Day Twenty Three

Miles today: 19
Total miles: 347

We got up at 5, just as everyone was stirring in the picnic area. We were all motivated to get to McDonald's, or "Macca's," as Focus called it (apparently Aussies abbreviate everything) in time for second breakfast. I was excited, too, because lately my hiker appetite has kicked in and I have been getting hungry every few hours, which has given me much more energy for hiking. I had no doubt I could demolish some food at McDonalds if I tried.

It was amazing how everyone else had this same thought, too. Tell a group of thru hikers there's a McDonalds 15 miles away, and that breakfast ends at 10:30, and damn if you won't have a motivated group of people on your hands. 5 am and we were ready to go.

We cruised around some pretty hills this morning. We were quickly joined by the group we have started referring to as the "Chain Gang," since they all hike in a long, single-file line at the same pace: Focus, Dog, Sweet Tooth, Boulder, Scooter, Buffalo, Sunshine, and Dance Party. We laughed over Sunshine's ridiculously neon hat he found in town and the thrift store throw pillows that he and Dog had been showing off last night. Dog's has tassels and Sunshine's has some stitched quote on it about protecting the next generation. 

We climbed to the top of a series of hills and then came to the downhill section. Dog immediately took off and Sweet Tooth sighed,
"Aaaaand Dog is running again..."
We saw Dog's head disappear down the trail and heard his voice calling back to us from over the hill: "McDonaaaaaaaaalds!"
We didn't see him after that, but every few miles we found messages in the dirt that he left for us:
"Big Mac." 
And "Happy Meal."
And "McFlurry."

We were so excited about food that we were making great time. Katie and I hiked with Focus for a bit, when suddenly he checked the time and asked, "what time does breakfast end?"
"10:30," we said.
"Hmm," he mused. "One hour. Make it for breakfast, or hike with lovely ladies?" He only paused a second before saying, "sorry ladies, I'm sure you understand!" And he took off, too.

The last few miles were surprisingly beautiful, especially this close to an interstate, but we hardly looked at the views because we were trying so hard to get to food. We covered the 15 miles in five hours, arriving just after the breakfast menu ended, but hiking our fastest time yet.

It was weird being so close to an interstate after so long in the woods. Everything was moving so fast. And the McDonalds itself was a shock to the senses. I couldn't believe how packed it was, both by tourists and thru hikers alike. We learned that we were on Highway 15, which runs directly to Las Vegas in less than 2 hours. It explained all the girls in sequined tops and heels. I'm sure they were baffled by this influx of dirty kids in giant packs and huge appetites.

Left to right: Lunchbox, Honey Bunny, Papa Bear

Focus and Dog were already there and elbow-deep in food. They were having a calorie contest, and so far Dog was winning with 3,050. It was fun knowing we could eat whatever we liked, because we had already hiked 15 miles before 11 am and had been burning anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 calories per day. What was everyone else's excuse?

I ordered a chicken sandwich and didn't complain when they gave me two. I ate them both, plus fries, plus two drinks, plus a McFlurry, and promptly went into a food coma. Meanwhile, Dog bested us all by reaching 4,300 calories. While the rest of us were sleepy from the sudden intake of food, Dog was acting loopy.
"Dude," Focus laughed, "are you... fast food drunk??"
"I might be!" Dog laughed.
"That's it," Focus said, "no more calories for you. I'm cutting you off until you sober up!"

We stayed at McDonalds for four hours, alternately people watching and going back for more food. By 3:00 pm we knew we had to hike on to find a camp spot before dark. There was a water cache five miles out, so we slowly climbed over the beautiful Cajon Pass and then a series of hills to get there. The weather was growing windy and overcast, but the forecast didn't predict rain, just a low lying fog.

Cajon Pass

The water cache had lawn chairs near it and some flat areas for camping. We ended up with the largest group of campers that we have stayed with in a while, over twenty people! The Chain Gang was there, plus Papa Bear, Rotisserie, Coincidence, Lunchbox, and a few new faces such as Shangri-la, Ya-Ya, St. Alfonzo, and Pony.

We squished in the lawn chairs and made dinner as we chatted. I sat with Dance Party, Focus, and two others, though the lawn chair behind me only had Dog and Sunshine on it. When we asked why they were sitting alone, Dog said, "this is the nerd bench."
A little while later we got on the topic of Star Wars and Dog mentioned that he had never seen it.
"WHAT!" I said.
"Get off the nerd bench!!" Pony yelled.

The water cache cabinet also had a stack of loaner books in it, among which we found a Choose Your Own Adventure book and a saucy romance novel. At one point Focus picked up the romance novel and began reading aloud from the middle, altering his Australian accent to a twangy American when he read the voices. Pretty soon everyone had fallen silent and when he looked up and asked, "err... Should I stop?" We all laughed and yelled, "No!!"

"It's because of the accent," Dog advised. "Anything you say sounds better, Focus. When anyone else makes a comment in the future, I'm just gonna have you repeat it."

Dog and Sunshine kept us amused for most of the evening. The two of them have very animated personalities and their antics usually had us cracking up. We joked that if there was a photo of all of us and a stranger was asked "which one is Sunshine?" It would be an easy guess. Not only that, but everything he owned was neon green or yellow, so he stood out like a sunbeam. At one point we were passing around treats from our food bags and Dog was sharing gummy worms. When he passed them to Sunshine, Sunshine's eyes lit up and he began shrieking in high pitched squeals like a little girl. Such small things make us so happy sometimes.

Left to right: St. Alfonzo, Buffalo, Sweet Tooth, Dog, Lunchbox (behind), Pony

Left to right: Sunshine, Lunchbox, Buffalo

It was hard to say goodnight when surrounded by good friends, but we had a long day of climbing tomorrow and it was time for bed.

Day Twenty Two

Miles today: 20
Total miles: 328

I slept so well last night that our 4:30 am wake up didn't seem very early. As we got ready and packed up, the others in camp were waking up and heading back into the hot springs. I wanted more than anything to join them, but I knew if I did, I would never want to leave.

Reluctantly we said goodbye to our paradise and hiked north. It was so difficult for me to leave, but I had water coursing through my veins today, and it made me strong. We set a good pace and made it past the Mojave River dam and back into desert by early afternoon. Since it was growing hot quickly, we found a bit of shade and took a nap for an hour. We were quickly caught up by the rest of our hiking friends.

Lunchbox passed us first, and he asked, "did you guys get the trail magic this morning?"
"What!" we said. "No!"
"Yeah, back at that road crossing!" He said. "There were root beer floats and hot dogs and everything!"
We concluded we must have walked by too early in the morning and missed it. Damn our motivation! We tried to forget about it, but as each hiker passed, they all asked us the same thing: "did you get the trail magic this morning?"
After the fifth person, we were saying, "no no no, stop reminding us!!"
Focus plopped himself down in our bit of shade and said musingly,
"So what you're saying is, if you had only slept in and gotten back in the hot springs with us, you would have made it in time for trail magic... AND still have made it to this spot in time for afternoon siesta."
I groaned. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"
Focus laughed and then pulled out a giant danish from his pack and began eating it in front of me.
"Where did you get that?" I asked.
"Trail magic," he said around a big bite.
I sighed. "At least tell me it tastes horrible."
"Oh, yeah," Focus laughed. "Because if I'm being honest, the root beer floats were a little too cold, and this danish is a bit too buttery..."
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" I laughed.

We gathered from other hikers and our maps that we would be passing by a lake later today, so that was our new goal.

The trail went through an interesting section after that, what looked like a construction zone and maintenance area. Katie and I joked about the ridiculousness of the PCT.
"And to your left you will see Mount Storage Unit," I said. "First summit was in 2009 with a height of 20 feet. Notice in particular the blue sliding doors."
We also joked about the wind, which normally was a wonderful respite from the desert heat, but could occasionally get out of control.
"I appreciate your enthusiasm, wind, but can you take it down a notch?" Katie asked as her hat flew off again.
"You're at a nine right now, I'm gonna need you at about a seven," I said.

We caught up with Focus, Dog, and Lunchbox at a small cooler of trail magic: cantaloupe, apples, oranges, bottled water and hard boiled eggs! We ate with relish and pointedly ignored Focus's comment "two trail magics in one day!"

Dog was in a hyper mood and eager to get to the lake. He was eating eggs and taking shots from his liquid energy drink mix, which I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to drink in the concentrated form...

We all were in good moods, having had two good days in a row. After our fresh fruit magic (I find I crave fresh fruit on trail more than any other food) we hiked on and I made up a silly song as we went:
"Apples, you are so yummy
Especially in my tummy!
Apples, you are so crunchy
I love to eat you for brunchy!"

A few miles later we came over a crest and were met by the gorgeous view of Silverwood Lake. Besides the hot springs oasis, it was the prettiest thing I had seen in a while. So much blue water! The trail took us around the perimeter of the whole thing, and once we got to the other side there was a pavilion where Focus, Dog, Coincidence, Katie and I took a break. All of us wanted to relax by the water, but Dog, still active on his energy drink, decided to go for a swim. There were some fisherman on the other side of the lake, and Focus jokingly told Dog to swim over and ask for beer.

Next thing we knew, Dog was in the water and paddling to the other side. It took him a while, as it was quite a large lake, but we watched as he swam up to the fisherman, gestured to them, appeared to rescue one of their fishing poles from the water, reeled in a fish, waved goodbye, and swam back.
"They said they didn't have any beer," Dog told us as he stepped on our shore again, perhaps an hour later. We couldn't stop laughing.
"We should rename you Dogfish," we said.
"I think I scared the fisherman, popping out of the water like that!" He admitted.

We relaxed at the pavilion until 5:00 and then walked another two miles to a picnic area where we decided to stay the night with Focus, Coincidence, Lunchbox, and Dog. We wanted to set up tents in the lush green grass, but learned there were sprinklers that came on in the evening, so we decided to cowboy camp on the cement under the picnic tables, instead. As we ate dinner and checked our maps, we realized we were only 15 miles from a McDonald's that was right on trail. The boys made it their goal to make it for the breakfast menu tomorrow, which ended at 10:30.

As we set up camp in the empty picnic area, we decided that this was an eerie location, with lush green grass and no people. Katie and I nominated Dog to protect us from zombies tonight. He solemnly agreed.

We lay on our mats in bed, hiding our headlamps from cars that drove by, just in case we were not allowed to camp here. I watched the sprinklers water the grass next to me, thinking it strange that we've been desperate for every drop of water we find on the trail for three weeks, and here the sprinklers go off every night, just to make the grass green in the desert. It seemed such a waste. This trail has made me appreciate such small, important things, like clean water when you need it most.

Before I turned off my headlamp, I spotted a large frog hopping next to my sleeping bag. I watched it for a moment before whispering to it, "go find Lunchbox," and shooed it off. A few moments later I heard Lunchbox exclaim, "hey! A huge frog!"

Today was a good day.

Day Twenty One

Today's miles: 20
Total miles: 308

We hiked through some exposed desert sections of trail this morning. I had another run in with a rattlesnake, but only a minor one that startled me more than anything. It slithered off the trail pretty quickly.

Our goal today was to reach the hot springs by early afternoon so we could spend the night there. We were making good time and reached a bridge over Deep Creek at 11 am. It was the first time we had seen a large river in weeks, and I was enamored. Such a wonderful gift in the midst of a dry desert! We considered moving on, since we weren't ready for lunch yet, but we only got a few yards past the river before we decided that soaking our feet in the water was too good of an opportunity to pass up. We kicked off our shoes and sat on rocks in the river eating trail mix and watching the water slip below our toes.

We had exciting places to be, though, so we only stayed a little before moving on. The final 10 mile stretch to the hot springs was on an exposed ridge line rising high above the Mojave River below. We skirted from one desert mountain to another, tantalizingly out of reach of the water. I could hear it below me, rushing and moving over rocks and creating deep pools where children were swimming. My mouth felt dry and sandy and I wanted to dive into those waters more than anything. The views into the canyon were beautiful; we were probably 1,000 feet up from where the river cut through the rocks, and each bend of the trail brought a prettier view.

But as the day wore on, all I could think about was the water. We were hiking in the hottest part of the day, on a shade-less mountain side, forced to hear the musical sound of water over rocks, but not allowed to touch it. As I grew hotter and more tired, the sound was torturous. It was a siren's call that was driving me to desperation.

On and on we trekked, until I became frustrated and tired, thinking we should have stayed and napped at the bridge where it was cool, instead of rushing for some hot springs that might end up being a bitter disappointment. It was so, so hot. So, so dry.

But at last, around 4pm, the trail began descending, and ahead of us we could see a sandy beach and a watery lagoon flanked by high, rocky walls. An oasis. We began running. I was stumbling down to the beach, every pore of me desperate for water.

G-Dub and Sansei were there already, having arrived earlier that afternoon. They laughed to see Katie and I running for the water.
"You looked like you were going to fall over, coming down that hillside," G-Dub said to me.
"I was, I was, I was," I said.
We couldn't get our shoes off fast enough.
We couldn't get our packs off fast enough.
We left everything on the beach, ran into the water fully clothed. The water was cool and warm at the same time, and it soaked into my dust-stained body.

It was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

We were shrieking and laughing and came out of the water dripping wet, just to strip to our underwear, leave our clothes on the rocks, and dive back in. Sansei showed us where the water curved around and formed little stone pools, where natural hot springs bubbled up from the ground and filled them with hot water. We sank into the pools, feeling our muscles relax in the heat. When it grew too hot we jumped back into the lagoon, reveling in our new found paradise. I couldn't believe it had been three weeks since I had seen a body of water this big, or gone swimming, or felt the cool touch of water against my skin. All I had known for weeks was the scant few liters of dirty water that I hauled on my back for miles. This was heaven. I lay in the pools so that every inch of me was saturated with water, and my salt tears mixed with fresh water, creating brackish rivers on my cheeks.

It was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

The boys eventually left, so soon it was only Katie and I, enjoying the peaceful quiet of our own slice of heaven. We paddled around in the lowering sunlight until Focus and his crew showed up to join us: Dog, Dance Party, Buffalo, Boulder, Scooter, Sweet Tooth, and Sunshine. Papa Bear, Lunchbox and Coincidence arrived shortly thereafter and we all sat in the hot springs until it grew dark.

There was no camping allowed on the beach, but we couldn't bear to leave this paradise, so we set up tents near the water and watched the sunset. When I got into bed, my skin felt warm with sunlight, my toes scrubbed clean by the sand and waves, and my head heavy with sleep. I dreamed of rivers and deep pools of water and dappled sunlight. It was the deepest night of sleep I had on the trail yet.

And it was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

Day Twenty

Today's miles: 22
Total miles: 288

I awoke in my top bunk this morning and caught a shuttle back to the trailhead at 7:30 with Lunchbox, Rotisserie, Papa Bear, and Katie.

The weather was quite windy today, which made the heat more bearable. We were in good spirits, having had a nice day in town. The only difference was that our food bags were much heavier now that we had five more days of snacks and dinners in them. 

The trail today was very kind to us. It went over rolling hills but never really climbed. The wind and the shade made for very pleasant hiking. And I discovered something new for me: I was hungry! After two weeks of feeling ill every time I looked in my food bag, I suddenly had an appetite, and every two hours like clockwork I wanted to devour everything in my bag. This was a good thing, because food gave me the energy to keep going, and made me feel stronger, too. I was feeling more and more like a hiker every day, and less and less like an exhausted failure. After all, I had hiked almost 300 miles! A true accomplishment, and I was proud of myself for sticking it out when there were some days I wanted nothing more than to quit. But the days are better and better, the people are more like family, and the trail is more like home, despite how much it still challenges me. I can conquer it, and it makes me feel strong to admit it.

Katie and I kept pace with Rotisserie and Papa Bear, and later TwoBadDogs. We had pulled ahead of them a little when I heard a sound like a swarm of locusts, and suddenly Katie was backing up into me, very fast.
"Snake!" she said.
And it was. Our first rattlesnake sighting, and it was a big one. And it was pissed. It was right beside the trail, rattling and rearing at us, and clearly had no intention of moving. We kept a respectable distance and yelled and tossed rocks in its general direction, but nothing we did made the snake get out of the way.
A short time later, Papa Bear caught up with us.
"Look out! Snake!" We warned.
"Ooooh yeah, he's a big one!" Papa Bear said, and walked right up to it.
We freaked out. "Papa Bear! What are you doing! Move move!"
But he didn't. He just studied the snake from an all-too-short distance away and noted, "man, he's pissed, isn't he?"
"Run! Run! Keep going!" Katie begged.
"Or at least if you're going to stand so close, take a picture," I suggested.
"Ooo great idea!" Papa Bear said, and whipped out his camera.
"Bramble! Stop giving him ideas!" Katie said.
"He can't strike this far," Papa Bear said, but I wasn't so sure. Katie and I still didn't want to go by, so Papa Bear picked up a long stick and prodded at the rattling snake until it retreated into the bushes. Then, while he had it at bay, we scuttled by.
"You are crazy," Katie said.

At lunchtime we found a little picnic bench to stop and eat, and Papa Bear pulled out his favorite treat: Skittles. He told us his favorite joke about them: "How can you identify a thru hiker? You put a Skittle on the trail. A day hiker will step on it, a section hiker will step over it, and a thru hiker will pick it up and eat it."
He then placed a yellow Skittle on the trail and said he had been leaving them for Giddyup, who apparently had a similar affinity for the treat.

Today's hike was a lovely walk with aerial views of Big Bear Lake, and since we were feeling so good we tried to do as many miles as possible. There are apparently hot springs at mile 308 and we want to get as close as we can to them. We managed to pound out a solid 22 miles before finding a windy, sandy spot to camp for the night.