Category: Hiking

Day 6 Hiking and Summary of PCT Section A SoCal April 2022

Our last day of section hiking was an easy eight miles. We’re well-practiced in the morning routine and on the way to the trail near dawn. On the way, we encounter a hiker and give her a ride to Ranchita. We learn that she’s from Denmark and is hiking 700 miles of the PCT. She and I posed with the Ranchita Yeti.

Mike and I hit the Montezuma Valley trailhead and set off for Warner Springs on a cold and clear morning. We had an exciting wildlife encounter: grazing cattle. These bovines didn’t seem to want us in their area. Mike led the way as we navigated the herd without incident.

In the distance, we started to see Eagle Rock, a prominent feature alongside the trail. We got here early and had the rock to ourselves and the lizards for a pleasant 15 minutes. We met several groups day hiking to Eagle Rock from Warner Springs as we walked out.

We talked a few minutes with a thru-hiker with the trail name Incline. He’s hiking the trail with his dogs; his wife has been accompanying him in an RV. I suggested a trail name for his wife: Recline.

Mike and I made it to Warner Springs at about 1030. There wasn’t must to see here; everything was closed. We were happy to complete our hike as planned. Our walk covered about 4% of the PCT (110/2650). Here’s a summary:

Date	Day	Start	Finsh	Miles	Gain (ft)	Loss (ft)
4/8/2022	1	Campo	Lake Morena County Park	20	3160	2990
4/9/2022	2	Lake Morena	Desert View (Mount Laguna)	22.6	4750	1880
4/10/2022	3	Desert View (Mount Laguna)	Sunrise Trailhead	16.9	2610	3560
4/11/2022	4	Sunrise Trailhead	Scissors Crossing	17.8	1540	4280
4/12/2022	5	Scissors Crossing	Montezuma Valley Road	23.9	3670	2480
4/13/2022	6	Montezuma Valley Road	Warner Springs	8.3	1200	1600
			Total	109.5	16930	16790

Summary of PCT California Section A Hike – Miles, Gain and Loss are from Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail: Southern California by Shawntee Salabert

Another way to visualize this section hike is to look at a map. The map on the right shows the entire PCT through California, Oregon, and Washington. My fingers cover the section of California that we did.

Our next section hike will be Oregon Section A in June 2022, covering 82 miles in 4 days. We will start at the California border.

Mike and I split in Warner Springs; he would explore more of Southern California with his car. I headed over to visit my nephew at Cal State San Marcos. I ate several burritos while we talked and then got a campus tour. After that, pedal to the metal for the drive north to Seattle.

Day 5 Hiking PCT Section A SoCal April, 2022

We started our longest hike today, close to 24 miles. It’s a fair distance, but Mike and I feel dialed in after doing 77 miles in the previous four days. The weather was cold and windy as we emerged. We set out from our hotel and placed our vehicles. Along the way, we picked up a thru-hiker from near Austin, Texas. He had spent a miserable night; his tent had nearly blown down. We got him into Julian and headed back to Scissors Crossing.

We launched out geared up for cold and windy conditions. The sky was gray as we climbed up the San Felipe Hills. The first mile is a bit steep but not too demanding. A rainbow makes the hiking pleasant; it persisted for the next 45 minutes. Our hiking is through the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park for the next ten miles.

We head onward and upward through a desert garden. There are many cacti and other plants in bloom. It’s some beautiful botanizing, but we keep moving. It does take relentless forward progress to rack up 24 miles.

I notice a red, fuzzy insect, like a crawling bumblebee, as I’m sitting. It’s called a velvet ant, actually a parasitic wasp Genus Dasymutilla. I have observed a velvet ant only once before. Their bright color lets other animals know to avoid them; they have an excruciating sting. The sting of a velvet ant is classed as a 3 on the Schmidt sting pain index. Let me say that I decided it was a good time to stand up and shake out my pants and pack!

The rest of this hike was a bit of a blur. We went up for a while more. Next, we headed down for six or seven miles of afternoon hiking down a forested canyon. I was in the groove; I just put one foot in front of the other. Finished up at Barrel Springs, got our cars, and headed back to Julian for yet another delicious pizza and a good night’s rest. Tomorrow will be an easy day of about 8 miles into Warner Springs.

Day 4 Hiking PCT Section A SoCal April, 2022

We set off from our base near Julian on a cold, clear morning. The temperature when we left was a brisk 27 degrees. We did our usual car shuttle machinations and launched from Sunrise Trailhead; bound for Scissors Crossing. As you can see, we are wearing warm clothes as we launched north.

We are hiking 18 miles today. The start and the end of the hike are within the boundaries of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. In the middle section, we will be walking in an area controlled by the Bureau of Land Management. A quick tip to other hikers, to leave a car at Sunrise trailhead in the state park requires a day use fee. Fortunately, there was an app that let you pay online. Unfortunately, I had no cellphone service. Fortunately, Mike did have service and was able to get this taken care off.

We saw some interesting plants as we made our way up the trail. The photos below show a plant that we became familiar with: Chaparral Yucca (Hesperoyucca whipplei). It throws up a tall flower stalk (the botanical term is a scape) and is covered with flowers. I added an observation of Chaparral Yucca on iNaturalist ; another naturalist confirmed my identification. I have oodles of nature photos to work through. My methodology is to first put them on iNaturalist and then (hopefully) write about the flora and fauna of this section of the PCT

Well, back to hiking. The trail was more down than up today. As we pressed on, we crossed a few roads and encountered just a few other hikers; mainly thru hikers. We started to see signs of civilization; the middle photo below shows a homestead. The mountains beyond are the San Felipe Hills, we were to know them much better tomorrow, We were heading into the valley, our car was near the base of the hills.

I’m still learning about the ecology of the area but my guess is that we transitioned from chaparral to desert at some point. One delight was seeing the cactus start to bloom. My favorite cactus of the day was flowering Engelmann’s Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus engelmannii) The photo’s show one example, look closely at the flower and you’ll see a bee working the bloom over. There’s pollen scattered around the flower; it was good to see a pollinator at work.

I had an internal transition; from feeling decent to quite nauseous. I’m sure that my churning guts didn’t improve my personality. I let Mike know and he paced me out. (Mike – thanks for putting up with me) When we got to Julian, I bought a six pack of diet ginger ale. I had one and felt better. A bit later I drank another. The next morning I still wasn’t 100%. Mike had great advice, bring ginger ale along in my pack. That was sage advice, it helped get my guts settled. On the way out, at Scissors Crossing, we investigated the water cache, It was large and well-organized. (We had seen an unmaintained water cache the previous day; the insects and other small critters would have made for an interesting nature study).

After getting to town and obtaining ginger ale, I spotted the Julian library. Those who know me can guess that I had to pay a visit; I am active with two Friends of the Library groups in Lake Forest Park, WA and Shoreline, WA. The Friends of the Julian Library had an entire room of books for sale. Yes, a few books went home with me. I had a great time chatting with Caroline about books and hiking.

After that, pizza and salad, shower, gear check for tomorrow’s long day and sleep.

Day 3 Hiking PCT Section A SoCal April, 2022

Our third day on the PCT. Today is going to be an easy 17 miles. We have the morning rituals figured out; we’re up at Mount Laguna recreation area. Today, we will cross into Anza-Borrego Desert State Park; a natural area that I’ve wanted to explore for years.

Mike leading the way out of Mount Laguna

You might be curious why Mike’s often in the lead. The answer is pretty simple; I take a lot of nature photos, So, it’s a lot easier for me to get some images and catch up rather than slow both of us down. Plus, Mike sets a good pace; we average about a 2.5 mile per hour (4 km per hour) pace. Not too bad for a couple of senior citizens – we are both young at heart. We are up high, about 5700 feet (1740 m.), walking through a low oak forest.

After a couple of miles, we break into open terrain and pass the PCT 50 mile mark. We are walking on some gentle ridges, very pleasant terrain. I feel like I could walk all day – in fact, I did walk all day.

We walked up to the Pioneer Mail Picnic site (mile 53) and then proceeded on a closed section of the old Sunset highway and then back onto trail. There were some elaborate memorials up here. The views down to the desert floor several thousand feet below us are stunning. We were passing through here around noon, we tended to eat and hike rather than tale long breaks.

We hiked on north along the edge of a ridge, it was some great walking. The geology was also interesting. In the area of the memorial (see photos above) the rock looked metamorphic, perhaps schist? (PS – stop now if you don’t give a schist…) A bit further north we were walking through weathered granitic rock. Gosh, wish I knew a bit more geology. So much science, so little time. I did find a nice website about the flora of the PCT in this area: The Flora of the PCT A7 Pioneer Mail Picnic Area to Sunrise parking area My next endeavor once I finish writng about the hiking is to record my observations on iNaturalist. After that, I hope to write up what I saw each day in some detail – stand by for more….

As we made our way north, we entered Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. I would describe the terrain we hiked through as chaparral rather than desert. You can get a look at this via my rather poor attempt at a selfie. Another comment, I am well protected from the sun. I tried out a Black Diamond Sun Hoodie on this trip, it seemed to live up to its advertised UPF 50 protection. I’m of Irish ancestry I can (and have) got sunburn in the shade. I have SPF50 sunscreen along with SPF 30 lip balm and my trusty RayBan shades. I also wear OR sun gloves. All this worked well for me during the six days of hiking.

After a few more miles of fairly flat tramping, we made it to the car we left at Sunrise Trailhead. We backtracked to Mount Laguna to get the other car and then headed over some twisty roads to the town of Julian, which was our new base for the next 3 days of adventure. We stayed a few miles out of town at the Apple Tree Inn. The room was quite nice. A great feature to me was proximity to good food, here’s a review of Wynola Pizza that I wrote:

“For 3 days, I was hiking the PCT 8 to 10 hours a day and got to my hotel hungry. I’d stroll over to Wynola Pizza and eat an entire vegan pizza every evening. It was delicious. Usually had a slice of apple pie as well. Great service and there was live music one night. Highly recommended.”

Mike also enjoyed this place but not quite as much as I did. I think it might be an engineering trait; once you find optimal food then there’s no need to change! After eating, we headed into Julian for a quick resupply. It’s a good hiker town, the staff at the store were very nice and the prices were reasonable. We also did a quick recon of Scissors Crossing, which was our starting point for tomorrow, Day 4 of Section A