This is part 22 of the “Why We Hike” Series
Saturday, May 9th / 23.9 miles / Elevation gain: 1,364’
Strawberry Junction to Snow Creek Village
We don’t get on the trail until 6am, sleeping a little later to make up for the lost sleep last night. The west side of the mountains is buried in snow, it is actually cold this morning and we are constantly working our way through big patches of snow.
When we get to the North Fork of the San Jacinto Creek, we stop to fill all our water bottles. The next water source is in 21 miles. So here we are again, 7 liters each just like the day we started, 8 days ago and just like that day we have a long 24 mile day ahead of us. I guess it will end the way it began.
As we start moving again, we get an early morning view over to the San Gorgonio Mountains.
We quickly get to the Fuller Ridge trail and begin our descent. It will be an 8’000’ drop to the desert below over the next 20 miles, from the crisp cold of this ridge to the sweltering heat below. I am not looking forward to today’s hike. Zach on the other hand is bouncing from snow patch to snow patch, happy as he could be.
Not long after starting down, we run across an icon of the PCT, Billy Goat. We stop and talk with him for a bit while attempting to repair Zach’s rapidly deteriorating boots. His boots are quite literally falling apart but he couldn’t care less, as there is more and more snow as we descend to Black Mountain.
Once we start hitting larger snow fields, I have to put a head lead on the little maniac for my own safety. Kelly and I are sliding some on the snow and I am occasionally post-holing. All I need is a dog going nuts in the snow while dealing with traction issues of my own.
When we get to a parking lot on Black Mountain there is a huge ice cooler sitting there full of fruit, beer, wine, sodas and other treats. Trail Magic! I go for some watermelon and Gatorade, yum. I think Kelly even tried some of the wine. It was hard to leave the gravity of that cooler but we need to keep moving.
I wish there was something, anything good to say about the trail down to Snow Creek beyond Black Mountain but there really isn’t. It takes forever to hike down into that furnace and any chance of shade was taken away in the 2006 fire.
But despite the trail being without any redeeming value, one fun thing did happen on that miserable descent – we were still many miles from the bottom when we heard a call out from the other side of the canyon, on the trail below us. Zach immediately perked up. The person was too far away to see clearly and then called again, it was Das Boot! This time Zach also heard it clear enough to know who it was and got bonkers excited. Looking at the trail ahead, I estimated that he was about ½ mile ahead of us so we decided to catch up! Kelly, Zach and I took off at a full gait down the path, my knees were killing me but it actually was fun to do something spontaneous on this trail from hell.
Since Das Boot was also moving I don’t know how far we ran but when we caught up Zach had a great time rolling around on the ground with him.
We all finally made it down to Fallbrook Road, and the water fountain. A quick drink and it was a mere 1 mile road walk to the Jeep in Snow Creek Village as the sun set. We gave the guys a ride to the nearby Burger King and we all (including Zach) had a nice little pig out. I was happy to be done with that descent but I wasn’t looking forward to crossing the desert to the San Gorgonio Mountains the next time we come out to hike.
I was sad to leave the trial never-the-less. We had now made it to PCT mile 205 and I was eager to keep going, to just keep walking, but it would have to wait for a little while.
When we got home, it was decided that Zach needed a new set of shoes. Hopefully a design that was more durable.
Series continues here: East Fork Mission Creek