- Date: 2023-05-30
- Pct day: 25
- Start: Mile 307
- End: Mile 329
- Distance: 22 Miles
- Ascent: 3037feet
- Descent: 3185 feet
- Start name: Hot Springs
- End name: picnic area below trail
- Wake up: 06:00
- Start hiking: 07:15
- At camp: 19:15
- In bed: 21:00
- Where I slept: next to a picnic table
- Shower: no
Key moments
- I woke up about 6am, with my buff over my eyes and my ear plugs in, such a nice way to sleep
- I packed up quickly, unfortunately the day before my cheap knock off dry compression bag had broken so I just shoved my sleeping bag into my pack Liner in my pack. It seemed to work well enough. So much loft in this feathered friends flicker sleeping bag. So good
- I shoveled my overnight oats into my mouth so I could rest and digest in the hot spring before heading back on trail.
- overnight oats: breakfast essentials (a strange milk powdery sachet they sell here) and two sachets of maple sugar oats, a sachet of instant coffee and some peanut butter all shaken up. Leave that to soak overnight and boom, breakfast that gets you moving in multiple ways
- I soaked in the hot spring before hiking - a bunch of other hikers were up for a morning soak before hiking too, Dimond Dave, Lucky Marcela, Goldilocks Beth, and Mariah. Later Julay joined us, eating a hotdog bun with almonds and peanut butter for breakfast. I need to find out exactly what was in it. It was interesting
- There’s only so much hot soaking you can do, and after 20 minutes I was ready to get back hiking
- It was a glorious morning walking out - the mountain, San Antonio, was visible down the gulley/ravine we were walking down
- I had a couple of real moments walking down with this stunning view. Tears were shed as I was listening to Jacob Collier’s live cover of “how deep is your love “
- Walked to a cool dam, I’m not sure what sort of water spillage they are expecting given that it was a weir type thing about 60m above the current river that was already quite full, but I’m no hydro engineer (I later found out this was a backup dam in case another one broke because this is near the San Andreas fault. How crazy)
- The concrete walls were so flat and exactly parallel that they had the most incredible echo I’ve ever heard. I’ll try and attach a video.
- We crossed “deep creek” - true to its name I was up to my butt in the water - another guy somehow dropped his phone while crossing. Thankfully the water wasn’t even really moving so he was able to find it, and these days new phones are pretty waterproof so he was all good!
- Shortly after this crossing there was a trail angel set up at a road crossing with a very comprehensive setup!
- Coke, Dr Pepper, root beer, Gatorade, chips, candy, ice cream, trash bags, a charging station, chairs!
- His name is “corgi legs” - he was on the trail earlier this year but has come off the trail with an injury, so decided to do trail magic
- When we approached him with a donation he said “nah I’m doing this for the Karma, I’m actually a terrible person”, very funny guy!
- I had a good laugh at this
- I tried heaps of American chips - Fritos are the clear winner, they are kind of like corn chips but curly and not triangles
- I spent ages soaking up the god vibes and the great energy from all the hikers in this oasis.
- I hiked out of there eventually with two other hikers, a husband and wife combo, named Rev and Strider. Named so because they hike fast! Haven’t hiked that fast yet on trail, it was great, they are very cool people
- Bumped into my friends from yesterday, chopper and snaps, and I was feeling like it really such such a special day to have so many great things happen and be with cool people to share it with
- hiked around a beautiful lake, which Snaps used to help him find the Leak in his sleeping pad - very cool!
- Eventually made it to the picnic campsite at mile 329. We “cowboy camped”, which is just sleeping in the floor not in a tent. Everyone was saying the insects aren’t too much of an issue but I found a large (for Americans) spider - everyone immediately said that they have ear plugs. I doubt a spider would crawl in your ear but I didn’t wan to risk it - in the earplugs went
- The campsite had flushing toilets and soap and trash bins. So good
- i noticed rhat my right foot now has another beginning of a blister on it again. Hard to catch a break.
Plan from here
- tomorrow is the legendary McDonald’s part of the hike! And my “McDonald’s resupply “ Where all I buy for the next 24-36 hours to Wrightwood at mile 370, is from fromMcdonalds
Animals sighted
- garter snakes
- Birds
- Lizards
Gear thoughts
- I might keep my ccf - it is handy for stretching!
Physical condition
- right foot has a blister on the ball of the foot
Thoughts and Observations
- I just need to go at my own pace - I’ll find people who’re like me that way
Some of the bad things
- blisters really suck
- It’s exciting to have people become “your people, your friends” on the trail, but they can appear anywhere on trail. I need to have faith that sticking my plan for hiking will land me with the right crowd of people
Quotes of the day
- there’s toilet here. Not a pit toilet, a toilet (we all gasped at this information)
#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023
