Finally, it rained. We had taken a double zero because of an expected storm that we didn’t want to be caught out in. The storm hit Warner Springs in the form of a light rain that lasted about 5 hours altogether. It did more damage than that at higher elevations. Reportedly another 2’ of snow has been dumped on the summit of San Jacinto. The next 7 days look promising for hiking and we can hope it gets warm enough to melt SJ enough by the time we get there that we’ll be able to pass.
It is very nice to have a picnic table near our tent for packing up. Last night, long after we went to bed, I’m thinking 7:30ish, a couple of thru-hikers from last year swung by the community center to distribute some magic in the form of cuties, grapes, and chocolate covered almonds and they chose “our” table to leave them on. I got out of bed the second I heard the hiker battle cry “free food” to try to secure our share. The couple was very encouraging to us early season suckers (I mean thru-hikers) and told us they hadn’t meant to drive all the way down here today but just did. They were from LA and heading back there. Here’s a great example of the trail always provides.
Kevin, No Trail Name Yet, wanted to head to LA for a few days to get better cold weather equipment. His grandparents live near Pasadena. He had been trying to find a ride all day yesterday, but, no luck. I introduced this year’s Kevin to last year’s thru-hikers and now he has a ride to his grandparents today. Alas, we seem to have lost our young whipping boy, but he has young legs and will quickly catch us.
Wolf, Ivy, and Cheesy Turtle left about 10-15 minutes before we were all packed up, but we had agreed to try to catch up with them at Mike’s Place. No one is certain what is actually there, but rumor is that there is covered camping and the possibility of pizza. They had me at pizza. We should be about ready to put in an 18 mile day.
We crossed the Warner Springs Meadows and were amazed by the beauty of the mountains around us. We had purposely stayed in town because of the lower elevation it afforded us. We were around 3000’. The mountains around us are 5-6000’ and they all had fresh snow on them from last night. We could only hope that it melts by the time we get to Mike’s Place at about 5100’ elevation. It was starting out nice enough—sunny and 50s which makes for perfect hiking weather.
Another reason we stayed at Warner Springs Community Center, the primary one in my world, was 24 hour access to flushing toilets. I haven’t had any shot practice for the last few days, but I can live with that. Bunny, on the other hand, claimed that I rushed her getting ready this morning and didn’t allow her enough time to use said porcelain. Instead, we headed for, and defiled, the closest living California Live Oak we could find.
The first 3.5 miles of trail was level walking through California Live Oak groves and meadows. California Live Oaks are huge old trees that never loose their leaves. The acorns look like torpedos. If I were younger and not afraid of falling, I’d be climbing these trees like mad. They are a little boys dream climbing tree.
The rest of the day felt like we were constantly climbing. The grade of climb was never over 300’ per mile, but 8 miles of climbing will get to you. We did catch up with Cheesy Turtle when he stopped for lunch. We continued on and crossed a fairly wide, fast creek. The day was clouding up and started raining fairly hard. We stopped under a huge oak tree to get out of the rain and put on our rain covers. I thought I had asked Bunny to save the trash bag she had been using as a pack cover since she had gotten a new one and I don’t have a replacement yet. She heard “cut it up and throw it away” which she did. We just waited and snacked hoping for a quick end to the rain since it was only a 20% chance today.
Cheesy caught up with us while we were eating. We talked for a few minutes until the sun came back out. Since we were climbing, we took off our jackets and continued on. The three of us walked together for the next 7 miles crossing the same creek another 5 times. About a half mile after the last crossing, Bunny and I both ran out of water. It was another 3 miles until the next water. We had no choice but push on. Cheesy offered us water right away, but I didn’t want to burden him because of our stupidity.
The water was a good quarter mile off of the trail. I went down and brought back 5 liters for us to filter. Bunny had pushed herself too far without breaking. After we drank a couple liters, we filled up our bladders and gave the extra we had to Cheesy. He took off while we were packing up thinking we’d catch up in a few minutes. We didn’t see him again until we got to Mike’s Place because Bunny wasn’t feeling up to speed for a couple of miles.
The clouds rolled back in and the day got cold again. The winds picked up and we got cold. This was supposed to be a nice day, but it was going downhill fast. We finally got to the turn to Mike’s and mist was blowing in the wind. Mike’s Place was not the Shangri La we were hoping for. We walked past a dumpy place surrounded by a chain link fence with razor wire on top. They must be very proud and possessive of all the garbage they have accumulated over the years.
We recognized Ivy’s, Wolf’s, and Cheesy’s tent’s set up outside a slightly rundown house, but saw no signs of anyone. We walked around the house looking for a way in. We dropped our packs on a covered porch and found the front door. We saw a bunch of people in the living room who waved us in. We walked in to find the three people we were looking for plus a couple we hadn’t seen since Pioneer Mail Picnic Site when we stayed in the tent for 40 hours. It was Alley and Daniel. I tried talking to them, but there was another guy who kept talking constantly. It turned out this was the caretaker. We finally were able to get his attention long enough for him to stand up and welcome us. The most striking feature of this guy was his 4’ tail.
Yes, tail. Strange, a shortened version of his name, but very apropos. It was crappy weather outside and kind of dumpy inside, but Strange was friendly enough. He offered to let us sleep inside to get out of the weather. Snow was expected up here. There was a fire keeping the place warm, no wind, and working plumbing. Maybe it is Shangri La, just a lower grade hiker version.
Mike uses this house as a personal getaway and he doesn’t come out that often. Once a week at most. He decided to open it up to hikers to come in to get some water and have a camping spot, or a spot out of the weather if needed. He likes to have someone stay here to make sure things don’t get too out of hand. There are daily safety meetings by most guests, if you understand my meaning. If not, don’t worry about it. This is California and it’s legal.
Throughout the course of the evening, we had a very lively conversation about…everything that flitted through Strange’s mind. The beauty of talking with him is that he couldn’t remember who he was talking to because he has some memory issues, often stopping mid-sentence and forgetting what he was talking about. If you wanted to extract yourself from a conversation, you merely had to walk in front of another person, thus transferring the stream of conversation. I had a great time talking with him and Ivy because the philosophy he has adopted resembles Issac Asimov’s Foundation novels which I happen to have decent recollections of. Yes, nerd.
EFG