6/1/2023
Section: Mile post 186.4 to 200.5
Distance: 15.09 Miles
Moving Time: 7:25 hrs
Elevation Gain: 2,513 ft
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A lot of information was available about today's stage and that is because of a section called Fuller Ridge. Typically a fairly benign section, California’s off-the-chart snow year had left it snow covered late into the year. The trail sticks to the eastern aspect of the ridge for most of it and there is a little exposure to contend with so, with snow sticking around this late, Fuller Ridge was a huge point of conversation, especially among those on the trail with limited snow travel experience. It was one of those things where I felt that it was probably still going to be benign but had to see it to believe it. Beyond Fuller Ridge the trail strays into the San Bernardino National Forest before returning to the San Jacinto Wilderness on its long, long, loooong slide down to I-10.
Amanda and I slept in this morning. See, it happens every once in a while - though, I should say, we slept in ‘till about 6 before getting up. It was mostly so the day would get a small chance to warm up. I am still without a puffy which isn’t a problem most mornings but at around 9000 feet this morning - it definitely was. I frantically ran around, conducting the usual chores and trying to stay warm and by around 7 we were up and off - John leaving just before us. We went about 30 paces before running into snow. We hurdled a few small sections before it became common enough to warrant the Microspikes and, hey, if you got them they might as well be on your feet instead of in the backpack. We continued on, crossing more sections including one that had a slightly more exciting amount of exposure than normal but all-in-all, more annoying than anything.
After getting onto Fuller ridge and passing through a few small campgrounds, the trail continued on the western aspect of the ridge and the snow ran out. Amanda and I removed our micro spikes and continued on. The trail switch backed down and back up the western side of the ridge and eventually returned to the eastern side where the snow returned with a vengeance and to stay. From mile 188 until we reached the Fuller Ridge Trailhead at mile 190 Amanda and I fought the good fight against the snow. It was 2 miles of miserable slush covered side hilling. I love everything about my trail runners - they are super comfortable and cause minimal blisters but I would have given anything to have my Asolo hiking boots for this section, just to have a mid-shank boot that would drive and plunge step halfway decently. I think Amanda and I were lucky to have done about a mile per hour in this section as we post-holed and slid our way across Fuller Ridge. While never really dangerous, it was downright annoying. In the last quarter mile snow was replaced with an eye-raising amount of blow-down which took us off trail to avoid massive tree barracades - but, eventually, we were delivered into the Fuller Ridge Trail parking lot.
I arrived shortly before Amanda and encountered a group of about 10 women hikers standing and sitting around a picnic bench which I was encouraged to see. Amanda and I had talked about this for the last few days. We hadn’t seen that many women on the trail. Lots of single guys in groups between 1 and 3, a few couples and families and a few single women hikers but very limited. This had surprised us a bit because PCT.org had listed the gender breakdown at something like 43% identifying as female but that was not jiving with what we were observing so I was happy to see this group upon arriving out of the hellish landscape above.
I introduced myself and then was promptly overwhelmed by about 10 names. Amanda arrived next to me just as the last few trail names were being said. This was the first true “Trail Family” we had encountered and they were hilarious. We chatted with them for some time and discovered that they had started the day before us. We asked about Phillip and John and found out that Phillip was a ways ahead of us and John was about 15 minutes ahead. Shortly after they broke out a hodgepodge of instruments including a recorder, a jaw harp, a kazoo and a harmonica to play us a quick serenade and were off.
Amanda and I stuck around a bit, still laughing and had a quick snack before packing our own bags and heading off. From the Fuller Ridge Trailhead the path descended through less and less dense trees - Sugar and Jeffry Pine as Amanda identified them. The Jeffry pines have these huge beautiful cones that they drop all over the forest floor while the Sugar pines drop smaller, denser cones. Eventually the trees opened up while Amanda and I had a civil discourse about what I had said the distance was for today and we could see all the way down to I-10 and back up to the summit of Jacento. From here the trail wound endlessly down towards the Snow Creek Drainage. The trail, as i said before, is designed with equestrians in mind so it has one or of the most gentle grades i have ever seen. This is at times wonderful and others it's just downright annoying and this descent was a little bit of both. We tossed and turned on the open hillside for several hours catching sight of lots of reptilian wildlife and taking a few breaks before arriving at a campsite at mile 200.5. And who did we find already in one of the sites? Who else but John from Eugene who came out to say hello.
I went on down to filter water while Amanda set up camp. This evening we enjoyed the superb culinary delight that is Top Ramen (Thanks Mom and Dad). I did my typical yoga and as I did so, the Trail Family from before trickled past our site, a little less pep in their step than earlier, but not much. Evidently, we had passed them at an earlier water stop which they had gone off trail to utilize and we had skipped and were now catching up. We talked with a few of them and said we would see them in the morning. Later, Amanda and I completed our evening chores and crawled into bed - looking forward to some better trail consistency in the next 4-500 miles but not looking forward to the heat.
