I first hiked the Pacific Crest Trail over the course of 1994 and 1996, then I hiked the whole thing in one go in 2013. During the latter hike I kept this website updated as I progressed up the trail. I still have about 45 hours of video to edit, but in the meantime there is a lot for you to look at here. Over the course of the 168 days I wrote 138,734 words and put 13,644 photos on this website.
Woke up this morning not feeling like doing anything.
People were still packing up and since I didn't have any water left (the extra liter I thought I had I accidentally left it back at Ziggy/Bear), I told them I would see them at the Whitewater River which was about 1/2 mile away.
I made breakfast at the river and we saw about three hikers go by. Marshall and I took off and Joe and Nancy left a while later. The morning part of the hike was uneventful other than Marshall and I telling each other stories and me playing him the Bruce the Piano Man recording. It was kind of funny to just be walking along quietly and hearing Marshall laughing his head off behind me for 12 minutes.
Eventually we reached a nice shady spot near Mission Creek where we spent a couple of hours., As we were preparing to leave another hiker named Travis showed up. He actually lived in Campo near where the trail starts. So when he set out on the trail he said he just walked out his front door and up the trail.
The trail crossed Mission Creek several more times. I was kind of tired and hot. At least the trail wasn't super steep like last night. The creek started getting smaller and smaller to the point that there was nothing. The water report said there should have been water at a couple of crossings as of last week, but now there was none. I gave Marshall some of my water and we continued on. It was at least another five miles to the next water source (a spring) and neither one of us felt like backtracking. It was a little unnerving continuing on not knowing exactly when the next water would be. It was not hot though and we knew there was water in about six more miles.
The creekside camp about 1.5 miles ahead was listed as having a slight amount of water so we continued on. I wasn't expecting there to be any water when we arrived, but sure enough there was a tiny amount flowing in the creek. Apparently it was coming from somewhere and then draining back into the ground while later. Marshall and I let out a cheer when we saw the water, we could stop for the night.
Oh, another thing, right before the campsite was a clump of poodlebrush. It was listed on the water report as something to be aware of. Poodlebrush pops up after a fire and if you touch it the sting is as bad as or worse than poison oak. Fortunately we had an accurate description of where it first appears on the trail and what it looks like so we knew not to brush up against it.
We both made big dinners and headed for bed. This is my first time using the keyboard in the tent and it seems to be working well. Ok, turning things off now.