Week 3: Julian to Idyllwild

 Day 15 ( April 15 )

Today was a slow day. I left the campsite near the water cache at mile 91 and hiked 10 miles to Motezuma Valley Road. Upon reaching the road, I found that someone had left some "Trail Magic" in a cooler. Trail Magic comes in many forms, sometimes it is someone giving a hiker a ride to town, sometimes it is someone letting a hiker sleep in the house, but most times it consists of drinks, food and/or water left where the trail crosses a road. In this case it was small bottles of water and tangerines left in a cooler by the road. Happy is the hiker who gets a delicious,  unexpected  Tangerine on the trail.... I then got a ride to Montezuma Valley Market. MVM is a small, well stocked hiker store that is really in the middle of nowhere.  

An important milestone

Me and a long term "resident"

There are a few ranches nearby, but I  would guess that most of their business is from hikers, and they have just about everything a hiker might need. For example, most stores might stock 2 or 3 types of beef jerky, MVM has 20 varieties to include: Camel (?), Swordfish and Peppered Salmon. They carry just about every variety of tuna pack ever made, along with just about any piece of equipment a hiker might need. The also have rooms for rent, so I  spent the night. I had a good chat with Nora, a woman from the Republic of Ireland and Beermeister, a retired first responder from Central California.  Nora is a teacher with a Masters Degree who can't teach in Ireland.  To teach in Ireland you must speak Irish fluently,  which she does not, so she has been teaching in South Korea and Japan. Beermeister got his trail name for having a beer every night on trail. We had an interesting discussion on the Law of Unintended Consequences.  He mentioned that a lot of homeless people from LA moved to a small city in the Central Valley just because the city had open housing for the homeless. Never mind that these people didn't know anyone and probably couldn't get a job. The housing was available,  so they moved. Homelessness is a huge issue in California right now. You watch any television  and you will see ads either promoting one candidate for what he will do about the homeless problem or ads against two online betting companies who say online betting will generate money to deal with the homeless problem. No, I don't have any ideas on how to fix the problem, but boy, is it huge. Near the big cities, you will see mile after mile of homeless people living in tents. Out here near the trail I don't think I have seen a single homeless person. 

Day 16

Zero day. I went to Mountain Valley Retreat where the items I ordered from Amazon were shipped. I shared a room with three other hikers, including a woman who got a bad set of blisters outrunning the storm on Day 11. Her boots were too small,  so she ordered another pair and had to wait for them. One nice thing about Mountain Valley Retreat is that Dinner and Breakfast are included. I saw both Steller's Jay and California Scrub Jay but was unable to get any photos.

Day 17

Happy Easter ! Another thing you get at Mountain Valley Retreat is a "Yoga for Hikers" class, some of which I actually remember. Today I hiked past Eagle Rock, a landmark that almost every hiker visits. Whoever routed the trail around the back of Eagle Rock instead of the front should be dope slapped. 

The back of Eagle Rock

A mile past Eagle Rock, I saw and photographed my first Lark Sparrow. I also saw my first group on horseback near Warner Springs. I managed 13.5 miles today.

Day 18

Today was a long, hard day. It didn't help that I forgot to "Camel Up". To Camel Up,  you fill your bottles with enough water to get you to your next water source and then you drink water until you  are full. Today started off with a few stream crossings and somewhat steep climbs.  About Noon, I  encountered a crew working on clearing the trail. They work 8 days on and 1 day off. This is the only trail crew I have seen so far. 

They have a lot of catch up work to do, because the last time crews worked on the trail was 2019. 

I did see a Hummingbird,  but as usually he didn't stick around to be photographed.  I also took several flower photos.

I made it to " Mike's Place" at mile 126 at 5:30 with 2 sips of water left. Not Good. I was totally exhausted when I arrived.Mike has set up a water tank and let's hikers camp on his property.  

I shared a covered concrete porch with 7 or 8 other hikers. They all swore they didn't hear me snoring during the night, but I  think they were being kind.

Day 19

Today was a mix of up and downhill hiking. Not as bad as yesterday.  I ended up camping in Nance Canyon at mile 140. One of the people camped near me was a woman from South Africa. 

It was really windy overnight and my tent nearly collapsed. I am starting to have doubts about being able to make it to Canada before the heavy snow falls in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. 

Day 20

Idyllwild !! It took me 6.5 hours to hike to Highway 17. I was about a  half mile from Paradise Valley Cafe,  when a woman who is studying to be a teacher pulled over and asked if I needed a ride. The first rule of getting trail magic: When someone asks if they can help you,  say yes. I didn't even need to stick my thumb out ! I had a Sterling burger at Paradise Valley Cafe ( very good and very filling ). 

The Stirling. The first burger I've ever had that had Mango on it.

I called the 4 Trail Angels who give rides but none were available.  So I tried the magic thumb to no avail ( 0 for 23 ) and was getting ready to trudge the 17 miles into Idyllwild when a car pulled into the Cafe parking lot. The two ladies had come from Texas to do trail magic.

 One of them, Pinwheel hiked the PCT in 2019. After giving trail magic to the hikers camped behind the Cafe, they gave me a ride to the Air BnB I was staying at.

Day 21

Bought a new sleeping bag in Idyllwild  ( the first one didn't keep me warm ) and returned to the trail after doing a resupply. The plan is to hike to where the trail crosses under I - 10 to meet Uncle Eldon and Aunt Linda who are wintering in Indio. Hiked 5 miles to my campsite. Wind Advisory in effect, with winds up to 50 MPH expected.