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We got up our usual time around 5 today and walked about 4 miles until we reached Deep Creek Hot Springs. This area is popular with locals and no camping is technically allowed, although when we arrived we saw at least four tents set up. There are hot springs here and different pools with water of varying degrees of warmth. There were a bunch of locals up and about even though it was before 7AM. One particularly colorful character was a guy who shouted at us “YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!!! IM DOUG!!!” as we walked by. As nice as this area sounds it sort of grossed me out, as we read that the water contains some bacteria that can be fatal so they advised not dunking your head under in the hot springs. Also because so many people come here, there was a lot of trash around and it just felt dirty. I only felt the water and didn’t get in but Wolf Bird was not deterred. He went in the different pools and even walked on a slack line (like a tightrope) that was set up over the water. We spent about 20-30 minutes there and then headed on. 

We walked another hour or two until we came across trail magic! Coppertone, a past PCT thru hiker, had set up his camper van/truck at a road crossing and had chairs for us in the shade and lots of delicious treats. We enjoyed eating apples and doughnuts and then he even made us root beer floats! I believe that was the first root beer float I’ve ever had and it was quite delicious. We spent close to an hour hanging out, which was very relaxing, but also meant that now we’d be walking in the heat of the day since we’d taken a couple longish breaks. 

We set out once again and man was it hot!! In areas where there was a breeze it was at least tolerable, but on parts of the trail with no wind it was unbearably warm. We walked another 5.7 miles to a concrete bridge and it definitely took some concentration to not let the heat get the best of me. We chose the bridge as a break spot because we knew there’d be shade under it. It was crazy when we arrived at the bridge because there was a towering wall of rocks beside it! It was a huge dam! We set up under the bridge like the homeless hikers we are and then we heard noises like a whirring motor. That’s when we realized it was powerboats on the body of water on the other side of the dam! Pretty crazy to imagine as where we were it was extremely hot and dry. We ate lunch under the bridge like little trolls and decided to walk on after an hour and a half. Rather than take a longer break we wanted to go enjoy the lake!

We walked another couple miles and came across some water bottles in a cooler along the way which was such a nice treat. Finally we reached the huge man made lake! It was crazy that we were just on the other side of it! We found a side trail down to a little beach and we took a dip in the cold water. Pilar and Joshua joined us as well. This was a momentous occasion because I am notorious for not swimming in cold water on hikes, or ever, even though Wolf Bird always encourages (and begs) me to. I am glad I went in because I felt very refreshed and clean afterward!

We didn’t stay at the lake too long, as we had about 4.5 miles left to hike. We were heading to a picnic area that we heard had power outlets and running water and flush toilets–all the luxuries! The miles passed pretty quickly and were quite beautiful as we skirted the giant lake. 

We finally arrived at the picnic area and were excited to charge our phones and have fresh water. Unfortunately the bathrooms were locked but we were grateful for the other luxuries. There was a flyer for a pizza place at the picnic area–apparently we could order takeout to be delivered here. We hoped that Pilar and Joshua would hike here so we could meet the $30 order minimum. Right as I was about to give up and start cooking ramen, we heard voices and they showed up! Luckily they wanted to order food as well so each couple called and ordered a large pizza to share. The pizza place said it would take an hour and a half–that would mean it’d arrive at 9pm!! Way past our usual bedtime by 8. We decided it was worth it and hung out chatting and watching a movie on Wolf Bird’s phone. 

The delivery driver called about an hour later clarifying where we were. She had no idea which picnic area we were at and also was not very tech savvy and did not understand the screenshot of GoogleMaps that Wolf bird sent her. There was quite a bit of back and forth between her and Wolf Bird about where we were etc and ultimately the park rangers at the picnic area entrance helped the driver and even offered to get in the car to show her where to go! It was very strange the driver was so unfamiliar with where we were when they had put a flyer at this area themselves! In the end we got our pizza and devoured it (with even some leftover) and headed to bed late (almost 10pm!). 

Uh oh, after writing this I realized all my posts are slowly becoming just about food….

We awoke at 5 and set out on a gradual uphill climb all morning. It started out pretty easy and nice, especially while the sun was still below the mountains surrounding us–this meant we were walking in the cool shade. However, soon the grade seemed to increase a bit and we were walking in the sun and it grew hotter. We rose to about 8000 feet by mornings end and we were definitely feeling the elevation. We were breathing more heavily and our leg muscles were burning. At some points I had to stop after each switchback to catch my breath! It wasn’t actually that bad or difficult in the larger scheme of things, but the PCT is such easy and gradual walking that this felt tough in comparison.

We entered the San Bernardino mountains and also entered an area where there had been a wildfire in years past. It was crazy to see some huge trees fallen or charred black.

We finally reached the water source we had been aiming for all morning around 10:15. There were nice picnic tables in the sun and we met Justin, who is from New Zealand and had broken his pinky toe the previous day!!! It sounded super painful to walk on but he was in surprisingly high spirits and also grateful for painkillers. Wolf Bird and I took a longer break than usual to cook up some ramen. I had extra and wanted to get rid of the extra weight and also of course wanted an excuse to pig out. We had a nice long break and filled up on water as well. 

For the next 6.5 miles I listened to music, which I haven’t been doing too much so as to save phone battery. It was a nice change and the miles really flew by. It was really beautiful scenery with some snow covered mountains not too far away and huge trees surrounding us. It is so refreshing to walk amongst trees after long treeless desert sections. We passed the same couple of groups throughout the day–Gourmet and Sonya and Flame and a French guy Protein, as well as a bigger group of about 6, three of whom we later discovered were sisters hiking together. Two of the sisters hiked the AT together as well, same year as we did in 2013!

We took our next break at a forest service cabin. This is a cabin you have to reserve to stay overnight at, so there were a few families there. The cabin had a roof and four walls but open doors and windows (no glass)… But the families were all tenting right next to the cabin and even on the cabin porch, rather than staying on the floor of the cabin which we found a bit strange. We ate some snacks at the picnic tables there and took advantage of the very clean outhouse at the cabin. We ran into a group of four guys who were PCT hikers at the cabin. We’d seen them the last few days, they are younger, probably 22 or so I’d guess. One of them was complaining to Wolf Bird about the lack of trail magic so far and how he’d been hoping there would be some at this cabin. He then said he hoped there was some about 6 miles up the trail as he’d heard sometimes there are sodas there. We were really surprised and put off by such an attitude. To expect people to bring you sodas or snacks on the trail is just ridiculous! The whole reason it is called trail magic is because it feels so magical and unexpected when it happens! It is a humbling experience when someone goes out of their way to help hikers and this hiker’s the entitled attitude really made us sad. I think he is also just setting himself up for disappointment. 

Anyway, we then hiked about 4 more miles to get water at a faucet in the woods. A pct hiker from 2003 owns a ranch and installed a faucet on his property for hikers–so incredibly nice. We chatted with the big group with the three sisters and a few others, Land Mammal, Fat and Sassy, Cedar, and Beave. Right after we got water we passed by a private zoo right next to the trail! They keep animals that are trained and used in movies I guess. We saw a tiger (we think), a bear and a mountain lion in tiny cages. It was crazy and also sad to see them caged up. The mountain lion was pacing frantically which was kind of scary. 

We then walked a nice leisurely three miles (although I was carrying a lot of water so it was heavy) to a random couch in the woods. A hostel puts it there with some pamphlets And info to advertise hikers to stay with them in the upcoming town. The group of four guys we’d seen at the cabin were there and looked sooo dejected and depressed. We later joked that it was probably because they had expected trail magic and there was none. There were remnants of old soda cans and snacks by the couch so they had probably seen those and gotten upset that it was gone by the time they got there. 

We hiked on without a definite plan of where we would camp. Many people were planning on camping about 3 miles up the trail so as to make a shorter day into town tomorrow. If we also headed to that campsite that would be a 26 plus mile day for us, which would be our longest yet. We were both feeling good but I was hesitant about walking so far so soon after having shin splints. They have been feeling so much better lately (only sore in the morning and better the rest of the day, and same for Wolf Bird’s heel) so I didn’t want to risk making them worse. We decided to camp somewhere in the next mile or two. There were any tent sites listed on the PCT app we use to navigate the trail so we just had to hope we’d find a flat spot that wasn’t listed. We found some flattish spots after about 0.6 miles, but they were far from perfect. It’s not much fun sleeping on sloped ground, but we were worried there wouldn’t be anything better further down the trail since it looked to be all downhill from the elevation profile. We went back and forth about whether to stay and then once we decided to camp in that area I was incredibly indecisive about which specific area was least sloped. Wolf Bird helped to convince me it didn’t matter that much and also was very sweet and got out my sleeping bag and pad for me. We cooked some dinner and set up camp and enjoyed a little extra time than usual to lounge before bed. We went to bed excited for town tomorrow!

It was tough getting out of bed at 5AM this morning with the cold and wind there to greet us. We finally mustered the courage and were up and walking by about 6AM. We had a beautiful walk along Fuller Ridge first thing this morning and it did not disappoint. We had beautiful views into the valley below as the sun rose. It was a truly stunning landscape and helped make the cold windy morning bearable. 

Our walk today would be about 20 miles of relentless downhill. The PCT is crazy about switchbacks, so our climb down the mountain felt extremely drawn out. We had pretty fantastic views all day. The houses and roads in the valley below looked so far down underneath us. It was hard to imagine we’d end up there by day’s end. 

It was warm but not too hot today, mostly because of the intense wind all day. There were some intense gusts, I imagine up to 45 miles per hour, possibly more. At times the wind nearly blew me over–its force was so strong I could lean into it. 

We broke up our day with breaks every 2ish hours or every 6 or so miles, which was nice. We passed mile 200 today!!! And had a photoshoot where it took quite a while to fit both of us and the “200” in the frame. 

About two thirds of the way down the mountain we passed a dad and son hiking the opposite direction, who were on a three week trip. They told us they’d stayed with a Trail Angel named Hillbilly the previous evening and told us he would host us for free or even just give us rides to In N Out Burger if we wanted. Well, after hearing that we were fantasizing about burgers for the next couple hours. We were on the fence about if it’d be a good idea to try to get a ride to In N Out because that meant we’d have a bigger than intended day at about 22ish miles. This wasn’t a huge day but we have been trying to take it easy due to our previous injuries. We decided to stop at our next water source and decide. 

We arrived at the water source, which was actually a water fountain in the middle of the desert, around 1PM. We took a lunch break and ate sitting in the intense sun, as the wind made it too cold to sit in the shade. During our hour break, many other hikers caught up to us and also took a break. There was a group of two guys walking from together and then a group of about five guys and girls walking together. We briefly chatted with them before deciding that we felt good and wanted to head to In N Out! No big surprise there–we like our food. 

I called Hillbilly and he said he could give us a ride no problem, just give him a call when we got to the road 4.8 miles from where we had lunch. He also said we were welcome to stay with him–he’d be cooking spaghetti and sausage for dinner. I told him we’d talk it over and give him a call when we got to the road. 

The walk to the road was a nice change in that it was flat as opposed to the 18 miles of downhill we’d just walked. However, part of the walk to the road was on pavement which was hard on my shin splints. Then after the pavement ended the trail changed to loose sand–it was like walking on a beach for miles! It really gave our calves a workout. To top it all off, the wind was more intense than itd been all day! We later found out that there had been a wind advisory for gusts over 50mph! I was growing extremely frustrated by the time we neared the road, as most of the 4.8 miles had been walking directly into the wind which was a lot of work, especially in loose sand.

We finally reached the road and went under the underpass below the highway. There were some coolers with water bottles and even beer! But we had very little time to check them out because we saw an SUV at the far end of the underpass with a bunch of hikers piling in. We booked it over there to see if we might be able to finagle a ride to In N Out rather than make Hillbilly come get us. 

We met Mama Bear, as she calls herself, who had checked the underpass for hikers to see if anyone needed a ride. Four hikers that we hadn’t met before were piling in the car and she was going to drive them to Hillbilly’s to stay. She asked if we wanted to join. We had planned to just get a burger then come back to the trail and find a camp spot after. We had to discuss it but finally decided that we would just stay with Hillbilly after all, but not without asking Mama Bear if we could stop at In N Out first. She very kindly said yes and we hopped in the car all squeezed in and sitting in each others’ laps. The reason we had to discuss whether to stay at Hillbilly’s was that often it is the case that you get a late start the next day, as you are relying on the trail angel to get you back to the trail and typically that doesn’t happen super early. It was supposed to be really hot the next day so we were concerned we wouldn’t be able to start hiking in time to beat the heat. We ultimately decided to suck it up for the chance to have our burgers!

Mama Bear drove us to In N Out and we ordered our food to go (2 burgers and fries and Dr Pepper for wolf bird and a burger fries and a chocolate milkshake for me). We met the other hikers, Flame, Beav (as in Beaver), Gourmet, and Sonia. Flame and Beav had each hiked the AT before. Beav hiked Southbound like us! He hiked in 2012 but started on the same date (July 1) that we did in 2013!

We got our food to go and were off to Hillbilly’s! Mama Bear started describing Hillbilly to us and said things like “he doesn’t have a lot of teeth” and “he’s different…but harmless” and then finally said “I guess what I’m trying to say is he drinks a lot”. Well this would be interesting. 

We got to Hillbilly’s and discovered six other hikers already there, so that made 11 of us with us five joining. Hillbilly was quite a character right off the bat. He is in his 60s with white hair and off color jokes. Wolf bird and I were sitting eating our burgers when Hillbilly came up behind wolf bird and tickled his ribs and yelled “gotcha! I knew you were ticklish” and then told me he’d get me too later. His house was full of knickknacks with a lot of tiger things–rugs and paintings and statues.., even a panther table! Hillbilly had clearly been drinking all day and offered everyone beers and shots. We did not partake. All this being said, he was incredibly generous. He allowed us all to take showers and do laundry and then made us all dinner as well. It felt so nice to shower even though I almost felt guilty showering the day after I was in town!

We met and chatted with some of the other hikers but were already getting tired by 7ish! We usually go to bed by 8! The atmosphere was pretty loud and chaotic and social. Wolf bird and I hadn’t noticed that many of the others had already claimed floor space to sleep on so we got stuck with space right in front of the loud tv in the living room while everyone else were more tucked away. 

A group of hikers called Hillbilly asking for a ride so a whole new group of four hikers arrived around 830 or so. We had turned down the lights but couldn’t figure out how to turn off the volume on the tv so we were just laying on our pads frustrated. Then when this new group of hikers came in, they were very loud and moving all over the place and turning on lights etc. I was really frustrated as I am a light sleeper and knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep until everyone was quiet and it was dark. Wolf bird was frustrated too but not nearly as much as I was. Finally everyone calmed down and the lights were out, but then hillbilly turned on the tv in his bedroom. His bedroom was right beside the living room and he left his door open so the Noise from his tv was pretty loud where we were laying–I could hear even through earplugs. Wolf bird luckily fell asleep but I didn’t fall asleep until hillbilly turned off his tv at midnight. I was very grateful for a place to sleep and food and shower and laundry… But it did come at a price. Sometimes sleeping out in the woods is just easier and more simple! Nonetheless it was a strange yet memorable experience… And we did get our In N Out after all so all was good in the world.