Day 29- May 18th

We woke up at 6, and ran over to the springs to take some cool pictures while no one was there. If you missed yesterday's blog, go check it out! We discovered the most magical place on the PCT, and we were sad to leave today.

We filtered two liters of water each and then we were in our way! I'll have to post some pictures of the filtering process, it's pretty neat! But also painstakingly slow at times.

Looking at the water report, there seems to be a fairly reliable water source in 10 miles, and a spigot at 20. The water report is an online PDF that gets updated quite frequently by hikers on the trail. It gives you useful information about the status of water sources and other useful information like to watch for poison oak or if there was recently a contaminant in the water source!

Here's an example: These are the water sources in the area we're walking today:

As we were headed out from the springs area, someone shouted "What's up guys?!" It was Josh!! We had split up just before the hitch into Big Bear and because the hostel was full, we didn't see him there as planned. It was such an awesome surprise!

We climbed up the valley wall but kept traversing the cliff side and retained the view of Deep Creek down below. We did this for about 6 more miles, all the way through the mouth of the valley, and around the Mohave Dam. 

Soon we came across a little stream that we had to wade across. On the other side was Orion again! The four of us, Josh, Orion, Claire and I, filtered water and headed out hiking together.

Not even a mile out of the creek area, we met Coppertone. Upon approach, he introduced himself and insisted we took a seat on 4 foldout chairs he had set up near his camper. He then proceeded to make us root beer floats! 

I had a cream soda float with vanilla-raspberry ice cream. He also had vanilla cookies and lemon cupcakes! This guy is so awesome. He hiked the PCT in 2006, has lived in Hawaii for 10 years, done missionary work in Japan and Peru for a number of years, and now is retired and living in the awesome rig pictured above. This is his 4th year in a row trail-angeling  at this spot. 

We talked and exchanged stories for a while, and by the time we decided we should move on, it was already after 2pm and we had only done 6.7 miles!

We thanked him profusely, and team Rebel-Star moved out. (When hiking with Orion, I named us Team Star, and when hiking with Josh, we were Team Rebel, because we were in the minority walking the fire alternate.) The four of us needed a name, and I was done being original, haha.

So, scariest thing ever happened today; I was walking behind Josh in the group, we came around the bend of a ravine, and the loudest rattle I've ever heard in my life scared the begeezus out of me! I didn't see the thing but it was in a bush no further than 3 feet from me, I guarantee it! 

It rattled very loudly for 10 seconds, no exaggeration! It sounded like a sprinkler at first or a very high pressure water spray, until after about 10 seconds when you could hear that it was a rattle winding down. Let's just say I jumped about 5 feet forward on the trail in 1/2 a second, and reacted very audibly and verbally...

Luckily, Orion and Claire were able to walk over some smooth rocks between the two sections of trail, avoiding the snake-bush. So so so scary, I can't even describe it.

We walked long and hard today, trying to make up for lost time. We saw there was a lake coming up so we pushed to it, past an old construction site and around a power plant, through and industrial steel type area and around a few dams.

A big dam or an even bigger water slide?

Eventually we came over a hillside and saw this: Silverwood Lake

We scoped out a nice spot on the sand tonight, unfortunately there is plenty of trash here. :( It's a shame because otherwise it would be absolutely stunning!!

We did 17.64 miles today!! A 21+, 15+, and a 17+ mile day all in a row! CRUSHING it! 16.5 miles tomorrow to Cajon Pass where we meet some good family friends, Helen and Ed and Matthew, and then Wrightwood is just under 30 miles from there, where we're expecting some hiking poles for Claire!

Thanks for following along and leaving comments guys, I read them all, most times don't respond but I get good laughs and feel special reading them, keep it up, and thanks for the support!

-Thanks for reading!