PCT Day 5 – Mile 55.9 to 73.4 5/5/21.
Start: Oriflamme Canyon
Finish: Tentsite just above the Scissors-Julian, CA road crossing
The sunrise of Oriflamme Canyon was absolutely gorgeous and we felt accomplished as we hiked out of camp earlyish today around 6:15am to get some miles in while the desert air was still cool. We trekked past Benji, Treebeard, Crystal and Louisa who had camped just past us who were just stirring. Once we hiked across the canyon, they finally saw us and we hooted and hollered at them from across the abyss, all of us joyful and feeling how good it was to be alive.
The morning went by quickly as we made it to the supposedly lifesaving Sunrise Trailhead where Trail Angels (people who help hikers out) provide water. We were feeling good and didn’t really think it through that if we didn’t go the .25 mile off trail to the potential water cache provided by the Trail Angels, this meant that later in the day we’d be forced to hike a round trip of 2 miles to get water instead of 0.5 miles. Oh well, you live and you learn!
After we headed past the Sunrise Trailhead, we said hi again to “Pain Perdu” aka French Toast and her husband Nate who were dry camping not far from the trailhead with the water cache. I think if we weren’t in a big rush to get some miles in that we would’ve found out from Nate and Pain Perdu that the only water source for another 13 miles was 1 mile each way down a steep hill vs. the short hike to the Sunrise Trailhead.
Later in the morning as the sun was starting to get unbearable and the sweat was pouring out of every single pore on our bodies, we realized that we each only had 1 liter of water left in our packs with almost 5 miles to go until the next water source. Not good. We tried to hike as fast as we could with the liter of tepid water in our packs dwindling and the sun starting getting hotter. We definitely have a lot to learn in the desert and are quickly realizing how it is so important to plan your whole day around water sources. Water availability is definitely something we took for granted hiking in the Midwest and East Coast. We’re going to have to get better at timing how much water we’re carrying and maybe even carry some extra despite the heavy weight with each liter of water weighing 2.2lb or 1kg.
As we hiked on, we saw a slow moving rosy boa snake that had a big bulge in its tummy from a meal like a mouse or a lizard. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry and later on we discovered that rosy boa snakes are so docile that people make them as pets. Beautiful desert cactus flowers from the fluorescent fuchsia blossoms of the prickly pear cactus to the radioactive yellow green blooms of the cholla cactus and dark blood red petals of the hedgehog cactus. Finally we reached the crossroads of where the water source was around lunchtime and our buddy Mike gave us instructions on how to descend the steep road, dodge the barbed wire fence, navigate the fields of cow poop and locate the small lifesaving spring a mile off trail. After a long descent, we found the spring and spent five hours resting under a shade tree by the refreshing water.
From 12 to 5pm we spent our time rehydrating, napping, reading and eating while being entertained by a very industrious golden warbler bird, a pair of California quails with dangling feather caps hurriedly rushing to and from the water source, turtledoves splashing in the puddles under the spring and a large cautious squirrel darting past us to see what we assumed was his girlfriend. Sturdy black cows lowed in the distance at the nearby ranch while the breeze and shade from the live oak kept us cool. It was so serene, lying under the shade tree in the meadow with the sound of the clear cold running water, chirping birds and the wind rustling in the leaves.
As the shadows of the day grew longer, we knew we had to keep hiking and picked up our bags now heavy with 5 liters (11lbs or 5kg) of water each since we had learned a hard lesson about water this morning. We hiked all the way back up the steep side trail an extra mile through the barbed wire fence and back to the hot, dusty and dry Pacific Crest Trail.
Shannon almost stepped on a rosy boa snake stretched out in the sun and we both listened to audiobooks and podcasts to get the late afternoon miles done. Thankfully my audiobook was set on the side of a cold snowy Swiss mountainside in winter so I channeled the thought of the chilly weather to beat the late afternoon heat radiating off the desert rocks. Tall eared desert hares abounded and we saw a mama and baby bunny hanging out near their burrow by the trail.
Huge dinosaur looking asparagus plants with flowers 10 to 15 feet all the way up in the air made it feel like we were in Jurassic Park and not the desert anymore. These giant plants are known as century plants as they live for super long and typically only bloom once in their life before they die. Google says that they don’t live for 100 years like the name century plants suggests but live for more like 10 to 30 years before they flower, which is a crazy long time. The best thing about the plant is that not only are flower buds are edible boiled or roasted and if you cut the giant asparagus stalk down, a pool of sweet liquid will form at the base of the plant. Indigenous people of the area used to ferment this liquid into an alcoholic drink called “pulque.” Tequila is also made from digging up the root or the heart of the plant and pit roasting it, then pressing the sweet juices, fermenting them and distilling the liquor into tequila.Yes please!! It was somewhat comforting to know that if we ran out of water in the desert we could essentially make Margaritas to survive!
We turned a corner on the trail and ran into our new trail friends Crystal, Louisa, Treebeard and Benji, who looked like they’d been coated in dirt, roasted to a crisp in the sun and now were borderline homeless. We stayed and chatted with them, giving an extra chapstick to poor Louisa for her burnt, broken and super dry lips which she promptly smeared all over her mouth in great relief. I’m pretty sure she took a bite out of the chapstick at some point – that’s how much she put on!
Legend, the Trail Angel at the beginning of the PCT, told us to make sure we were using lots of chapstick and not to let our lips get burned, since they’re so sensitive, and the sun so brutal out here. Somehow we had this extra chapstick and it looked like it was meant especially for Louisa who was super happy to have it. We started calling her “Chapchick” or “Chappie” for short. Maybe that’ll stick around as her trail name!
Benji, Louisa and Crystal asked us about blisters which we answered that yes, we have a ton of them. And they asked if we thought about quitting, which we said yes, every day we do, of course since you’d have to be a little bit crazy not to. We said that the first two weeks of hiking are the toughest until you get your backpack figured out, your feet hardened and your body gets used to carrying the extra backpack weight on your hips and shoulders. We told them we’d see them in the town of Julian as we had a bit more energy to keep hiking a few more miles as the sun started to lower. They said they weren’t going to move a muscle so they stayed at this campsite that was maybe a little bit less than desirable, but they looked exhausted and that they could sleep anywhere at this point.
We hiked on a bit and as the sun started to set below the mountains, my feet were getting really tired and Shannon was lagging behind a bit so we realized it was our body telling us to stop and take a break for the night. We paused at an overlook with a small campsite, looking over the valley below us and decided it was time to call it a night. Shannon had a slight headache, which was probably part dehydration and part exhaustion. And so we got him fixed up with plenty of electrolyte drink mix, which definitely helped some salty soup, and some rest, right before we went to bed.
We were watching the stars come out and all of a sudden over 20 satellites lined up in a row, evenly spaced, shot across the sky all moving at the same speed. We definitely thought they were aliens or UFOs, but later someone told us that it was Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites tracking across the sky. It was the weirdest thing I ever saw and was absolutely surreal. Maybe we’ll see it again sometime!!
Soft calls of owls hooting in the desert started to lull us asleep and then later a pack of a dozen coyotes down in the valley called and yipped out to each other. The breeze rustling over the desert mountains sung sweetly, cooling the lands and easing us into sleep.