Poodle dog and detours

Now enjoying a rest day in the shade, at Agua Dulce (mile 454.5) on the western edge of the Mojave Desert. We're staying with trail angels again, the Saufleys, at what they call "Hiker Heaven" - and it really is. They host up to 50 hikers in tents and trailers in their yard - we're sleeping in a horse box. Last night we stayed up really late (10.30pm!!) drinking beer with other hikers around a campfire. It was really wonderful to get clean, and relax and enjoy the evening - it's been a tough section.

Hotel California

For the most part, the PCT is a proper footpath with clear waymarking, following mountain ridges and offering great views. But since we left Big Bear City 10 days ago, we've had four detours to contend with.

The first one, the 2-day Deep Creek Detour, was because of landslides wiping out sections of trail in a narrow canyon. As far as we knew, the detour was still in effect, so off we went down a hot and dusty dirt road - and before long noticed there were no other hiker footprints. It turned out that everyone else knew that Deep Creek was still passable. We decided to carry on anyway, then the dirt road gradually turned into an off road vehicle racetrack, with a massive camber on every bend - great fun to drive I'm sure, but walking ...

Next up was the Endangered Species detour, to avoid disturbing some rare toads, 5 miles on tarmac then a side trail, not too bad; then the Station Fire Detour along dirt roads to avoid a huge area destroyed by wildfire.

And then, longest of all, the Poodle Dog Bush Detour. Poodle dog bush is a horrible plant which flourishes in burnt out areas, which causes severe blistering rashes which last for weeks. Some sections of trail are covered in it, necessitating the Poodle Dog Dance as hikers try to get past without touching it.

Neil and poodle dog bush

But it hasn't been all bad. There have been some great views (going up Mount Baden-Powell at 9399 feet was a highlight), some great people (we finally got to meet Lumbar and ChooChoo - Lumbar hiked the PCT with our friend Jim "Milky" Bispham from Kendal in 2007), and a really good stop at Wrightwood. An unexpected bonus of the trail is getting to visit some great little towns, and some really outstanding cafes. Breakfast at the Evergreen Cafe in Wrightwood immoblised us for hours!

Lumbar, ChooChoo, Neil and Tanya

Tanya and Neil on Mt Baden-Powell

Planning to leave this oasis of shade at 4.30am tomorrow - there's a hot dry desert crossing of 24 miles coming up, and we want to make the most of the cool morning hours!

Living by the water report

100 miles further along the trail, and enjoying a very welcome rest day at Big Bear City (mile 265 from the Mexican border). We had been in town for about 5 minutes when a lady recognised us as PCT hikers, and introduced herself as a trail angel - one of an amazing bunch of people who go to great lengths to help out PCT hikers. Her name is Bobbie, and we're now staying in her and her husband John's home for 2 nights. She has driven us everywhere we needed to go, fed us, entertained us and mothered us - it's been lovely!

We've had a tough stretch of hiking since leaving Idyllwild (mile 160), with the best scenery and most enjoyable walking of the trail so far. The traverse of the San Jacinto mountains took 3 days and it was hard. We had a long hot ascent, with both of us noticing the effects of altitude as we reached 7300 feet. We have a copy of the water report http://www.4jeffrey.net/pct/ which lists springs, caches and other water sources along the way, with updates from hikers on their reliability. Unfortunately the water source we were relying on for this stretch turned out to be a rusty cattle trough filled with yellowy water with worms swimming in it. Foolishly Tanya turned her nose up at it (Neil had more faith in our filters and water treatment tablets!) and we ended up getting horribly thirsty - the next water source being 10 miles further on and about 500 feet below the trail!

Bonnie and Tanya in the San Jacinto Mountains

So the next day, when we got to a good water source, we stocked up with 5 litres of water each, adding 5kg to each of our backpack weights - and then passed lots of flowing springs along the trail. Oh well. We also had added entertainment along the way from traversing steep patches of snow - we had taken ice axes and crampons just in case, but the only hazard was falling through the snow into voids below (postholing).

Then we had a long 13 mile descent back down into the desert to the San Gorgonio Pass, another thirsty day where we got our water from a pool in a dry creek bed, and a reedy pool under a rock - now having decided we were thirsty enough not to be fussy! It was a great moment as we walked through the underpass below the interstate highway, and found that the local trail angels, Ziggy and the Bear, had left cool boxes full of cans of pop and bottled beers for thirsty hikers to help themselves! This is known as 'trail magic'.

Filtering water in creek bed

Mt San Jacinto from San Bernardino Wilderness

The following day, after staying with Ziggy and the Bear, we headed up into the San Bernardino Wilderness - not as spectacular as San Jacinto, but with some really great walking, and some great company too. There is a bunch of us who walk at about the same pace and keep meeting up at rest breaks and camping spots. There's Georgia from Portland, Oregon, who is about 5 foot nothing, and has had a bad knee since about day 2, but is tough as anything and just keeps going and going. There's Rabbit from Florida, who has a pet mouse called Ella with her on the trail, and very much believes in doing things her own way. And there's John, trail name Lone Wolf, and Gail, aka Nightingale, who are calm, steady, experienced hikers who are great company and also full of good helpful information.

Neil, Lone Wolf and Georgia taking a break

It was great to go out last night with Rabbit and Lone Wolf for some locally brewed beer at the Big Mountain Brewery - looking forward to getting back onto the trail tomorrow though!