Month: May 2016

We had an amazing breakfast. I mean amazing. I know this is not what you’re supposed to write about when hiking the PCT, but it was really really good.

Elizabeth found a place on Yelp called “Tommy’s Kitchen”. The name didn’t sound like much, but it had good reviews, and was described as “Swiss”. It was a bit of a walk, but Pathfinder and Wonky needed to start late, so Elizabeth and I had some time.

When we got there, we found a picturesque but empty restaurant. The building was thoroughly decorated, and had lots of thoughtful features, like little squares of felt to keep the front door from slamming.

Long story short, we had the brie and stewed apple omelette, and the müsli, and they were amazing.

A few people came into the restaurant as we ate, but it remained almost entirely and inexplicably empty. I hope it stays in business long enough for me to come back, after the PCT. I need to see whether I just liked it because of hiker hunger, or whether it really is good. This is for Science.

Afterwards, Team Fire Closure gathered together at the post office, and set out for the trail, intending to summit Mt. San Jacinto today at 10800 feet.

Navigation was a bit tricky since the trails out of town were not the PCT, and the route over San Jacinto was an alternate. We talked to a southbound section-hiker, and he set us on the right trail. He also mentioned having just passed a man from Wisconsin.

“We need to catch him” said Wonky, Team Fire Closure’s token Wisconsonian. So we sped up, and soon enough, catch him we did.

His name was Bill, he was a dairy scientist, and he was also interested in submitting San Jacinto and walking around the Lake Fire Closure. So Team Fire Closure got it’s fifth member.

The climb up San Jacinto was tough, windy, and cold. Easy to sweat, but also easy to shiver. We started finding patches of snow.

Up at the summit, it was below freezing, and there were icy biting winds above 50mph. It was hard to take pictures. It was hard, even, to put on your jacket without it blowing away.

On the way down, I noticed an Alpine-style hut.

As we descended the mountain, continuing north on the PCT, the sun started to go down. Unfortunately, there were no usable campsites, due to the high winds and the exposure. On the few available flat areas, our tents would’ve blown away. So we ended up putting our headlights on, and hiking well after dark before we found a good location.

On the bright side, being near the summit while the sub went down gave us some good views.

This post will contain a short description of the recurring characters. I’ll update it as we meet more people.

Marcus
From: California
Description: Me.
Trail Name: Town Food
Named By: Pathfinder
Origin Story: When Pathfinder learned that I’ve eaten town food nearly every day, my name was born.

Elizabeth
From: Texas
Description: My sister.
Trail Name: Pitter-Patter
Named By: Pathfinder
Origin Story: Pathfinder and Pitter-Patter are both runners. It seems her stride length is unusually short for her speed.

Alex
From: U.K.
Description: First seen heading south at high speed from Lake Morena Campground, convinced he had missed it. I wanted to name him “Southbound” for that, but he was too nice.
Trail Name: Rain Man
Named By: Wonky
Origin Story: Whenever Wonky saw him, it started to rain

Garrett
From: Idaho
Description: A fast, experienced backpacker, and a former engineer for long-term storage of nuclear waste.
Trail Name: Pathfinder
Named By: Rain Man
Origin Story: The directionally-challenged Rain Man was impressed by his ability to follow the PCT.

Breanna
From: Wisconsin
Description: A UX engineer for an ad agency. Has a theory that engineers are wildly overrepresented on the PCT. We met her and Garrett under a shady rock while descending into the blisteringly hot Anza Borrego desert.
Trail Name: Wonky
Named By: Rain Man
Origin Story: Early in her hike, she packed her backpack so awkwardly it wobbled with every step.

Bill
From: Wisconsin
Description: A specialist in culturing and fermenting of dairy.
Trail Name: Bobber
Named By: Somebody on the Appalachian Trail.
Origin Story: It sounds like his middle name.

Graham
From: Antarctica
Description: A mechanical engineer and food enthusiast.
Trail Name: Sprout
Named By: ?
Origin Story: He carries jars of mung beans in water in his pack, waiting for them to sprout so as to achieve a different nutrition profile.

We packed up camp and headed out along the ridge, and were treated to more long views of the desert. Soon, we reached the border of the Mountain Fire Closure, the first of several closed sections of the PCT.

So, we began an Alternate route around that part of the trail, called Halfmile’s Alternate. It took us down step dirt roads, then to a paved road that passed through a large property signed “Girl Scout Training Camp”. It had large, threatening “No Trespassing” signs at least every 20 feet for a long ways.

As we descended further, we were treated to our first rattlesnake sighting. It was about 3 feet long, lying across the road. When it saw us, it rattled and fled into the bushes, buzzing as it slithered.

I’ll put a video here when WordPress supports it.

Halfmile’s alternate followed highway 243 once we got to the bottom of the mountain, on a dirt maintenance road under power lines.

I was struck by how scenic this maintenance road was.

The maintenance road meet up with highway 253 after a few miles, near Lake Hemmit Campground, an RV destination overlooking the lake. After a brief stop at the campground’s store, (at which I enjoyed a delicious Strawberry Fresca), we went a bit further to a park to eat our lunch.

Just as we were opening our packs, Garrett and Brianna appeared out of thin air. They, like us, wanted to walk all the way to Canada without driving around anything, so they had taken the same alternate.

We had lunch with them, and decided to finish this alternate together, so we set off onto a system of bike trails and dirt roads that would bring us back to the trail, and then into Idyllwild, our next resupply stop.

We learned that they had trail names already. Garrett had been named Pathfinder, because his ability to find a trail had impressed someone. Specifically, the guy I had nicknamed “Wrong Way”. Brianna was called “Wonky”, because she had once packed here backpack so badly it wobbled as she walked.

Pathfinder said that my trail name should be “Town Food”, because I had so far managed to eat in town at least once a day.

As we approached Idyllwild, curious little buildings started appearing in the trees.

We eventually descended into Idyllwild proper, checked into the hotel, and ran errands.

Pathfinder and Wonky had heard that a particular pizzeria was especially hiker-friendly, so we went there for dinner. They served huge portions, gave us a discount, and put our picture on the wall.

They also served good beer. We tried one we hadn’t had before – Firestone’s Luponic Distortion – and it was quite good.

We talked about the next fire closure, the Lake Fire. This one had no official route around it, but I had found one online. It looked difficult, with complicated forestry roads, abandoned highways, and some bushwhacking. We decided to stick together for that. I thought we needed a team name.

We called it a night, and went to bed anticipating a big climb up Mt. San Jacinto tomorrow.