This is part 10 of the “Why We Hike” Series
A week after our trip to East Lake we took a vacation to Twin Lakes in the eastern Sierras with some good friends After that, Kelly and I found the business requiring our full attention. We had to cancel the rest of our Sierra trips for the year but after a really great summer, it’s really hard to complain.
During the fall, we did few hikes up locally before the snow settled in, including a 17+ miler from Islip Saddle to 3 Points. Then once winter set in we started a strenuous workout routine up Mount Lukens almost every morning. In addition, it was not uncommon for us to pull off 15 to 18 mile days on Saturdays.
By late winter our training was going so well we decided to try a 3 day hike along the Pacific Crest Trail where it passed through the San Angeles Forest, near our house. On the first morning we found that we had obviously jumped the gun, the amount of snow and ice in the mountains forced us to do a 12 mile walk down the Angeles Crest Highway with was closed due to snow. We got back on the trail at Islip Saddle but were forced to retreat when we ran up against icy slopes that were way too dangerous to cross without crampons. In the end, we had to call Jaz to come pick us up. We hiked about 21 miles by the time she made it out to meet us. At least Zach enjoyed the deep snow.
Kelly made it very clear to me that she was through skidding on ice, so I came up with the idea that we section hike some of the PCT this year instead of doing a mix of trails in the Sierras. The weather forecast was for nice cool temperatures in the desert and we wanted to thruhike the PCT anyhow, so this would be a good learning experience. Section hiking seems like a good compromise: we can get the experience of thruhiking the PCT, we can hike much earlier in the year by starting in the desert sections, and we can come back after a week or so of being on the trail and work on our business. Perfect. We were hoping to section hike most of the PCT from the Mexican border all the way to South Lake Tahoe this year, which is 1100 miles.
So it begins…
April 16th, 2009 – First day / 20.7 miles / Elevation gain: 3,308’
Southern Terminus to Lake Moreno
We woke up at 3 am after a mere 2 hours of sleep so we could shower and drive to Warner Springs in time to meet our Trail Angel, Ken Smith from San Diego, at 6 a.m. I am always astounded by the overwhelming generosity of trail angels, and Ken is no exception! Can you imagine getting up at something like 4 am and driving approximately an hour and a half to meet 4 complete strangers and a dog – and then drive them another hour and a half (which turned into two and a half hours!) to the Mexican border? All I can say is, “BLESS the Trail Angels!”
We left our house a little later than I wanted to, but we made up time on the road. Unfortunately since I was worried about being late I didn’t stop to get gas, so we were on fumes by the time we got to Warner Springs. We arrived right on time and if you believed the thermometer in the Jeep it was a cool 25 degrees outside! There were two other hikers Ken was taking also, Jay from San Francisco and Terry from Sacramento. They were only a few minutes late but the really irksome thing was that Jay, sat and fumbled with his pack for at least 20 minutes while all of us waited on him. Finally, we got on the road, but we got about 20 minutes down the road when Jay said he forgot something back at the car and could we go back and get it. So, 20 minutes waiting for Jay to get his pack in the car, 20 minutes down the road, 20 minutes back to the car, another 5 minutes for him to sort out his stuff, and NOW we are on the road. So glad we got up at 3 am for this.
On the way to the Mexican border Kelly found out that Ken is a somewhat of a historian when it comes to the PCT, especially that entire lower section. Sitting up front with him she was said it was very interesting hearing him tell of the first settlers to come through that area and how the trail came to be. We got to the Mexican border about 9 am, took our pictures at the Southern Terminus, thanked Ken profusely, and started off.
Neither Kelly or I wasn’t very excited at the prospect of hiking through all of the desert and scrub that I knew would make up a large section of our trip since we both sorta dislike desert, but that didn’t seem to matter once we started hiking because we were actually hiking on the PCT and getting a taste of what it will really be like when we eventually thruhike it. We were very excited that first day – and while the scenery is not much to look at, it was pretty cool to walking north from Mexico.
We played leap-frog all day with Terry and Jay. Terry was a very experienced hiker and had previously thruhiked the PCT and the Appalachian Trail. His gear was definitely ultra-light and he moved with an easy gait. Jay was another story. He had on a huge expedition pack and heavy hiking boots. He was staying in the general area of the rest of us but he definitely was working the hardest.
Along the way we kept running across piles of discarded slippers made from old horse blankets. After a while we came up with the theory that the illegal immigrants used them to muffle their footsteps against the border patrol’s seismic sensors.
We hiked past the 16 mile mark, Hauser Creek – where a lot of hikers stop for their first day, but we kept right on going. Past Hauser Creek is a somewhat steep incline called Morena Butte. We heard a couple of hikers complain about how steep it was, but to us it was no different than our training hikes. Never-the-less it was the last we saw of Terry as he topped out well ahead of us.
Becasue both of us were riding the high of actually being on the PCT. We ended up hiking almost 21 miles to Lake Morena Campground despite the severe lack of sleep the night before.
As we wandered in the campground we discovered big plus – they had showers! Because we got such a late start we didn’t get into camp until about 7ish. The 3 of us were so tired! All Kelly could think about was how much she wanted to take a shower and then curl up to go to sleep! Not only was Kelly completely exhausted but she was already sporting blisters on several toes and both heels. One of the thruhikers named Eric, came over to introduce himself. We were so tired that I’m sure we must have come off as rude. Hopefully he understood.
Just after sunset, Jay came dragging into camp. He sat on a picnic table bench for the longest time, too tired to even move then pitched his tent, prepared his dinner and fell immediately to sleep.
Continued here: Long Canyon