I slept well in my civilized bed last night. That means that I am getting used to it and may not sleep well on the trail. Town life is not like trail life. The two have different rhythms. I have tried to describe this in various posts. Today it feels like dancing to a song in your head while another one plays from the some speakers near you.
Difficult dance
It starts with our ride to the trail. Tink is late. She doesn’t answer our texts. When she does, she admits that she got us mixed up with a couple she picked up at Motel 6 at 7am. It’s easy to be forgiving when someone gets mixed up because they are too kind. Tink appears soon afterward. She is very apologetic, but she doesn’t need to be. Like my old priest used to say, “If you are a volunteer, you can’t make a mistake. We end up only a little late to the trail. No problem.
Early trail
We start hiking where we left off – on Nelson Ridge. However, we quickly turn toward the west and toward Gold Mountain. We go up about a thousand feet to an altitude of 7800.
The trail seems broken here. The tread has lots of rocks and dead bushes and trees are as numerous as live ones.
The trail turns back toward Baldwin lake.
There a rock across the trail. It is a field of rocks from high above to way down the slope. These formations have not been a feature of the PCT so far. I expect to see them in Northern California or Oregon, but not here. The rocks clink like pieces of china as you walk on them.
The trail this morning is bright and its edges are hard.
Rest
We reach a resting place and have our lunch. A hiking married couple are there: Jeremy and Shelly. They are from the Reno area. You don’t often see this. Jeremy has wanted to do this for a while. In “a moment of weakness” Shelly decided to come too. They started hiking from Campo on May 4, one day before Keith and me. Here they are trying to get some rest at lunch.
Looking back
Hiking is hard after lunch. I am too full, so I go slow to keep my stomach settled. I am climbing up a shallow slope, looking down at my feet wondering about some of my retired friends when BAM! I run my forehead into a tree limb. It makes a sound in my head like someone slamming their fist down on a bunch of piano keys. I drop to my knees. My poles skitter away from me.
Keith comes up behind me and asks if I am alright. Yes. I am not bleeding. He asks what happened. I point to the branch angled over the trail. Whoa! He did not see the branch until then either. The blind leading the blind. Oddly, the whack on the head snaps me out of my lethargy.
We flip over onto the south side of the ridge. We can see Big Bear Lake laid out below us. What’s more beautiful are the mountains above the lake.
San Gorgonio is the peak on the left. The others in the range are not quite as high, but no less beautiful. You can just make the city of Big Bear Lake on the far shore of the lake.
Shadows start to lengthen as we hike the last miles of the day. A lot of younger people start passing us on the trail. They came out of town later than us, but they catch us quickly and disappear.
We turn the corner near our target camp site and see something surprising. There are two mountain ridges in the distance separated by a thin white line. The line is a low bank of clouds! We just stare at it. I don’t have any words to say except Wow.
We turn the last corner to camp. We are going to stay on the flat spot above the trail.
Camp
We end the day camped to the north of Delamar Mountain, one of the mountains I named on my approach to Big Bear Lake! Jeremy and Shelly pull into our camp and set up their tent nearby. They seem to be hiking at the same speed as us. I hope we become better friends.
For dinner I eat one of the extra dehydrated meals Keith had in his food box: beef stroganoff. 🤤 I had a side of salsa verde chips, six Oreos and some milk (from powder). My tummy is warm and full.
The forecast is for freezing temperatures tonight. It will be hard to get up in the morning. We made good time today, despite starting to hike two hours later than normal. Keith’s heel pain was back by the end of the day. We are both pretty sure that it is plantars fasciitis. He is really only good for hiking 12 or 13 miles when it flares up. Unfortunately, that’s when I usually go into high gear. But he’s a trooper. He keeps keepin’ on.
P trail around bend above valley
- May 26, 2023
- Starting marker: 266.1
- Ending marker: 282.6
- Miles hiked today: 17
- Total PCT miles: 253