PCT Day 25
Mile: 275.0 to 298.5
Start: Caribou Creek tentsite (aka Camp Twinkie)
Finish: Beachside camping near the historic Splinters Cabin and the trout-filled Deep Creek
We weren’t the last ones out of camp today which was a great success in our book! We were only the second to last to depart camp this morning, leaving at 7:15am where Rooster, the mathematician from California, was drying his sleeping bag out in the early morning sun, after condensation collected on it overnight since he had slept right next to the damp creek. It’s so funny because some of these West Coast or desert hikers can’t figure out for the life of them what condensation is and why it collects on their tent. Coming from camping in the hot humid forests of the Midwest and south where there’s real humidity, we were having a blast tenting in the dry climates out in Southern California!
We tried to explain that last night the temperatures dropped and it got cold so any moisture from your breath or the grass would condensate and collect on your gear. And when you camp next to a creek in the wet grass and reeds, moisture tends to get in your tent, but sometimes hikers don’t want to believe it. And sometimes hikers also don’t want to pack up their gear and dry their tent during lunch and siesta. So we just left our friend to ponder all about condensation while he waited for the slow rising sun to dry out his tent in the shaded pine forests.
Up the trail we went, crushing 11 miles in about 3.5 hours to the next water source which was a trickle of a creek in a ditch next to a parking lot. We ran into the “Trail Family” (aka hikers who hang out together so much that they become pretty much like a family) of Interview, hilarious Turtle, Pastor Frank and Chucks (short for Upchucks because of a barfing incident) who were finishing lunch in a parking lot next to the creek. These guys had a good sense of humor and had been the people sitting on the bridge last night, pretending there were trolls asking for Bitcoin purse passwords.
We sat in the shade and chowed down on lunch while the Tramily (short for Trail Family) headed off down the trail. Several Jeeps drove by on the dusty roads and a friendly Forest Service Ranger that we’d seen earlier slowed down and asked if we were doing okay with water, how the trail was, etc. it was super nice of him to check in on us and we said we’re doing just fine and that the trail was beautiful in this section which was earlier in the morning we had seen three deer. After the ranger left, we chatted with shy hiker Gaiter at lunch about audiobooks and podcasts and laughed a lot with her.
When we made it back on trail, the path took us over a beautiful creek filled with lush green vegetation, clear water and small trout darting about the gravel shallows. Willow branches and cottonwood trees shaded the area which was so idyllic that Shannon and I decided to sit by the water for a spell, watching the trout snack on flies and mosquitoes while we snacked on beef jerky and granola bars. It was rare to see such a large amount of water in the desert so we took it all in, spending time talking to a charismatic hiker named Coca Cola from Detroit, and then an older couple from New York City and Idyllwild, California, who were section hiking. The woman from New York said that creeks like these are critical for the trout who lay their eggs in the sandy riverbed so it was important that we didn’t disturb the sand when we crossed the creek.
After the section hiking couple left, we kept chatting with Coca Cola and laughed our butts off with him. We were heading out as thru hiker Shade rolled in, who was a very sweet hiker from Iowa and said we would see her up trail. Not far up the trail from where we had taken our snack break with Coca Cola and watched trout, we saw Gaiter who was stopped and bent over on the trail, looking at something that we couldn’t see. We asked her if she was okay and she was in the process of spelling out the word “SNAKE” in rocks to warn people that there was a huge black Western rattlesnake right on the trail. The rattlesnake was at least five feet long and had puffed out his head at Gaiter when she tried to walk by earlier. You couldn’t get by on the trail without the snake puffing up at you and Gaiter was lucky that he didn’t strike her. Soon there was a traffic jam of about six or seven hikers, and with all this talking and making vibrations with our feet and our hiking poles, the snake decided that he’d had enough and he uncurled himself from the hole in the ground that he was resting in. We all backed up as the grandaddy rattlesnake slowly unwound his way across the trail. It seemed like he was never ending and he kept uncoiling himself until he stretched all the wat across the PCT and into the brush, a good 5 or 6 feet long with a rattle on his tail about 10 to 15 rattles thick. This was probably one of the biggest rattlesnakes I’ve ever seen both at the zoo and in the wild! Thankfully grandaddy rattlesnake slowly made his way off the trail and permitted us to walk past him quickly without striking or without rattling his tail at us. We kept thanking Gaiter for saving our lives since we definitely would’ve stepped a little too close to the snake without her warning us!
Later in the afternoon Shannon and I arrived at the Deep Creek Bridge that spanned the canyon below. We went off trail a little to the historic Splinters Cabin, which wasn’t as exciting as we thought it might be since it was just a gazebo. From the gazebo, there was the option for hikers to take a 6 mile round trip road walk to get a pizza or burgers at a restaurant. With the road being closed to cars due to Covid restrictions, we’d have to walk the whole way instead of try to hitch and didn’t want to tack on another 6 miles to our day just for a burger.
However, the Deep Creek river was so peaceful, and we had our own private beach to camp on that we were happy to end our day a little earlier than anticipated instead of staying at a dry campsite further up the trail. We dipped our feet in the cold, clear water, watching the trout scoop insects off the surface as we ate dinner from our sandy beach. The river had small waterfalls just upstream from our camp and we listened to the water rushing over the smooth rocks and the wind blowing through the springy willows. The sand was still radiant warmth from earlier in the day making it feel like we were sleeping on a heated mattress as the soft air currents of the canyon bathed us in coolness from above. We fell asleep almost immediately to the croaking of frogs, chirping crickets and the breeze rustling through the reeds, the canyon walls standing tall as sentinels watching over our tiny tent next to the starry creek.
