HIGH DESERT
PCT DAY 3: Mile 41.4 (Burnt Ranch CG) – Mile 55.9
Saturday April 16, 2016: 14.5 miles (23.2km)
Although I was exhausted last night, sleep did not come easy. It was not just the howling of the wind that kept me awake. Even though the wind russling against the tent sounded like big fat drops of water were falling on it. It may have been the altitude. I finally drifted off just after 2am. Hammer slept like a log and in the morning was bouncing outside, full of beans and ready to tackle another day. He even made me a coffee to have in bed before facing the bracing chill of the morning. We packed up quickly as it was freezing cold and walked into Mt Laguna village to fill up with water.
Hiker box left outside the Mt Lagoona outfitters. A bit early for a real beer.
The Mt Laguna restaurant opened early for hikers. Big breakfast for Hammer.
Back on the trail it was not long before we left the pine forest behind and entered the open expanse of the high desert with absolutely stunning views to the east of a bone dry desert valley. Once the sun was up it was again perfect hiking conditions as we wound our along the ridges. As it was the weekend and we were skirting close to the Sunrise Highway we were joined by groups of day hikers and quite a few trail runners. As we found out the runners were training for the Pacific Crest Trail 50 miler.
Wow they really do squirel away the acorns.
Young pine
Huge pine cone Lou-Seal had to leave behind.
Leaving the pine forest
Peace and happiness
Looks like sand dunes
We found the walking was slow going today, not because of the terrain as we were pretty much staying at 6000 feet, but the surface we walked on was very rocky and uneven underfoot. For anyone with already troubled feet the trail surface today would have provided a real pounding. We are both going OK with our feet. Hammer has a small blisters on both his little toes and I have several hotspot on my left foot which is not causing any serious problems. So far we are on top of it.
Blue Jay
Great tasting dates from our care pack. Thank you Joe and Dede!
Busy on the weekend
Bursting tree buds.
Thorny lizard
A German couple we passed on the way.
We stopped early to make a camp on the trail amongst a boulder field. The sun was still up and it was so nice to get the tent up while it was still warm and not to rush dinner. A few other hikers had camped at various spots amongst the boulders. The sun had gone down, the wind had eased it was so peaceful and silent. I was working on the blog, warm and tucked inside my sleeping bag and Hammer was reading his Kindle. Then our serenity was disturbed by a late arrival who decided to camp right alongside us, within feet of our tent. There goes the serenity. She has what sounds like whooping cough and is sleeping in, on and around really noisy material, sounds like crinkly plastic bags, probably a tyvec sheet. Noisy as anything setting up and took a long time to settle down. Then got up again and started whooping and stomping around. It is a really big space out here. But we humans are social animals, with a herding instinct. We just happen to have came across a very anti-social animal with a herding instinct. And sice I was awake I looked out the door and could see the moon and the stars. It was quite spectacular.
Cooking dinner on the trail.
Our camp spot before the serenity was shattered.
Hi Guys enjoying the blog looks spectacular
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Thank you Peter.
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Hi Mike & Stef – just logged on and excited that you are already onto day 3 – so looking forward to sharing this journey with you. As your friend Jim said “be good to one another” and stay safe. Love M & J xx
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So great to hear from you Maree and John. Lou-Seal was beginning to worry.
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Wow. Only Day 3 and I’m already hooked on reading your entries. Similar to the miles, your followers are increasing as you travel North. Sorry to hear about your restless night due to a noisy neighbour. Small lightweight ear plugs help in those situations as well as on windy tent-flapping nights. Safe travels !!!
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Thank you for the ear plug tip. Will look for them next time we are on a town. So pleased you are liking the blog.
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Hello Hammer and Corky –
I’m a reporter with the newspaper in Palm Springs, and I’m hoping to find some thru-hikers doing the PCT this year to possibly meet up with while on the trail to spend a day hiking with, talk to about their journey, and write a short story about them for our newspaper, The Desert Sun.
If you’d be interested in speaking with me, I was hoping you could tell me about when you thought you might be around the Idyllwild area. in hopes we might be able to meet up there or somewhere around there. I know your technology use out there is limited, but you can contact me at nathan.brown@desertsun.com whenever you have a chance.
Thanks so much, and best of luck!
-Nathan Brown
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Hi Nathan
Thank you for contacting us. It would be great to be involved in your article. We are aiming to be in Idyllwild on the 23 April. And will be staying in town for the night. Heading out again the next morning. I will send you an email.
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Hope you have trained Lou-Seal to carry her own food as well. What phone/camera are you using to create this? Very professional, hence the journalist contact. Recharging? Thanks for taking the effort to blog. From experience I know it takes hrs and hrs and you end up “crafting” it as you walk
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Lou-Seal is a hunter. Gets her own food or starves. I am using a Samsung S5 with a wordpress app. I can write when offline then upload as we have reception. Have not taken any phone pics yet. Using a Canon Powershot S120 with a WiFi connection to the phone. Recharging on an Anmer battery. It is listed on our gear blog post. It does take a while to do. Usually do it when I go to bed at night.
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Enjoying your blog, thank you.
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Thank you Clare.
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Shame about late arriver. I agree that a girl needs her sleep. Love the pics. Have kept a copy of the Thorny Lizard for Sam and Bec
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I have a few pics of another I took yesterday. Not posted. The colours and skin texture are really interesting.
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I forgot to mention on the late arriver. I can understand she was not feeling well, she has probably had a hard long day just like the rest of us, it was dark and she wanted to get to bed. But she could see our “lights” were on. A simple hello, I hope you don’t mind, that would have made it all OK. It was the careless way she went about it. Apart from this isolated event, everyone we have come across has been terrific. We are all in this together.
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