Day 22
Miles: 8
From Deep Creek to 8 miles from Deep Creek

Hot spring soak in the morning, what a life. Most of the thru-hikers are on the trail before I’ve even had breakfast, but Sylvia and Billy have the same plans as us: rest day at deep creek.

It’s warm and sunny, which means J can dry out his stuff. I managed to keep my clothes and bag dry yesterday, but J didn’t. He tucked his plastic trash bag around his stuff instead of putting his stuff inside – looks like I won’t be adopting his method.

J and I migrate from the hot pools to the cool creek to the shade and back.    I wash my socks and take a nap. It’s memorial day weekend and the local crowd has rolled in – an entire flock of dredded nutwhackers. Naked long haired free spirits everywhere you turn, what a life.

Around four we finally get our stuff together and walk out. Billy and Sylvia took off about an hour ago.  The ten miles of deep creek that we walked yesterday were spectacular – the last three miles of it are almost as beautiful – but marred with trash and graffiti. Huge granite walls, all covered in tags. Beer cans, water bottles, used TP. I can’t imagine what it would be like if the springs were right off the road. Who tags rocks anyways??

We come out of deep creek canyon at the mojave river spillway. Between the crazy clouds and the concrete there’s a weird post – industrial apocalyptic vibe going on. The creek bed below is torn up with ATV tracks. “I think this place wins for ugliest spot on the PCT so far,” says J.
  “I dunno,” I reply. “The I-10 underpass west of Palm springs was pretty horrible.” I don’t suppose there’s any way to connect an cross- section of the country without including a few ugly bits. Not anymore at least.

We get out of there and back into manzanita foothills. The sandy trail and shrubs look just like our very first day outside Hauser Creek. We’ve come a long ways. J and I tuck ourselves behind an oak tree for the night – Wrightwood tomorrow.

Happy graffiti here – Californians going around painting rainbows.

Not so scenic

Back to the hills