Date: May 13, 2017
Miles: 16.7 miles (28.9km), from Interstate 10 highway bridge to mile 226.2. 
Health: Tired. Legs are still hurting from San Jacinto. Did not sleep well under the bridge.

​The night was just horrible. It was a mix of constant buzz from the highway above, occasionally interrupted by the freight train going by, and getting sand blown into your mouth by the constant wind. I tried to shield myself from the wind by hiding behind a rock but that only helped a little.

This also meant that I was in the light of the highway, not in the shadow like Blü. When I looked up I could see the stars and the highway sign for Exit 110.

I finally woke up to Blü calling me. It was late, 7am. He was already packed up and ready to go. I had woken him up earlier when I had tried to clear my nose from all the sand.

We signed the wall under the bridge. I was still tired and cranky so I wrote my name and "did not sleep well". I later realized this was stupid as it wasn't the fault of the trail angels that I had slept badly here. I wanted to go back and write something nice as their cache was one of the best I've seen. I mean, who doesn't love ice cold beer in the middle of the desert?

Blü left before me and I stayed behind, getting my things together. Strange that the others hadn't already caught up to us, they were only 4 miles behind us and usually they start early enough to already be here. Maybe they got trail magic from Coppertone on the way here?

As I got up from under the highway, I saw a dirt road with a pickup pulling up. Six or seven hikers come out of it and Neal and his brother are among them. I hear that they had first scored a ride to the nearby town to go eat at In 'n Out and then been invited over by another trail angel to spend the night with him.

So they were all well rested, clean, and they even had a breakfast. Neal's been constantly getting the best trail magic on the trail while we others seem to just miss it by a day or few hours. I think there's an theme for a trailname for him.

We all hike out towards the mountains and the wind farm in the distance. I'm soon way behind as my legs are totally wrecked from the over 20 mile descent yesterday. I have to stop every now and then to stretch my legs and soon that starts to helps, I'm gaining speed again.

I hike past the wind farm and see a sign that says "Water and Shade". Water report says that the wind farm offices maintain a water cache there and they are very hiker friendly. While that sounds tempting, it's too early to take a break. I want to use the early cool hours of the day as productively as possible.

Soon I'm looking at a long climb and as the sun starts to heat the air again, I slowly start to climb upwards. As the sweat drops from my forehead, I question the sanity of hiking 2659 miles across multiple mountain ranges. My motivation is kind of low. It must be the bad nights sleep and the hunger. I pull a Snickers bar from my pocket and start to eat it as I climb.

Out in the desert you have to eat the chocolate bars early in the morning before they have time to melt!

About mid way up I spot a perfect spot for a shade and a break. I get in the shade and start eating the trail mix I scored from the hiker box in Idyllwild. Soon I see hikers coming up the hill and it's Neal and his brother. Wait, how did I get pass them?

They had taken a break at the wind farm office with water and shade. It was a little of trail so I didn't see them there. I shoulder my pack and follow them for a while but the hill keeps getting steeper and steeper and at one point when the grade feels like 40 degree angle, I can't keep up with them anymore.

​I keep going at my own pace and slowly get up the switchbacks. Even with my slow pace I soon get to the top. What a view! The valley opens up to a view of a mountain range with the trail slowly following the sides down to the valley. Not far downhill I can see Neal and Aden. 

​With a huge smile on my face I head after the brothers. My feet feel light as I head down and enjoy the beautiful sight in front of me. I think I even yelled out few times in joy.

The trail goes down to the bottom then climbs back up, only to go down again. I don't mind, everything just feels so good and I'm deep in the flow. 

​I keep leapfrogging with few other hikers and soon, on a high mountain path, the river where the Whitewater Preserve is, comes to view. I pick up my pace as I really want to get out of the heat and into the cooling water.

Also, I can't wait to see the rest of our trail family. 

​While I can constantly see the river, the actual junction where you get off the PCT and turn towards the Preserve is still few miles down the trail. About a mile from the junction I meet first two young kids running, and then their parents and their dog. The poor puppy keeps panting in the heat and I stop to give him few scratches. The parents tell me they’re on their way "to the top of this thing". I ask what do they mean, at the same time looking at their gear and small, half consumed water bottles.

They point at the mountain and tell me they want to climb to the top to see the views. I tell them that the trail doesn't go to the top, but instead goes on for miles and miles on the side of the mountains and that there are no water sources or shade for many miles. 

I continue down the trail while hearing the parents call out for their kids to turn back. Smart decision as they had barely any water and they were heading out in the hottest part of the day. As I continue I meet other day hikers, all going uphill. As I don't want to be a buzz kill, I just tell them to have a good time and try to see that they have even some water with them. ​

I catch up with the two hikers I've been leapfrogging and together we hike the 0.6 miles off trail to the Whitewater Preserve. Not knowing where to go we just follow the trail and make our way to the ranger station. ​There I find Aden and soon Neal joins us. By the Ranger Station there's a large park with green grass and big trees that provide a lot of shade. A perfect place to take a siesta! 

​Aden sets up his hammock and me and Neal set our sleeping pads under the tree. Soon we're all sound a sleep. I wake up to the cold wind and take out my sleeping bag for some warmth. Neal has already done the same. We wonder where everyone else is, but fall back to sleep soon again. 

After three hours of sleep we start packing our gear and getting ready to head out again. While we're making dinner, we're approached by a lady who informs us she's a trail angel. We have a long chat and she informs us that she's coming back tomorrow to provide trail magic here in the preserve. Sadly we're going to miss it. ​

Me and Neal head pack on the trail as the sun is setting and Aden stays in the preserve. His feet are hurting and he needs a little rest. Still no sign of everyone else. Wonder where they spend their siesta?​

The trail from the preserve is easy and flat and we enjoy hiking it, still keeping the fact that we still have a lot of climbing to do tonight in the back of our minds. As the sun keeps setting behind the mountains the views are simple breathtaking. We are so taken by the scenery and easy flow of the trail that we accidentally miss the last water source before the mountains and have to hike 0.4 miles back. 

After the water source the trail starts to climb up and the combination of the uphill and constant photo taking leaves me way behind Neal. As I hike alone between the mountains in dusk, all the warnings and stories about the mountain lions in the area start popping in my head. I start freaking myself out and start to hike faster to catch up to Neal, remembering how hiking in a group of two or more drops the mountain lion attack possibilities to almost zero. ​

After about half an hour I catch up to Neal and suggests we hike in a group due to the mountain lion warnings. He agrees and we hike in the darkening evening light, marveling at the beauty of the Southern California. ​

We talk for hours, and keep accidentally disturbing others who are already camping as we can't see their campsites in time due to the vegetation and darkness. We don't use our headlamps, but instead hike in the light of the moon. ​

It's getting really dark and we're having trouble seeing in front of us. We come up on a ridge with thick underbrush when all of a sudden we hear a loud roar from the brush right next to us. We freeze immediately looking at each other in silence. In few seconds we hear another roar. Shit. A mountain lion? We wait standing totally still. All of a sudden we hear "Waka waka waka" from the brush, followed by laughter. God damned!

We turn the corner and there, behind the brush, are Blis (Theo), Dragon (Pin), Andrew, and Harvest (Mary). Oh boy, they got us good!​

They've heard us approaching from miles away. Maybe we should think more closely what we're talking about as others can hear us in the night for miles. After some swapping of trail stories and where everyone else was on the trail today, Neal and I head on. ​

Soon it becomes too dark to continue without headlamps. We hike on for a while until I turn a corner and see two eyes staring at me from the brush. I stop and turn the power higher on my headlamp. Now I see two pairs of eyes staring at us from the brush. I turn my headlamp at full power… a deer. We had disturbed two dear who were hiding in the brush.

I was way too deep in my head tonight. ​

We hike on for few more hours until we get to a river where we see few people cowboy camping and four or five tents. One person looked like it could be Blü. Instead of pushing on, we decide to stay here as there is water and it would be nice to wake up with others. We set up our tents as quietly as we can and quickly get to sleep. ​

Date: May 12, 2017
Miles: 21.7 miles (34.9km), from mile 187.8 to Interstate 10 highway bridge. 
Health: Legs are absolutely hammered. No new blisters though.

I woke up at 5:30am and peeked out from under my tarp. I saw no movement in Blü's or Justine's direction so I put my head back on my food bag which was working as my pillow. I need to start buying softer foods.

At 5:50am both Blü and Justine started waking up so I started to get my things together. Blü was done first as he was cowboy camping and started to head down the trail. Justine went next and I was few minutes behind her.

We had a long hike ahead of us today. We were hiking down from 8566 feet to about 1360 feet. This is the longest descent on the entire PCT. We had already descended part of the way, but we had the largest part still left for today. It would be a hard day.

I was super thirsty but had to make it to the next water source with the half a liter of water I had left so only took a small sip. It was going to be tight but luckily we were going downhill all the way.

My legs were still hurting from the climb yesterday so I stopped to stretch them at one point. I would have no chance of catching the others now so I put on one earphone and started to listen to some music.

The trail snaked along the ridge line, at times going down one side, them climbing back up, only to go down the other side. My tired legs weren't loving the climbs and I kept wondering why the trail couldn't just follow the ridge line.

Soon enough the ridge line ended and the trail started to head straight down into a pine forest. The grade was nice but that just meant doing endless switchbacks. I passed a fellow hiker doing his morning chores. I've never met him but we changed few words before I continued down the trail.

At one point the trail ended at an large campsite and I couldn't figure out which one of the trails leading out I should take. Right at that moment I noticed a hikers head disappear behind a bend of one of the four corners so I decided to head to that direction. I caught up with him quickly and he confirmed that I was still on the PCT.

The sun was starting to get hot and I was still quite a long way from the water. I tried to look at the water report for any closer sources but noticed that the report I had ended at Idyllwild and I had forgotten to download the new one for this section. Took one more sip to keep the motor going.

The continuous downhill was taking its toll on my tired legs, and I finally ran out of water. I still had 1.9 miles (3km) to the water source and the sun was really getting hot. I cranked up the volume and started to push my legs harder to make it down faster.

Soon I got to a section where the trail was down and well graided and got in to the hiking flow. I love when you get into this mode. Everything feels so easy and the miles just seem to fly by. Soon I saw a bunch of hikers resting against a rock not far and saw the sign saying H2O. I was finally at the water source.

Blü and Justine were already there. So were Andrew, Dragon, and few other hikers.

I made my way down to the water and drank a good liter. Then I filtered two liters of water and filled the dirty water bottle so that I had a total of three liters. It should be about 10 miles (16.1km) to the next water source and the three liters and the one I cameled up should be enough.

We all left at the about same time but the trail was so beautiful that I soon stayed behind to take photos of the others as they made their way down the trail. After I got the photos I wanted I charged after the others, going downhill, trying to catch up to them.

We leapfrogged each other some time while going down, and eventually ended up hiking with Dragon. I wanted to stop in a shade for a siesta and she agreed. Finding a shade on sections like this is kind of like winning a lottery, meaning, there isn't much shade to be had.

After some time I found a nice spot but Dragon wanted to keep going so we separated. Once I got settled I noticed I had a little cell coverage so I answered some nice comments people have been sending me, and send some messages to friends back home.

I ate a lunch and the hiker I met earlier in the morning came by, asking if he could join me in the shade for a moment. We sat there for a while and he introduced himself, his name was Bob. He soon continued on and I kept enjoying the views and the shade.

As the clock started to get late, I continued to hike down but met Dragon and Andrew about a mile down, having a siesta in a nice shady spot so decided to join them.

After a while we all headed down and tried to get to the water source. The climb today had been so long. We had descended all day and there was still a good way to go. After few hours we finally reached the water source, which was good as I was again out of water. We met Blü and Justine there. They had had siestas somewhere closer to the water and beat us to it.

We ate some and then me and Blü headed out. While we had already made 18 grueling miles, we still wanted to cross the valley floor before the morning while it was nice and chill. Also, the spot close to the water source was so windy that it seemed like a poor spot to camp. We hiked on as the others stayed.

The trail changed to a concrete path and we arrived to a residential area. Soon we passed the houses and were back on a dirt road. About a mile in we saw a blue sign on the ground. "Coppertone 0.3 miles" – trail magic!

I've read about Coppertone from all the hikers from previous years. He travels along the trail and provides trail magic to hikers. In no time we reached his RV and met him. Airplane Mode was there but she was just heading out.

We ate some muffins and got bananas for breakfast. Coppertone is a super nice guy to talk to. He did the PCT some years back and for the past five years he has provided trail magic every year, moving north along the trail with the bubble.

We thanked Coppertone for his hospitality, signed the trail register, and moved out. We had a highway bridge to get to and it was starting to get dark.

The valley floor was very windy. At times the wind would almost blow us off our feet. As the darkness fell it got more eerie. The buzzing from the power lines above made the whole thing even more eerie. 

We quickly switched on our headlamps and hiked on. This was a boring section, and a one you don't want to do in the heat of the day.

As we finally reached the freeway bridge we saw two other headlamps underneath it. Airplane Mode and Bob were there and informed us there was trail magic. There were four coolers full of beer, soda, food, and a hiker box. This was more than we needed. I took an ice cold beer, felt like I had earned it after 22 miles. It tasted so good!

We sat under the freeway bridge in complete darkness, drinking ice cold beer and enjoying the trail magic. It felt unreal. Just a few moments ago we were in the wilderness, now there were cars and trucks going by up above us and four of us dirty hikers were underneath them wondering where to sleep this night. It was already well past the hiker midnight.

While Bob and Airplane Mode headed out, Blü decided to cowboy camp under the wooden bridge next to the main highway bridge. I studied the map and the first possible camp spot would be 3.9 miles out, next to Mesa Wind Farm, and by what I've seen from afar, it would be an exposed and not very good spot. Instead of trying my luck in the dark and wind, I set my ground cloth close to where Blü had crashed and crawled to my sleeping bag, feeling so tired.

As I looked up I could see the stars above me, and the exit sign for exit 110. The never ending noise of the highway and the freight train going past ever so often meant it would be a noisy night.

Hike the PCT, enjoy the nature, they said :)

Date: May 11, 2017
Miles: 14 miles (22.5km), from Devils Slide trailhead to mile 187.8. 
Health: Blisters are gone, the new shoes are amazing. Legs are toast, the climb up was brutal.

We woke up and I took a quick shower before heading out for our ride to the trailhead. It wasn't a long drive but we got to see the town of Idyllwild again. I wish we would've stayed here for another night. I really want to come back to Idyllwild with more time!

Once at the trailhead we waited for the others and I took the chance to use the toilet facilities one more time before heading out to wilderness for five days. Some had already left but we waited for the second wave and then started our ascent to 10,834 feet (3,293m). 

The thin air in this elevation quickly worked its magic on me and I was lacking way behind. Luckily Blü was still reeling from all the red wine last night and kept me company for a while.

The further we got up, the more beautiful the scenery got. As the sun rose higher it was nice hiking under the shadows of the large pine trees. The small breeze that kept blowing also helped.

We stopped every now and then to take photos and the theme for today's photos was "touristy". It meant that every time we took photos, everyone tried to look as touristy as possible.

I caught up with the others at 8,000 feet (2,438m) and we diverted away from the PCT towards the summit of San Jacinto. I tried to keep up with the others but soon the elevation was too much for me and I had to slow way down to crawling speed. I felt like I could hardly breathe. 

Once above 9,000 feet (2,743m) we ran into our first on-trail snow. The trail kept disappeared at times but we soon caught up to it. By now I was staying way behind and had to stop every 200 feet to catch my breath. Riley joined me and together we made the slow hike up to about 10,000 feet.

I made the last push to the peak alone and was met with cheers and a lot of familiar faces. The scenery from the top was simply breathtaking. I wanted to take the mandatory photos put was simply too tired and just laid down and rested.

After some food and a short nap I started to feel better. We found nice spots a little down from the peak, just enough in shade from the wind, and me and Justine fell asleep again under the warming sun. After about an hour, I woke up just in time to see Blü's naked summit photo session.

It was so warm and beautiful at the peak that me, Justine, and Blü stayed up while all others left. Soon we had the entire peak for just the three of us. We used the opportunity to have a euro techno dance off at the summit. Toy-Box's Best Friend still rocks, even after all these years. Thankfully no one was around to see us!

After a while we gathered all our gear and started our descent down to the PCT and towards the valley floor. This descent is the longest on the entire PCT as you descent from over 10,000 feet down to almost sea level. If the climb was brutal, the descent is going to be at least as rough, if not rougher. 

We made our way back from the summit and found the trail. We started descending but the snow made trail finding difficult. The trail would disappear under the snow and as we'd follow the direction of the trail on top of the snow, to where we thought the trail would continue, it just wasn't there. We'd wonder downward and soon pick up the trail but soon it would disappear under the snow again. Sometimes the trail would just vanish into thin air right in front of us. This made the descent frustrating.

After a while of scrambling down the mountain we found the trail again and followed it for a long time. It was nice to be on a solid trail again.

We made some way down and then the snow made a comeback. We traversed on top of the snow for a long while, trying to stay on the trail. We followed the tracks other hikers had left before us. All of a sudden we came to a spot where the tracks ended up going to every direction. We followed the ones that seemed most travelled.

Suddenly we realized that we must not be on the trail again and the footsteps on the snow kept getting less traveled and less traveled. Quick look at the GPS told us we were off trail by several hundred feet downhill. Instead of climbing back up the steep hill, we decided to head down to a stream that was some way below us. According to the map the stream should take us right back to the PCT.

After some time we found ourselves on top of a waterfall, looking down on the PCT from up top. We couldn't go down from here but Blü found a new route between some rocks that got us back down. It was good to be back on the trail!

We crossed couple more waterfalls and kept laughing how good it was to have water everywhere. After some time the scenery changed and I checked the Guthooks app just in case. Ups. We had missed our last water source over a mile uphill, and the next one down was in over 14 miles (22.5km).

We took a quick tally of our water situation and decided that we could make it to the camp and then down to the water by tomorrow with what little water we had.

Hiking at dusk was simply breathtaking. The scenery in front of us was simply out of this world. A thin fog had come up and was covering the mountains down below and we could only see the tips of their peaks sticking out through the gray fog. At the same time the setting sun painted the entire landscape with bright orange and purple hues. With the three of us, and the display that Mother Nature provided in front of us, this felt as close to perfection as one could get.

It was starting to get dark as we got to the campsite. The site was nestled between trees on a ridge line, facing a city somewhere far below us. We set up our camp, made food with our headlamps on and then went to sleep. I was so tired I think I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Tomorrow's going to be a long and strenuous hike down to the water source. I have less than half a liter of water left.

Date: May 10, 2017
Miles: 6.4 miles (10.3km), from mile 145.4 to Paradise Cafe. 
Health: My legs are a bit tired but feeling good. Few small blisters but nothing bad. 

The storm never hit us, but we spend the entire night and morning inside a cloud. Everything was covered in a fine mist. Everyone woke up slow and late. The short hike to Paradise Cafe meant that we didn't have to hurry in the usual manner.

While others left, I stayed a little behind as I wanted to dry my tarp out a little. It was covered in sand and I didn't want to put it in my pack like that.

Soon I was on the trail hiking after the others. I left with a Korean hiker called Choy. We generally hike a very similar pace but this morning I was having trouble keeping up with him. Not long after that I was passed by Hercules. While he's a fast hiker, I knew he left way after me and shouldn't have caught up to me this fast.

Wondering why me legs didn't work, I realized that I hadn't done any stretching in three days. I stopped, did a quick stretching session on the trail with my backpack on, and started hiking again. What a difference! I was pack to my old pace.

I ate few crumbled fruit bars and noticed I had cell coverage. I hadn't talked to my parents for a while so I called them a FaceTime audio call. We talked for so long that I made it to the junction where you hike along the road to Paradise Cafe.

After a short road walk I met with others inside. I sat down at the counter. I guess you smell bad when the gentleman on the counter, over two seats away, moves his seat further away from you. And after a while moves even further away.

I'm so happy to get to Idyllwild today and to be finally able to wash my clothes.

We ate a big breakfast but sadly couldn't wait for the famous burgers as they started to serve them only after 11am.

It was time to hitchhike to Idyllwild. We were told, and seen from the Cafe, that people usually get a ride in less than five minutes. After about 20 minutes and no luck we called for a "taxi". A local gentleman gave us a ride in his pickup.

Once we arrived to town, others had already arranged a lodge for us. A lodge with two adjoining parts. We soon opened the door between the parts and had one large lodge with girls and Blü on the other side and us guys on the other.

The mission for Idyllwild was simple: wash clothes, get a shower, resupply, and eat real food. We took showers and send all our dirty, smelly clothes to laundry, and then headed out wearing what ever we had in our bags that wasn't dirty. Some wore trash-bags as a skirt, some towels, others wore their rain gear. People around town didn't seem to mind though.

I needed to visit the local gear store to see if they had the Altra's in my size. Fyre joined me and we went up the hill to the store. Luckily they had my size, so now it was time to go down to the post office to ship my old shoes, and the new ones I bought from Warner Springs back to Mikko in San Diego. Now if my feet still grow, I have the Altra's in half size larger.

The rest of the day was just spend on doing town chores and getting ready to head out tomorrow. We needed to resupply five days worth of food to make the over 90 miles to Big Bear.

At five we all congregated to the pizza shop where we got our photos taken and pinned to the PCT 2017 wall. I accidentally ordered a way too large pizza as I'm still not good with inches. I carried the rest of the pizza back to the lodge and we opened the huge box wine Blü had bought. He was going to carry the rest of it tomorrow up to the summit of San Jacinto. His strategy seems to be to carry more and more gear as the trail goes on, I want to go the other way around.

At the lodge everyone worked on their gear, then others went to sleep or enjoyed the complimentary wifi. I worked on my site to get up to speed with all the posts as I was lagging behind. I finally finished everything at 3am and got to sleep for few hours before the wake up call and our ride to the trailhead the next morning.

Date: May 9, 2017
Miles: 18.5 miles (29.8km), from Mike's to mile 145.4. 
Health: All the blisters have either healed or are not an issue anymore. Legs feel strong while climbing. 

The mornings are kind of hard. You wake up and it's still dark and cold and your legs hurt. You get out of your warm sleeping bag and start packing in the dark. You don't want to take off your warm puffy because you get cold instantly, but you can't hike in it.

After you're all packed up, you try to leave camp with as little clothing as you can as you'll be too hot soon. This means you're shivering for the first 20 minutes. As it takes a while for you body to warm and your muscles to kind of start up, I find these first miles the hardest. Breathing is hard, my nose is still stuffed and I just find myself forcing me onwards as I know it gets easier as my body slowly wakes up. 

We woke up at the patio of Mike's house after cowboy camping. People started to slowly head out as they got ready. Blü left right as I was getting ready and I headed after him. I needed to filter some water for the 10 mile (16.1km) hike to the next water source. As I was filtering the water, most of our group passed by as they had done their water duty the night before.

After filling two liters of water and cameling up one, I headed after the others. The hike out of Mike's was just beautiful. I kept stopping constantly to wonder at the gorgeous scenery. I caught up to Pin and Theo soon, but stopped to take photos of them across the mountain and stayed behind again.

The miles were going by so fast that we soon caught up to the others who hiked out from Mike's last night. They had slept at a beautiful but windy saddle that was very exposed. 

I caught back up to Pin and Theo and hiked with them for a while. I laughed so hard at Theo's jokes that I almost fell off the mountain. After a while Theo stayed back and I hiked on with Pin. It was funny as I've seen her everyday from the start, but we've never actually talked one on one. We had a long discussion about work, life, and our future goals. I found myself nodding along to a lot of the things she was saying. It's great to have these kinds of connections on the trail. Miles went by fast.

Even with the late start we made ten by ten easily and got to the next water source where others were hanging by the trail. The water was about 1/4 of a mile off trail down in the valley. These trail gatherings are the best part of the day. I laughed so much again. There are so many great personalities on the trail.

After some early lunch it was time to head out again. The next water source was in 8 miles (12.8km) so I needed about 2 liters. I made the short hike down the steep hill and found Blü hanging back down there. He was waiting there for others and we had stayed up at the top.

Blü pointed me to the direction of the water but I think I got the directions wrong and ended up at a spot where it was a bit hard to get to the water. I started going down this steep sandbank and got about half way through when I stopped and looked around to see where I'm going. I looked down and the path looked good, took a quick look up and stopped right at my tracks. About 2 feet up above me on the slope right next to me was a black rattlesnake that I hadn't noticed before. My heart stopped.

I've heard that their striking distance is two times their body length and I was about less than one times her body length from her. So I really needed to get out of there and fast. I stayed still to evaluate the situation and the rattlesnake wasn't coiling up. I kept one eye on the snake and looked down so that there weren't any snakes there and quickly dashed down from the sandbank. That was way too close for comfort!

I watched the snake slowly slither away and kept my eye on her to see where she was going as I had to go up the same route.

The stream was shallow and with only little flow so it took a while to filter 2 liters. I was so shocked from the snake encounter that I forgot to take a photo both of the snake and the water source.

I took my bottles and made my way up from the river as carefully as possible, keeping my eyes out for more snakes. Boy was I happy not to meet any more.

As I got up, others had already left and I hiked out with Pony Express and Otter. Pony was keeping the pace and she was charging it up the hill. I had trouble keeping up and Otter called it, saying she'll see us later.

We talked about all the regular trail stuff, like what did we do before the trail, work, life, and what our plans are after the hike. She's making an documentary about the PCT and you should definitely check out her website and Instagram.

After a while we got to what was described as a questionable water source at the water report. Everyone was skipping this one. The reason, it had a dead mouse floating in it.

While we were photographing the water and the poor mouse, Otter caught up to us. We hiked on but Pony had to pee so she stayed behind and I hiked on with Otter. It was fun hiking all day with different people and getting to know them better, on a more personal level.

Pony caught up to us on a long climb. We took a rest after what felt like an never ending climb. I was running out of water, but luckily the water cache wasn't far off. While hiking to the cache I realized that I had only eaten 2 bars today during the whole 16 mile (25.7km) hike, I was seriously bonking.

Once at the cache I put some food to cold soak and ate few tortillas to gain some calories and energy. We continued to the next cache soon but I couldn't keep up with Pony and Otter. They blazed on as I was having problems with the lack of energy caused by not eating properly. This is why it's so important to eat constantly.

Luckily the hike was short and all of us met at the 145.4 mile water cache. Most of us decided to spend the night here as the hike to Paradise Cafe the next day was only 6.5 miles (10km) so there was no reason to push on at this stage. Also the other campsites from here on had no water so it meant dry camping which I'm not a fan of. 

The Cafe opens at 8am and even if we sleep late, we'll still be there way too early. Tomorrow will be resupply at Idyllwild. I need to wash my clothes, get a shower, ship out my old shoes, and restock some items like Leukotape and baby wipes.

We talked and laughed late in to the night, coming up with goofy trail names and laughing at all the funny trail stories that have happened so far. At the same time we kept our eye on the approaching storm in the horizon. Hopefully it won't rain tonight.  

Date: May 8, 2017
Miles: 17.4 miles (28km), from Warner Springs to Mike's.
Health: Feeling good. Legs feel strong and the few blisters I have are a none issue. 

The morning was cold and wet. My sleeping bag was moist and my tent still wet from the rain. I was looking for Justine who was sleeping in the tent next to me for the "let's go" time as we had agreed to head out in a group. As I saw no movement in her tent I assumed she was still sleeping and I didn't make any attempt to hurry out.

While slowly getting my things together, all of a sudden everyone shows up ready to head out. Apparently everyone had slept inside the Community Center as they had left the doors open for us hikers over night due to bad weather. Others headed out as Blü waited for me, making comments about how I'm always late.

The morning was again cold and wet. It wasn't raining anymore but everything was still wet. The trail out of Warner Springs was flat and beautiful. We made miles quickly. Blü stayed behind and I put on my earphones and some cheesy rock and hiked on.

I made roughly 10 miles and stopped for a breakfast next to a river where the trail was covered by poison oak. I'm slowly learning what plants and animals not to touch on the trail. Poison oak has been plentiful but no sight of the infamous Poodle Dog Bush.

After the relatively flat beginning the trail started to climb up again. At some point of the climb I came upon Justine, Theo, and Andrew taking a break. Andrew was snoring while we laughed about how Justine had just lost her nibble on the trail. She meant the nibble of her Platypus water hose but forgot to mention that when telling the story. 

After few hours of climbing we saw our first snow on the trail. We were doing such a good progress that we stopped often to just marvel at the scenery opening up in front of us. Others used these breaks to climb rocks.

Once we reached what looked like the top, we stopped in the sun to dry out all our gear. The scene looked like a yard sale at the middle of the trail with all the gear spread out. 

The rest of the hike was quite uneventful and we made it to the Mike's on time. As we got there we learned that Mike wasn't there but his buddy Joshua was taking care of all the hikers. Mike's is a trail angel who's house is in what feels like a middle of nowhere. They organize trail parties and barbecue sessions there. Hikers can also fill up their water bottles few hundred feet outside his house.

After a lot of back and forth and strategizing we decided to not push ahead as we had planned and instead stayed at Mike's for the night. The reasoning was that we had only about 25 miles (40km) to Paradise Cafe from where we'd hitch to Idyllwild. We could make it there by pushing further today and doing a long day tomorrow, but that would mean we would be in Idyllwild by late evening, forcing us to stay for the night. If we instead stayed here and did about 20 miles tomorrow, we could make it to Paradise Cafe early the day after tomorrow. This way we would have the entire day to spend at Idyllwild and still have time to make it out before the night. We already had a zero at Warner Springs so we don't want to take another this soon.

Joshua and few other hikers made a huge barbecue fest where we were offered chicken and potatoes. It was so good!

As the weather was getting worse again, we headed out to the patio and claimed our spots for tonight. It was so cold that I just climbed in to my sleeping bag as soon as I got everything ready. It sure hasn't felt like Southern California recently with all the rain and cold weather.

Date: May 7, 2017
Miles:  0
Health: Well rested. 

I had already decided that I really didn't want to hike out to the mountains in a storm so today would be a good day to spend a zero. Most hikers had thought the same so not many were leaving out today. The constant rain also kept people from heading out.

As the Community Center opens at 9am, and most hikers are awake by 5am, it was a long morning of waiting in the rain trying to find ways to spend time. A lady with an RV had shown up and she was making pancakes for breakfast for all the hikers. More trail magic!

I just can't believe the goodness of the people around the trail here. People take so much of their own time to do nice things for a bunch of smelly hikers.

After the Community Center opened everyone made their way inside and it was soon quite a scene. People were raiding and going through the hiker boxes. The boxes were plentiful as most hikers send too much stuff here on their first resupply package. I scored some trail mix and bars, along with the condiments Blü gave me. He had scored big yesterday and was now carrying way too much food.

New shoes

For the past few days I've had more and more trouble with my feet not fitting in my shoes. Being on your feet for 8 hours, hiking, and the heat had made my feet so swollen that my pinky toe was being crushed against the sidewall. This wasn't something I could just walk through. I'm fairly certain I'm going to lose the toenail soon, and the toe was about to turn black.

I needed to do something and my options were clear: either cut a hole to the side of my shoe to give my toes more space, hike without socks, or I need to get shoes with a wider toe box.

Right next to the Community Center was a small gear store where they carried the Altra Lone Peaks, a very popular model on most long distance trail because of its very wide toe box and other thru-hike optimized features.

I went in and tested the shoes. I was a bit skeptical as the Altra's are a zero drop shoe (meaning the difference between the toe and heel was 0mm) and I'm accustomed to shoes with a bit more drop. My Cascadias have a 12mm drop (if I remember correctly). But as soon as I got the shoes on, they felt great. My toes were free to move and there weren't any strange pain points.

I wanted to get these shoes but the only problem was that they didn't have them in the size I wanted, which was size 10. They had them only in size 10,5. As I needed to head out tomorrow and therefore couldn't wait until Tuesday for the size 10's to arrive, I went with the 10,5's. Figuring that if they're too big, I can make it to Idyllwild with them, get size 10's from there and ship these further on the trail for when my feet have swollen more.

Most of the day was spend inside the Community Center playing, talking, and eating. A lot of trail stories were swapped. I, like most other hikers, had a footpath to sooth our hurting feet.

Later in the evening the local school at the other side of the road opened their doors and fed us with spaghetti for the price of $6.

We made plans to hike out in the morning but as we had no idea what the rain would do, we just agreed to play it by the ear. This zero was great.