Day 14, Mile Marker 110-127, Mike Herrera Residence (Trail Angel)

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Post By Melissa:
We needed to be ready by 8:30am. The Canadian PCT Hikers next door had arranged a ride for us from Lake Henshaw Resort back to the Warner Springs Community Center so we could resume hiking. I bandaged up my feet for another day of hiking and we packed up our backpacks and went outside to wait for our ride. Soon a very sweet woman in her 50's drove up and the 4 of us eagerly piled into her older Jeep Grand Cherokee. She was very nice and told us about some of the local history of the area as she drove us to the community center.

After 20 minutes or so we arrive at the community center and I attempt to give our lovely driver some money for her time and gas but she won't take it. I then toss money in her center console and insist she take it and thank her. She was awesome and we were so thankful for her generosity. It's amazing how much we rely on strangers to help us and there are so many kind people out there offering their assistance to us.

We entered the community center and it was nearly empty (much different scene than the previous Monday's huge crowd). We saw a woman we had last seen at Eagle Rock and we said hello. We quickly ordered breakfast and while we waited Nick grabbed some coffee and we tossed a few things in the hiker box (my old busted up shoes, peroxide, fuel canister, bath salts [we bought at the store but had no tub], and some shampoo & conditioner. I also made a trip over to the hiker store and stocked up on vitamin I (ibuprofen). I'm taking a lot of ibuprofen these days because my feet hurt so bad. It's the only way I can hike for long periods of time.

Soon our breakfast of scrambled eggs, 2 sausage patties, and 3 small pancakes is delivered with a small paper cup if orange juice. It's absolutely fantastic! Much better than usual pop tart breakfast. While we are eating a young hiker couple walks in and the guy quickly grabs our fuel canister from the hiker box and smiles like he just hit the jackpot. I was glad to see our unwanted goods go to someone who needed it.

After breakfast we start gearing up to get on the trail and Nick quickly signs the trail register. I say thank you and goodbye to the volunteers at the community center and the woman running the store hops up and gives me a huge hug and wishes me well. It was so nice to get that hug. *warm fuzzies*

We then set off on another day of hiking...it's after 9am and Nick is grumbling about the fact that we are off to a late start. I really don't care when we start our hikes but Nick prefers to get early starts so we can maximize hiking in daylight.

After hiking about 4 miles we stop to take a quick break at Agua Caliente Creek. We both eat some snacks and take this opportunity to take off our socks and shoes and let our feet cool down. We will cross this same creek about 3 times over the next few miles as it winds through the PCT multiple times. When we cross the creek the final time a few miles later, Nick slips on a rock and plunges both of his feet into the creek soaking his socks and shoes up to his ankles. I couldn't help but laugh out loud as Nick hates getting his feet wet and was trying to be super careful when crossing creeks and rivers. Normally he takes his shoes off but this was a small creek so he kept them on. *giggle* My guess is this will happen again in the future :-)

At mile 119.6 we stop at the Lost Valley Spring to take a break and restock our water supply. The spring is .2 miles off the trail and Nick goes to get the water while I create a rest space for us. There are other hikers here resting and one hiker who has set up camp for the night and has two donkeys with him. I'm curious but go about setting up our stuff. The first spot I sit down at doesn't work...within minutes I'm covered in red ants. I jump up and shake off the ants and move our stuff. I sit down again and again ants quickly swarm me. I look all around and there are hundreds of ants everywhere along with tons of ant holes. I move our stuff a third time and again get hit up by ants. I give up...another female hiker tells me that I'll get used to them and they don't bite.

A few minutes later Nick returns with water and we begin our break. We are fascinated by the man with the donkeys. Nick makes small talk with the man and learns his name is Pascal Landa and he is from France. Pascal is hiking the PCT with his 2 donkeys Jimmy & Daisy. He plans on hiking the PCT north and then will cut over to the CDT (Continental Divide Trail) and hike it south all the way into Chile [15,000 miles]. Pretty impressive! His donkey Daisy was having foot issues like me and he was giving her extra rest time to recover. They were both pretty cute donkeys!
Pascal's Blog:
http://longears2chile.blogspot.fr

After our break we pack up and hike on. This was a very tough day of hiking. The trail was super steep and we spent hours hiking uphill. I thought it would never end...so much sweating! It's hard work cranking out the miles and this day we had planned hiking 17. We put our heads down and hiked, and hiked, and hiked some more. The cactus have giant needles in this area and they are lining the trail. Nick pulls a needle out and we capture photos of it to share with you (see below). It's scary long!

There was a unique stretch of terrain that we went through in the early evening that had huge boulders everywhere. I told Nick they looked like giant dinosaur eggs. The fog or clouds (couldn't tell what they were) were rolling into the hills around us creating a magical scenery almost like fog machines at a concert. I really enjoyed this section of the trail.

We knew we wanted to end the day near a water source and the closest water source near our end of day mileage target was at a trail angels house (Mike Herrera). We had read in the water report we could get water there so we were determined to get there. The sun is starting to set and we are hiking through multiple switch backs. In the distance we see a light on the trail across the valley shining at us. At first we think it's another hiker's headlamp but then we realize the light isn't moving. We continue to hike closer to the light with our headlamps on now as the sun has set and is now really dark out. Nick is feeding me gummy bears to keep my engine running :-)

At mile ~127, we finally approach the light and are ecstatic to see what it is. It's a sign pointing the way to the trail angels house and the sign reads "Trail Angel Mike: Water, Shade, Shelter:100 yards". The light was a solar powered light to highlight the turnoff to Mike's house. We were so excited to see shelter on that sign in addition to just water. It was cold, windy, and we were exhausted. 

We hike the short distance to the trail angels house and it's about 9:30pm at this point.  We approach the house and it's very dark...there are no other houses around. 2 large dogs appear and start barking at us. We don't see anyone and start wondering if we should get out of there...then out of the darkness a few shadows appear and we hear voices welcoming us. We breathed a sigh of relief. They walked us to the back of the house and had us drop off our packs. Then they took us over to a detached garage and said they had hot food for us. We enter the garage and it's dark but there are tea lights flickering showing us enough of the room where we can make out a dining room table and chairs to eat at and a cloth covered pool table with food and condiments on it. We are the only hikers in the garage along with our hosts despite seeing a lot of backpacks earlier when we dropped ours off. We soon learned the other hikers had already eaten and were settling down for bed in the house and other parts of the property. The lights were off in the garage to conserve energy as the house is powered 100% by solar power. Pretty cool!

We inhaled 2 helpings of a delicious chicken casserole and some penne pasta with cream sauce and tuna. Our hosts then cleared space on the garage floor and let us sleep there. It was nice to be indoors out of the cold wind. We were so happy to experience trail magic once again!

We cowboy camped on the garage floor and quickly fell asleep :-)