PCT Day 15
Mile: 181.2 (plus 3.2 miles side trail) to 197.2 (19.2 total miles)
Start: Just below the summit of Mount San Jacinto
Finish: Tentsite nestled in some manzanita at 4800 feet spared by the 2020 Snow Fire
At 5am the alarm went off and we sleepily packed up our bags amongst the patches of snow shimmering all around us in the early morning light. It was chilly up here with our breath forming big puffs of clouds amongst the pines but thankfully the wind had died down. Hurriedly we shoved everything into our packs to hike the last ten minutes up to the Mount San Jacinto summit to watch the sunrise. We scrambled up huge boulders and followed the sandy trail around an emergency use cabin where bunk beds and four walls would protect hikers from bad weather.
At the summit of the mountain, the sun was just peeking up over the peaks towering above the valley cities of Palm Springs and Palm Desert. We were able to fly the drone above the summit briefly until the wind became too strong and we took it out of the sky so we didn’t lose it. Surprisingly this morning we were the only ones at the top of the 10,834 foot summit. And despite it being the weekend we enjoyed the peace and quiet of the rustling winds blowing around us gently as we made hot cups of coffee and tea at 10,000 feet. We sipped and enjoyed the hot beverages, admiring the beauty of the moment and basking in the warm rays of sunlight.
As the morning sun rose higher in the sky, we descended down the mountain dodging dirty snow patches and sand covered rocks, both of which are really good ways to fall and end your hike if you step on them the wrong way. We ran into three exhausted looking young hikers about 15 minutes below the summit and said encouraging words to them telling them that they were really dang close to the summit. The tired hikers appreciated the encouragement and said that they were grateful to have the positive words. We cheered them on and wound our way down the switchbacks from the summit.
Shannon and I hiked on the alternate trail back to the PCT which added on a couple miles to our day and we wandered past several backcountry campsites, a portapotty and slow flowing creeks. At the campsites we saw dozens of tents belonging to hikers who were all still sleeping. We were able to quietly sneak through the campground without disturbing the sleeping hikers and finally picked up the PCT several miles later. We were happy that we’d taken this alternative trail as the summit views and sunset last night were so worth the extra mileage.
The PCT on the north side of Mount San Jacinto was very well traveled and we didn’t have to repeat the obstacle courses of yesterday jumping over fallen trees or crawling through rockslide caves suspended over a sheer cliff face. The trail today was absolutely pristine with huge granite hewn blocks carved out of the mountain to make stairs, wide white gravel trails free of holes and barely a rock out of place. Compared to the southern slopes of San Jacinto where a frayed rope was the solution provided for hikers to navigate around a rockslide above a thousand foot drop off, today’s hike was a walk in the park. Apparently the rockslide had been there for two years blocking the trail on the southern flanks of San Jacinto but the northern side of the mountain was like night and day, perfectly clear of obstacles and made for quick hiking.
We descended into large pine forests, the trees towering above us and pine cones thick and sticky with sap. Dense carpets of pine needles cushioned our footsteps, hushing our journey through the shaded woods. We tiptoed above the thick oceanic cloud layer that made it impossible to see what was below us. It felt like we were floating on our own little rocky island high above an ocean that blanketed the valleys. Straightfaced, Shannon commented that the islands (aka the mountains) sticking out of the clouds were probably Hawaii since we were so close being in California. And so we just started joking around that we were so high up that we could see Hawaii from our little mountain in California, even though Hawaii is 2,600 nautical miles from the California coast or approximately the same distance we were going to hike over the next six months on the PCT! Nice try Shannon…
We grabbed water at a swollen creek full of snowmelt, where we met a nice really nice 70-year-old man who was “…only hiking 16 miles today” for his weekly hike. I hope I’m like that guy when I’m older! He was so positive and had so much energy which was pretty cool. We filtered a whopping 7 liters of water each for the next 23 miles of waterless hiking. While we were waiting for our gravity filter to work it’s magic, we cooled our feet and washed some of the dirt off in the snowmelt creek and then headed out. This was the heaviest water carry we had to do so far and thankful we were going down the mountain with all that extra weight (approximately 16 lbs or 7 kg in just water).
The trail descended steeply off rock cliffs and then more gradually through dappled forests untouched by the recent fires. Pale pink Manzanita bells drooped in clusters off of the smooth maroon branches of the “little apple” trees. The honey bees buzzed industriously from branch to branch gathering sweet nectar from the manzanita flower bells. We started running into clusters of day hikers coming up the mountain, which let us know that we were probably pretty close to the Bureau of Land Management campground where we had planned on having lunch. They smelled like laundry and aftershave and deodorant whereas we probably smelled like wet dog and B.O. There’s a reason they call us Hiker Trash!
Shannon and I arrived at the BLM campground where we heaved a solid 300lb wooden huge picnic table into the shade. It was nice to be resting under the branches of the large pine trees during the hottest part of the day. I had a delicious gluten free enchilada rice dish, which was nearly perfect except for the fact that I scorched the rice, but I just imagined that the burnt parts added a smoky flavor to the meal. Shannon enjoyed a scallion flavored rice noodle ramen with added dehydrated veggies, Cajun seasoning and mayo packets. This was some serious hiker gourmet sh** we were eating!
Sleepy and full of our “gourmet Hiker Trash lunch” we set up our lightweight tarp under one of the pine trees and instantly fell asleep for an hour or so. After a much needed siesta, we packed up and headed out to the trail passing posted signs for missing PCT hiker from Ireland named David O’Sullivan, who had disappeared near here in 2017.
Further up on the trail we saw a couple of trucks parked at an overlook and lots of people were hanging out. We got excited because we thought it might be Trail Magic (aka free food and drinks), so we ran down the mountain and into the parking lot with our packs. Turns out it was just some friends gathering together at a beautiful off-roading spot and they were slightly startled by us all sweaty, dirty and homeless looking bursting out of the woods. We read the room and left the people alone hoping that we didn’t seem too crazy running down the mountain towards them. A bonus was that we were able to pet their four dogs who were super friendly and one was overly eager to keep hiking with us but his owner had to come grab him so he didn’t go all the way to Canada with us!
Shannon I kept descending for about a total of 6000 feet and stopped for a snack at a windy campsite that had thankfully been spared by the forest fires a couple years ago. My feet and my legs were killing me from the huge uphill yesterday and constant pounding going down the mountain so we stopped for the night at the campsite. Since all the tentsites up ahead were supposedly even less wind protected, we decided it’d be smart to wait out the windstorm surrounded by some brush cover instead of 100% out in the open. The weather forecast said that down in the valley it was supposed to be 25-35 mph steady winds with 60 mph wind gusts all night. Up here on the mountain, it was probably going to be much worse. The winds were already whipping and we quickly made our dinner in a nook of some Manzanita bushes, hidden as best we could from the wind and eating from the warmth of our sleeping bags. Someone had signaled that this was a perfect tentsite by drawing a heart with an arrow in the sand so we had set up there and braced ourselves for a long, blustery night.
Back in the tent, Shannon’s legs were so dirty from today that he actually had a dead fly smashed on his calf and didn’t know. I kindly picked off the dead fly for him after he asked me to because I’m such a good girlfriend. New levels of hiker trash were achieved today hiking around not knowing you had dead insects on your body!
Clouds rolled in from the ocean, getting funneled in between the San Jacinto and San Gorgonio mountain pass. This made an ideal place for wind farms with their turbines whipping like crazy down below in the valley and we could see the fields of wind turbines working extra hard. I talked to thru-hikers Poppy, Spielberg (who was named so because he makes lots of videos on the trail) and Old Man for a bit before we all got too cold and jumped into our tents and tarps to avoid gravel and sand spraying up in our faces from the gusts. The guys seem to be a bit regretful of not having sturdier tents in the high winds, but said that they were okay and thought they’d make it through the night without their tents collapsing.
Shannon and I will gladly take that 10 oz of extra weight for our four carbon fiber tent poles because they help make sure that our tent can last through the strongest of winds, rain and snow. Tonight our tent held up beautifully even though at times it felt and sounded like we were in a tornado. Our last tent was a Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 which had its aluminum tentpoles bend irreversibly from roaring winds that were funneled down from a huge glacier and mountain pass while we had been hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc in Switzerland. Our Zpacks Duplex tent held up magnificently with no bending of the tentpoles happening in the gusting winds. We also didn’t fly away during the night which was, you know, really great and probably because of all the heavy mac-and-cheese dinners that we ate for dinner.
