PCT Day 4
Mile 37.1 to 55.9 5/4/21
Start: Long Canyon Creek campsite
Finish: Oriflamme Canyon
The sun wakes up around 5:30 most mornings in the desert, so we try to be like the sun and wake up early but we’re definitely struggling with the whole waking up early thing. We drank coffee and tea, and then Shannon had to go take care of some business in the bushes. We didn’t leave camp until around late 6:30am hiking into the coolness of the long morning shadows.
Surprisingly the Pacific Crest Trail briefly took us out of the desert and wound through magical pine forests which were our first trees we hiked under the whole PCT so far. It was absolutely stunning in the early morning light walking in the dappled sunlight. The trail meandered past huge pinecones the size of our faces, all sorts of types of wildflowers and finally passed the Laguna Mountain community, where a lot of hikers had gone to stay the previous night. We skipped the town, finding peace in the sights and sounds of the hushed forest. The trees felt way more familiar to us than the desert with the moss growing on the north side of the huge pines, chubby, chunky squirrels (who clearly weren’t missing any meals) and massive pine cones. Purple lupine abounded which is one of the first flowers to settle in after a forest fire.
We found a trail magic cooler near some lupine that had already been rummaged through by previous through hikers ahead of us. My feet were killing me (as was to be expected for the first couple weeks of the trail), and we stopped soon at the water source to rest. You never know what you’re going to find in the woods and we saw two random water fountains to grab a drink. Dozens of honeybees and hornets were drinking water from the puddles left over from
the fountain so it was a dangerous business trying to grab water from the bee guards. Shannon volunteered to carefully go refill our water bladders and bottles and successfully did not get stung.
We sat under the shade of the pines popping blisters, putting bandaids on our feet, took some I-candy (aka ibuprofen) and ate snacks. Refreshing ourselves with water, electrolytes and a packet of pulled pork that I put on some maringa coconut wraps. We were fancy hikers!
After about 30-45 minutes we packed up and out of the pines heading into some sensitive protective areas where the endangered Arroyo Toad lives. Apparently only a couple thousand of these toads live in the wild so we tried really hard to see them but couldn’t find any. We didn’t see any toads, but pretty sure last night we heard a couple near a campsite by Long Canyon Creek last night as the toad’s long trills kept us company as we slept near the river in the canyon. The pathway here was roped off so no hikers could go and damage the Arroyo Toad habitat.
In the late morning, we saw vistas of a huge desert surrounded by mountains, a very stark contrast from the greens, flowers and chaparral we’ve been tracking through. Off in the distance we could make out the enormous Salton Sea, a salty landlocked lake that is not only one of the lowest spots in the world but one of the earth’s largest inland seas. How cool!!
We had fine views of the surrounding area among the windy peaks and ridges as we trucked through areas where forest fires burned in years past, but had created lush soil from the ashes for scrub bushes, tree saplings and wildflowers carpeting the mountainsides. We saw a helicopter land near Storm Canyon Overlook which we thought at first it was a medical helicopter taking out a hiker, so we got a little bit nervous. After talking to a laidback construction worker, we found out that the helicopter was actually dropping off steel beams for replacing the wooden power lines up in the mountains, and then taking the old lumber back out. The construction worker told us a forest fire had started not far from us, but that it was 50% contained so far. We hoped it wouldn’t close the Pacific Crest Trail and that nobody would get hurt, but we’d wait and see.
In the early afternoon we passed the 50 mile marker which means that we still have 2600 miles to go…woohoo! Life is all about the journey and you have to celebrate the small successes so we decided that 50 miles is 50 miles and we were doing just great! In the heat of the day, we trudged through the hot desert sands following another couple hiking in front of us, all the way to the Pioneer Mall campground, which was a gorgeous field of live oaks, pines, picnic tables, water and bathrooms, a veritable hiker oasis in the super hot and gnarly desert. A bunch of PCT thru hikers were resting under the shade trees laughing and relaxing away from the brutal midday sun so we chatted and introduced ourselves to them. We found out that there’s a certain type of woodpecker out here that drills holes into the pine trees and then stuffs the holes full of acorns! It was crazy to see because up and down every pine tree in the campground, all the way from the roots to the treetops, there were woodpecker holes drilled all the way up and most of them had acorns in them!
We later met Nate, who had been working construction before the PCT and was hilarious and his wife from France named “Pain Perdu” which translates to French toast in French. We also made the acquaintance of Treebeard, Benji, Crystal and Louisa. Princess and I took a nap under a shade tree and took off later into the afternoon to hike a few more miles to the Oriflamme Canyon. We passed a gorgeous mountainside cliff with 30 or 40 gravestone markers placed on the cliffside overlooking the beautiful mountain valley. We’re guessing that their ashes had been tossed over the mountainside near the place called Kwaayamii Point.
The overlook was an important part of the indigenous people who lived here long ago. We could clearly see why the dramatic mountains reaching their long mountainside flanks all the way down to the desert valleys were so important – you could see everything and it felt almost sacred up here like you didn’t want to talk too loudly. The construction guy we had spoken to earlier had said that there were actually bighorn sheep in the area that on a clear day if you’re lucky, you could see the sheep jumping across the mountainsides. Unfortunately this afternoon we didn’t see any bighorns but we did see a small rattlesnake who thankfully left us alone.
As the shadows grew longer, we hiked past loads of desert hares with tall ears and tons and tons of lizards of all colors, shapes and sizes. We trudged on in the twilight stopping at Oriflamme Canyon and squeezed our tent into a secret spot wedged in between the rocks. We made dinner and as it almost was dark, a curious hummingbird came buzzing by so close that I thought I could reach out and touch it. It looked like the hummingbird was trying to get nectar out of a bright blue label on our peanut butter jar and then when it realized it wasn’t a flower, it buzzed over to Shannon’s bright backpack. We were both so surprised and shouted out, “Whoa! Did you see that?”
It was truly special and magical. We also had a nosy kangaroo rat scurry by our tent, but it left us alone after we chased it away a couple times. And we put our food bags wedged between us in the tent since there were no trees to hang the food on. The sky was beautiful, there were so many stars, and under the slight winds from the mountainsides, we slept fantastically.