Which Way Is North?

PCT Mile 406.6 Sulfur Springs Trail Camp to PCT Mile 430.4 Day Total: 24.2 miles Have you heard of Poodle Dog Bush ?  Yes, it sounds like a silly, made-up name, but it is real and it is scary. PDB, for short, is a desert plant that causes skin irritation allegedly worse than poison oak. When Stephen and I ordered our PCT maps around Christmas, there was a full-page warning about PBD for miles 300-450ish. It has purple flowers and it grows mostly in areas that have burned recently. Today we saw a lot of it. Some that were close enough to the trail that we had to dance around it.  But we also wondered if it's a big hoax, some kind of elaborate practical joke on all hikers. Hilariously, we met up with another group of hikers who had discussed the same thing. We agreed that we don't want to touch it and find out.  It was unbelievably cold when we woke up this morning, and we hiked for the first half hour in rain pants and down jackets. Hard to mak...

PCT mile 383.9 Little Jimmy Campground to PCT Mile 406.6 Sulfur Springs Trail Camp Day Total: 19.1 PCT miles (Plus 5 ± detour miles) We started the morning off much like yesterday afternoon, with a steep downhill for a few miles, down to California Highway 2. After crossing the road, we gained all that elevation right back with a steep climb up Mt. Williamson. The miles felt slow because of the challenging terrain on both the ups and downs.  We crossed Highway 2 again about six miles into the day, where we had to take a detour around a three-mile section of the PCT that is closed to protect the habitat of the endangered mountain yellow-legged frog. This closure has been in place for at least five years, so we knew it was coming.  The detour entailed about two miles on the road, where there was thankfully very little traffic, and then through a campground where we got water and ate a snack. Then we had a mile-and-a-half down another trail back to the PC...

Wrightwood 369.4 to PCT mile 383.9, Little Jimmy Campground Day Total: 14.5 miles It was nice to sleep in a real bed last night, and to sleep in a little later than usual. We enjoyed big breakfast burritos and a huge cinnamon roll at a place called Cinnamon Bakery that was full of hikers.  We stopped by the hardware store to sign the PCT register, and look for names of friends ahead of us on the trail. We bought four days of food at the super hiker-friendly grocery store and squished it all into our packs. They had whole shelves of things like tuna packets and instant mashed potatoes, Snickers and Clif bars. It was a highly enjoyable shopping experience.  Stephen and I each bought a new pair of socks from the great selection at the gas station. Only in a trail town! While we were filling up our water, a guy in a US Forest Service truck offered to give us a ride back to the trail. We didn't even need to stick a thumb out. We were very fortunate to happen ...

PCT Mile 343.6 to PCT Mile 369.4 Wrightwood, Calif. Day Total: 25.8 Miles We've started trying to hike an hour before eating breakfast. It makes packing up a bit quicker and gets us about three miles, depending on terrain, before we stop. An hour into the day is also about when I need to lather on the first layer of sunscreen. We stopped at a water cache with a trail register (a notebook where people make a comment with the date they were they) for breakfast and sized up the rest of the day. It had 6,000 feet of elevation gain and, while munching on my Snickers and honey bun at breakfast, I was a little intimidated. It turned out to be a really nice day with somewhat pleasant temperatures. The grade of the trail made the thousands of feet of gain bearable. At times we've wondered if higher elevation would mean cooler temperatures or that we'll just be closer to the sun. Today it meant cooler temperatures. We passed a couple of other thru-hikers over the course ...