Day 6: Snakes on a Trail
Date: Mon 4/23
PCT Start Mile: 77.3 – Scissors Crossing/Julian
PCT End Mile: 94.4 (on trail camping)
PCT Mileage for Day: 17.1
Off-Trail Hike Mileage: .5 (to/from water cache)
Total PCT Mileage: 94.4
Total Overall Mileage: 99.5
The Highlights: our first rattlesnake sighting, complete with warning rattle
After a great half day rest in Julian yesterday, it was back to the trail. We wanted to head out early knowing that the route would begin with a long climb and the temps would also climb high throughout the day.
To get back to the trail, we’d have to hitch the 13 miles back to Scissors Crossing, our first hitch of the trip since we’d lucked out with a ride into town yesterday. We’d been told that Julian is one of the easiest places to hitch on the trail, that everyone was friendly and stopped to give hikers rides to/from the trail. So, as I stood on the side of the road at 6am flashing my pearly whites covered in the chocolate Pop Tart I had just shoved in my face, holding the “PCT HIKER TO TRAIL” sign that Shawn had drawn up on our Tyvek ground sheet, I started to feel a bit demoralized after the first 10 cars passed us by. About half of them stopped at the breakfast place just past us. Maybe when they are done with breakfast? Another car whizzed by. Am I not lovable? It was early on a Monday morning… the people we did see were likely heading to work. Is the trail junction on the way to your work? Pick us up!
After about 30 minutes, a van came from the opposite direction, pulled a U’ey and pulled over next to us. The driver’s name was Ghost (a trail name), and he said he tried to come by at least 5 mornings a week to give rides to hikers. We threw our packs in the back and piled into his van with two other hikers that had also just started their hitch attempts. All packed in, we started toward the trail when another hiker came into sight along the side of the road. Hoosier Daddy. We were surprised to see him since he hadn’t planned to head back to the trail until the afternoon. There was one space left in the van, so Ghost pulled to the side of the road so he could jump in.
Ghost was a big guy, with a long white beard and a trucker hat. He was a local and you could sense his enthusiasm for the area, Julian, and the PCT. He was extremely helpful, talking to us about the upcoming sections, cautions to take hiking in the desert heat, and the current water situation. A really great guy. We thanked him for the ride and asked if we could give him some money for the help. He said not at all, he does this because he loves it, and spends about $35/day on gas on the days that he helps shuttle people to/from the trail. “Where else can you take a vacation for 35 dollars a day?” He chuckled a big belly rumbling laugh. What a great attitude. He asked us to instead donate what we could in Warner Springs, as that area relies much more heavily on business from hikers. We told him we certainly would, and we were off.
It was about 6:50am by the time we started hiking, taking some time to chat with some of the hikers that had camped around the bridge area the previous night. We were sporting freshly laundered clothes and feeling good. The first two hours of our hike were really nice … though we were climbing into the mountains, the inclines were short, easy grades and the switchbacks were long and flat, giving wide views of the surrounding scenery and the next section of trail that stretched in front of us. In the early hours the mountain was still shading us from the sun and there were nice wind gusts to further cool us. Life was good. The trail weaved around and into the mountains, bordering gullies and canyons that jutted through the mountains. Several of the first shallow gullies we passed had some great campsites where some had posted up last night and we chatted with them as we passed.
After the first couple of hours, the sun was high enough that we were no longer in the shadow of the mountain and things started to warm up. There were still cool breezes from time to time, which was a nice respite, but it was growing hot. I had no idea why we had washed our clothes. We already stunk. By the time 10am rolled around I was already thinking about lunch (so about on par with my pre-hike lifestyle) and by 11am we were desperately searching for a piece of shade where we could take a break. There was nothing. Around 11:30, we finally made our own shade, tying the rain fly from our tent between the bare branches of a couple bushes. This would do for a bit.
Part of the desert advice Ghost had bestowed upon us this morning was that hiking in the desert you need to change your thinking about time. Many people come to the trail still in the nine-to-five mindset (trust me, we are well out of that mindset); they want to put in the work all day and then rest. “You need to change your thinking about time in the desert,” he said. “Hike when it is cool, get up early and hike ’til 11. Then find some shade and take a break. Take a long break until 3 before you start hiking again. Some days, you may have to break longer, even from 10-6”. He encouraged us to learn and know our limits and capabilities in the heat and take smart breaks. Even night hike sometimes. To switch our working timeframe to suit the desert. Good advice, and we knew we would need to do this often in the desert.
We rested in our self-made shade for almost two hours until the sun was encroaching into our shade too much and the bugs were too bothersome to be comfortable anymore. It was about 1:30 when we packed up and headed down the trail again and within about half an hour, I was already regretting this decision. It was uncomfortably hot. We only planned to hike three miles to the next water source and take a break if we could find some good shade. Luckily, we did. Just before the junction to the water cache, there were some short trees throwing nice big shade. It was great. We dropped our packs and made ourselves comfortable. We’d already hiked 14 miles for the day and we’d take another long break and hike a couple more hours in the late afternoon/evening.
After relaxing for awhile, Shawn headed down to the water cache to fill up our bottles while I stayed with our packs. Water caches are just that, caches of water that people leave on the trail for hikers in dry sections. While most caches are unreliable, the PCT Association recognizes this one, at 91.5, as the only reliable water cache on the PCT. Once Shawn had returned, I walked down to the cache myself. There were several large pallets of one gallon water jugs. The appropriate etiquette at water caches is to take no more than 3 Liters. Posted signs also reminded hikers of this.
On the way back up from the cache I approached two hikers that were standing in the trail. “We’re waiting for a snake to pass”, one of them said. “It’s not a ratt’ler, not poisonous.” I watched with them as the snake’s tail disappeared into the bushes. “We were told that slimy looking snakes aren’t poisonous”, one of them said. This one definitely looked slimy.
Back in our shaded spot on the trail, we packed our things and decided to head out for another hour or two of hiking in the cool evening hours. The area around the water cache had been littered with hikers hiding in the shade during the hot afternoon hours. Now everyone had the same idea: pack up and head out while the temps were cooler.
The evening hiking was awesome, shaded in many areas with sun splashing onto the trail through wildflowers and bushes. A little over an hour into our hike, we rounded a corner and some bushes were overflowing into the trail. I hit at them with my trekking poles before walking through, just to make sure there weren’t any snakes hiding amidst them. While there wasn’t anything in the bushes, just after I crossed through them, not two feet in front of me off the side of the trail, I saw a rattlesnake just as it struck up its warning rattle.
I gasped loudly and ran backwards into Shawn, who hadn’t seen/heard the snake until I was running back toward him. A safe distance away, we watched as it continued to rattle and watch us. We were having a staring contest. “Ummm… how do we make it move? ” I asked. We decided to head back down the trail a bit, as it didn’t seem like it was going to go anywhere while we were still watching it. After a couple minutes it had slithered away and we warned a couple girls who had just hiked up behind us. Now that I had served as lookout for the first snake, I put Shawn in front for the rest of the hike. 😂
We only hiked about another half an hour before finding an area with some nice campsites where we set up our camp and cooked dinner. Idahoan mashed potatoes for me. I did a pretty good job of getting these everywhere. Eventually a couple of other hikers showed up to camp in the same area. They were both section hikers, which means they just do pieces of the trail here and there, mostly as they have time. We chatted with them for awhile as we enjoyed the amazing sunset.
Not long after returning to our tent, one of the hikers, Bug Juice, said “Maybe I will set up my tent.” He had been planning to cowboy camp until he saw a large rattlesnake nearby his camp, coiled and rattling. At this news, I zipped up our tent. I hope I don’t have to go to the bathroom tonight because I will not be leaving this tent tonight.
