Day 10: Mile 104.9 - 119.6

Last night as I drifted off to sleep, I was serenaded to slumber by the croaking of frogs, mostly in the creek beside me. Although when I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, I saw a rustle in the grass dimly lit by my red headlamp, and saw an actual frog, half-hopping, half-crawling away.

I felt bad: it *is* his house, after all: I'm just visiting.

In the morning, I got up early as usual, but tried to see if I could fall back asleep. The answer is no. Better to have just gotten up and gotten going. But I did see that the Boy Scout troop camping downstream also hadn't woken up: they wouldn't start stirring until nearly 6:30am, which was disappointing. Yesterday, Wiki had told the story about a Boy Scout troop she jad encountered on Mount Whitney. She had come down from the summit late, very late, 2am late, and had jumped in her bag to get some much needed sleep when, at 6am sharp, the scoutmaster had woken the troop by belting out, "Oh what a beautiful moooorning, oh what a beautiful daaay!". Wiki likes show tunes, but this rendition she could have lived without! 

But no such bugle call for the troop this time, just the usual vague stirrings and first stiff steps that come before the talking.

The trail today was such a variety of styles. From climbing out of little riparian ravine I had slept in, watching the cloud-fogs roll over the hills above, to going up into those hills, onto flat plateaus and seeing Eagle Rock (which *is* shaped like an eagle), to the green and big trees around Warner Springs proper (and passing so many day hikers out to see Eagle Rock!), to the rolling grasslands around Warner Springs, to the climb up to tonight's campground, here at Lost Valley Spring, a climb which finally reminded me of the mountain trails back home. The PCT has been so well groomed up to now, so clean and smooth, and finally now we get to trails that remind me of Verdugo in CNF, of Brown Mountain in ANF, of all the trails I've done that smack of: yes, there's a trail here, but not many walk it. These trails are harder to hike, certainly--the footing needs to be more careful--but lucky for me, the familiarity also stirs a certain affection.

For most of the afternoon I walked with Patricia, an older lady, and the conversation ran from comments on all the flowers along Agua Caliente Creek (beardtongue--that's a flower name I hadn't heard before), to stories of San Jacinto (she goes up every summer), to stories of all the food she's gotten to eat around the world. (Ok, maybe the latter is a thru-hike thing: there's an awful lot of thought and talk around food!) But listening to Patricia is pretty incredible: she's retired now, and she doesn't move fast, but she moves consistently--for the entire 5-mile climb up her pace didn't waver a step. She's hiking just this section, up to Paradise Valley Cafe, but she's done it before, and she's been up and down San Jacinto (her backyard mountain), and San Gorgonio too. If you know these mountains, you know how amazing that is. I mean, I'm working up this mountain, I've never been up San Jacinto (Cactus-to-Clouds still holds a certain intimidation for me), I got my backside handed to me going up San Gorgonio, and here she is, much older than me, slightly hunched over even without the pack, and she's filtering water and she's pulling on a full backpacker's pack and she's getting it done. She's fun to talk to too: has lots of stories disparaging casual day-hikers from the OC who come to San Jacinto gym-buff but not mountain-ready (although she feels for the couples where She's bouncing up the mountain, and He's in the back, carrying all the gear and water for two!), and plenty of stories about traveling around the world and eating all sorts of fun stuff. Among (many) other things, she likes chicken feet, she likes niu du (cow stomach), and she asked me about trying stinky tofu (to which I responded with Yie Yie's story). (Oh, and she's Caucasian, so these foods aren't exactly common for her.) So that tackle-anything spirit isn't limited to just the mountains! Pretty amazing!

We hiked together all the up the mountain, from where the trail dances with Agua Caliente Creek, to the lookout just above Lost Valley Spring where we camped. Big party of folks that night: Patricia and myself, plus Colin and Helena and Jake, plus Truck and Gray Goose (who found nice sheltered campsites just a bit down from the lookout, past the bushes), plus Dylan and Uno, plus Matt who sauntered in last and took the spot nearest the trail. The view from up there was incredible, looking out over the rolling valleys below, speckled with boulders made so small by the distance, while afar to the left the evening lights of Warner Springs twinkled far far away. And I thought: we had been in Warner Springs just earlier today, and to have come *that* far--it's pretty amazing how far you can get if you just put one foot in front of the other.

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Some notes:

-- San Ysidro Creek > Eagle Rock > Warner Springs > Lost Valley Spring

-- At Warner Springs, Dean and the Four Horsemen decided to head into town to get the Dogs that are Hot at a gas station. Or rather, the Four Horsemen did: I think Dean may just have followed for the amusement. I didn't see them the rest of the day, so maybe the hot dogs were *just* *that* *good*.

-- A less happy note: today, Wiki left the trail to let her feet heal up. Hopefully she'll be back in a few days. Wiki hikes in flip flops--she's summited Mt Whitney in flip flops and with microspikes (don't quite know how you do that but, sure)--but her socks had worn through and gotten holes. So her feet were more exposed to the heat of the ground, so she changed her stride, and now her feet were both sore and stretched out. Turns out it's cheaper for her to fly home, take a couple days, and fly back than to get a hotel out here, so she managed to get a trail angel to drive her to Palm Springs Airport. Hope the best for her, and that she's able to get back on trail soon.

-- Also, passed Bloom today and she wasn't feeling well. Stomach ailment that evidently she's been battling on and off for a couple days now. I gave her some Immodium in case that helped, but she was resting on trail just outside Warners, with the option to head back in in case things got worse. Hope the best for her too. I kind of want everybody who has the guts to try for something like this and start it, to be able to savor finishing it as well. So here's to both Wiki and Bloom getting that chance.