Today was hot. It took a long time to treat 4L of water from Sulphur Springs, but it was worth the trouble.
We got some long views down to the dry areas below.
The burned-out bushes are a bad sign
Aside from that, it was an uneventful, hot, dry morning. Hot and dry enough that people could get in trouble.
One of the many trail angels named "Mary"
We filled up on water at a remote fire station, and stopped for lunch at adjacent picnic tables. I discovered that a bag of tuna, with a few mayonnaise packets, inside a couple tortillas, alongside some string cheese, tastes amazing.
The trail after the fire station took us through another burn area, where poodle dog truly flourished. There was an alternate to avoid the poodle dog, but we didn’t think it would be bad enough for that.
Unfortunately, it was pretty bad. It reached out into the trail frequently. Worse, other plants were also growing into the trail, so the poodle dog was often hidden by other bushes. I certainly brushed against it a few times, we’ll see if I start getting a rash in 12-48 hours.
There were some nice views, though
Our campground for the night, Messenger Flats Campground, was closed. But, many PCT hikers were pitched there. The outhouses and garbage seemed to still be maintained, so we set up there, reasoning that the campground was probably closed because of the poodle dog growing on its outskirts.
We ate dinner, and I realized I hadn’t packed enough food. I ate a total of 3 tuna packets today, because that’s what was left. Tomorrow’s lunch would have to be meager. And that’s assuming we get to town in time for dinner.
We had a campfire with the other hikers. This campsite seemed to be entirely 10 mile per day hikers – people with no plan to finish the trail. The fire was short and smoky, though, so we soon went to bed.
I had a surprisingly good night’s sleep at Little Jimmy Campground. I was expecting the Memorial Day crowd to stay up late and make a lot of noise. But, it seemed like just about all 150 of the people in the camp were dead tired.
As we descended the 2 mile trail to Little Jimmy Campground’s parking lot, we could see the morning fog receding from the distant mountains.
A strange sight when you've been in the desert so recently
Today, we’d be taking an alternate around yet another closure, but for once, it wasn’t because of a fire. This closure was to protect the habitat of the endangered mountain yellow-legged frog.
You know who to call for more information
There were 2 choices for alternates: A 19-mile route with good scenery but poor trail quality, or a 5-mile route with a 2-mile road walk. We opted for the later, since we weren’t supplied for the extra distance.
The road walk, it turned out, was easy.
Though the road was as crooked as the signpostsUnlike Highway 62, we had little traffic to contend with
The road walk took us eventually into a drive-in campground, still on Memorial Day weekend, so we saw all sorts of strange camping devices, like portable shower stalls, and a tent that could fit an entire picnic table inside.
From the campground, we followed a network of day hiking trails, passing by people in cotton clothes who smelled like soap, until we eventually reconnected with the PCT.
Once there, Elizabeth did something quite unlike herself – she decided to rest. We found a scenic spot, and took 20 minutes off.
An extremely rare picture of Elizabeth resting
A few moments later, we continued on, along the valley wall.
This section of the trail was accented with clusters of purple flowersWe crossed the 400 mile marker today
A bit after mile 400, we came to a water supply that the PCT Water Report listed as “a Boy Scout camp”.
Note the directions at the bottomCamp Glenwood - now with antlers
There was a spigot of untreated water nearby, but some hikers out front told us we could get treated water inside the cabin. They were all carrying cans of Tecate Light for some reason.
We ventured inside, and found two men. One was drunk, and was standing by a homemade-looking water filter. The other was more drunk, and was sitting at a table, surrounded by cans of Tecate Light.
“Welcome!” said the sitting man. He started to stand up to shake my hand, then thought better of it and sat back down. I walked over and shook his hand.
“You’ve got a great handshake!” he said, “What’s your name?”
“Marcus. Or Town Food is my trail name.”
“Let me tell you, what you’re doing is inspirational. Walking the PCT, Mexico to Canada. Inspirational, absolutely inspirational. What’s your name?”
“I’m Marcus”.
The conversation repeated like this. He would get excited about how inspirational we are, but then forget who we were. Unfortunately, though we inspired him, we were apparently not inspirational enough to get one of the Tecate Lights he’d given out to so many other hikers. So after explaining some basics about the PCT, and promising him that I’d protect Elizabeth, we made our way out of the cabin, and back to the trail.
I took my water from the spigot, and treated it. The tanks of filtered water inside the cabin were empty, and I don’t think I’d trust the membrane in their homemade filtering system – it looked like it had been repurposed from an auto parts store.
Back on the trail, the day began to drag. Poodle dog bush was still a concern. Keeping an eye out for poodle dog, and hula-ing around it, is really draining, hour after hour.
A big, healthy poodle dogPoodle dog buds ready to bloom
We crossed by a parking lot, and the day suddenly got a lot better – a group of trail angels were giving out cold soda and homemade salsa.
They were all trail runners, and seemed to know a lot about the PCT. Ken, or “Running Deer”, was talkative and jolly. The kind of person who is always talking and laughing about something. E.g. talking to Elizabeth: “So you’re from Texas, what’s the food you’ve missed the most?”
“Hmm, probably breakfast tacos.”
“Ahh! Hahaha! BREAKFAST TACOS!!”
With chips, salsa, and cold Pepsi inside me, and a nice chat behind me, the test of the day went by like a breeze.
Our destination for the night was a campsite called Sulphur Springs, which fortunately didn’t smell like its namesake. It was the only water for a while, so there were many hikers there.
Among them were a Taiwanese woman who chose the PCT because she wanted a trail that was “really long”. And, once again, we camped with Poppy. He had decided at the last minute to hitch around the Endangered Species Closure. “I saved so many frogs today!”, he said.
