Highest Climb Yet

                   Stats: Tuesday night 5/24, MM 210

(57.8 new miles, 210.0 total miles, 2,440.0 to go)

We started the week with a zero day. We walked a mile from our hotel to town. Usually, it’s not that far into town – hard to tell when we book the hotel exactly where it is.

 

A typical zero day starts with an awesome breakfast. We enjoyed coffee, eggs, bacon…which may not seem that awesome, but when you eat a protein bar on the trail, it’s heaven! After breakfast we went to the laundromat and met the caretaker, nice lady. Chatted with a few other hikers we met on the trail – Raven, Muddy, Bubbles. The laundromat is quite a gathering spot for hikers.

After laundry, went to the grocery store to resupply. We stocked up on protein bars (breakfast and snacks on the trail), packages of tuna (lunch on the trail), and freeze dried dinners. Plus electrolytes and other snacks of our choice, depending on what they have. Since we ate breakfast late, we skipped lunch and went back to our hotel after shopping, where we packed our bags to get ready for heading out in the morning.

For dinner we ate at a Mexican restaurant that was ½ mile from the hotel. Very good – again, eating hot, fresh food is one of the things we most look forward to on zero days.

 

On Thursday morning, Grumpy picked us up 7AM, plus one more passenger: Kim and her dog. She carries the dog in a pouch in front of her, and a heavy pack. Don’t know how she does it!

We started hiking at 8AM on a smooth trail, a little uphill. We met Cheerwine (named after drink) and Rhino (walks with legs close together like a rhinoceros). We talked for a minute before they passed us.

We each carried 3 liters, very hot day and uphill became steeper as we went. When we got to 12 miles, needed water and the only water was a 1-mile downhill walk off the trail. We walked down, found only a trickle so refilling both ourselves and our bottles was quite a process. By the time we hiked back up to the trail, cost us 2-3 hours. Shortly after that we camped for the night.

 

Backpack tag from Frank and Brenda, handmade

Friday we fought wind all night, got up at 5AM. We knew we were in for a long uphill and a workout. Went uphill 13 miles on San Jacinto mountain, very steep, stopped a lot to catch our breath. Still very hot. I had never climbed this long to get to mountain top, still a ways to go the next morning. We were all worn out to the max, carrying 3 liters of water and that’s all we had. So we were dehydrated when we got to camp, our mouths felt like plaster. Thank God we made it to the camp and the water there! We felt weak but much better once hydrated.

And the views, amazing! Later that night, saw Raven (England) and Muddy, and a guy named T-rex who retired from his job in Dallas, and decided to hike the trail.

Saturday was a crazy day of steep trails and lots of them as we entered what's called the San Jacinto Wilderness. 

We carried 3 liters of water each, knew water would be hard to find. Again, many awesome views that you never get tired of seeing! Hot and grueling day, had to go 15 miles to get more water. Check out video of view from part way up.

Still not at the top, feeling worn out. Did what we could to keep going. Found rushing, cold water in a creek by the trail, drank as much as we could, then filled up 5 liters each of water. We knew there wouldn’t be water until we got to the top and then down almost to the bottom. Saw Raven and Muddy again. Near where a separate trail continues up to the peak of San Jacinto, we were already at 9K feet, decided not to climb to the 11K peak. Didn’t want to put in any more miles than necessary on our low water supply. We camped there for the night.

 

Sunday was cold when we got up because of the high elevation. One small uphill, then downhill into town. Easy slopes downhill. Water spigot at 18 miles, that was our goal. Didn’t take long for the heat to come back. More amazing views, rested anywhere we could find shade (which was not often).

As we were hiking, Dan got stung by a bee on his finger. Later he saw a rattlesnake on the trail. He was a little behind us, he said it wouldn’t move off the trail so he threw a rock at it, didn’t budge. He threw a rock closer to it, then it moved off the trail and over the side so Dan could get by. Also, we passed the 200 mile mark! And saw a lizard "working out" (for you, Crystal!)

We hiked our longest day yet coming down San Jacinto. Again, really worn out and a little dehydrated. When we got to the spigot, water gushed out of the pipe, a welcome sight! We met Carla from Czech, she was cowboy-camped by the water spigot. 

We ended up camping at small campground in a canyon nearby, where we could see a huge windmill field in the distance. Since it was so warm, I slept with my rain fly off. Could see the windmillsat night, lights flashing.

Monday we got up late because we knew we only had 4 miles to get to Highway 10 and a ride to Cabazon. We went under bridge where a lot of hikers hang out. We heard about Mama bear, trail angel who provides trail magic at that spot, but neither she nor any hikers were there yet.

We called Uber to bring us to the Cabazon PO, pick up hiker box that our own trail angels sent. Very nice notes and resupply items we wanted, cookies, what a treat! Since the Uber driver could take 2 people at a time, he had a small electric car that needed a charge every 60 miles. Thankfully he picked up me and Carla (another hiker whose boyfriend is joining her in 10 days for 3 months of hiking) first to go the PO, then went back to get Gramps and Dan to take them straight to our hotel in Banning. Then back to the PO to pick me and Carla up and take us to the hotel.

We went to a nearby McDonalds and splurged, double quarter pounder, fries, coke, shake – the works. So good after days on the trail! Later on we went to Sizzler’s Steakhouse and all had steaks…with side salads to add something healthy.

 

Tuesday we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel, Carla joined us. After breakfast we called another Uber to resupply at Walmart. Our driver, Gerald, is a retired older gentleman who enjoys talking to people. We did our laundry, enjoyed a relaxing zero day, and drank a whole lot of water all day to get rehydrated before starting out again on Wednesday.