First section back

    I started with my father Fritz, at Van Dusen Road.  On May 12, we camped the first night, right at the road, where we were dropped off.  That night we ended up camping with three other groups of people. I had a feeling since the PCT Kick-Off there would be a lot of people and I will have few nights alone anymore. From that point, till the rest of the time we were on the trail, we camped with people every night.  We talked to a couple that told me something cool that they are doing, and I have decided to do the same thing. They had the goal of making it to the border of Canada, but skip all the not-so-fun-stuff. In their words, “places with no water, lots of poisonous brush, desert stuff, and just do the fun stuff.” I liked that idea, but ill come back in the winter months and do the desert stuff.  The next morning, something wonderful appeared, Trail Magic. This is where someone comes and cooks for you. A couple had come up to the road and brought donuts and fruit, which was really nice. After that, dad and I left and hiked 10 miles that day.  A big cut in miles for me, and a perfect amount of miles for my dad, we ended up at Little Bear Springs Trail Camp.  We got there at 2 pm.  Then we realized that we had forgotten something, our books.  So we played in the water, and went on a walk. When 6pm rolled around we made dinner, and start preparing for bed at 8pm.

            The next day we had a slow start so we would end up having a full day. We were going to Deep Creek Bridge, which was 13 miles.  Some highlights from the day, were when we came across a vase on the side of the trail, so we picked some flowers, put it in the vase, and took photos. Later on we had to run from a swarm of bees.  (This was the second time I ran from a swarm of bees on the trail). We arrived at Deep Creek Bridge around 5pm. We set up camp on a beach there, about 10 feet from the water. It was a beautiful spot and this happened to be the first time on the trail that I got to go swimming. After swimming, washing, and dinner, we didn’t have to wait too long for bed. My dad found a book on the side of the trail that day, so he would read a chapter then would rip it out and give it to me, and then I would read it. 

            We decided that we were not going to do the detour, I had been through some bad sections on the trail and I wondered how bad it could really be, plus all the hikers I talked to were not going on the detour either.  So we got up, ate breakfast, and then started hiking.  Now this section of the hike, down Deep Creek was beautiful, I think so far one of the most beautiful sections I had done yet. Every corner we went around, we would look down at the creek and it was so neat.  Our day was only a 9-mile day because we wanted to get there early to the Deep Creek Hot Springs.  I had this vision in my mind that we would be there at night with maybe six to ten other PCT hikers, and we could get some pool time to ourselves.  This is what was described to me from a friend that raved about the place, so when we planned this section we planned this day to be a short day so we could hang out there for a while. During the hike, about three miles from the hot springs, something very interesting happened. There was a man that was walking the opposite direction and he was completely nude!  Well, he was wearing shoes, and a backpack. We could tell he was going to have bad sunburn waiting to happen. He was leaving the hot springs, so hopefully there would be no one there. We stopped at Willow Creek for a break and three PCT hikers passed us. When we were getting closer to the hot springs, we started hearing voices, and seeing people camping down in the creek south of the springs, then we rounded the corner, and my heart dropped. There were probably between 30 to 50 people at the hot springs.  (I said 50 and my dad said 30). These were not people that we wanted to be around, because most of them were nude, and it wasn’t the good kind of nude, like attractive young people, it was old, larger people. Most of the people seemed to be tripping out on some drug. It also looked like some of these people had permanent residence there.  We walked by the top hot springs, and put our fingers in and kept on going.  We camped down the creek about a quarter mile.  Our spot was beautiful, but I was crushed because my vision of these hot springs did not become true at all.  We swam and bathed in the creek. Then we went exploring down the creek, while avoiding the poison oak on either side of the creek.  Then we came back, had dinner, read, and then went to bed. 

            On the back one of my Cliff Bars there was a quote, and it spoke to me on the trail, so here it is, “the anticipation of an adventure can often be as exciting as the adventure itself, imagining the journey, visualizing the sights, and being open to changes in the plans.  Whatever the route, two things remain constant: our passion for the outdoors, and that we want to feel good along the way.”  This felt so true to me because I at this point have had so many changes to my original plan, and now with the many realizations I have had, I realize its part of the adventure. 

            The next day, We got up and set off. There was only one PCT hiker that passed us that day, and it was in the morning right when we got onto the trail, then we had the whole day walking alone which was nice for us.  When we were leaving Deep Creek, we hiked down and crossed this really cool bridge; it was red and looked like a Japanese style bridge. From there we followed an old aqueduct. Interestingly, we passed about 10 California Department of Corrections (CDC) Prisoners on the trail; they were out for a hike with a man from Cal-Fire. They were walking the trail scoping out trail work.  Then we came to the Mojave Dam, which was a project that was shot down after the dam was built because Deep Creek was so cool, and people didn’t want it to become a reservoir.  From there we hiked the outskirts of Victorville, on the side of the hills, over to Grass Valley. We walked by a water cache, which was nice. I got to talk to Krista because I got cell reception at that spot.   Where we set up camp was the first time I had to deal with mosquitos.  While I cooked dinner and got eaten alive, my dad sat inside the tent and stayed out of the mosquito-infested air. Then after dinner we read, and went to bed. 

             We woke up at the usual time, started our hike to Silver Wood Lake and walked though the start of the Mojave Desert. I got really excited about seeing a PCT Cache treat box, but when we got to it, it was mostly empty, except for some ice inside, so I rubbed it on my face.  We took a lunch break there, then a quick hike up to Silver Wood Lake.  When we got to the north end of the lake, we took a break and went swimming. My father wanted to go further, so we got a bunch of water, and took off. We climbed a hill, but decided we could not stop till Little Horse Thief Valley.  We ended up going 18 miles.  There wasn’t a lot of water there but there was a sandy creek bed that was wet. That night I dug a hole, so that the water would fill into the hole in the morning. (A backpacker’s trick). We found a camp spot, which was a little clearing surrounded by poison oak.  We ate, and then went to bed. I thought for sure that we were going to be the only campers there that night, but in the morning there were about 6 people there.

            We woke up late the next day because we only had 7 miles to go this day. For this trip we had decided to stop at the 15 Freeway, because there was not a lot of water for the next 26 miles.  So we walked slowly and I let my dad take all the pictures he wanted. When we came over the crest we looked down the valley to the 15 Freeway at Cajon Pass. If your not familiar where that is, it is where the 395 splits from the 15.  We sauntered all the way to the freeway and I took lots of photos and got a video of the tunnel under the freeway, then headed to McDonalds, where all the PCT hikers hang out.  We hung out there till we got picked up.  It was a good section on the trail.