Day 17, May 4: Mile 230 to 249
I had a lovely night of sleep next to the creek and woke up to no condensation on my sleeping bag- a lovely surprise! Sleeping near a water source can be a pretty sure fire way to wake up covered in condensation, but I think the desert air was otherwise dry and warm enough so we stayed dry.
We had another early 5am start to beat the heat. We ascended the canyon in the cool morning temperatures and weaved back and forth with many river crossings. The trail became hard to follow at times due to the canyon washing out in 2019 (so I later learned), but thankfully I was able to use FarOut to find the trail when I lost it.
Our group reconvened at a water source, and we played a silly word game as we started hiking. One person in the hiking conga line says “I went to the zoo and I saw a (thing that starts with A) - an alligator!” The next person says “I went to the zoo and I saw an alligator, and a badger.” We saw an alligator, badger, a cockatoo, a dingo, an eggplant (why? I don’t know), a fiery dragon, and so on and so forth. I loved this silly little game and how it made the time pass and made me forget about the pain in my feet. We also played some I Spy and I stumped the group with “shrub.”
After a few hours of hiking, we took a nice morning break in a shady area with lots of logs to sit on. Alex was curious to try my pack so we decided to switch packs after the break. We thought we would go for a while with them but we soon switched back as we were both uncomfortable.
We kept climbing and the day was getting hotter, but I finally felt strong for once! Something just clicked and I was powering up the hills ahead of the group. It may have been the caffeinated Crystal Light I was trying, or maybe I was finally getting a reward for a couple of crappy hard days. Either way, I was enjoying the feeling and took advantage.
We hiked through some pines and then came upon more trail magic! A guy named Juice Box, who was out there supporting his wife, Half Mile, was set up with their van under the shade. He gave us frosty cold sodas and mini paydays. Delicious.
We walked from the trail magic to Mission Camp Springs and collected enough water for a 16 mile carry. The water felt heavy once we started hiking, but with only 2 days of food left in my pack, it didn’t feel too bad.
Our group took another siesta under the trees. Power Plant made some funny deluxe Oreo-peanut butter-Nutella-trail mix combos, and I took a short nap on my groundsheet. Amazon had joined up with our group at this point and asked if she could camp with us, to which we said of course! She was cracking me up with the offbeat things she would say and how she had a strong and often amusing opinion on just about anything you asked her about.
We ended our siesta and continued on through the beautiful forest. As usual, I ended up behind the group because I was- you guessed it- dilly dallying. I called my mom and my sister and arranged for them to come to Big Bear to see me this weekend!!
After the phone calls and knowing I was going to see my family, I had some of my favorite hiking miles yet. My feet weren’t hurting, I was in a great mood, and I was listening to the Dead as I hiked along a beautiful ridge with San Jacinto in the distance. Hard to believe I was just there two days before.
I came to a supposedly creepy “Blair Witch” cabin in the woods and saw my group in the distance, sitting on the porch. I didn’t expect them to be waiting there, but it was great to see them! The cabin was indeed somewhat creepy, with dilapidated framing, graffiti all over the walls, and a weird modern art shower.
We chatted with some other hikers there- Lucky Charm and Dine n Dash- but decided to keep pushing on to the spot we had picked for camp. I put some party house music in my headphones and was having a blast dancing down the trail by myself. I came into camp dancing and energized.
The group (myself, Alex, Snake Charmer, Christina, Topo and Amazon) settled in for the night, some of us cowboy camping and some of us in tents. Alex has begun to accept a trail name of G which is short for Mr. Generous (a name he got while thru hiking the Colorado Trail) but it’s also short for a silly name I gave him, Ghost Quad the Whip, because he has super white thighs that contrast to his tanned knees and calves. We’ve thrown out many trail names for him but this seems to be the one that stuck.
G popped an intense blister for Christina (for whom we’re still working on a trail name), and we chatted as we had our respective dinners together, before all rolling up into our sleeping bags for the night.