Day 7: First 100 Miles Down!
Date: Tues 4/24
PCT Start Mile: 94.4 (on trail camping)
PCT End Mile: 109.5 – Warner Springs
PCT Mileage for Day: 15.1
Off-Trail Hike Mileage: .25
Total PCT Mileage: 109.5
Total Overall Mileage: 114.85
The Highlights: our first week and first 100 miles in the books!
Wind kept us half-awake through most of the night and despite fears of rattlesnakes waiting for me right outside the tent, I finally had to get up to go to the bathroom. I didn’t see a snake all day.
After packing up in the wind, we hit the trail around 6:25am. The breeze, while annoying in the night, was welcome early on in the hike. The morning was beautiful and parts of the trail stretched around the mountains in a wide U, so you could look across the valley and see hikers on the other side.
Early in the hike, we came across Sasquatch (aka Vibram Five Fingers Guy, aka Blue Shirt Guy) and chatted with him a bit before stepping aside to let him pass by. We’ve been leapfrogging with him since Day 1 and enjoy seeing him on the trail. This morning he mentioned that he had booked a hotel in Warner Springs to take a break. We also planned to take some down time in Warner Springs (our destination for the day), but had just planned to camp at the resource center. His mention of staying at a hotel planted a seed though, and within the next mile we were booking a night for ourselves.
Despite having excellent luck with blisters over the first several days (as in, not getting any), I started developing a couple yesterday and it will be nice to take care of them, rest our legs, and take a real hot shower, complete with soap and no time limit dictated by quarters. We both have some foot/lower leg aches that we’d like to rest and take care of early before small aches become big problems.
As Shawn aptly put it earlier today, our legs are starting to realize, oh – this is something we are going to be doing every day. They are getting used to it, but we don’t want to go too hard early on. Needless to say, we’re looking forward to our room in Warner Springs.
A little under six miles into our hike, we nearly stepped right into the “100” mile marker, made with rocks, right in the middle of the trail. Our first 100 miles down!!
Now we only need to do this 25 and a half more times!
Just down the trail, there was another rock marker to the side of the trail that was a bit easier to see with more colorful rocks. So, naturally, we took a picture of this one, too. You can never celebrate 100 miles enough, right?
The hike eventually descended from the mountains and into a forested area of large shade trees and grass – very un-desert like. We took a break in the shade of a tree so I could lance and tape up my blisters, which were growing painful. I basically have matching blisters on the ball of each foot, in the area right between and under the large and second toes.
All patched up, we continued on. After a few painful minutes I was going strong again (for awhile) and the trail headed into a long section of rolling hills through a meadow. For the first several open meadows, the sun was hidden behind clouds, making for a nice, cool walk despite the late morning hour. Eventually, however, the clouds parted and the expansive open meadows were very hot, save for the occasional breeze. The umbrella came up.
A highlight of the meadow was Eagle Rock, right off the trail. I don’t need to explain why it’s called this. We stopped for some pictures. Now you can see me with my dorky umbrella 😆
Not far beyond Eagle Rock: cows. Mooooove out of the way!
The hike from Eagle Rock to Warner Springs was about 3.5 miles and luckily, the last two were mostly through a corridor of shaded forest area that ran along a small creek. At this point our feet were tired and I couldn’t wait to take my shoes off. It was all I could do to keep hiking through the last mile and not stop and soak my feet in the creek.
Finally, we reached Highway 79, where we cut off the trail and headed for the Warner Springs Resource Center right down the road. A large Smokey the Bear sign next to the road warned of high fire danger today. We cross our fingers that we won’t run into issues with wildfire closures on the trail this year.
At the Resource Center, I dropped my pack and quickly changed out my hiking shoes for flip-flops. Inside, the coordinator gave us the lay of the land and services: camping, bucket showers, bucket laundry, foot baths, charging station, snack/supply shop, hiker boxes (extra items hikers no longer want that they donate to other hikers by leaving in the boxes, often full of extra food, but also a lot of excess gear), and cold drinks.
We quickly purchased Gatorades. Gatorade and similar drinks have some chemical in them that is banned in many countries, but naturally we allow it in the U.S. I’m not sure which one but I don’t care. Yellow Dye #5 never tasted so good. God bless America.
Several hikers milled about the resource center, taking advantage of the opportunity to resupply and clean themselves up. We found AppleJack dressed in his rain gear while his bucket-laundered hiking clothes dried outside. He had arrived to the center late morning and planned to start hiking again in the afternoon. He also had extra goodies to give away from his resupply box, delicious homemade goodies his niece had made for him, but too much to pack it all out. We took one for the team and helped with the delicious molasses cookies.
After a bit, Hoosier Daddy arrived. He was anxious to see what our plan was for the next day. “You guys are heading to Mike’s at mile 127 tomorrow, right?” We had no idea who Mike was, but we didn’t plan to hike that far tomorrow.
We actually planned to take a “nero”. In thru-hiking lingo, a “zero” is a rest day where you don’t hike at all. A “nero” is mostly a rest day, but you do at least some hiking, typically either at the beginning or end of day, often just before/after heading into/out of a town. We planned to take full advantage of our hotel room, sleep in and not leave until check-out time, and then spend the rest of the day hanging around the resource center before leaving in the late afternoon to hike for just a few hours before camping.
It turns out that Mike’s at 127 is a trail angel house that sucks some people in like a vortex with a cookout and copious beers, so…while we may stop through, it won’t be tomorrow.
After chatting with AppleJack, Hoosier Daddy, and other hikers for a bit, we were able to get a ride down the road to the Post Office to pick up the resupply boxes we had sent ourselves before leaving home. Warner Springs has very limited resupply options, so nearly everyone sends themselves a box here.
After picking up our boxes, we sat outside at a shady picnic table until the hotel check-in time at 4pm. While waiting we talked with another hiker named Twelve Percent, whom we had hiked with briefly earlier in the day. He said 12% was his aptitude for hiking, very low. He stays in hotels as often as he can and hates eating anything while on the trail, preferring to stuff himself in town. He’s actually hiked the PCT many times, though never fully completed an entire thru-hike, and it didn’t sound like he even cared to. Hiking partners ended up dictating how long he stayed on the trail and one year he had even flown back and forth between the Appalachian Trail and PCT several times to hike with different groups. Interesting guy.
Finally able to check in, we spent the rest of the day in the room. In the AC. We took showers with shampoo for the first time since leaving home and nearly scrubbed ourselves raw. Our room was an explosion of gear as we cleaned out everything in our packs, did sink laundry, and went through our resupply foodstuffs.
Yummy: sock laundry.
I also took to blister care and currently have several lengths of floss threaded through my blisters to allow them to drain. And finally, we rested.
After 7 days of hiking with several big-mile days (at least big-mile for now, the concept of big miles will definitely change as we move further up the trail), it will be good to take a long rest tomorrow before hitting the trail again.
