Pacific Crest Trail: Southern California Part 1

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21st April: Day 1 – Mile 20

Day 1 of walking 2,650 miles through the mountains from the US/Mexican border to the Canada. Probably until October.

Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for Brexit.

I meet an anarchist who believes the State should and would work on a voluntary basis (there should be no policing of laws, forcing people to pay taxes) AND that bear country regulations were stupid because too easy to ignore as they weren’t rigorously enforced through penalties… But he is very confident about both views, which I’m told counts for something.

22nd April: Day 2 – Mile 40

My notes optimistically read “going faster than planned. Con: left the nice people behind; Pro: left the annoying people behind.”

I will soon learn that the next 160 miles is in fact densely populated with unavoidable idiots. Destined to get an Uber home from Idyllwild when they realise that deserts are hot and water is heavy.

Though, if I was there now, I would be less hard on them, and more grateful for their company, harmlessly idiotic though it may have been.

23rd April: Day 3 – Mile 60

I’m full of joy to be outside, in the sun, carrying enough supplies for 200 miles, and moving fast. I don’t need to carry 200 miles of food, but I like the feeling of self-sufficiency. (Later I will ditch that for the lazier feeling of not having a heavy pack)
 
I get my trail name (thru-hiker nickname given to you by another thru-hiker) from a French-Canadian called Heavy Load. My name is now Indy – because of my hat. And also because of my belief that over educated white people should maraud around other countries stealing artefacts from temples and putting them in museums.

24th April: Day 4 – Mile 80

Into the desert, a long dry stretch, Scissors Crossing – where two highways cross – the locals leave a water cache under the bridge and a 2018 thru hiker called Coach who is some kind of movie producer has driven 3 hours from LA to bring beers and snacks for the 2019ers. 15 hikers sit in the shade and wait out the heat. 
 
I’ve never heard of a Payday bar – doubts are raised about my upbringing, as if I’ve said I’ve never read a book. I wonder whether anyone here will be able to make it to Canada, but I keep quiet about that and eat my Payday. It doesn’t matter.
 
It’s hard to get up the last hill in the heat after drinking beer. I claim in my notes that I’ll never do that again, but will spend the next 5 months proving myself wrong.

25th April: Day 5 – Mile 101

I pass the 100 mile mark today. First rattlesnake and poison oak on the trial. I camp with 20 or more other hikers next to a water trough that says ‘Warning! Boil water for 5 minutes before drinking’. We don’t.
 
Some fun people here: Kermit (because he wears green), bluebird (because she has a PhD in bluebirds), Charm (as in third time’s a charm, because it was his third attempt to complete a thru hike), Birdfood (can’t remember), Joe, Joe, and Joe. The last 3 demonstrating the value of having a trail name I guess.
 
Some of these people will end up skipping the snow in the high Sierra by going up to Canada and coming back southbound – I will see them again in about 1700 miles in Oregon when the northbounders and southbounders collide.
 
There’s a special kind of joy in bumping into someone you thought you would never see again.

26th April: Day 6 – Mile 122

It’s too hot to eat chocolate. How is this even possible and where am I supposed to get calories from now? Chocolate is all I know.

(I skip a possible resupply at Warner springs as still have so much food.)

Pleased with myself for having got to this prime campsite first. I will shortly find out that I’m lying on a pile of red ants and will become increasingly less pleased with myself.

27th April: Day 7 – Mile 144

‘Lovely campsite’ I write in my notes, my solitary tent on an amazing rocky outcrop. 

Then the crowds arrive and the slightly gap year / fresher’s week feel of this early part of the trail is re-established – at midnight I’m woken up by a girl talking on the phone just outside my tent, upset that she hasn’t made any friends. On the other side of my tent is a group of kids smoking and talking loudly, so I won’t sleep anyway. 

I wonder if I can solve half my problems by putting my head out and asking the kids if they will be the girl’s friend.

A water cache for the class of 2019. Will there be a class of 2020? Probably not northbound, but if they open the trail by July, there could still be southbound.

Postscript, February 2021: Nope.

28th April: Day 8 – Mile 163

I write in my notes: “Joyful morning before the heat. Ate a burrito the size of my head at highway cafe. Afternoon spent feeling more burrito than human.”

Rattlesnake!

I think the point of this photo is that this pine cone is large, but my eye is more drawn to the state of my trousers.

Not the burrito you need, but the burrito you deserve.

29th & 30th April: Day 9 & 10 – Mile 179

I reach the small town of Idyllwild, winding through the snowy mountains on dynamited trails in a storm. My first resupply point.
 
I eat a burger, and there is much rejoicing.

1st May: Day 11 – Mile 187

Fantastic day in the mountains. I go off trail up to the peak of San Jacinto. Walking with a young ex-AT hiker called Versace (either because of his refined fashion sense or his complete lack of it – I can’t remember the story now and obvs I’m unable to identify fashion sense myself).

Versace is looking for some deep life advice, based on my years of experience. I provide this with a level of confidence that is not borne out in any way by an ability to make sensible decisions about my own life.

2nd May: Day 12 – Mile 206

There’s some snow anxiety in the air, as people have been sliding off Fuller ridge and calling out SAR. But it turns out fine.
We meet a guy carrying a 25kg pack. It is more a lifestyle choice. He’s carrying everything from a fishing rod to a machete. I think that’s cool.

In about a week, a hiker carrying a machete on the Appalachian trail will attack a group and kill someone. After that, meeting people carrying machetes will seem less cool.

From the cool of 8,500 feet…

Down… past the 200 mile mark… to the desert heat of 1,500 feet, to cross the I10 tomorrow.

3rd May: Day 13 – Mile 226

Hot today, but amazing. Strange to go from cool forested mountains yesterday to hot desert today. Can still see San Jacinto in the distance behind us.

Someone sees a bear (I don’t). All the cheese in my pack is liquified by the heat and the oil somehow seeps through various plastic bags and dry sacks into everything else. I write in my notes “Infusing kit with cheese is not standard procedure in bear country”.

I continue to not be eaten by bears all the same.

Looking north, towards the I10 crossing.

This is the time of magic in the desert – when’s it’s cool until about 8 or 9.

Someone has left a cooler with fruit and soda in the underpass.  Also a kind of magic.

Looking back at San Jacinto

4th May: Day 14 – Mile 246

I remember this day well. But nothing much happened. My left shoe stopped fitting. A 12 year old kid turned up randomly in the mountains on his own and we had a heated debate about whether the name of a nearby cabin was racist or not. I mean, sure, I didn’t actually know what I was talking about but then I felt like he didn’t either. And if that isn’t the basis of productive rational debate, I don’t know what is.

5th May: Day 15 – Mile 266

Woah-oh, we’re one tenth there, woah-oh, skipped the resupply in Big Bear.

Still not eating properly, so didn’t need to go into Big Bear City for food. Going relatively fast though I think – it will be another 100 miles before I’m aware of anyone overtaking me.

Having said that, on this day, 5th May, 13 is at the Mexican border on his day 1. I’ve started over two weeks ahead of him, but he will catch up to me in the Sierra in under a month, having averaged 30 miles a day.

6th May: Day 16 – Mile 286

It never rains here – it’s amazing.

It’s raining.