warner Springs plans on making it to the first major Trail Angel along the PCT which is the residence of Mike Herrera. Here you can get all the water you need, linger in the shade of his trees, camp in his yard and they even will fix a real meal for you to eat. His place is at mile 127. As you can see from the title I fell 3 miles short of this goal and I camped among the huge pink boulders in the desert just before his place. I was just too slow on the constant assent of the mountain to make it all the way. I heard later they (most of the crew I was with in Warner Springs) had a great meal that night.

Lenora’s Note:
It is group photo day for the RCIA Team and I’m sorry to have my picture taken without Don there. I leave for the mountain tomorrow and today I am baking breakfast treats and making Irish stew so it can freeze overnight for the trip up the mountain. It will be a special Cursillo, my first chance to work on a team in CA and I have asked to be a “Coffee Angel” although I have no idea what that will mean I hope my duties will give me some time to work on my final exam. I also want to check on Jennifer Mitchell who is making her Cursillo weekend. The plan is for Don to join me for Closura on Sunday then I will return him to the trail. So far this hiking adventure is going great for me. I figure I got the trauma out of the way by wrecking the car on day 1 and now I can relax and enjoy the journey. My prayer time is mostly filled with requests today and knowing how many are praying with me for Don’s safety really affects my prayer as I find myself attuned more than usual to the praying for the needs of others. I miss our morning reading time since I have noone to discuss my reflections with. Having a prayer partner is a wonderful gift and I am so grateful.

I had lots of energy today and enjoyed the entire walk into Warner Springs. I felt better going up the hills but still have some annoying cramping in my left shoulder blade. Never happened during the training at all but now I have to stop at times. I was getting some really serious bruising along my sides from the backpack straps as well but while I was home Lenora fashioned a buffer I can put around my waist from the towel that I carry. Little bit of time at the sewing machine and cutting a strap in two and I had a cushion that I could tighten lightly around my waist and shelter my poor tender too-fat middle from the straps. The last mile or two into Warner Springs is really nice. Walking along a stream that has a lot of trees and shade and is pretty much flat. Getting to Warner Springs, I see an older and a younger man walking towards me. It was the guy that wondering about me at 3rd gate (Glide) and his nephew. He says that the Warner Springs recreation center was closed but you could camp there but they were not going because they did not want to camp with all the other people there. They were backtracking to find a good camping site. I decided to go on to the recreation center just to check it out and sure enough there was a large group camping under the oak trees there and when I walked in a young man immediately came over and indicated I could join them. Very nice, but I said I have been told that I snore pretty loud and so I will camp over yonder (about 50 yards away). I’m wondering why Glide did not notice it… The center was closed but their showers were outside and working and so I took luke warm shower and tried to clean some clothes. Hung them out to dry and then walked over to the main bunch. A really good group of people. Marathon John and Happy Feet were there. The young man that greeted me was Alex. His friend was called “Solar” caused he carried a solar power station. There was Spencer, also very young. An man named “Fix it” because he could fix anything that was broken on a backpack it seems. A young lady named “Claw Hammer”. There was also an older couple and I don’t remember there names but there motto was “Because we can”. I laugh when I think of that motto (read my first post). Almost everyone had foot problems. “Claw Hammer” was the worst as she had two blisters rather than two feet. Seriously bad. “Solar” also had pretty bad troubles but found a pair of shoes in the hiker box that fit him better and was going to give them a try. On the trail, if something is not working you get rid of it (leave in hiker box for others that might have use for it). Apparently the shoes did not work for someone but Solar was going to make use of them. Turns out the school next door was having a fund raiser which was an enchilada dinner and so we all went over to the school and had a great dinner. I felt sorry that Glide and his nephew did not stay around.

The next morning at 9, the center fixed a breakfast for all that stayed around that long (I did). It was bacon, eggs, and pancakes. Great way to get started although I felt I was wasting time waiting for it. So the breakfast was $6 and turns out the shower was $6. Both are really optional but are suggested. I gave them a bit more and thanked them for providing such a great service.

Lenora’s Note:
Same old, same old off trail for me. Old Testament class final is a take home and I am anxious to get started.

So what happened between April 8 and April 13 and what happened to miles 42 and 77? Well, I had already planned for a religious seminar for part of this time and decided to take an extra day off to be with Lenora and find out how she really was doing and if I was even going to continue. Turns out she is a trooper and did not want me to stop and convinced me that everything would be fine and the religious seminar (Cursillo) was fantastic. So then the decision was to pick up where I left off OR to pick up where I should have been. This was an easy decision for at least this time because I miles between 42 and 77 I have already done in training last year and it is pretty important I keep to my schedule in order to be able to take Sundays off and get to church.

Mile 77 starts at Hwy 78 just east of Julian and is an interesting start. You immediately start zig zagging up the side of the mountain and after hiking for about an hour and you look down and you have not made any headway in the North direction. You can just look down at where you started directly below you. But every trail mile counts even when you make no headway towards Canada. Once you get to elevation you simply walk along the side of mountain generally gaining a little in elevation along the way until you finally reach a saddle and pass to the other side of the mountain. Then it is down to the floor and back up again. Repeat until you get tired. I got tired at a place called the 3rd gate (because there are gates on sections of the trail sometimes and this was the 3rd such gate on this section of the trail… clever). This also happens to be a spot where there is a huge water cache. Trail angels lug out water to remote places in the desert just for us hikers. Decided to stop here for the night. On the way I met an interesting guy named “Marathon John”. He is retired and approaching 60 in age but a very experienced and fast hiker. He also seems to require practically no water. When I met him we had 7 miles to go to 3rd gate and he had less than 1 liter of water remaining. I on the other had still had 3 liters of water. I asked if he needed more and he said 1 liter was plenty and lectured me on carrying too much water. Foolish to lug water to water he says. Now he did the 7 miles in 2 hours. I did the 7 miles in 3.5 hours. Along the way I met another happy hiker and his name was “Happy Feet”. He said his name did not reflect the state of his feet which were blistered but that he did a jig at some point in the trail and got his name. He seemed happy with the name. A young man who would rather hike than go to school. He did the Appalachian trail two years ago and then went to a year of school and is now doing the PCT. Happy Feet was young and full of energy. When I made it to 3rd gate and the water cache both Marathon John and Happy Feet were there and waiting indicating they were wondering how long it was going to take me go get there. We talked a bit and they continued hiking while I decided to spend the night there. I had what I thought was a good nights sleep but in the morning this guy comes over to me and asks me if I am OK. Sure….. why? Well, he says, because you snored like a bear till midnight and then I never heard you again and so I wondered if you were up all night!! So, I slept great, but apparently this poor guy did not sleep a wink first because I was snoring (like a bear of all things) and then I wasn’t snoring. Poor guy. Turns out his trail name is “Glide” which I found out later on in the trail when our paths crossed again (He did not camp next to me the next time).

Lenora’s Note:
We are easing into this adventure. 3 days hiking followed by 4 days off. It really helps me get ready for the weeks to come. I’m still heavily involved in the Church directory project and need to be home whenever possible so when Don starts again I rush back to Escondido to take care of home chores. I am still in school and working on keeping up with my reading so I can be prepared for the final. School was more fun when we were attending class together.

This is exactly the same hike I described in one of my training hikes. During training the weather was pretty bad but today the weather was about as perfect as you can want for hiking in the desert. It was in the lower 60’s and clear with a slight wind. I remembered how this section of the PCT kicked my ass during the training walk and I was hoping that today would be different. From my performance so far, I had no reason really to expect it would be any easier and in fact it was not. It is just a lot of uphill hiking and I am having a hard time catching my breath, so I stop quite often. I don’t stop for long periods of time but enough so that 2 miles per hour is about as fast as I get. Anyway, I have decided that I will stay in a motel in Mt. Laguna and call Lenora and ask her to see if she can get a reservation and wanted to come up and spend the night and then we would go home the next day. So rather than hiking on Thursday till the end the day, I will spend it at home with Lenora and then that night go to the spiritual retreat weekend. Lenora is able to make the reservations but gets a little attitude from the guy she was talking to. Something about you husband is a big boy now and should be able to make his own reservations. Pretty funny. Eventually he does allow the reservations to be made. There was not a lot of traffic on this portion of the trail today. I suspect everyone that started on the 6th and 7th has already passed me and of course those to started today have not caught up yet :). One person did pass me while I was stopping to catch my breath. He was doing the PCT piece meal and this year he was doing the two sections that he had remaining to complete the trail. His name was Daniel with a trail name of Toucan and perhaps he could see something in my eyes because he gave me a lot of encouragement about how the trail would become more scenic and that as time went on I would get more energy. Basically this is going to get easier so keep it up. There was also a runner who passed me running up the trail with weights in his hands and then before I got to Mt. Laguna this same runner passed me going back down. I was not amused. Just keep moving one foot in front of the other and eventually made it to the Pine trees that signal that Mt. Laguna is near and coming from the desert into the Pines there was an over whelming smell of Pine. Do not remember having that sensation last time I did this trail but it was welcoming and invigorating this time. I got to Mt. Laguna, exited the trail and made it to main road and not 60 seconds later, Lenora drove by. Amazing timing. We had a good night.

Lenora’s Note:
A hiking day for Don but a 0 day for me. Thankful for another day to rest. Air bags really pack a wallop. Chest hurts when I take a full breath and the bruises from air bags and seat belt are very colorful. I am so happy Don decides to stop in Mt. Laguna but I leave home anxious to make it up there in time to check in at the lodge before the store closes. Looking forward to the weekend. Don will be home all day before going to Whispering Winds for Cursillo and I will get to join him on Sunday. Busy day repairing things and fashioning a hiking pad for his backpack.

Friday is Adoration Day and I love the time with Jesus and spend much of it in praise for our blessings while asking for continued protection for Don. I also get to pray for the men on the Cursillo retreat. The time passes so quickly and I am reluctant to leave.

Saturday Don is hiking and I am at Women’s Ministry with my chest still hurting so I let them convince me to get checked out. I go to the urgent care center and the doc tells me there is no evidence of fracture but my ribs are bruised and it will take about 3 weeks to feel better. I am relieved and determined to take it all in stride.

Sunday is closura and Don is ready to be done so I meet him ‘on the mountain’ at the end of the Men’s Cursillo weekend.

After a fairly good night of sleep, I do the final 3 miles in Lake Morena which has a very nice campground with showers. When I was doing my training I met a couple and one piece of advice from them was to shower every chance you get. Never pass up a chance for a shower. So, I wandered into the campground and took a nice luke warm navy shower and I felt terrific. Ready to go and so I did. The terrific feeling did not last very long for some reason and it was not long until I was just dead tired and traveling very slow. By the time I had gone 9 miles I found myself at Boulder Oak Camp Ground (very close to interstate 8) and was thinking of stopping. However after resting there for about an hour and having an almost cooked meal I decided to go on. Let me explain the almost cooked meal. For the longest time, I was not going to take a stove on this trip at all. I was going to eat trail mix while on the trail and just have hot food on Sunday and on Saturdays when I was in civilization. However, I was convinced by Mark from Church that I was insane. I needed to have a stove and something other than trail mix. After some thought I did relent and bought a pocket-rocket stove and some food I could cook along the way just by putting boiling water into a pouch of food and waiting. How hard can that be? This pocket-rocket can boil a cup of water in 60 seconds!! So I set this up and put the water in my cup and fired up the rocket and watched and watched and watched…. nothing… I put my finger into the water and it was still cool… I know that sometimes there are exaggerations in marketing but we were going on 5 minutes and nothing. Finally after 10 minutes and turning the rocket up to full throttle I was able to get bubbles on the bottom of the cup and the water was warm. So I just used the warm water and put it into the pouch and waiting the amount of time specified for the cooking to happen. This was a vegetable-noodle dish and the vegies were OK but the noodles were still crunchy. When I bought the cup I just bought the one that was the right size and was the lightest one I could fine. Taking a close look at the cup, it says “double walled” on it. It is an insulating cup and not a cooking cup!!! By the way, it does a GREAT job at insulating. There was not way that water in that cup was every going to boil. When I got to Mt. Laguna, I bought a new cup and everything works just as advertised now. After eating and resting I decided to keep going and went on another 4 miles or so. Of course those last 4 miles were all up hill and an increase of 1000 feet in elevation. Why is a mountain always in the way? This would be much easier if it actually was the Pacific Coast Trail. Along the way, I met another nice and very young couple, Crow and Brett. They were way faster than I was and we passed each other twice only because Brett seemed to have some issues with blisters. Once they passed me for the last time I have never seen them again or seen their names. I learned on this day that Lenora had an accident after dropping me off on Monday but did not want to tell me until we could talk. I had called her while at Boulder Creek and so I was told. She was OK she said and I should not stop or do anything crazy. I was not so sure, crazy is in my nature. Since I was going to take Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off for a spiritual weekend (Cursillo), I decided to take Thursday off as well and make sure Lenora was going to be ok.

Lenora’s Note:
I had been struggling with how to tell Don about the accident and just did not know how to describe it in a note. When he called the first thing he told me was that he had been praying the Chaplet Of Divine Mercy for me as he hiked all day yesterday. I knew then that I could tell him and remind both of us that we are not alone on this journey. God is good (all the time 🙂 ). It was good to be able to reassure him that I am well and I spent this day resting and recovering.

So I wanted to get started early on the trail and so Lenora and I got up about 3 and drove to the start of the trail. Actually, it wasn’t that easy, driving to the start of the trail that is. It is very easy to get with 2.2 miles of the start where the trail crosses Hwy 94 and that was a very tempting place to start. I noticed others did start at this point when I passed by here about 1.5 hours later. However, I wanted to start at the actual start and tried to get there. There are just places where you can go left or right on a dirt road and I always seem to make the wrong decisions as these points. After going down 1 such bad decision and turning around we met a Border Patrol car and he asked “Where are you TRYING to go?”. I actually laughed because his tone indicated he was tired of watching me be lost. So he pointed out where we should go and I headed that way and there must have been more than 1 way to get there because when we got to the right spot THERE HE WAS WAITING FOR US. I guess he was just making sure I did not make a wrong turn again. So here we on the road and the monument that marks the start (or the end I suppose if you choose to start in Canada) is just up the trail about 100 feet or so. So Lenora and I pray and I get out and get all my gear on and head up the trail to the monument. I take a picture of it and the reason why you don’t see that picture will become clear later. So NOW, standing at the monument, WHERE do I go. I really have only 3 options. The reason why I don’t have 4 is because in one direction is this huge fence that our country has built for unknown reasons really. I know that its only purpose right now that I can figure out is it tells me that I don’t want to go that way. BUT there are trails that lead in the other 3 directions and really no sign to indicate which of these trails in the right one. I could go down the same trail I came up from the car but I was SURE that was not the right way. Earlier we had seen where the trail had crossed the dirt road and I assumed that the trail was crossing from the east to the west. The monument was on the east side of the road and so I figured I wanted to there start on the trail going basically north or the trail going basically east thinking it would curve and cross the road. But I start going basically north and figure out (because my phone tells me I am not on the trail any longer) that was wrong. So then I go back and go east and again for the same reason figure out I was wrong. So then I simply walk back on the trail to the road and there on the other side of the road Lenora and I was on is a PCT sign. In my defense it was still dark. But finally I was walking on the trail and all was good and the trail crossed the road up a bit crossing from the west to the east. No way of knowing why I figured it was just the opposite when we past this point while driving.

I am not sure when other people started or where they started from but after about 3 hours of walking I am pretty sure that EVERYONE has passed me by. Almost everyone was in a big hurry and most did not even say HI as they passed. They were on a mission I suspect to get to the next point which for most was probably Lake Morena at the 20 mile mark. It made me think about my earlier life when the only thing important to me was getting from Point A to Point B and never pay attention or enjoy the journey between the points. There was only 1 other couple that was as slow as I was and we kept crossing paths along the way. They would rest and I would pass. I would rest and they would pass. We talked a bit but not much. I wish I would have gotten their story as I’ll bet it was interesting. After about the 5th time of crossing paths and I passed while they were resting, I never saw them again. And, I have never seen them sign in at any of the ledgers where you can sign in and make comments. Jennifer and Junior may not have had an REI Gary (previous post) like I had and may have had no idea what they were getting themselves into. I pray they are OK and even that they are still on the trail but just not the ledger signing types. You may be saying at this point, well if you passed them then why would they sign a ledger ahead of you? I say that because I am writing this after the fact and I ended up taking Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off. In that amount of time I figure they would have passed my position.

So during the first 15 miles you ascend 1442 feet and descend 2042 feet and you end up at a place called Hauser Creek. This is a beautiful place to stop and camp if you are tired because what looms ahead at this point is a mountain to climb and an increase in elevation of about 1400 feet. I should have stopped because it was late BUT I had heard it was going to be a bit chilly and you don’t want to camp in the valley on a cold night. So I decided to start the climb. It was not a good decision but it worked out. Hiking up it did start to get colder and the wind started blowing and I was even going slower that normal. Finally I decided I was just not going to make it and I started to look for wide places in the trail where I could camp even if I blocked the trail a bit. I found such a spot and was ready to give it a try when a little voice said to look a little further. So I left my pack there and hiked a bit more up and around a corner and amazing there was a beautiful spot for camping and so I went back and got my pack and dragged it to the new location and set up tent. End of first day, about 17 miles. At the end, I was a disappointed that I did not get any further than I did AND I was disappointed that I cared. I really don’t care when or if I make it to Canada. The journey is the point. I prayed all day long. It was a great day.

Lenora’s Note:
We are so excited for the adventure to begin we are up by 3AM an on the road before 4. Not easy to find the memorial that marks the start or clear what to do once you reach that point but I know what I need to do. I pray for God’s blessing and protection for my adventurer and drive away as he begins to walk up the trail (I have no idea he is going the wrong way so I drive away happy that his adventure is underway). I head home to gather up my ‘gear’ for my day and then have a hour working out in the park with Dani, my favorite trainer. Quick rinse off and I rush down to Carol’s for our regular Monday Stitch-In. Tonight I’ve been invited to a small reception for Archbishop Cordeleone and I decide to head home to rest a bit since I will be out late.

It takes me over 4 hours to make the 25 minute drive home since about two miles from home I fall asleep at the wheel and crash my new car into a chain link fence at the Palm nursery. No one is hurt but the car needs to be towed OnStar works great and police an tow truck are dispatched to my location, quick to dispatch, slow to arrive. A wonderful young couple who saw me drive off the road stay with me until the police arrive and they are able to describe what they saw to the police. I am so grateful. My Guardian Angel must have been on high alert since I did not get hurt or hurt anyone else and there was someone who saw what happened and was willing to tell the story to the police. But I finally have to get a ride the rest of the way home so I call my trusty friend and faithful rescue angel Joan to come and take me home. I never make it to the reception.

Now I wonder, how do I tell Don without sending him into a panic???? Scarlet O’Hara provides the answer, “I will worry about that tomorrow.”