Poodle Dog Bush Day - Monday, May 5

There are a lot of hazards on the PCT. Already this season there have been two deaths, one a twenty something that died of Heat Exhaustion just a mile short of Lake Morena and an elderly gentleman somewhere along the trail. There have been numerous helicopter air lifts for such ailments as food poisoning and dehydration. A couple weeks ago a horse fell 250 feet from the trail and it's rider 100' just two miles north of where I lay writing this tonight (mile 437). Both horse and rider were airlifted to safety.
I could continue the list, but I have neglected the most virulent pest on the trail that every hiker must contend with. That is Poodle Dog Bush. Don't laugh. It is real and it is dangerous. Today we traversed 27 miles of trail infested with it. If any part of the plant brushes your skin 24 hours later a severe rash and blisters form that take two weeks to heal.

Whitewater and I rose at 4:45 this morning and were on the trail by 5:15. We found Hemlock standing on the trail waiting for us a few hundred yards away and our team was off. Our first goal was the Mile Creek Fire Station 6.7 miles down the trail. The wind was howling and chilly as we wound in and out of ravines as moving generally downhill. We reached the location of the Fire Station about 8 am. An electric company service truck was parked on the edge of the busy two lane highway. A man stood next to the truck. As we approached he asked in somewhat broken English if we wanted some water. The guide books had said this was the place to fill up, but we did not expect a service truck to supply the water. I mentioned that I needed a gallon or more as did my friends and he seemed happy in meeting our needs. We grabbed our empty bottles from our packs and walked to the back of his truck to find two coolers full of iced bottled water. We filled our bottles, drank another, then retired to nearby picnic benches to cook breakfast.
As we ate we noticed that the congenial man at the service truck did no work other than to stand next to the truck listening to Spanish speaking talk radio. It began to dawn on us that his sole job was to stand there all day, day after day handing water out to PCT hikers.

After eating we refilled our bottles with more of the service truck proffered water then donned our packs and prepared to cross the highway. The man at the truck quickly grabbed his flag sign and stopped all traffic on the highway. We saw another flagger we had not noticed before a quarter mile down the highway whip her stop sign out and soon all traffic was stopped as we crossed the road! We were so astonished at their actions that we broke out laughing. The power company was treating us like honored citizens, giving us water and providing flaggers to see us safely across the highway!!
At this point we had a choice, either hike the trail for 13.7 miles which was reportedly heavily infested with Poodle Dog Bush (PDB) or hike a two lane highway the same distance that paralleled the trail. The road was gated closed so there would be no traffic. Rather than fight the PDB and risk contact, we chose the paved road. The sun was partially obscured by clouds and a strong cool wind was blowing so the road walk, which would have been torturously hot on any other day was pleasant. The PDB was so thick because we were walking through the Station Fire Burn of 2009, the 10th largest fire in California history-600 square miles. PDB grows wildly in a newly burned area until the original vegetation begins to squeeze it out. In fact, over 32 miles of trail-5 at the end of yesterday and 27 of today's were through this massive burn.
The road walk was like walking through an area of ancient ruins long since abandoned. The road, the guard rails, curbs, fire boxes a burned out building complex on a ridge top all stood silently in the wind as the three of us spent nearly 4 hours traversing them all by ourselves. I was reminded of the game Myst, where all the infrastructure is intact, but all the people are gone.
We had lunch in a wonderful wooded park the fire had spared-completely to ourselves. Toilets, picnic tables, fences, entrance roads but not another soul. The fire has damaged roads and created hazards so only foot traffic has access. It was peaceful and beautiful even though the cool wind raged on.

At this point the road walking was over and it was time to again hike the trail. PDB was everywhere and we had to carefully avoid touching it as we negotiated the trail. In places it grew over the trail and we had to leave the trail to avoid it. At one point Whitewater accidentally brushed his leg against a plant while taking a picture. We immediately got out soap and water and washed the affected skin. How well we did will not be apparent until tomorrow afternoon.
We continued to dodge PDB for the remainder of the trail until we reached North Fork Ranger Station, our destination for the night, 27 miles of PDB infested trail from where we started this morning.
The ranger came out to talk to us as we rested on a picnic bench. This island of trees around the station were spared because the fire reached this location at night while the winds were calm. It burned out the forest floor and some of the wooden fences but left the trees intact. A very fortunate stroke of luck.
Here Brent, Lee and Nate joined us and we dropped down into a hollow near the stock pens to camp out of the wind.
Once again an amazing day! Great company in Hemlock and Whitewater. Wonderful weather. Exceptional terrain and sites to see. Awesome Trail Magic. This experience just gets better and better.

So you might ask, what about Sally? She is still at her sister's in Palm Springs letting her foot heal. The pain is down, but still disappointingly tender. She has made another appointment with the foot doctor for Wednesday in hopes of finding a solution.

Talking with her on the phone yesterday we realized that her orthotics, which are very rigid hard plastic are 3/4 the length of her foot and end exactly where the aggravated bones in her foot are located. Is it possible the orthotics are the cause of the injury? I talked with Whitewater about it. He also had orthotics at the start of the hike but threw them away after four days when he realized they were the cause of all his foot pain
So Sally is frustrated at not being able to hike yet, but determined to get back on the trail. She picks me up tomorrow afternoon at Agua Dulce. We will return to Palm Springs, see the doctor and make decisions as to where we go from there.