Start point

Mile 63.7 creek and dirt road crossing

End point

Scissors Crossing, mile 77

Miles hiked

13.3

Wilderness area

Anza Borrego State Park

People I met

Cally and Graeme (Canada somewhere)

Michelle and Hugh (Vancouver)

Janet and Michael (Texas)

Jonas (Norway)

Sean and Rob (US somewhere)

Noemi (Mississippi)

The day on trail

My goodness. Another day of dry feet and, even better, warm sun.

I started the day nice and lazy, planning 12 miles to be one mile from the hitching spot to get to Julian in the morning. Those plans changed but more on that later.

I woke up with Superbloom’s and Cally and Graeme’s tents next to me by the creek side. It was a sunny morning, chilly, in the low mid 30s to low 40s (0-6°C), and when the sun came out it was just wonderful.

Speaking of wonderful… I do it. You do it. Everybody does it. So let’s talk about it.

Yes, pooping.

Pooping in the woods is a critical thing to cover, and it’s not to be taken lightly. All over the trail you can see “white blooms”, spots where people didn’t bury or pack out their toilet paper. Sometimes you can see poop, yes human poo, on trail.

You’re supposed to dig a hole 6-8” deep, do your deed, then bury it.

It always takes me a few days to get I to the rhythm, and I know I’m not the only one. But my goodness once I get in that rhythm and my body synchronizes with it, it’s magic. I’m sorry if that’s TMI, but this is a marker of health and it’s my journal. So cope.

It’s been two days on with it and now I’m all set and rolling!

I have a new backcountry bidet system I threw together that seems to be working okay. I’ll have to try it out a little more. On a tangent, it got snagged by a branch and yoinked out of my pack and good ol Matt (I’m trying to get him named Return to Owner) found it and gave it to me.

The day started off with lush greenery, lots more rolling hills and green mountains.

See the trail on the side??

After about 5 miles it started to turn a little more beige, less green. More of the desert we think of as desert.

But it’s still beautiful.

About two to three miles were on this super narrow, slanted trail that had chunks missing.

That’s not even one of the bad ones. There was about 14” of trail that was just…gone. Down the side of the mountain. It was a little scary, but I’m a lot better with exposure like this and I know what’s waiting for me in Desolation Wilderness.

There were flowers upon flowers just teasing up a superbloom and I hope I get to see part of it. Including some fungi.

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Even the cactuses are gearing up.

And one of my favorites: creosote.

I always enjoy seeing games scratched in the trail left from when people took breaks.

A sign from a crossing.

This hunk of granite with a vein of quartz caught my eye.

I saw this red tailed hawk in the air. Fun story: their screeches are what you hear in commercials when a bald eagle screeches. Bald eagles sound more like angry chickens, so the call of the red tailed hawk is the quintessential scream we associate with bald eagles.

I spent a few minutes watching this pinacate beetle (desert stink bug) eating this little plant. He was so cute.

Finally, when I got to camp about 1.5 miles from Scissors Crossing, a girl (Noemi) came through, followed by Matt shortly after. Matt told me that Noemi told him there’s often trail magic at the crossing, or at least a water drop. So I packed up and headed out, as I hadn’t started cooking.

It was a gorgeous walk out.

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Well. No magic. But I saw a Sawyer kit hanging up by the water station and thought it was cool someone provided a back flushing option…when I looked closer I saw it was my kit! Matt saw it hanging on a branch and grabbed it. He also found something else that belonged to someone, and got it to them by accident.

Jonás, Sean, and Rob soon rolled in to join Noemi, Matt, and me. We all hung out, made food, gazed at stars, and now I’m writing this, in my tent under the freeway.

Life is grand.