Day 3 PCT – mile 20.0 to 37.1. 5/3/21.
Start: Lake Morena PCT hiker campsite
End: Long Canyon Creek tent site
Weather: it’s getting warm out there!
The fog burned quickly off Lake Morena in the morning to a searing dry desert heat. I woke up at 5:15 AM but Shannon was still asleep so I tried to sleep some more but ended up reading instead since I was restless. I tried to be respectful because we were a team and wanted to make sure he was catching up on his sleep so I waited a little bit before making too much noise and waking him up as sometimes he can get a little grumpy in the morning.
While we ate breakfast of oatmeal, tea and some broccoli from our pal Jordan who had packed out an enormous bag of it, the park rangers came by to make sure all of us dirtbag hikers paid up the $5. Shortly after breakfast, we packed up and didn’t leave until after most of the hikers had already left about 7:20ish. Turkeys and screech owls had been out the previous night making hooing noises and screeches that kind of woke me up off and on.
This morning the turkeys were back at it again gobbling and we gobbled back at them while hiking after having perfected our turkey calls in Nebraska on our road trip down to the PCT. With the mist thick over the grasslands, we got scared that the turkeys would come attack us like miniature velociraptors out of the fog so we hiked pretty fast out of there and stopped teasing them.
The trail was fast and flat and 6 miles were done in less than two hours which was motivating. Our packs are so huge with food and extra crap that we probably don’t need – we cannot wait to get rid of some in Warner Springs just under 100 miles from here. The temperature was starting getting hotter in the desert and we tanked up with water at a campground, saying goodbye to our fumanchu friend “not princess John”. We ate snacks with Ira who had a ukulele and told us about some bad guy on the trail that we needed to watch out for. Ira told us that he was only going to hike 300 miles and then hitchhike to get some chill time with his friends.
We also met hilarious Medicine Man and his friend Waters, two retirees thru-hiking their second time on the PCT. Medicine Man had invented solid-state radar when he was in the military which is pretty cool and had worked with the big four (Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and someone else). He also didn’t like the business model of one of the companies I worked with before but liked the techie people which I agreed with him on. We took a picture of Princess North Star with his hiking umbrella that we had bought but not tested it out. It’s supposed to reduce the amount of heat exposure you have in the desert and the temperature by 15 degrees but we could not figure out how to keep it upright hands free and it looked quite interesting. Medicine Man laughed so much at how ridiculous Princess North Star looked and told us he was going to post his picture on Facebook for all his old navy friends and title it “Army” since Shannon’s an army vet. These military guys are so nutso and hilarious how they all make fun of each branch!
Early in the afternoon Shannon and I stopped to go swim in a pool made by a small creek and laid in the shade after. It was a perfect cooling dip in the refreshing water and the break allowed us to keep going another hour in the middle of the heat of the day after swimming. We passed an Arroyo toad sanctuary which protects the endangered toads. Unfortunately the trail cuts right through the toad sanctuary but is roped off so you can’t go off trail and accidentally make an entire species extinct from stomping on them with your boots. We were careful where we stepped but didn’t see any of the toads.
When the day got too hot, Princess and I took a nap at a large shady campsite with tons of birds and a big bees nest somewhere nearby, so large that we could hear the bees humming but couldn’t spot them. As we’re relaxing and sleeping under the shade trees, Strava girl and crew showed up yapping and bragging about the dumbest shit like being stung by a bee 13 times. When Shannon commented on how oddly specific and weird that comment was, Strava laughed condescendingly and her reply was “Well when you’ve been stung as much as I have, you’re just forced to keep count, you know?” They also had a whole campsite to sit at which was like 8 to 10 tent sites and despite seeing us sleeping, they decided to sit right next to us waking us up from our afternoon nap with their loud BS comments. I didn’t acknowledge them because I was so mad at being woken up which was kind of bitchy on my end but oh well. Maybe I’m just becoming an old grump 🤣
After our siesta was interrupted by Strava and the loud crew, the sun was still cooking but we made good time up the mountain climbs and ended up easily passing the Strava group. We popped in our podcasts and audiobooks and put our hiking pace into hyperdrive! The PCTA had posted a sign that warned us to stay on trail due to unexploded missiles or bombs in the area. If you go off trail you’ll probably die but hey that’s on you since they put a sign up lol! I sure was hoping I didn’t have to go pee off trail in this part.
We saw a beautiful black rattlesnake with like 8 to 10 rattles on top of its tail who was hanging off to the side of the trail which was nice to see it from a distance. A pretty red horned lizard made an appearance near the trail and as the day dwindled, I ran out of water but didn’t tell Shannon for about 20 minutes since we were only a couple miles from camp but ended up drinking some of his water in the late afternoon heat until we got to the first campsite where there was water. After having passed the Strava group in the Insta famous girls earlier, we knew they’d be coming by our campsite eventually to grab water and decided to make dinner but not set up tent until they decided where they were going to camp. I was just not in the mood to deal with their overly talkative and energetic app speak and weird one-upper ways. When the Strava group finally came by and asked if we were going to camp here, we gave them a vague answer that we weren’t sure. Thankfully they left to go to a campsite further out. With a sigh of relief, we unpacked our bags, set up our tent and even brought out my drone since it had been too windy to bring out the past couple days! I only almost crashed the drone into a tree once but I am learning it’s only my first time flying it.
The sun had wiped us out and it was an early hiker midnight (aka 8pm bedtime) for us tonight with an early wake up the next day to beat the hot weather. I thought it was a successful day since I had only almost crashed the drone once, got to go swimming and have a bunch of beautiful views today. So far the PCT seems to be really cool and I’m almost liking it better than the Appalachian Trail so far.