When we hiked this section of the PCT, there was a fire closure and we missed 30 some odd miles. These miles have been taunting and we finally got the chance to hike them.
Day 1:
Logistically, we parked at the trailhead near Paradise Cafe and got an Uber ride to start at Deer Springs Trailhead. We were grateful to get a ride within 10 minutes, by a man from San Diego passing through. He had just turned on his Uber for giggles and was surprised to get a hit. He laughingly told us he hoped we wouldn’t murder him, as it is an isolated spot.
We got to the Trailhead at 3 PM, and knew we’d have to hustle to get up to the PCT before dark. These miles are steep, but our packs were light, as we had opted to not carry very much water up. There is a spring on the San Jacinto Peak trail. Our goal for tonight was to hit that trail junction, which also had camping. While the recent rains have gotten a few springs running a bit better, overall water is not plentiful in October and all our pre-planning centered around where the water was.
The sun was just setting as we got to the camping spot, and Mark took off to the spring, a reported half mile away, while I set up our tent and blew up the air mattresses. It got dark and cold very quickly. I began to shiver. I changed out of my sweaty hiking clothes and into my base layers. I added in my puffy, beanie, rain gear and gloves and yet I was still a bit cold. We were camped at over 9000 feet. We had hiked almost seven miles and had climbed nearly 3000 feet in about 4 hours.
I saw his dim head light coming my way and was very relieved, as it had taken him significantly longer than expected. He explained that the trail was very tough and his head light had accidentally been turned on in his pack, so its dim light had made navigation very slow. He had been worried about losing the trail. We quickly heated water and had some food and hot drink before retiring for the night with our water filter inside my sleeping bag. It was already near freezing and we didn’t want it to freeze and become unsafe to use.
Day 2:
We are camped with some Longhorns tonight in a small clearing in the brush. We made sure to pick a spot off any cow trail. We don’t want a surprise visit in the night.
We hiked 16.46 miles today and climbed 2,687 feet. We got water at Tahquitz creek and carried water from Apache Springs to camp. All in all a great day walking mostly along the spine of these rugged mountains in and out of burn zones. I’m tired. Good night.
Day 3:
A 14.91 mile day back into cacti and the desert. In our minds we thought we’d be mostly downhill to the trailhead, but it wasn’t so. We climbed 2,434 feet overall today. Clouds and little showers made it interesting and cool hiking.
We met long distance hiker Denali, doing a long section of the PCT. We had a long trail side chat sharing water intel and discovered a few hiker friends we had in common. Lovely lady.
We both are surprised at how hard this section of trail was for us and we aren’t quite sure if it is the trail or if it is us. Probably a bit of both. We were very happy to make it back to our camper and quickly stripped down and took a shower at the trailhead. We are really getting soft. Next stop a burger and some fries.
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