This is part 21 of the “Why We Hike” Series
Friday, May 8th / 16.7 miles / Elevation gain: 3,971’
Apache Peak to Strawberry Junction
We woke up and broke camp well before sunrise in an effort to beat the heat of the day. Even so, I was sweating within minutes of hiking the trail.
The fact that the night stayed warm even at 7,400’ forebode of another hot day of climbing. The good news is that once we got to Red Tahquitz we would be on the north side and over 8,000’ in elevation, meaning it would be nice and cool no matter what. The bad news is that in this heat we only had 4 liters and it was 8 miles to the next water source. Not really a dangerous situation but I was regretting the liberal use of water in the dry camp the night before.
We passed Carolina and Pilgrim before the sun rose, they hadn’t made it too far after passing our camp the night before and were still in their sleeping bags.
I was surprised how fast it got hot. Even at 7.500’, the hot wind rose up from the Palm Springs desert as we traversed along the east side of the mountains.
It wasn’t until we got to Antsel Rock that we finally came across our first snow patch. Zach loves snow so much; he couldn’t munch it down fast enough!
We hated to make him leave his favorite thing but we were on a mission to get to the other side of Red Tahquitz as soon as possible. As we continued to climb up, the views became increasing more beautiful, and we even found a couple more snow patches along the way.
We were just getting to Red Tahquitz when Carolina caught up to us and he decided to hike with us for a while and talk. Instead of trekking poles, he used 2 broom handles. Apparently he didn’t want to ship his hiking sticks out to California and these simple and cheap alternatives were close enough for his needs.
Once we were on the north side of Red Tahquitz it immediately got cool and there was snow patches everywhere. Zach was in doggy heaven. Even though we were pretty much out of water there was plenty of snow to eat so all 3 of us walked along munching on handfuls of snow. When we got to Tahquitz Creek it was a beautiful sight, a fast moving ice cold stream running under a canopy of big pine trees.
We were joined shortly by Pilgrim and the 4 of us (plus Zach) spent a while relaxing at the creek, eating lunch, washing socks and cleaning the scum out of the water filter. Actually we spent too long here, seduced by the location’s beauty, view of Mount San Jacinto and the good conversation. Eventually we got going again and made for the Saddle, where we would part company with our 2 new friends.
We started Zach out from the creek without his boots to let his feet dry and to give him better traction in the snow but it was obvious that his feet were really bothering him. We put his boots back on but at this point the poorly designed things were starting to fall apart.
Once we got to the Saddle, we sat down and used to Super Glue to reinforce his pads and I tried to patch up his boots as best as possible with duct tape. It was not a confidence inspiring result but would have to do. The Super Glue on the other hand appeared to patch his pads quite nicely. We lost a couple of hours in the process but when Zach got on the trail again, he had a bounce in his step.
Humorously enough, we were then on the same stretch of trail that where Kelly expressed her desire to hike the PCT. We got a nice reminder of why this was one of our favorite day-hikes trails when we looked across Strawberry Valley to Tahquitz Peak.
As the day grew late we decided to stop at the Strawberry Junction campsite since any other campsite I knew of up here was too far off to make before dark. Kelly and I evaluated the remaining trail to the Jeep. It was a little over 24 miles from here, mostly downhill so we could have 2 short days or one really long one. We opted to try for the long day and decided to get up at 3:30am for an early start.
We had eaten, finished all our camp chores and were just falling asleep when a large group of hikers came into camp after dark. At first I thought they would quiet down after setting up but they continued to be very noisy. I went down to discover over a dozen people, it appeared to be a large group of fathers and sons. After explaining our situation and asking very politely if they could keep it down I was pretty much told “too bad, it’s a public campsite”.
So we break camp in the dark, hike by headlamp for about a mile and make camp in a less than optimal spot. I think it’s really cool that the fathers are taking the time to introduce their kids to the wilderness; too bad they are also teaching them it’s okay to be an asshole too. I eventually let the anger go and get to sleep.
Series continues here: Snow Creek Village