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.
No comments:
Post a Comment