Day 19, 20.58 miles!!

Guys, crazy thing. Last night (or this morning), at about 4:30am, there was a pretty big earthquake! I thought someone was messing with me for a second in the dorm room where Julian, Draggin’, Rainman and I were sleeping. But after it later a few seconds, I knew it was an earthquake! In the morning I looked online and sure enough it was a 4.5 magnitude! Crazy!

Anyway, I’m the morning we slept in until about 6. Julian was out the door and ready to go, but I was moving a bit slower. The hostel crew were giving out rides to the trailhead. The first trip left at 7am but it was already full. We decided we’d just wait until the 7:45 trip instead of trying to make the usually difficult hitch out of town.

It worked out perfect for me since I just made pancakes and ate a lot of them! Peanut butter and syrup on top yum! I also had an apple I bought yesterday. I forgot to mention but Trout did end up coming in later last night. (Poor guy got bit on the junk (and yes I mean ON the junk), by a scorpion!!

Trout in full recovery mode 

I haven’t seen Trout since Warner Springs, he’s a very quick hiker, the timing just didn’t work out with where he was when the storm hit Idyllwild, so when we continued on up and over Jacinto, he went back to do the fire alternate.

The car was back and as you can see from the picture above, we really stuffed it! 7 hikers and 7 backpacks headed out to the trailhead! Julian and I had a great ride in the back of the station wagon. The back seats were facing behind the vehicle, so we kind of felt like we were in the back of a truck, but were on nice comfortable seats! We got to the trailhead just before 8:30am, said thanks again to the help, and we were off!

Joshua trees!

It was a BEAUTIFUL morning and the trail was great! Never too steep of a climb or decent, just gradual ups and downs on VERY nice tread! No huge rocks to poleminto the bottom of my foot with each step, just nice, dirt trail with pines! Since the car had 7 hikers, we saw a few people on and off, mainly in the morning. For the most part it was Julian, myself, Cleveland, and Mando. We had met these two hikers while climbing Mission Creek a few days back.

Mando on an easy switchback 

Only one of these areas, and it was beautiful!

We had so much energy from our day of rest and our big pancake breakfast, we ended up going 9 miles in just three hours!! Everyone took a break at the first water source around noon. Time to lose some carried weight!!

Food glorious food!!

I packed out a rope avocado, and Julian gave me half his lime he was using for his lunch. This was such a tasty meal! Speaking of food, guess what I left behind in the hostel fridge?! My 12 pack of string cheese!! Noooooooo!! I have to stop making this a habit! At least I didn’t leave my apple this time but dang! Forgotten cheese now twice!!

During the siesta we briefly met Pathfinder. He started the PCT on May 1st. That means he’s been doing 37.5 miles a day, COUNTING rests!! He’s trying to do the calendar triple crown this year, which usually means doing the PCT (2,650 miles), the CDT (3,000 miles) and the AT (2,400 miles?), all in one calendar year! Wanna know what’s even crazier?!? He’s attemtpring to do all of that in 8 months instead of 12! That’s over 34 miles every single day, including rest days and flights/travel to and from the trails! Whew!!

After lunch the trail climbed up a bit and we got a sweet view of Big Bear City and Big Bear Lake:

I finally downloaded that photo timer app onto my phone which allows me to set a timer for a picture for up to three minutes! (Like if I find something cool to climb on that takes more than 10 seconds (Like Eagle Rock :/ )) My friend Goaltech suggested it and I finally check it out! Since I left the siesta before Julian and was hiking alone the whole day until camp, this came in nice and handy:

I used this, to take this:

Thanks for the suggestion Goaltech!

Ok, something crazy happened awhile ago, but I wanted to make sure it was true before posting it on here. Remember Jake, the guy I met on my first day? Well, coming into Julian (the town), he got bit by a rattlesnake!! Luckily, no venom was deposited, and he is alright. He’s still charging 30 mile days, way ahead of me. His new name is Drybite!

So yeah, I was hiking today, thinking about how scary it would be to get bit by a rattlesnake, even with no venom. As I was in the MIDDLE of that thought, I saw my first rattlesnake! How crazy!! 

It was small, maaaaaaybe a foot long. I saw him slither off the trail so I thought I’d just walk on by. But as I got closer he rattled at me. He had moved of the trail but was hiding in striking pose just under a bush, inches off trail. I’m glad he rattled to warn me! I didn’t want to pass as he is able to “spring” his length when coiled. I threw dust at him as I heard that normally does the trick, but he just rattled more. I ended up throwing a large rock at the back of the bush so the whole bush shook. He didn’t like this and slithered away down the cliff side. 

Later as I was nearing he end of my day, I saw another snake, (non-rattler I believe). Julian caught up to me as I was about to head into camp, and he was ready as well! We found a sweet spot in between a mini-canyon traverse of the trail, and soon afterwards Cleveland joined. We believe Mando went ahead. 

Every day, before I set up my tent, I put my groundsheet on the ground where I intend to sleep, and put my sleeping pad on top to do some stretching and yoga. I did NOT stretch enough in 2016, and Claire would stretch and do yoga basically everyday. This is my little tribute to her (and my body is very thankful).

The yoga/stretching room :)

It felt SO nice to stretch and layout and watch the sun get lower. We are only 12 miles from Aztec Falls, a place just off the PCT that Julian has been talking about since Julian!! I’m so excited to siesta there tomorrow. Then, it’s only 9 miles from there to the Deep Creek Hot Springs! Yay! But, in order to have a successful 21 mile day tomorrow, I need to sleep since it’s almost 9pm!

Thanks for reading!!