Downhill on Bad Trail - Sunday, April 19

I woke and downed three Pop Tarts while Dave rose and prepared a cup of coffee for himself.  It was another beautiful sunny morning.  Our camp was on the east side of the mountain.  We watched the sun rise above the horizon and bath us with its warmth. 20 minutes later we were packed and heading down the trail.  We had 13 miles to go to get to the faucet at the bottom of the hill, the next available water.  The faucet was installed by the local water municipality for hikers. It is the only water available in the 25 mile stretch between the North Fork of the San Jacinto, mile 186.3 and Ziggy and the Bear, the PCT famous trail angel house at mile 210.9. After the faucet, another 1.2 miles of road walking would place us on the Snow Creek Road where Sally would pick us up.

We descended this meandering, poorly engineered and poorly maintained trail for the next 7 hours until we reached the faucet.
At one point I had my ear buds in, stomping down the trail to "Who Are You" by the Who.  I heard a loud scream.  I spun around to the source of the shout.  It was Dave.  Apparently, in my Who induced walking haze I had step right over a rattle snake without seeing or hearing it.  Dave, on the other hand, nearly stepped on it, he too listening to high decibel music.  In the last split second, he saw his foot was about to come down on the snake. He brushed the snake off  the trail with his trekking pole just before his foot came down in the spot the snake had been.  Now, the rattler lay in the rocks below the trail, rattling and hissing at us.  We moved on, but from that point forward, I was much more attentive to looking for snakes on the trail.
Our feet were barking loudly in the 90+º heat after 13 miles and 6000’ of pounding descent.  At the faucet, seated and smiling broadly we found the two kids we had counseled to stay on the trail on Friday. They introduced themselves as Brian and Breanne. They said they took my advise, split off from Brian’s father and decided to hike their own hike.  They reported that Brian’s dad was angry at the idea at first, but came to accept it and was now some 20 miles ahead of them on the trail. Brian and Breanne looked content. They had completed 10 miles for the day and were looking for a good place to get a beer and spend the night in Palm Springs. I hope my counseling results in happiness for everyone in the long run as the “Hike Your Own Hike” mantra was applied today.

After a 20 minute break to dry the sweat out of our socks, drink some water and chat with Brian and Breanne, Dave and I completed the final 1.2 miles to find Sally waiting in the van, engine idling to keep the air conditioning running in the 95º heat.

Sedona Maniac (Crotalus), our good friend from the PCT was in Palm Springs and agreed to meet us for a late lunch.  We rendezvoused at a Greek restaurant in downtown Palm Springs and enjoyed a great reunion, conversation and lunch. 
We drove Dave back to his home above San Bernardino where we met Vicki to retrieve some hiking equipment we had loaned to her and chat about the trip.  About 7:30pm we said our final goodbyes to Dave and headed back to Palm Springs to Sue and Bill’s house, arriving about 9:00pm.

We spent a few minutes talking with Sue and Bill, then the fatigue of the day caught up with me and I excused myself for a shower and bed.

PCT Hiker Encounters - Saturday, April 18

Dave was up and had coffee hot before I woke.  His air mattress had developed a leak during the night and he found himself on the cold ground. His discomfort encouraged an early rising. With us both up, we quickly packed and set out, hoping the 1000’ climb up over the shoulder of San Jacinto would warm us up. It was well below freezing. We were on the west side of the mountain. The sun was up, but we were in the shade of San Jacinto.

We crested the ridge and the bright, warming sun greeted us. We descended the 2.3 miles to Wellman Divide, thus completing our circumnavigation of the peak, and sat for a moment to have a bite before continuing down to meet Vicki in Round Valley. I had signal with my phone. As soon as I took it off airplane mode a text from Vicki appeared.  In it, she apologized for having a migraine and said she would not be joining us.  With that news, Dave and I headed back up the ridge and on toward the summit.  

We found about 8 people already there, basking in the warm noon sunshine. There was no wind. After about half an hour of enjoying the view from 10,830 feet, we retraced our steps down and west toward the PCT on the Deer Creek trail.  

About a quarter mile from the PCT we ran into two hikers (about the 21st and 22nd we had seen since the summit) working their way up the trail. They, as is typical of PCT hikers, were in their mid 20s. We asked where they were headed. They replied “Canada”.  “Not on this trail”, Dave and I quickly replied. As one, their faces went blank, then slipped into a look of dread, followed by suspicion.  I pulled out my phone and showed them on GutHook’s PCT app the glowing blue dot representing our position clearly off the PCT on the Deer Creek side trail. We asked their names and told them they had not traveled more than a quarter mile in the wrong direction.  St. Nick and Caymen, reluctantly, and with a little embarrassment, followed us back to the trail junction. St. Nick got his trail name when he displayed unexpected generosity.  Caymen, earned her name by being from the Caymen islands.  They checked their maps again as we discussed the poor signage at the intersection, then headed down and north on the PCT toward the last water for the next 21 miles, the North Fork of the San Jacinto River.  St. Nick and Caymen caught up with us at the creek.  Their audible whoops of delight told us they had dry camped last night and were very glad to see a creek with actual running water.  We met Duo as she, too, stopped to fill up with water.  We also met Sprout, from Israel (pictured below).  We asked if she met our friends Roi and Sarit at the Israeli PCT Kickoff.  She thought she had.  I texted Roi in Israel.  He texted back that he remembered meeting her and to say hi.

After giving them my phone number for some Trail Magic at White Pass, Dave and I shouldered our packs and headed out.  We enjoyed the trail as it traversed Fuller Ridge at about 8500’, wandering up and down as it ducked above and below rock outcroppings.  At last, we reached the end of the ridge where a road crosses it.  Here we stopped to cook dinner, it being about 5:00pm.  We enjoyed our hot meal, then packed up and began the long descent off the ridge to Cabezon Pass, 7000’ below.  We put another 2-3 miles under our belt, descending nearly to the treeline, where the hot dry desert conditions preclude the growth of trees.  We found a flat place to camp and settled in for the night.  I had stuffed a gallon ziplock bag with snow found higher up on the ridge.  This I used to ice my right foot, the one that Plantar’s Fasciitis had flared up on last spring.  It was talking to me a little bit.  I hoped the snow would calm the inflamed nerves.  I crawled into my sleeping bag, but, surprisingly, I was not too sleepy.  After stargazing in the dry desert air for an hour I used my phone to watch half an hour of “Guardians of the Galaxy” before finally dozing off.

San Jacinto Hike - Friday, April 17

Dave served Quiche for breakfast along with tea and we were on the road by 8:00am, headed for the Palm Springs Tram.  The drive from Dave’s ridge top house at 6000’ overlooking San Bernardino, down into the LA basin and then east to Palm Springs took about an hour and fifteen minutes. We unloaded at the tram base station and Sally drove away as Dave and I mounted the stairs to purchase our $24.95 tickets to ride the tram.  The sky car left the base station precisely at 10:00am and lifted us smoothly from desert palms to mountain pines.  We stopped at the ranger station for our mandatory $5.00 permits, then headed up the trail.  A stop at Round Valley for water and we continued up to Wellman Divide.  As the day progressed, we continued west, then north and finally east as we circled the peak, ending up at Little Round Valley at 9,300’, about 1500’ below, and 1.3 trail miles from the San Jacinto summit.  The western end of our hike included about 7 miles on the PCT.

Along the way we passed two kids in their mid twenties, a boy and girl, laying on the forest duff just a few yards off the trail. They were hiking the PCT. I asked how they were doing.  “Not well”, came the unexpected reply.  They were both considering quitting the PCT.  A discussion ensued, in which we learned they were hiking the trail with the boy’s dad.  The dad was intent on getting to Canada and was pushing for 20 miles a day.  The grind was making for a miserable trip for the two kids, and they appeared to think their only recourse was to quit. 

I passionately urged them not to quit, but rather change their goal. Instead of making a goal of hiking the whole trail the goal, I suggested they change it to a time goal; be on the trail for 5 months and how every far they get is immaterial. To do this, they would have to separate from his dad, which they thought might be feasible. I encouraged them to stay on the trail once more, then left them to discuss their plans and formulate what action they would take.

That night, I had a Mountain House dinner, Dave gourmet noodles and smoked clams. Dave pitched his tent and I laid out my ground tarp to sleep out under the stars.  The sun sank toward the horizon, and by the time it disappeared, it was cold.  My choices for sleeping bag were either a 8 pound REI expedition down bag rated to some astronomically sub-zero value, or a 40º bag I use for lowland summer sleeping.  I guessed it would be cold, so I brought two 40º bags, mine and Sally’s, and slipped one inside the other. These bags weigh just a little over a pound each, so their weight was insignificant.  Surprisingly, I stayed warm as the night time temperature dropped well below freezing.

Motoring and Memories - Thursday, April 16

Up at 7:30am.  We drove to the water filling/dump station to reload the van in the Upper Pines Campground.  While the water was filling, we each took spit baths in the sink. A check of the GPS found the quickest way south to Trail Saint Dave’s (TSD) house above San Bernardino was via the Wawona entrance to the park.  The rest of the day was spent in driving south toward TSD’s house.  We chose to go through Tehachapi so we could see it again-we were last there in early June when hiking the PCT.  We stopped at the bakery in town for a treat, filled the gas tank and continued east.  With Sally at the wheel we passed through Mojave out to Hwy 395, turned south and connected with I-10.  It was a hoot to drive into Cajon Pass and see it again.  We had stayed at the Best Western for 2 nights, taking a zero just before the memorial day weekend.  It is a noisy, not pretty place, but we loved it when we had hiked into it.  We snapped a picture of the McDonald’s that everyone so coveted on the trail-cheap, tasty calories right on the trail.  We continued on to TSD’s on Hwy 138, passing the Sushi restaurant he treated us to last spring. Hwy 138 took us over the PCT at Silverwood Lake and we looked down with fond memories of the spring morning last year when we hiked under the highway and disappeared into the adjacent scrub.  

The road to Crestline, the nearest town of any size close to TSDs, winds steeply up through magnificent oak and grasslands.  The VW was in 2nd gear for many miles as the road switchbacked up through this breathtakingly beautiful country.

The GPS faithfully led us to his house, and we arrived about 5:45pm. Turns out, Dave had gotten married last October to a woman named Sky.  Sky, Dave and a friend who was hiking with us, Vicki, greeted us and served a wonderful dinner of Chinese food that Sky prepared.  It was exquisite.  

We spent the rest of the evening getting our food and packs ready for the hike.  The plan was for Dave and I to take the Palm Springs Tram up the side of Mt. San Jacinto (2000’ to 8000’ in 11 minutes) at !0:00am on Friday morning, hike to Wellman Ridge, then continue around the San Jacinto massive in a clockwise direction past Strawberry and Deer Springs and spend the night in Little Round Valley, a hike of about 12 miles.  On Saturday, Vicki would take the 8:00am tram and we would hike up over the top and down to meet her, then retrace our steps to the summit, down the west side to the PCT and follow it north across Fuller Ridge, spending Saturday night somewhere north of Fuller Ridge.  Sunday, we would follow the PCT for 14-18 miles north until it intersected Snow Creek Rd where Sally, who has been spending the last three days with her sister in Palms Springs, would pick the three of us up. 

With our plans made, Sally and I nestled into the van, Vicki headed home, and Dave and Sky retired to their house.

Artists? - Wednesday, April 15

Up and on our bikes about 9:00am.  Cold morning, about 32º.  I rode over to our Lower Pines campsite to see if it was empty.  It was.  I rode back via some new trails and a little cross country.  Fun!  We only had one night in North Pines, then a night in Lower Pines.  We counted ourselves lucky to find empty sites two nights ago when at the fairgrounds.  

We grabbed our food out of the bear lockers and drove to our new site, getting that chore completed early so we wouldn’t have to deal with it later.  We made a quick ride west, then turned around at Yosemite Falls, returning via the back roads of the Awahnee. We gathered my computer and headed for lunch at Deanna's with Ranger Erik Westerlund, Sally’s former boss.  After lunch, I spent an hour and a half showing Erik how to use Keynote so he could prepare for the headline presentation he will be giving in the theatre in the Valley all summer.

After helping Erik, we returned to the van, drove to a nice view point of Yosemite Falls and applied our newly acquired watercolor skills to painting the scene outside the van door.  To get the van oriented so we could see the falls through the open sliding door I had to park it facing the wrong way on the one way highway, but traffic was minimal, making the u-turn not a life threatening ordeal.

After our painting session, we drove back to our campsite for dinner, a fire, a walk out into the star lit Cook’s meadow and bed.

Back in Yosemite - Tuesday, April 14

Off to Yosemite!!  We were up by 7:00am and on the road before 8:00am.  We contacted Erik to tell him we were entering the park and could meet with him this day if he needed, then lost cell service for the next hour and a half as we drove the Wawona road and detoured up to Glacier Point on our way to the Valley.  Glacier Point astounds every time we visit.  Half Dome, Vernal Falls, Nevada Falls, Yosemite Falls and 3000’ of open air to the Valley below.  We had lunch of endless salad before leaving the point and heading to the Valley.  We went immediately to our campsite in North Pines, took our bikes off the rack and rode to Camp Curry for a shower.  Cleaner, we stopped briefly at our van, then rode to the Awahnee and into the village, down to the lodge and back via the swinging bridge on an unsuccessful shopping mission.  Dinner, and I whupped Sally in two games of Cribbage.

Monday, April 13

We were up and out about 8:00am in the morning.  We continued south on 49, passing through Sonora and other gold rush towns.  We filled up the propane tank on the van, expecting it to be empty after over a week of continual refrigeration use.  It only took 1.2 gallon, yet holds 2.2, so a week only took 1 gallon of propane.  Now we know we can go two weeks without a propane fill-up.

We stopped in Mariposa for lunch at the city park. Fresh salad from our spiffy refrigerator. We got to Oakhurst about 2:00pm and headed to Lois’ house to visit unannounced. Sally worked with Lois at Yosemite the year she volunteered.  We had a wonderful visit with Lois and Gary, catching up on news and park happenings.  Lois read the PCT blog I wrote last year, so she had some questions about the trip.  Gary gave us a bike multitool for our trip to Europe, a much needed addition to our gear for our upcoming trip.

We left the Orr’s, got gas in Oakhurst, and headed to Bass Lake for the night.  We toured the Pines resort, then drove to the other side of the lake to a campsite for the night.  The lake is way down due to the drought.  All the docks along the lake shore were laying on the dry beach, the lake down about 15 vertical feet.

We called trail saint Dave to make plans for hiking this coming weekend.

We took a nice walk along the shoreline road just before dark, then snuggled into the van for the night.

Gold Rush Country - Sunday, April 12

It was time for us to leave.  We packed the van and got ready to go. We were hoping to head west to visit Scott Lyon and his family in El Cerrito, but we received a text saying they had all been throwing up all night as they drove home from the Grand Canyon.  We decided against a visit.  Instead, we decided to head east and drive hwy 49 all the way to Oak Hurst on the south side of Yosemite.  We had driven it 35 years ago, before the kids, and we wanted to see it again.  We took our time, stopping at most historical markers and really enjoyed the oak grasslands.  We camped at the Calaveras County Fair Grounds.  Here we found Steinbeckian characters, men who lived at the RV site year round.  We stayed to ourselves and enjoyed crashing, writing and watching Game of Thrones.

Saturday, April 11

Up and out the door for the Saturday Market, about a 20 minute walk.  Cinnamon and pecan rolls for breakfast and an interview about sheep farming by some undergrads at UC Davis.  They recorded our answers to their questions and got an earful from all of us regarding the term “organic” as applied to food in stores, the butchering of animals and other topics.  Chuck was particularly disgusted with the use of the term organic as applied to commercially grown foods, seeing it as a marketing ploy that prices food higher, uses more land than necessary to grow and does not improve the quality of the food due to the allowed use of chemicals on the fields three years before the harvest.  Particularly irksome to Chuck was the organic lobby’s stand against genetically modified foods.  Chuck genetically modified walnut trees in the 90’s so their leaves have bacillus theringenisust in their leaves, toxic to catepillars, but harmless to man.  Because the trees have not been allowed to be brought to market, farmers still spray pesticides to kill the catepillers, a environmental hit that could be avoided if Chuck’s tree’s were used.  He pointed out that all Mango’s coming from Hawaii are genetically engineered. Without the gene alteration that was done, no Mangos would survive the insect onslaught.  You find them in co-ops and health food stores and no one seems to know or care and the world continues to turn.  He also pointed out the sugar beets have been genetically modified to be resistant to Round Up herbicide.  Now farmers can spray Round Up directly on their crop.  The weeds die, but the sugar beets survive.  Farmers don’t have to run their tractors up and down the rows all season tilling, burning fossil fuels and using other herbicides.

Back from the lesson on organic farming and cinnamon rolls, Chuck and I headed to extract some walnut pollen from the male flowers of specific trees for his walnut breeding program, then off to his acres of walnut trees to see his genetically altered trees and the trees that are being artificially pollinated for breeding purposes.  His team puts bags over the female flowers on the trees to be breeder to stop random wind pollination.  When the female bud is fertile, they spray the male pollen collected from the trees with the desired traits into the bad to fertilize the female flowers, then mark the limbs with the test nuts to be harvested in the fall.  These nuts are planted the next spring and 7 years(!) later he can see if his breeding created nuts with the desired properties.

After returning to his house we climbed on our bikes and rode to his lab on campus to see his labs and get walnuts for us to take home.  We loaded 5-1 gallon bags of shelled walnut halves and rode home to chicken dinner that Sadie had prepared.  After dinner we walked down to College Place to see this upscale older neighborhood adjacent to the university campus.  Chuck and I spent an hour or so getting him up to speed with Siri and other aspects of his iPhone, then called it a night about 11:30pm

Friday, April 10

I was up reading and checking email when I heard Chuck exit his house about 7:45am, headed to work.  I got out of the van about 9:00am, headed into the house and had breakfast.  Sally got up about 9:50am.  We did laundry, showered, and rode our bikes first to the food co-op and then to the Save Mart for some groceries.  Chuck got home about 5:00pm, and Sally had dinner mostly done-sausages, corn on the cob, fava beans with strawberries for desert.  After dinner, we talked, Sally mostly with Chuck’s daughter Sadie, while Chuck and I got caught up with science, politics and life in general.  Bed about 11:30pm

Thursday, April 9

Up at 6:15am.  I rode the loop down to the west end of the Valley and back while Sally and the kids slept.  It was 28º on the ride, but I had on my good gloves, long johns, fleece and goretex coat.  My eyes watered in a steady stream, but I was warm.  We each had our own favorite for breakfast, kids had cereal, I eggs and Sally toast, then we packed up the van and were out of the Valley heading toward Sacramento by 10:00am.  We drove through Crane Flat where we stopped for $20 of gas.  We marveled at the 4” of new snow on the ground, then we were off.  We stopped at Wendy’s for lunch in Oakdale and then headed north on 99 for our rendevous with the kids flight at 5:20pm.  About 2:00pm, Linnie called to tell us that the flight had been delayed.  We checked my email and sure enough, Southwest had sent us a notice.  It was postponed until 7:50pm, not enough time to really do anything else, so we continued on to the airport, arriving at 3:15 as planned. After wending our way through check in and security and found a table to park at. We played Golf, I won, then we just hung out, watched a basketball game and waited for the flight.  The kids boarded after the Group A passengers.  We waited until the plane pushed back from the gate, then returned to the van, now in the dark, and drove to Chuck Leslie’s house.  We arrived about 9:15pm and talked until 11:00pm.  Sal and I retired to the van parked in his driveway.

Snow & Shopping - Wednesday, April 8

Today was the kid’s day.  Shopping was high on their list.  After a mixed breakfast of cereals, toasted bagels and scrambled eggs we drove to the Awahnee to look at the expensive goods in their gift shop, then onto the grocery store. Hayden bought a cool Yosemite hoodie while Greyson looked at the merchandise, but did not buy.  The snow had made the Valley unspeakably beautiful.  We spent an hour before our shopping spree taking photos of the snow on the cliffs and trees and the beautiful dogwood blooms laced with snow. Sally walked to the VC and bought the kids passport books for the National Parks.  Greyson, Hayden and I joined her there. The kids stamped their books and put stickers of Yosemite in them.  Next, we went to the Museum adjacent to the VC where we met Erik. He signed their books and we said goodbye.  We drove back to the campsite after the shopping trip, ate lunch and grabbed our bikes and headed to Mirror Lake.  Next, we rode to the Lodge so Greyson could check out the wilderness shop and gift shop. An It’s It and a few drinks and we were back on our bikes and headed back to camp. I drove Sally and Greyson to Curry Village for showers, then back to camp for dinner, Golf, Smore’s and our last night in the Valley.

Art Lessons - Tuesday, April 7

With rain and/or snow in the forecast, we planned to spend the day indoors taking a four hour watercolor painting lesson. After omelettes for breakfast, we drove the van to the art center and went in about 9:30 am to buy our supplies and get set up.  By 10:00 am, when the art lesson started, the snow started to fall in earnest. At noon we took a break from our labors and hustled to the van through the rain/snow mix, quickly turned on the heater and ate our sandwiches Greyson and Hayden had prepared earlier in the morning.  We were back to our watercolor lesson by 1:00 pm and worked on our “art” until about 3:30 pm.  We were to have dinner with Erik at the Pizza Patio at 5:00. We drove to Curry Village and moved to the gaming room to kill a few minutes, but Hayden and I stood in line to order our pizzas in the rain/snow.  The dining room opened at 5:00 pm, as did orders for pizzas, and soon we were munching on pizza and visiting with Erik, anticipating his upcoming presentation at 7:00.  Erik had to leave at 6:00 pm to prepare.  We played a few hands of Golf, then made our way to the Cliff Room at the lodge to enjoy Erik’s talk.  He did a great job, interacting with the crowd and hamming it up.  When we left about 8:00pm the snow was falling hard.  4” had fallen while we were in the show.  We drove to our campsite in driving snow. We completed our Golf game as the snow fell.  I tried to get the pop up roof up, but the wet snow was so heavy on it I had to go out and brush the snow off to lessen the weight to a level that I could manage. As Sally and I climbed into our snug tent the snow continued to fall, both directly from the sky and now off the trees.