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Day 15: we can’t get down

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Day 15
Miles: 18
San Jacinto peak to camp near base at mile 201

Didn’t sleep that well, but when I walk outside for the first time this morning, the view stops me in my tracks. “Wow!” My early morning brain forgot to remind me that I was at nearly 11,000 ft.

I’m starting off the day feeling new and optimistic. I’ve got a brand new name. Taking a trail name is a thru-hiker rite of passage and it feels so serious. You have to be careful with what you call yourself. Buckeye gave me a name a few days back, if I wanted it, but I had to let it settle a bit. Gizmo. Pretty good name for an engineer with pack full of gadgets and thingamabobs. I signed the trail register with it this morning, finally put it in ink. Gizmo. Gizmo’s walking all the way thru.
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Day 14: it’s all uphill

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Day 14
Miles: 10
Idyllwild to San Jacinto peak

The sun us coming in the window but I ignore it. “Do we want to get up?” asks J.
   “I want to stay here foreeeeever,” I whine, and pull the covers over my head.
   “Well we can stay until 11:59,” he replies equably, then rolls over himself.

Around 9 I’m tired of feeling lazy so I get out of bed. I don’t feel ready for this. I’m glad I packed up last night. I call my mom one more time and then we head out. We haven’t even crossed the street when we run into ET. He’s been struggling with Achilles tendonitis for a while, and keeps talking about getting off trail to rest, but never does. Someone talked him into taking ibuprofen this morning and he’s feeling good. Looks like we get to be a band of three for a while.
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Day 13: no rest for the weary

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Day 13
Miles: zero
Idyllwild

Zero days may not involve any hiking, but they aren’t very restful. It’s all a blur of chores and hordes of thru-hikers hanging around, and lots of money spent.

J and I are re- supplied for our next leg. I’ve got a new pair of shoes in an extremely obnoxious shade of purple. Fingers crossed that these are the ones. A new shirt, not polyester, that hopefully will cut down the personal stench. It’s purple. And I’ve ordered a new pack – purple. I’m not super into purple, but that’s what the universe ordered up.
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Day 12: down the mountain

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Day 12
Miles: 12ish?
From mile 160, oak grove campsite, to Idyllwild

The evening air was calm and buttery when we set up our tarp last night.  – We were deceived. – The breeze started shortly after bed and accelerated from there.

I had an inkling there was going to be trouble early in the night when J woke me up. Apparently he had a millipede on his face and he was making a ruckus about it. The winds were really picking up but I just went back to sleep.

Then the gusts started. In the middle of the night J and I ended up re-staking the entire tarp. We should probably stake the tarp like there’s going to be a windstorm every time – there usually is.
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Day 11: detours

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Day 11
Miles: 19 (17 on-trail)
From water cache at 143 to San Jacintos, mile 160

The sun rises directly into our faces, and Buckeye is rocking Queen on his smartphone to start the day. Time to get up. All these AT veterans are showing their thru-hiker chops – we may be keeping pace with them during the day, but they pack up their gear about three times as fast. We’re bringing up the rear again.

I had thought that the valley down to the west was where we were headed, but the trail winds us north instead. Suddenly we are hiking in and out of steep, narrow valleys with striking views. J and I are both feeling good this morning. This is the first time I’ve really walked the miles, instead of trudging, limping, or mincing them. We nearly keep pace with the AT crowd, and we’ve managed to hike eight miles by 11 am. Onpoint is waiting at the junction of the PCT with highway 74, hoping to find a hiking buddy for the day.
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Day 10: it’s all downhill

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Day 10
Miles: 16
Trail Angel Mike’s to Anza water cache

The four of us shuffle out of the bunkhouse to a perfectly calm, blue morning. Mike’s put a thermos of coffee out, so we shake off the morning haze and get on our way. We’ve barely hit the trail when Buckeye yells,  “Promise!”

A hiker way down the trail yells back. It’s Promise, another Appalachian trail alumni who had hiked with both Buckeye and E.T. They decide to wait up for her and Latestart, who is hiking with her. Things are not feeling great with my knee or my feet this morning, so J and I decide to walk ahead and let them catch up. I’m determined to walk slowly today. I can’t let my knee keep giving out on me after lunch – I need it to work all the time.
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Day 9: unplanned stops

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Day 9
Miles: 12
Agua caliente spring to trail angel Mike’s house

I don’t know if the tarp saved us from dew last night, but it caught five big bird bombs for us, and all on my side. I’ll chalk that up for a win.

The area where we camped is basically a poison oak farm, and hiking out of the Agua Caliente valley is a poison oak gauntlet. I’m leading the way, and my morning conversation with J consists nearly entirely of poison oak alerts: “left side… right side…right side, left side, both sides! Both sides!” We spend some time speculating on why, if it’s poisonous, is it also camouflaged? All the sidling and ducking aggravates my wonky knee.
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Day 8: taking a break

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Day 8
Miles: 5
May 9, 2014
Warner Springs to Agua Caliente Creek (mile 115)

Cowboy camping turned out to not be a great idea. It was barely dark when we got hit with a heavy dew – the tops of our sleeping bags felt drenched, but it was too late to fix it and too late to care. I slept badly. My feet ached so badly that they woke me up all night. (Although that meant that I woke up to the milky way glimmering overhead – squinting through sleep to appreciate it, just for a moment.)
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Day 7: no shower for me

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(Header photo by J)
Day 7
Miles: 19
Third gate water cache to Warner Springs

Woke up cosy and snug next to a juniper tree. A little too cosy – it’s already late. J and I don’t get started until nine. We’d like to make it to Warner Springs tonight, and it’s 19 miles away. That would be my second longest hiking day ever, the day after my first longest. Time to get started either way. First I have to put on my torture devices shoes. I’ve got tired feet.

Not long after starting, we finally turn a corner that takes on onto the north face of the San Felipe hills. The view we had all yesterday is replaced, and the plants change too. We’re back in scrub. Beaver tail cacti are up here too though, and every corner you turn there’s a cactus exploding in incandescent pink bloom. The view is much greener to the north.
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Day 6: twenty miles

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Day 6
Miles: 20
Mile 71 (anza borrego) to mile 91 (san felipe hills)

J is telling me to wake up – it’s morning. I’m totally stiff – I don’t think I moved once the entire night. Our little campsite is calm and quiet. We’ve got some miles to make.

The trail has taken us through the hills of Anza Borrego state park, then traversed across their north face. Today we’ll need to finish the traverse, cross the valley, then head back up the San Felipe hills. We can see the switchbacks from here. There are no water sources in reach today. There are two water caches, but last I heard the scissors crossing water cache was no longer being maintained, and I don’t know much about the other. J and I still have nearly nine liters apiece, so we’ll be fine regardless, but we’re starting out heavy. I feel very grounded, as in, pressed into the ground.
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