WEEK FOUR: DAYS TWENTY SIX THROUGH THIRTY FOUR (May 24 through June 1st)

Slightly more than a month on the trail! Here’s the numbers:

Lizards: more than a billion
Horny Toads: many
Rattlesnakes: 4
Other snakes (including an outstanding pink and grey specimen): about 100.
Coyotes: 1
Fox: 1
Miles: slightly more than 400
Pairs of shoes: all still working on our first pairs of Altras!
Average miles per day: 16 (includes first week of low miles…and building up!)
Zeros (days we didn’t hike–town days): 4
Libraries visited: 4
Children’s books read: 120
Converts to toe socks: 2 (life changing in terms of blisters)
Burgers eaten by Freddy: 5
Pizzas ordered on the trail (I can not believe this!): 2

Monday, May 24th: Hiked extra distance to Holcomb Creek–felt very solitary outside our previous bubble. We had a huge campsite all to ourselves by a swimming hole (waist deep) with a little water fall. Prior to Holcomb Creek we went up and down several shallow ridges and through a deserted horse camp featuring–of all things–a solar powered, handicapped accessible composting toilet. Found water at the horse camp hidden away in some willows–just a small trickle rapidly disappearing into the sand.

Tuesday, May 25th: Another day of heavy miles, and a hike of many bridges (everything architectural is novel and wonderful on the trail!). Got to the hot springs on Deep Creek but were much more interested in the cold river water (wonderful, gorgeous, delightful) than the hot springs. Saw Whippet (composition instructor at a southern university), Principia (engineer, natch) and Splinter again. Whippet told Freddy about a foreign study college program in jazz violin in Italy. Proceeded to Rainbow Bridge and camped in the boulders. 300 miles today!

Wednesday, May 26th: Another extra long, extra hot hike to the hiker/biker camp at Silverwood Lake. Terrible last four miles around the lake where you could see the water, smell the water, but not get in the water…then for some reason, I was trying to keep pace with hikers some several decades younger. Why do that? Like everyone else, we ordered pizza once we got to the hiker/biker camp. Flush toilets! Four minute showers! Potable water! A picnic table! Pizza and spinach salad! Life is beautiful.

Thursday, May 27th: Long hot hike to the McDonalds at Cajon Pass. Yes, McDonalds! This hike has been a fast food extravaganza. Who knew? Multiple hamburgers for Fred, shakes, slushies and fries for all. Stayed in the shade outside McDonalds chatting with other hikers and observing vacationing Californians all afternoon–it was too hot to hike. Spent the rest of the day resupplying food and shuttling cars forward.

Friday, May 28th: Cajon Pass to Swarthout Cayon water cache–beautiful, large cache in a wooden cabinet in a pretty wash with huge yucca plants. We were glad to see the cache but had carried 5 liters of water each just in case (hikers will not depend on water caches if they can help it–just too risky).

Then hiked another ten or so miles to Gobbler’s Knob (great old-time tune title!). Huge uphill in the heat–encountered about five other hikers slackpacking it in the opposite direction to avoid gravity–they had a ride waiting for them at the McDonalds (slackpacking is when hikers will offload their packs into a trail angel vehicle.) Encountered our first poodle dog bush (grows in burns and causes poison oak-type rashes).

Saturday, May 29th: Gobbler’s Knob to Guffy Springs–about 7 miles and got water. Then another 6 or so miles of climbing (up to 9000 ft elevation) and ridge walking to Inspiration Point and Hwy 2. Short day overall to allow us to shuttle cars forward and resupply again. The fire closure from Vincent Gap to Three Points Trailhead meant that we lost 20 miles of trail and leapt ahead to mile 403! Hiked just 1.4 miles to our campsite for the night–it was a soft, sweet evening in the desert, with coyotes contributing some very dog-like barking.

Sunday, May 30th: Hiked to Fountainhead Spring–about seven miles–and refilled with water. Beautiful little shady spring. More poodle dog bush. Nice winding trail among the Ponderosas, then long, hot, exposed descent to the Mill Creek Fire Station. Other hikers cooled down right outside the fire station (water, shade, electrical outlets) but we stayed in the shade of a tiny Ponderosa near Chris’ truck in close proximity to our snacks (chocolate, Cheez-its). We were a little at loose ends–didn’t want to hike forward outside of road access because we were due in Wrightwood the next evening. Stayed at a NF campground ($6/night!) and enjoyed shade, a picnic table and proximity to regular, non-hiker Californians. Finally, finally got my little half size fiddle from its hiding place in the truck and played tunes for a couple hours. Paradise! Played poker using Cheez-its as chips. What a relaxing evening!

Monday, May 31st: Got to Wrightwood just in time for their Memorial Day celebration–we’d been wondering about all the red, white and blue t-shirts. Heard a liquid, soulful, live trumpet rendition of Taps. Had sandwiches at the “Village Grind”, where we met aerospace engineer Kurt playing guitar on the deck. Astounding–we have met extraordinary people on this hike! Freddy got to to talk about non-binary politics, rank voting and we were treated to a table side performance of Kurt’s original tunes, including this one–see below–and another based on Thomas Merton’s “Seeds of Contemplation”.

Checked into our motel and started our chores–groceries, demographics (library-based research)…and discovered a mouse in my car. It was a happy mouse–had a nice little nest made of torn Kleenex and a pile of our peanut m & ms. Off to the local hardware store for a humane* trap! (*Freddy insisted). Really, snakes, lizards and all sorts of desert fauna and we have a mouse in our car? No bears ripping into our food supplies…but a mouse?

Tuesday, June 1st: Freddy is listening to Holst’s “Planets–Bringers of War” this morning. Visited the Wrightwood Public Library. Nice collection of current children’s book series and high interest readers as well as picture books. Fabulous used book sale–picked up John Ciardi’s “How Does a Poem Mean” as well as several cozy mysteries to read during town days.