We did finally manage to get fragments of information from Strange. Warren, Diane, and Peter were all here the night before last and all three decided to get off trail for a while to let the snow melt. It didn’t snow here last night, but as crappy as it was, it’s easy to imagine San a Jacinto and Fuller Ridge did pick up more snow. Another father and son hiking southbound got in later than us last night. They chose to camp outside rather than endure the inside (which was not bad at all once the lights went out).
Ivy was first up this morning. She tried to find the coffee but eventually gave up the search when I offered her some instant—it’s better than nothing and really great when laying in a tent on a cold drizzly morning. Not so great if you wake up comfortably warm in a dumpy house. Strange got up and joined us at the morning breakfast table to share poop stories on the trail. Normally, I’d be right on track with this line, but when I’m eating dry peanut butter on a bagel, it’s a little too close to home.
Get this, Bunny and I were the first to leave. Do I need to repeat this? Bunny and I were the first to leave! There are two options to get back to the trail: the purist route retracing our steps from yesterday evening, or, a road walk of the exact same distance. It was still very windy and foggy and walking the trail would expose one more harshly to the elements. The road walk would shelter us a bit. I asked everyone which route they were going. EVERYONE said road. I asked if anyone would think less of me if I walked the route most traveled and everyone, very supportively said they could not possibly think any less of me than they already do. What a great start of a trail family! We took the road most travelled and found magic in the form of oranges supplied by a local Boy Scout Troop.
As expected, I obsessed on skipping the trail section. It’s the whole slippery slope argument that the NRA uses, and the anti-abortion groups use, and trail purists use. Bunny and I were hiking along in and out of the fog, physically and metaphorically, for about 15 minutes before Wolf and Ivy caught up to us. Ivy started talking about skipping ahead a few hundred miles to get around the snow and keep hiking because Wolf had gotten a text from Peter that there was snow up to 2’ deep on the trail right after Paradise Cafe. I could feel the landslide under my feet beginning. What the hell, I’ve heard there’s a road that runs all the way to the Canadian border. We can be done by the weekend if we put our minds to it.
The four of us walked on and discussed our options for the next 13 miles. They walked slow so the old folks could keep up. It was actually a pleasant stroll slightly downhill or level most of the way. We caught glimpses of snow covered peaks to our right that looked a bit more than we wanted to tackle, and they weren’t even as high as San Jacinto. At about 10 miles in, we caught a peek at San Jacinto and my heart sank. It was a solid white mass without any breaks in the snow. Peter Gabriel has let me down for the very first time in my life. There’s no getting over San Jacinto any time soon.
After our second break we started climbing. This is when Ivy came alive. She shot off into the horizon and we quickly lost sight of her and Wolf. It was apparent we couldn’t hike with them for extended periods of time. As soon as we lost sight of them, we ran out of water for the second time in two days. Once again, it was just a half mile after we passed the last water source. We hiked the final 4.6 miles without water.
I was run down and slightly dehydrated. We could only keep plodding along because it never felt comfortable to even stop and sit. I was so tired that I didn’t have enough energy to turn around and check on Bunny. I had to reinstitute my sonar system to track Bunny. It’s been a few months since we have used the system and I hoped it still worked. We’d have to try it out without proper field testing. I turned it on and it worked first try! It is a simple system, when I want to check if Bunny is behind me, I fart loudly. She immediately responds “I’m right behind you!” Success!
We got to Mary’s Place which is just a 500 gallon water tank with a couple of picnic tables and a mini library. Patches, Ivy, and Wolf were already set up. We talked for a bit before we set up camp and cooked supper. We kept hoping Cheesy Turtle would show up, but he never did. I did leave him a note in the sand at a stream crossing before we made it to Mary’s Place. Of course, we all talked about skipping ahead to Agua Dulce tomorrow once we make it to Paradise Cafe. Patches really liked the idea because he’s not ready to go home yet and he’s not able to walk in the snow since he’s had a double hip replacement. Yes, we’re hiking with a guy 7 years older than us with prosthetic hips and we can’t keep up. A car ride sounds kind of good right now.
EFG