The extended rest worked its wonders and I could actually walk normally out of camp, at least for the first few hours.

I have been trying not to use any water caches, but I had to admit when I woke up that I only had one liter for 9 miles, when I should probably have two. Fortunately, there was a cache a mile down the trail. I got my liter, and there was fresh fruit and a garbage can! Wonderful!

Walking away I still felt conflicted. Yes, I screwed up. Yes, without the cache I would be uncomfortable and stressed out. But isn’t that supposed to be part of it? Being stressed and uncomfortable when you make a mistake in the wilderness? That’s how it works in the woods where I come from. There’s no aid stations like you’re running the Boston Marathon or something. Still not sure how I feel or what kind of a purist I want to be.

I took it slow and walked in (a mile off trail) to the Paradise Cafe around 1115. I had to go there anyway to get water, but of course I stopped for some beers and food. I joined my friends from the last few days and we drank and ate for over two hours. I knew I couldn’t eat one of those monster burgers, so I got a chicken burrito, which came out and was like four pounds! I did my best but I hiked out about half of it for dinner.

The afternoon hike was hot, uphill, rocky, harder than I thought, and beautiful. I would have liked to stop sooner, but I had only brought enough water to get to Tunnel Spring, so I didn’t have enough to camp. Eight miles from the cafe I hit the trail down to Tunnel Spring dead tired. It was only 0.3 miles off-trail but it was steeply downhill and horribly rocky. When I got to the bottom and saw a small glen, I knew I wasn’t going farther today. I filled my water bottles from the spring and made a nice quiet camp near the dried up streambed. Mile 158.4.

Today was another very tough day. My feet hurt like hell from the very first steps out of camp. I spent the entire day limping along slowly with the mantra, “Just keep walking.”

And I had an unwanted companion for most of the morning. He was really chatty and kept telling me how he had less than $300 to get to Canada. I just wanted to be alone.

The only good part of the experience was that standing, talking to him, I noticed my right trekking pole has an injury on top, so now I can tell which is which by looking at the top.

But I discovered that by taking very few, and very short breaks, I was able to keep up or even pass most other hikers. But I called it quits before four with the idea of giving my feet a solid 14 hours of rest. Unfortunately, everyone else decided to camp there too, so it was much more crowded than I like. But I had a spot on the edge, with a nice view and a rock to lean on, so it wasn’t too bad.

They had hiked in beer, but I didn’t feel I was “trail family” enough yet to crash their party.

The other thing that happened today was I got a trail name. I was passing by Cribbage and he asked my name, and when I said Adam, he said, “What no trail name? ” I said “No, I haven’t earned one yet.” He said, “What about “Glide”, because you just seem to flow down the trail like everything is perfect in the world, like you could just glide on up to Canada.” Apparently, I exude a kind of calm confidence, and easy-going manner.

A trail name is not to be taken lightly, and I thought about it for an hour or so on the way to Tule Spring. I think it’s original. I think I can live up to it. I think it fits me in many ways. A bunch of hikers were hanging out at the spring, so when I got there I thanked Cribbage, and accepted the name formally, in front of God and everybody.

Until I get to Canada, and on any long trails afterwards, and among the thru-hiker community forevermore, I shall be known as Glide.

Glide on!

(Sorry about the delay. I walked into a whole bunch of no service)

So, how different is hiking alone? Only a million times different!

I was pretty sad and lonely as I limped out of Warner Springs into the desert alone. I kept stopping to look back, as if I expected someone. But no one was there.

I got about 20 minutes out of town when I realized I had forgotten to top off my toilet paper supply. Oh well, I wasn’t out. Just have to conserve or go native (i.e., leaves?)

I was about an hour out when I realized I didn’t have my reading glasses. This really flummoxed me. Go back and spend the night there after all? (Feet said “Please. Yes!”, but I ignored them). Go back for them and hike out again? Leave my pack here while I go back? Or just go on without them? In the end I decided thru-hikers don’t go back. If David’s phone had been working, I could have called him and have him send them up the trail to me with some fast-looking hikers, but it didn’t.

I hiked about 5 miles to a nice campsite by Agua Caliente Creek and was about to feel sorry for myself when some hikers walked by and we had a nice little chat. And then some more, eight in total. I realized I will only be lonely out here if I choose to be.

This buoyed my spirits considerably, and for the first time I became truly excited about what lay ahead!

In the morning, like magic, my feet felt pretty good. And so did the rest of me. Walking in the cool morning through the woods and birdsong was lovely. I feel so much more alive and in the moment hiking alone. And the trail was much emptier. One hiker said he heard 40% of hikers quit by Warner Springs, which probably has a lot to do with it.

The first part of the day was a 2000 foot climb out of the creek, but I was feeling good so I ate that mountain for breakfast! It was like I had Trail Legs, for a while, and it was wonderful feeling my body work. By the top I was tired, and an hour after that I was sore, and an hour after that I was hurting badly and limping along slowly like most of this trip. Just keep moving.

But Joy! What is this? In the early afternoon I came across this oasis in the desert. I had to stop there for water anyway, but just down the hill was a place called “Mike’s House”, with signs encouraging hikers to come down and relax. I could hear laughter and John Denver music. With thoughts of beer in mind I had to check it out, and I stumbled into this really cool party! I drank a bunch of beers and hung out with my fellow hikers for few hours. It was nice to get to know people a little better. Everyone was really cool. Friends, if strangers.

I felt very at home there and could have stayed all summer, but I decided to get a little farther up the trail. I limped/staggered another mile or two to a windy campsite on a ridge with a huge view (around MP 130) and crashed. I heard later that people thought I was staggering drunk leaving Mike’s Place, but I submit there was quite a bit of “Hiker Hobble”. Getting going after sitting a while is like walking on broken glass for the first few minutes.

The nice folks at the Community Center offered to do our laundry. When I went into this little side room to inquire about it, the woman said, “Just give me your clothes, and we’ll wash them.” So, not being shy or embarrassed about my body, I just striped them off right there and gave them to her! She didn’t bat an eye. (I haven’t been wearing my shorts much, so they were clean and I quickly put those on. But I was buck naked for a few seconds.)

We had packages to pick up at the Post Office “downtown”. It’s about a mile away, but there is a nice flat trail off to the side of the road for most of it. The part where you walk on the shoulder of the road sucked with all the road kill. Sad. We exploded our packages in the little parking lot and got rid of most of the packaging trash. We started walking back but didn’t get far before one of the kind old ladies from the Community Center drove up and asked us if we wanted a ride back. With full resupply now, of course we said “Yes!”

But then, my 17-year old cousin David has decided to quit the trail. He hadn’t complained about any pain. We could have gone slower, although I’m not sure that would have helped his particular ailment (knee injury from High School sports), but I guess it’s too late to try that now. His father will come pick him up tomorrow. In the meantime he should be fine hanging out with all the hiker trash here in Warner Springs.

Myself, I am loaded up with food, both my food bag and internally, so I’m thinking of hobbling down the trail a few miles this afternoon. This trail isn’t going to hike itself! Since this is supposed to be a zero, I will go snail slow and not very far. Right now I’m taking an Epsom salt footbath, because it’s here, and as soon as the double burger goes down a bit I hope to squeeze in slice of pie from Julien.

It will be interesting to see the difference between hiking alone vs with someone else. If I have any epiphanies, I’ll let you know.

So, I’m planning on four days and four nights to Idyllwild. Should be rolling into town on Sunday for a true zero in a real town!

Well, we made it to Warner Springs, Mile 109. That’s 53 miles in three days and boy am I feeling it! We also mashed some miles today. We did 10 by 10:45, and all 18 to Warner by 3:15. We just got up early and walked more or less until we got here.

 

Partly this was due to fact that my feet hurt like hell from the time I got up. Once I got going I could hobble along OK, but getting going again after stopping was tough. Better just not to stop. I just willed myself to keep walking. Just keep moving. I was in Survival Mode most of the day.

But the scenery was much nicer, the weather was pleasant, the trail was super kind to me, so that certainly helped. If it had been another 18 like yesterday, I don’t know…

Also, we had high hopes for Warner Springs. Take a nice easy zero. But there’s really nothing here. I got a shower at the community center (which was freezing, being an outdoor shower, with wind and low humidity), and we can get some limited food there, and do laundry tomorrow, but basically we’re still camping out. If that’s the case, we might as well take care of business tomorrow and head back on the trail. Naturally, we’ll do an easy day.

After my shower I was sitting on the bench out front trying to comb out the tangles in my long hair. It was not going well. At one point my brush was completely tangled up in my hair and I couldn’t even pull it out. A nice older lady from the Community Center took pity on me and sat down and brushed out my hair for me. That was so sweet and kind.

So, to avoid having to camp with everyone under this one tree, we walked south out of town to find a queit place to rest by the stream. There’s a wind alert tonight. I hope it dosn’t flap my tarp around too much.

Edit: Wind wasn’t bad, but we had company. When I woke up I noticed that I had cowboy camped about ten feet from a wood-rat nest. Oops.

Well, we made it to Mile 91 (Third Gate), 18 miles past where we woke up, but it wasn’t easy. It was actually really hard.

It started out good. I woke up with no muscle soreness whatsoever. How is that even possible? The human body is amazing. With almost no water, we flew down the first four miles by 0830. Then the fun began.

First, we spent a good hour wandering around the bed of San Filipe Creek looking for water before we realized it was upstream of the bridge. That was probably two extra miles. Good thing our packs were light.

There was a fellow hiker there at Scissors Crossing who was waiting to be picked up by a friend. He was nice enough to give us a sip of water and take some of my trash! I hadn’t finished my Mountain House dinner last night, and was carrying a one pound, potentially messy bag of food that I was very happy to get rid of. Thanks, Man!

We did finally find wonderful little stream and quickly filled up our bottles. I’ve decided not to use caches, and I don’t trust that there is water in the cistern at MP 91.2, so that meant a 24-mile carry. And it’s hot! And we can see the trail switching up this horribly exposed mountain. I decide to load up with 8.5 liters (18.6 pounds).

We headed up the mountain and had 9 miles done by noon. But the trail just kept going up and up and there was no shade, no place to rest. It was pretty hideously ugly too. Whatever charms this landscape had, it lost after the fire. With no place to stop, there was really nothing to do but keep walking until we got to here.

We were really limping coming into camp, using our trekking poles to hold us up. Turns out I do get blisters after all. I have one on the left outside of each heel. Probably because the trail was slightly sloped to the left all day. And my feet HURT. I don’t think they liked that water weight at all.

Naturally, there is a famous water cache here that appearently is well stocked and everyone else is using it. We’ll see how long my purity lasts.

So, I’m totally exhausted and my face is covered with an amazing amount of salt (probably the rest of me too), but I’m thinking we can rally tomorrow for a nice easy 18 into Warner Springs for a well-deserved zero. I hope the Lodge is open. I think they have a pool!

 

Today was a good day! We hiked 17 miles to Mile 77 by 4pm. I was hardly sore at all this morning and we set a good pace most of the day with minimal stops, like good thru-hikers should. All we need to do is increase the number of hours we walk (like all the way to sunset instead of four), and will be pulling some big miles. Maybe my amibitous itinerary won’t be so far off after all.

Needless to say, I am shocked and amazed at how fast my body is responding, and how much better I feel today after seventeen miles, compared to fewer miles just a few days ago. If this keeps up I will have no trouble making it to Canada. We’re already thinking of a Nero in Warner Springs instead of a Zero, since we can probably get there mid-morning. We’re also thinking about four days from there to Idyllwild instead of five. That would be an average of 19 and some change per day. Maybe we’re counting our chickens, but I don’t think so.

Also, my appetite has returned. I wouldn’t exactly call it hiker hunger, but it’s not nothing. I am eating again.

We’re really getting into the desert now. Much hotter today and tomorrow should be considerably worse. We can see the trail on the other side of the valley climbing up into  some desolate looking country. We’ll be carrying 24 miles of water. I think that’s six plus liters for me which easily doubles my pack weight. Needless to say, we’ll try to get the climb done as early as we can.

At mile 77.1 we stopped at really nice camp spot. There was a big rock face to shade us as we sat on a nice sandy floor. It wasn’t right on the trail, but we could see hikers when they went by. It even had a “backyard”. I cowboy camped back there to give me and David some privacy.

Any hope you have for now of seeing my pictures is to go to Instagram and search for me (Adam Dresser) and follow me. I didn’t take a lot of pictures today. Was kind of ugly.

 

Another beatutiful day here with highs around 70. The trail was nice and easy today with little elevation gain and nice tread. We cruised pretty good. Got our 14 miles in less than six hours. I’m still sore, but less so. I hope that trend continues. I can feel strength building and I’m almost having fun!

Biggest bummer today was the crowds. Not only did we see about 20 other PCT hikers, but 30 or 40 day hikers as well. Makes it hard to take a pee with someone always coming around the corner and not much cover. We camped off trail among the boulders tonight so we can have some peace.

I thought I had a nice sandy spot to cowboy camp, but as soon as I put my pad down it got a hole in it. I cleaned the ground better, removing all the pokies. I found the hole pretty quickly and patched it right up like nothing! Sometimes it’s hard to find the leak without submerging the pad in water, which I didn’t have, so I got lucky and was grateful.

Unfortunately, we miscalculated our water and are running kind of lean. We’ll need to scoot three miles in the morning to the next source. I think we have enough to be comfortable.

 

Turns out a zero is not all that restful. There’s lots of chores to do like going to the gear store, planning the next two week’s food and water, buying the food, sorting the food into packs and bounce boxes, laundry, shower, town food. Don’t forget to relax!

 

But it’s true, I’ve managed to walk very little today. I try to punctuate each chore with a break. And it’s been another georgeous day!

 

In the late morning we went to the outfitter store to get some things. I’ve never seen so much gear packed into such a small space before! You could hardly turn around in there. But they did have a good selection and I got some dinners (hanging from the ceiling from a cord to conserve space) and bars. An employee (also avid hiker) named Puppy (because of her big eyes) was a big help.

We did some more chores in the afternoon and then went to the only restaurant for dinner. It was good. All the hikers sat around a big table, maybe 20 of us (including Puppy), and talked trail while we ate. Then we came back to our room and crashed around sunset.

I must admit, I spent a frustrating hour or two trying to figure out how to get photos from this iPhone onto this blog post, and failed. Are there any readers out there who can help me?

 

Yay! We made it to Mt Laguna and have just rolled in to our lovely little cabin which will be our home for the next two nights. I think Jen and Junior will join us as well.

I felt a little better today. Maybe a hint less sore than yesterday. It certainly showed in our pace. I can sense how much fun this going to be when I get stronger, but for now it’s still a painful slog. I spend a lot of the day with my head down just plodding. I wouldn’t say I’m having fun, but I’m not having a bad time either. And I’m super happy to get this far without injury, not even a blister! My left foot started to hurt again the last mile today, but hopefully the zero tomorrow will fix it.

If I have any ailments it’s my severe lack of appetite. Not sure what is going on with that, but I just don’t want to eat. My stomach is at total peace. I don’t know how a person can walk so far on so little food, but appearently it can be done. The main effect has been that I just carried pounds of food to Mt Laguna that I could have shipped. Oh well, my Dad said to listen to my body and I did. It wasn’t hungry.

We need to get our packages at the post office and pick up some beer at the store and get serious about this resting business!

I’ll have a new post tomorrow, hopefully with pictures!