How many burgers does it take to hurt your heel? (the week betweenWarner Springs and now)

We've been off the trail for at least a week now. Rebecca's heel, we think it was the Achilles tendon, turned out to be a little more serious than two days rest.

So we found ourselves stuck in Warner Springs, a town that seemed to have nothing but a school! Community centre and a Post Office. Oh there was a mighty fine casino ten miles out of town. But no buses have run through it for years, not since the golf course closed down back in 04 (ok so that golf course comment was just so you could read it in a southern American accent, it's probably not true). Jack ( retired volunteer) offered to take us ahead to rest in Idyllwild, but we hear it's well overpriced. Big Bear City is recommended as a more affordable recoup-spot, but there are no buses in or out of Idyllwild either! So we're sitting there worrying about getting to Big Bear, trying to figure buses back to LA to go on from there to Big Bear, even considering camping in Warner Springs and surviving off burgers and pancakes until the heel gets better. Then as if called Warner Springs Monty pops by and mentions offhandedly that he's going to Big Bear to barbecue for hikers! And before we can eat our fourth burger (we'd already eaten three each) he's driving us along with another hiker, Jodie, back to his with another hiker for dripping barbecue chicken burgers and a real bed! 

So we offer what help we can to Monty, helping clean his place and prepare/pack his car for the feeding of the hikers. The night we stayed he showed us the National Geographic documentary on the PCT, in which Monty himself started (he's walked it twice), and we topped it off with a bit of Groundhog Day. It took us maybe 3.5 hours to get to Big Bear, we'd planned about 8-9 days of hiking on the trail for the same distance. An amazing sunset accross the mountains, never have I seen land turn such a deep violet. Then we meet Sarge at Big Bear Hostel and bed down, reassured that everything would be sorted in the morning... Not before Rebecca insists we hobble out together in search of milkshakes, crutches and an injured foot would not discourage her. We joke about her injuring herself because she pushed herself so hard for the last 8 miles before Warner Springs, burgers caused the injury. Tasty, tasty burgers. We never did find milkshakes.

First resupply (day six)

We hiked the last 8.5mi to Warner Springs this morning, the thought of fresh food, fatty and meaty spurred our steps. Never has meat, eggs and pancakes tasted better. Juice, coffee and cookies. Sorted our bounce box and resupply at the post office and even got a ride to the nearest atm (10mi away in a casino), because our debit cards are coming out as credit cards here so they couldn't give us cash back. Currently we're in a community centre that does food, showers and laundry (at a price) but they have free internet so I'm using that up. A bit worried because Rebecca's Achille's tendon is giving her trouble. We might take another day to rest it and do lower mile days. There's nice burgers here too. And the most wonderful showers.

 

Not even shade can save you (day six)

Got up at 5am and set off at about 6 to try to avoid that desert heat, gets damn hot around 8am though. We saw a couple of deer on the trail! They just bounded off down this near sheer cliff face to the valley below, amazing to watch how deftly they navigated the slope. made it to a water cache around 11am and just dived under shade, some girls ahead of us hiked out around 11:30 (crazy!) but we rested until mid afternoon. Even in the shade it was too hot, Greg came by and said it was about 43-44 degrees C. 

We stayed until about 3:30 with our legs up. Only about an hour out from the water cache we encountered another rattlesnake, but this time it was lying right across the trail and wouldn't move. No matter what we did it would just lay there, we thought it might be dead as we saw ants crawling on it and it wasn't rattling or moving. The trail was pretty steep with thick scrub either side so we thought we'd dash past it, I thought I'd better make sure it was dead before we dashed past so I got a stone and skimmed its back, which finally got it moving (but not off the trail). This sent us skiming back down the trail. We saw two small bulges moving inside it and realised it must be digesting something, which might be why it wasn't moving or rattling. We ended up bush-wacking our way uphill of it to pass by (I was a little nervous because I couldn't see much around our feet). I felt pretty bad about the stone, I hope I didn't injure the poor thing. I guess I acted rashly because I'm not comfortable with snakes or how they act, I just know they can travel fast if they want to. Yelled at Greg to stop just before he stood on it because he was too distracted as to why we were up in the bush rather than on the trail. He was pretty stoaked. Made it to Barrel Spring by night fall and camped out, some other hikers were drinking beer around a fire but we were too pooped and just set up and crashed.

 

Smells like a desert (day five)

Saw some conservationists drive up for a yoga session in the mountains. Damn South-Cal hippies, but I did try a little yoga and it does feel good on the trail. I guess that makes me a hippie too. We had a (subdued) party at that water source, got out some lime margarita flavour sachets and just went to town on that water, brushed our teeth. You know, the works. Met a nice Canadian guy Greg who's lugging a 50pound/22.6kg pack! But he was just taking it easy, around 10 miles a day, just seeing how far he'll get. A nice guy who really loves the hike (he comes from Vancouver island which apparently has the highest concentration of mountain lions in the world, but he's never seen one!). 

Day 5 was the first day it truly felt like a desert, it was hot. It's either hiking on uneven rocky ground or sand, both suck. Every step on the trail risks a rolled or broken ankle. We get to scissor's crossing (crosses a highway) which has a wonderful water cache under the bridge. We wait out the hottest part of the day, meet back up with Greg, Bow, Scrub and Tribhu (trail names) and had a yarn. Signed the register (there's trail registers all along the PCT to keep track of people I guess) and did some yoga/stretches. Headed off at about 4pm and just across the road we find trail magic in the form of peanut butter, crackers and pre-made pasta meals (we were bummed because we weren't gonna have quite enough food to last to Warner Springs). Headed up for a couple more hours and made camp (dry but we packed lots of water) in what looked like some odd war zone, nice views but every bush/tree was a blackened skeleton from past forest fires (makes me feel better we're cold camping).
 

The day we dry camped (day four)

The weather cleared and after a nice microwaved breakfast burrito we headed off for a 21mi/33.6km day. Some amazing views of the desert (now that we could see more than 30 meters), and a nice rest in a shady picnic area with a desert fox dropping by for some snacks. He was not having any of my snacks. They're mine. My precious. Got passed by Tribhu (we all thought it had something to do with trees and scaring people, tree-boo is what it sounds like), and we get congratulated about 40 times by a large group of elderly day hikers. Not for doing the PCT, for being from NZ and the UK.  They seemed excited for us. Later we decided to skip a water source and dry camp (no water sources nearby) so rationed the water, not the best but we got through and only had to hike 4mi to get to the next source in the morning. 

 

Mount Laguna (day three)

Cold and miserable we power hike the remaining 5mi (8km) to Mount Laguna, rent a cabin with a couple of other hikers and settle down with some American Candy and chilli beans. It had a shower and a gas stove!! So we dried all our stuff, Rebecca's sleeping bag seemed to dry well and we beat it a few times to separate the down. Picked up a lighter sleeping bag liner for Rebecca ($50!), the guy in the store took our names and hometowns and took a photo to put on the PCT Facebook, or personal use... I hope the former. We  watch some wonderful TV featuring day hikers getting lost near where we're hiking. You know, the kinds of stories that fill you with confidence. Bow also introduced us to the wonders of Reece's Peanut Butter Cups at this point. Cheers Bow. 

 

The wettest Desert (day two)

The hike between Lake Morena and Mount Laguna was a hefty climb, approx 2000ft/600m to 6000ft/1800m. And it just got colder and wetter. We ended up emergency camping for fear of hypothermia. Got dry and warm (thank God for those amazing down sleeping bags)... but our hasty camp backfired when in the morning everything was soaked. Even part of Rebecca's sleeping bag, which really worried us (down does not like wet). It was that damn ground sheet which pooled the water, we've since got rid of it. Also did I mention we decided to cold camp (no fires/stove) for the first 700mi? So you rehydrate food with cold water, less weight and they have a whole bunch of fire bans in Southern California which includes alcohol stoves. While it thankfully minimises the fire risk, it unfortunately minimises the flavour.