Start point

Tule Spring, mile 137

End point

Mountain Valley Market, mile 151.8, and one mile off trail

Miles hiked

14.8 trail, 1 off.

Wilderness area

Cleveland National Forest

People I met

Chatterbox

Thinner

Richard (trail angel) and his dogs Archie and Foxy

The day on trail

Today was, as you might expect, beautiful. I woke up to no one around me, which is always nice. I seem to be settling into a routine where I can pack up, eat breakfast, and get ready with less delay. I like that both because it allows me to get more miles in, and I really just like hiking. So, the more time I have to walk, the better.

Morning was pretty spectacular. And it’s kind of fun the views you get when you have no walls while doing your business.

I mean, it’s better than a Live, Laugh, Love poster.

The hike was just superb. The climbing wasn’t too extreme, the descents weren’t too steep. There was no snow on trail. Water crossings didn’t require wet feet.

Not to say it was easy. It was still 15 miles. There were some steep parts. There were some exposed parts. It’s still not exactly easy access to water.

I don’t know what constitutes a super bloom, but one seems to be happening. Approaching this hill you could see that it’s blanketed in California poppies. And then you end up in the middle of them. It’s a sea of orange!

About 8 miles up there’s a spot run by a trail angel, Mary. She designated a corner of her property that abuts the trail to hikers. There’s a 50 gallon tank (which needs filtering, more on that later), some cute cutouts of people who helped found the capital-W-Wilderness movement, and a couple picnics tables. She also has space for one tent should people need it. It’s super sweet and a lot of effort to maintain that water cache.

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The prior water spots all had massive amounts of silt and dirt. So much so that it would collect at the bottom of the collection bag. I managed to get some sand in the sliding seal of my bag, which made it crazy hard to open. I managed after a while.

All this to say that, while we tried to preserve to water Mary laboriously provides, it was hard because we had to manage sand in our water collection equipment. But we do our best.

We’re also really glad she specified it needs to be filtered. You never know with water provided in cisterns, and it’s great to have clarification. Most of us have water filters that can be backflushed, to clear out debris and gunk to help water flow through. I make a point to backflush every time I filter, or at least every other time. When we backflushed after this fill, it was so green! It looked like our filters were blowing their noses or something. It was strikingly green! Which also means that the different between filtered and unfiltered water had a striking color difference!

Lots of water out here has had a yellowish or brownish hue from tannins from plant material. It’s normal. Sometimes it lends the water a sweetish or earthy taste. It’s not unpleasant at all — I kind of love the taste of filtered river water, especially if it’s from snowmelt. This water tasted great, and had no hue after filtering.

At the site we’re a bunch of people. Rob, Keys, Matt, Marie. Sasquatch rolled in shortly after. Then Cally and Michael, Jeff, and one of the traveling bubbles.

Rob gave me a Greenbelly meal to try because he has too many of them. Keys and I caught up and played a bit of Jewish geography. We don’t really know anyone because our circles haven’t intersected. He’s in LA and I don’t know where any of my Jewish friends there go to synagogue.

It was about time for me to continue hiking and that’s exactly what I did.

There was this crazy cliff.

Some sort of raptor was on the hunt.

And plenty of great views.

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Of course another lizard.

I find it really interesting how so much of this trail sits right next to private land.

Near the end of the day I had a choice. Try to make it to Paradise Valley Cafe or find a camp spot. I found an unofficial (but well worn) spot on FaOut that had a tiny bit of water access. Thanks to Salmon Upstream whom I met that evening, who confirmed there was water there, I knew I could make that work.

My conundrum was I had enough water to get to PVC in the morning, and I could easily make it that evening, but I didn’t have a space to stay. I was really lollygagging with setting up camp when Jacob, Teapot, and Lingo came by. They heard rumors of being able to camp at PVC.

I immediately hopped up into my little hidden spot, packed up, and caught up with them on trail. I was 0.7 miles from the turn off to get there.

Not a bad walk.

On our way there we saw Sasquatch and someone else (sorry I forgot who) with pizza boxes. They let us know the diner was closed. I asked them if there was a place to stay and the filled me in about Richard and how he has a place across the street from PVC with hot showers, and he lets hikers sleep on the floor (hey we’re used to it).

We got there and boy was it great. We met Richard as he was taking his dogs for a walk. Nate let us in, NATE, from Lake Morena, and he gave us some beta (preliminary information) on how he’s been trying to tackle San Jacinto.

So it was Nate, Lingo, Teapot, Jacob, and me. Soon Mike, Lindsey, and Oopa arrived. Then Sasquatch showed up! We had a little group hang! I helped Lindsay with some neck and shoulder pain management and we all just hung and talked.

Richard drove us to the nearest gas station, which makes fresh pizzas and has a Chester’s Chicken. I got some pizza, chicken, and a sixer of Sam Adams and it was just perfect. While putting my leftovers in the fridge, I saw Richard had a pile of corn tortillas. Since he also has chickens and loads of fresh eggs, I offered to make chilaquiles for everyone tomorrow and they were all on board.

We all sat around talking well past hiker midnight. It was great.