Date: 2007-05-10
From: Out West

To: Canada
Miles today: 209.0

Mile # 209. Cabazon, Ca., then by taxi to motel in Banning, Ca. A long walk on blistered heel to public library, so this will be short. We walked up from Warner Springs, mm. 109, to the Palms to Pines highway, mm. 151, without incident; hot dry and extremely windy in spots.The Agua Caliente Creek particularly lovely, with flowing water. We camped on a sand flat twixt some boulders and snags remaining from a huge previous flood and took on water. Over some 6K ft. ridges whose tree cover had been burned off in devastating wildfires, but with grades that were easy enough. Incredible rocks and house sized boulders, sparse desert vegetation, distant water sources, but good water info. Getting up early to get hiking by 0530. In and out of the company of hikers that we have met. At mile 151, elevation 4990 we walked the 1.2 to the renowned Paradise Cafe, famous in hiking circles for its "Jose Burger", so we had a couple (jalapenos and avocado, etc.), a couple of beers, and hitched into Idyllwild, 17 miles, a town described in Yogi's "PCT Handbook" (our main source of Trail info written by triple crown hiker Jackie "Yogi" Mac Donald) as "Gatlinburg without the lights". It lies at about 5200 ft. elev. in the San Jacinto Mts., and is filled with trendy expensive shops and an outfitters' store. I had walked up some wicked blisters in my NBalance 809s, which I was able to replace with a new pair of Golite shoes. We slept in the San Jacinto SP in town in the "hike and bike" campground, $3. for a tentsite with free hot showers and flush toilets. It was a minimal stop with a big restaurant breakfast, no laundry, and an hour to get a ride out of town back to the PCT that afternoon. We hiked from the 151 up into the San Jacintos about 6 miles, and hiked way down off the Trail toward Live Oak Spring. It lost about 500 ft. elevation in the mile down to the spring, so we bailed in a draw where we found some level ground, strewn with cowpies and prickly vegetation and "cowboy" camped between the pies (no tent) for the first time. (We carry a tent and I prefer using it; cowboying,the stars are multitudinous.) Leaving Woodrose in her bag, I hiked down to the spring at 0500 to tank up with water for the hike, which took us up to over 7000 ft. for the first time, and a march thru spectacular forest with Douglas Firs and Ponderosa Pines. (Forgot to mention, the Garner Valley was where "Bonanaza" was filmed. Tres picturesque.) We dropped down onto the Fobes Ranch Road, dry, and found a miraculous water cache and a group of hikers, (all of whom had passed us) lounging, lunching. We were delighted by the arrival of Yogi her own self, she on her 4th PCT thru-hike! We set out of Fobes before her, up into a section of the San Jacintos that is said to be the steepest terrain on the PCT; indeed it was graded AT style and steep as could be; additionally, the Trail itself became an engineering masterpiece, blasted from granite cliff faces, with tread about 3 feet wide over sheer cliffs with hundreds of feet to the bottom. There were sections in which the builders must have hung from ropes in order to lay up dry battered retaining walls. There were no horse tracks in this section. Many places there was barely enough space for two people to pass, much less two horses. The wind swooped and gusted constantly; one leaned into the mountainside. Tall, accomplished Yogi caught up with us and I was delighted to be hiking in her tracks, respectfully trying to pry Trail info from her. Yogi,42, tall, and possessing long strong legs, said to me, "You've got a nice looking pair of legs, Muleskinner." Nothing beats a nice pair of legs except blisters. Yogi walked away from us, the Trail was steep and cliffy, our water was getting short , there was no level ground to even cowboy on, and it was getting late, we were tired from hiking the slow steep trail. We were searching for a spot to sleep on, shelter and rest became more important than food and water. We were at about 8100 ft. when we came up over a saddle with flat ground and a group of hikers sprawled, cowboyed, tented and eating. We were down to one liter of water between the two of us, so we couldn't cook. I prepared my special dinner tortillas, one apiece; 1 1/2 slices of ham, a little onion, some cheese. Needless to say, with 1 liter of water, there ain't no washing up.We were about 6500 feet above Palm Springs whose bright lights glittered all night below our camp. The next morning we were off and found, in less than a mile, a tiny snow melt rivulet where we took on water. Much of that day's hike was steep and rocky, taking us up over 9000 ft for the first time, and leading to Deer Spring at about 8800 feet, where we were reminded to take on water to carry us down 22.6 miles, with a descent of over 7600 ft.in elev!! This included the descent of Fuller Ridge, which the guidebook pages described as "tortuous" (Aptly described,especially adding 16 lbs of water. We hiked down to about 7200 ft. elev. and camped on a flat ridge. Started down the next day leaving marvelous old growth Wilderness forest, descending toward the desert, dropping 6000 ft in 18 miles, to no shade whatsoever save that from huge leaning boulders. We were in the company of three other younger male hikers who were much faster than we. They hid under rocks to escape the heat and cut switchbacks on the Trail (a Trail no-no) and passed us, then we passed them as we kept on walking thru the heat of the day like Floridiots are known to do. At the bottom, there was a drinking fountain tapped into an aqueduct coming down from still snow covered San Jacinto peak. The water in the aqueduct, now miles from the snowmelt,down in the desert was about 85 degrees. We were having to go into the town of Cabazon to go to the PO, so we tanked up with water, thinking we would have one more night on the Trail . We had to cross 4.5 miles of wretched desert to reach I-10 to try to hitch into Cabazon. 4.5 miles of sugar sand, wind blowing dust devils at 20 mph, the lowest elevation on the PCT save the Columbia River on the WA/OR border. A miserable section. We arrived at the I-10 , Southern Pacific rail corridor (east and west tracks) at about 1730 hrs, desert whipped, still carrying and drinking our 85 degree water, and found the( now )four other hikers sprawled like dusty filthy lizards under the railroad overpass. I had to put coins on the tracks to get some flat SP souvenirs, while the lizards and my dirty little Woodrose (Miss May's tentmate of the month) lounged. The four lizards started north up the Trail , Woodrose and I decided to try to hoof in the 4.5 miles to Cabazon on the frontage road that Yogi's book said was a hard hitch. No cars (hardly any) passed on the road sandwiched between I-10 roaring by and the Southern Pacific's frequent freights. A double deckered AMTRAK raced by and we force marched uphill into the sunset and 20 mph winds thru the San Gorgonio Pass and hundreds of windmills. Hardly any cars passed , none offered a ride, Woodrose was fading and getting grouchy, her sore knee and my blisters hating the pavement. I couldn't jettison the water, thinking we might have to give up and crawl off into the creosote bushes 'twixt the Interstate and the RR tracks and camp the night. Miraculously, after about an hour and a half of this final torture, some angel in an old Merce stopped in the road and offered us a ride up to Cabazon, to the Wheel Inn Diner, where the dinosaurs from Pee Wee Herman's movie now reside along side the interstate. We had the meatloaf special, two Newcastles each, we looked at each other at 2000 hours, and said, "Y'know, if it hadn't been for that guy in the Mercedes, we'd still be walking." We will return to the PCT tomorrow, Nobolocos. Hope all are well and that Luxury Studios can put this up on Trailjournals for us. Hadn't seen a newspaper for a while. Great to hear and see that the Bushmasters' Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are going so well. Perhaps War Criminal Cheney should open an office in the Green Zone and wrap up his little cakewalk up with a personal touch. Dick and Jalal Talabani must have the same sized flak jackets. Miserable crooked bastards. No doubt when I come out of the woods in Canada, 4000 US Troops lives will have been squandered and oil will be no cheaper. We will crawl from Iraq as we crawled from Vietnam. Young George and Dick didn't go to Vietnam; they don't yet know how to crawl. Send your prized son. Peace is not victory is not peace. JMSJ