Which Way Is North?

Day 18 PCT Mile 320.1 to PCT mile 343.6 (23.5 miles today) Today was a day of extremes. We woke up cold in the wind and started hiking in rain gear to stay warm. We even hiked for a while before breakfast to try to warm.   We had a few miles of extremely ugly hiking through a work yard, with industrial rusty garbage and barbed wire fences in the morning. And then, not too long after that, we had some of the most beautiful miles of the trip so far. We came over a ridge and we're surprised to see a huge, deep blue lake, framed by mountains all around. It's called Silverwood Lake and it's managed as a recreation area. We saw boaters and fishermen, people running and people picnicking. I really enjoyed the stretch of trail along the lake.   We stopped at a picnic area just past the lake for lunch and water, and there was conveniently a power outlet in the post near our table. Electricity has become very important on this hike, because we depend on the maps an...

PCT Mile 298.5 to PCT Mile 320.1 Day Total: 21.6 miles We passed Mile 300 this morning, just a half hour into our day. Woohoo! The trail followed Deep Creek – which we camped next to last night –downstream through a big, red rock canyon all day. It was pretty sunny, but we were hiking above 4,000 feet and there was a breeze, so the heat wasn't unbearable.  We reached Deep Creek Hot Springs, which I'd heard about before the trail. It's a natural hot springs that's very popular for swimming. Unfortunately, it happened to be a Saturday in early summer, and it was crowded and loud. I didn't like how busy it was, so we ate our peanut butter and honey sandwiches, filtered some water (upstream of the bathers and the hot water), and lounged around in the shade. We sat in the hot water for a little, which felt great on my legs, and then packed up and continued our hike.  The trail continued down a long canyon, in and out of bends in the walls, ...

PCT Mile 275.0 to PCT Mile 298.5 Day Total: 23.5 miles We packed up and grabbed a couple of liters of water each from a water cache at the nearby dirt road crossing and got going. From there we had a pretty calm hike to the next water source, a spring fed trough. There were a few bridge crossings along the way, mostly over dry creeks. There weren't many exceptional things about the day aside from our campsite. We crossed the Deep Creek bridge and found a flat spot right on the sandy beach by the creek. The bridge was above us to the right of camp, and we had one of the biggest water sources of the entire trip behind our heads for the night. One oddity from the day was that we didn't see any other thru-hikers the entire day. We sort of fell into a gap between two groups. The people behind us were moving a bit slower than us. Reading the trail registers along the way, we knew another group was about a half day ahead of us. Some folks in the register we had hiked wi...

Big Bear Lake, PCT mile 266.1 to PCT mile 275.0 Day Total: 8.9 miles We checked out of Vintage Lakeside Resort two minutes before the 11:00 a.m. checkout time, after enjoying the TV, wifi, and indoor comfort for as much time as possible.  We walked into the cute village of Big Bear Lake and found a coffee shop to sit and catch up on Internet things, like email and banking, over a tasty croissant and cinnamon roll. We did laundry and I got my hair cut by a woman also named Kelly who enjoyed hearing about our hike so much that she told me I didn't need to pay for the haircut. People can be so nice! After lunch we walked to a sporting goods store to see if they sold replacement metal tips to Stephen's trekking pole, which broke a few days ago and the plastic has been wearing away every since. They didn't have the right thing, so he has to continue to use his nubby pole. He called the pole company and they're going to mail him a new tip, which we'll pick...

PCT Mile 239.9 to PCT Mile 266.1 Day Total: 26.2 Miles Today was our latest wake-up time, 7:00 a.m. We packed our gear up and walked a quarter mile off trail to a spring where we filtered enough water to get us the 16 miles to the next water source. We didn't start hiking until a little after 8 as the water filtering process has taken more time than we anticipated. We had vague ideas of making it to highway 18 and staying in the city of Big Bear Lake, but that was 26.2 miles away and, with the late start, we weren't sure if we could make it happen. We started out around 8,000 feet and knew we'd stay pretty high most of the day, hopefully meaning cooler temperatures as well. After a couple of hours we made it 6.6 miles to the Coon Cabin. The cabin consisted of a few small buildings covered in hiker graffiti that would have made a pretty neat place to stay for a night. There we had a snack; sandwich thins slathered in peanut butter and honey. The highlight for me...