5/26/2023
Section: Mile post 114.7 to 131.4
Distance: 17.05 Miles
Moving Time: 07:16 hrs
Elevation Gain: 4,085 ft
Click here for location
Today’s stage starts in the Cleveland National Forest and crosses into the Anza-Borrego Desert State Wilderness during the second half of the say. The stage climbs and winds through a long series of rocky hills as the terrain takes on more of a Joshua Tree vibe
I’m starting to sleep better on the air mattress. We both have a Thermarest NeoAir but the baffles near the head of mine have started to let go leaving the head of my air mattress looking like it has a built in air pillow. Not bad except for the fact that more are starting to let go. If the ones that have currently released are the only ones that will than this Thermarest will make it. If any more go however, I might have to replace it somewhere here soon. Anyway, despite sleeping better and better in a tent, it’s still not perfect. Last night something brushed against the tent around 1 am and i was up like a shot to see what it was. I never located the offending animal/Amanda’s hand but that kept me up for another 45 minutes. So when 4 am rolled around i was not about getting up. I laid there and snoozed for 30 minutes before, regretting it deeply, twisting the valve on my thermarest to start the morning.
We woke and prepared as we always do be were ready to leave around 5:15, the sun already lighting the cloudy skies above. We made the tricky crossing from our sandbar tent site to the trail and were off. The trail in this section is not the best maintained we have seen so far and the foliage around the river is actively trying to take back over. Amanda and I made more than one bad turn. We crossed and re-crossed the river about 4 times before the trail finally pulled up and out of the river valley snaking it’s way to a better view of yesterday’s stage. Before we left the tree’s we crossed through a larger campsite where we saw Phillip still in his tent.
Once out of the river gulley the trail started it’s slow ascent which would be maintained most of the day up through the stoney hills of the Cleveland National Forest. At one point an ultra hiker snuck up on us and we let him by. Shortly after we stopped for a snack and Phillip from Cologne showed up. We noticed that Phillip had a habit of always showing up just as one or the other of us was about to pee. In this case it was both of us. We talked to Phillip fo a while while having our second breakfast and eventually he was off with a promise to see us at the Mike’s Place - one of the few water resupplies in this stage. After Phillip was a woman named Rebel from Port Townsend. We talked to her for a while and she kept walking. After the various encounters and snacks we hauled up our bags and continued on our march upwards.
We hiked on through the stoney landscape. Amanda and I have been playing a game each day where the first person to spot a lizard is deemed the Lizard Queen or King. Today we both spotted a lizard at the same time so the crown was shared. We made a brief stop to put on some sunscreen and then carried on, passing Rebel again. This was a theme today, we leapfrogged Rebel about 4 times before reaching mikes.
The sun continued to rise and temperatures with it. At around 11 am we rounded a gulley and ran into some day hikers who we shared a few words with before continuing on. Shortly after our encounter we came across the sign for Mikes.
Water is feast or famine here in the early stages of the trek. Yesterday there was plenty of it but today there is almost none as well as tomorrow. This is where a few really great people make a huge diffference. One of them is Mike who maintains a few Brewer’s vats of water near his small ranch about 0.2 miles from the trail. We stopped here from 11 to about 1 pm to get fresh water and enjoy some lunch. At the water stop we ran into John (Long Trail) from Eugene again for the first time since Julien. He said he had gone to the RV Resort instead of Julien because they had a pool and he was very excited about that. Also there was Phillip who was excited to see us as well as one of the Czech guys - the other was evidently far off ahead. We relaxed at Mike’s for a time but then got antsy and decided to leave. On our way out we ran into Jane and her boyfriend Joe who was back from his work check-in and both were keen to get to the water stop.
From Mikes the trail snaked back up for another 800 feet before cresting a shallow saddle and wandering down the north side of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Wilderness. On the way down Amanda got “Rollin on the River” stuck in my head which I adapted for some of my reptilian friends
Small Lizard keep on runnin’
Big Lizard keep on sunnin’
Lizard, Lizard, Lizaaaaard in the desert
This kept me going as we descended about 1000 feet to the campsite for the night. Once there we made dinner immediately, both hungry from the day’s escapades before setting up camp. Hints be me all about is going to a big day and everyone is trying to get to the Paradise Valley Cafe for dinner - 19 miles and 3000 feet of elevation gain - we will see!
