Wed – April 28 – The Ins and Outs of the PCT
Awake at 4:30am, I watched several meteorites trace their arcs across the sky and then the milky way slowly started to fade away as dawn aproached. At 5am, I woke the Carrot, not an easy task at that hour. We were on the trail at 5:30 as there was just enough light to turn off the headlamp and walk. The object was to avoid the sun and heat. Others were already on the trail. We heard Ertman, Trailmix and Red go by at 2:30, the heat being very tough on the dog.
Cadence was streching from her nearby camp. Tall Paul and Sycamore caught up to us a our first break and we would leap frog these three all day. The walk was a long seris of contours with occasional ups and downs seemingly at random and in and out of every gully in the San Felipe Hills. This section is a prime example of how the PCT slowly switchbacks north, as if its only purpose is to find the longest route to Canada. Great cactus flowers and song birds today.
We arrived at Barrel Springs with tired legs and feet sore from blisters and soft spots, like many other hikers.
A former thru hiker “Brother Joe” was there in his RV with beer and burgrs, and at least 20 thru hikers. Most were at Barrel Springs, we hiked on about 4 miles with Cadence and camped near a very dry San Ysidro creek. In all we had enough water, so the dry camp was fine and we are now set up for a simple 6 mile walk into Warner Springs wheree can get most of a day off and rest up legs and feet.
