Day 3. 13.8 miles.
It was a short trek into Mount Laguna that involved some pretty flowers and a water refill at a faucet surrounded by bees. I thought it was cool. In town, we found our gang of hikers under a huge tree next to the post office so we joined them, kicked our shoes off, and raised up our aching feet. After an hour or two, we mozied down the hill to get lunch and a beer at Pine House Cafe; which turned into a three-hour long hangout at the big roundtable. It was a revolving door of new hikers that we met along the trail so far and we stuck around until the 3pm closing time, when we kind of got kicked out. After some more relaxing under the post office tree to escape the afternoon heat, we returned to the trail and soon hit Hayes Peak, the most stunning view yet. The resting in town let our feet recover enough to make it much further than the planned four miles, and put us in better position to fill up on water first thing in the morning for the upcoming long water carry. 28 miles without a water source. Right before we reached camp, we stopped at the Storm Canyon Vista overlook to have a trail-dinner-date on a bench while enjoying the view.
This water source is guarded by bees, but they were cool.
Desert Lupine.
View from Hayes Peak.
Day 4. 15.8 miles.
I overslept the 4:30am alarm. We hoped to make it to Penny Pines and fill up our water with a ton of time left to crush some of the 28 miles before the heat kicked in. We were topped off and on the trail soon enough, which was windy and continued to provide amazing views of the valley below. At one point my butt pad was blown off my pack and I had to chase it down for about 20m and stab it with a trekking pole. It felt like I was a Neanderthal hunter with a spear, chasing down my dinner. The trail fell into an old roadbed leading up to Kwaaymii Point. There, I climbed a small scramble and passed a weird memorial rock formation with dozens of placards to memorialize veterans, uncles, and dogs, with seemingly no connections. It was a little eerie. Later on I saw a rattlesnake and then we made some questionable shade shanties to wait out the incredible heat. Around 5pm, we set out to tackle about six miles but after three we ran into our hiker gang. There were plenty of tent sites, so we joined them for the night. Everyone was planning to get up at 3am the next day so by 7pm they were all in bed and I stayed up 'late' to edit some photos.
Saw my first rattlesnake!!!
Bumblebee chilling inside of a blooming flower of an Englemann’s Hedgehog Cactus.
Day 5. 16.1 miles.
It was weird getting up at 4am and seeing that the campsite with eight tents was now down to zero tents. But we packed up in the dark and by the time we hit the trail, we no longer needed headlamps. I soon noticed a fire on a peak in the distance but it didn't look like it was very large or growing so I didn't feel like changing to my zoom lens to inspect it further. I later found out that it was a plane that crashed last night! Since it was on a mountain top with no roads, the emergency response teams couldn't reach the crash site. We took a quick break at Rodriguez Road where Caro and Jefe joined us for second breakfast and then we set out to reach Scissors Crossing; the end of the long water carry + a neat bridge to chill under + the place to get a hitchhike into the town of Julian. The hitch took about two minutes before Ghost picked us up. He has lived and worked in the area his whole life and now that he is retired, he enjoys shuttling hikers to town or giving injured adventurers a lift to a hospital or a bigger town.
We ate some pizza, relaxed at the General Store's patio, then went to Mom's Pies for their generous offering of a free slice of pie with a scoop of ice cream and a drink to all hikers. It was all delicious. As we were finishing up Ghost seemed to materialize out of thin air and asked if we needed a ride back to the trail. I can see where his trail name comes from! We were in a serious food coma from the town food but the valley was too windy, so we hiked two miles up into the mountains and set camp with a new buddy, Flamin' Hot.
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Flowering Agave plants look like a giant asparagus with a Dr Seuss-ish nibblets on top.
Ghost was Nhandi's first, second, and third hitchhike.
Day 6. 21.4 miles.
We slept in this morning since the upcoming stretch had lots of water sources and weather was going to be much cooler, so there would be no need for a siesta. The trail stayed almost completely level as it wound in and out of canyons that sliced into the mountainside. We took a break at a huge water cache, and again several miles later at a campsite. Our feet were still hurting and we planned to push just a couple more miles to a campsite but we were having a great conversation and missed it. Then we unexpectedly hit the 100 mile marker which lead to a mini dance party, some photos, and high fives. We again were the last to the campsite where most of our crew was camped so we pretty much ate, set camp, and went to sleep.
San Felipe Valley with the clouds perpetually hanging over the Volcan Mountains.
Big fat rainbow.
Nhandi and Space Jam kickin' ass! 100 miles down.
Day 7. 8.4 miles into Warner Springs.
Another lazy and chilly morning but a short day of hiking laid ahead with a relaxing oasis at the end. I was barefoot as we were packing up camp and I accidentally stepped on a spider which turned out to be a black widow! That could've been bad. The miles flew by as they wound over gentle hills and through some pastures and we soon arrived at Eagle Rock. Kirsten had explained that in Australia, whenever the 70's classic "Eagle Rock" by Daddy Cool is played, it is tradition to drop your pants and dance around whether it be at a bar, a wedding, or on a bus. So we did just that. We soon arrived at the Warner Springs Community Center which was having water pump issues, so no laundry or showers were available. In true hiker trash fashion, we went to the nearby country club for lunch, wearing 110 miles of absolute filth and dirt. Also...Ghost materialized out of thin air YET AGAIN and gave us a ride there. After a pitcher of beer, great food, and a short walk back, we relaxed the rest of the day. The Community Center was awesome; an outfitter parked a trailer there with gear, there were plenty of tent spots, air hockey, pool table, loaner laptops, wifi, and a hiker lounge!
Barefoot at camp, and I accidentally stepped on a friggin black window!
I climbed the Eagle, tamed it, put Paracord reigns on it, and flew away to Freedom-Land.