Date: May 18, 2017
Miles: 19.7 miles (31.7km), from Highway 18 to mile 285.9.
Health: After two days of rest I'm feeling great. Legs are strong and knees feel good enough.

We had reserved a pickup from the Hiker Hostel at 7:30am. The weather wasn't going to be hot so we had no need to get on the trail super early.

This next section is going to be an interesting one. We've resupplied food for five days, enough to get us to Wrightwood, our next resupply town. The distance there is little bit over 100 miles (161km). On the way there, there are hot springs that we stop at to swim at around day three, and the famous McDonald's that's right on the trail.

As I have food for five days, but I'll probably stay an extra day at the hot springs, it means I'm one days short on food. My plan is to get to the McDonald's by the time I run out of food and eat myself full there. And then buy my backpack full of cheeseburgers to fuel the last 25 miles (40.2km) to Wrightwood.

With our backpacks heavy from all the food, me, Blis (Theo), Fyre (Alex), Justine, Queso Grande, and few other hikers got to the trailhead. After two days in town we all felt quite non-thru-hiker like. We found it hard to get back dirty, being still way too comfortable from all the wonders of modern civilization.

Slowly we started hiking on but the usual energy was definitely missing. We kept joking how spoiled we had become during just two days.

As we wanted to keep our pack weights down, none of us were carrying much water. The next water source was just few miles down the trail. After we got to the water source, we all removed our packs and sat down. We soon realized that we had been sitting there for way too long, doing nothing. Lazy thru-hikers.

We soon forced ourselves up and moving again. Me and Justine headed out first and thought others would be right on our heels. Little way upwards Justine's phone rings, it's Blis. Apparently Fyre (Alex) had fallen forward right where we had just been. It's not bad and she can continue but they are coming a bit later. As there's nothing we can do, we continue forward.

The trail is almost too well graded and we soon find our hiking rhythm. We don't talk much, I just concentrate on my feet to get my shuffle going again. Thru-hiking requires a different kind of a step and I always find it a bit difficult to get back to the groove if I haven't been doing it for a while.

The quiet soon ends and we get into this epic discussion where we go from the musical differences of Metallica and Iron Maiden, to mid century torture devices, to native Americans and colonization of America, to lost empires, to population over growth, to the lost libraries of Alexandria, to Pol Pot, to Second World War, to Germany, to October Fest, and then we are interrupted by arriving to the next water source. How did we do 9 miles already?

The trail is super easy and fast. At the water source we find Dragon (Pin) and Andrew. They left Big Bear yesterday. Soon everyone else it at the water source, laying in the sun, except Fyre. We start to get worried. We meet one fast hiker who left way later than us and therefore should have passed Fyre on the trail. He says he didn't pass by anyone matching Fyre's description. We get even more worried. Just as we are planning on going back after her, we see her getting to the water source.

Fyre's moving slow today. Her knees and ankle are still bothering her, and the fall earlier didn't help. It feels so bad seeing someone having a bad day.

We sit in the sun for hours eating and drinking water. This doesn't feel like thru-hiking. After a while we force our lazy asses up and back on the trail. The next water source is a river 10.7 miles (17.2km) down the trail. I take 1,5 liters of water as it's not that hot and I really don't want to carry any extra weight with my already heavy food carry.

Me and Justine leave last as we had to even out our waters as she gave me a bit of her own, but we soon catch the others. Justine stays with Fyre but I want to test out my fresh hiking legs. I set out to the pace of 4 miles per hour and see how that feels. I soon pass more hikers and going at this speed feels good. Can't wait to get my trail legs so I can keep up this pace through out the entire day.

The trail isn't anything beautiful today. It goes through a burn area and everything looks dead and charred. I just focus on my feet and the trail.

Miles go by fast and I soon reach the next water source where Dragon and Andrew are already waiting. We eat and others slowly reach the area as well.

Fyre arrives last and she's clearly not feeling it today. I wish I could cheer her up but also know that when I have a bad day, I like to have some space so I try to give that same space for her.

We move our camp 0.3 miles down to where the stream is and start setting up our tents for the night. Despite the late start and the lazy hiking we got the almost 20 miles done quick.

As we setup our gear, a bunch of other hikers arrive also and soon there's a nice little thru-hiker tent village next to the stream. We all huddle up together and exchange trail stories and chat about the upcoming section, water, and so on, while eating dinner. 

As the sun goes down it soon gets too cold and we all withdraw to our shelters to crawl into our warm sleeping bags. We agree not to rush with the waking up as tomorrow is not going to be a hot day and we only have 21 miles to the hot springs. We want to pace ourselves so that we'll be there early the day after tomorrow. But as camping close to the hot springs is prohibited, and enforced with a hefty fine, we want to camp at least a few miles out. That means tomorrow is not going to be a long day.

Date: May 17, 2017
Miles: 0
Health: Good and rested. Knees a bit sore.

We watched the O.J. Simpson series on Netflix late last night and slept late this morning. We're totally getting off of our thru-hiking rhythm.

We spend the day resting and preparing for the next section to Wrightwood. We need to resupply food for five days. After breakfast we got a ride to the mall where they have the Dollar Store and Vons. We decided to go to the Dollar Store first to see what they had for us. Wow! We ended up doing almost all of our resupply from the Dollar Store.

While there we stumbled to Otter who we haven't seen in many days. She was heading out as she needs to be in a wedding the next weekend and she wants to get ahead of everyone so that she won't stay too much behind. She told me she was going out with Blü. I hadn't seen him for awhile either.

As we got out of the store we saw Blü who was waiting for Otter outside. He's heading out to the Hot Springs, but says he's going to be hiking slow as his legs are hurting, so I'll probably catch him by Wrightwood.

After the resupply we headed out to $1 fish tacos and ate our hearts out. After that Blis had some personal phone calls to make and I met up with Justine, Fyre, and Queso Grande. We went walking through the Big Bear Lake main street. Girls did some rock shopping, I got some milkshakes and then I had to head back to the Hostel as I had a delivery coming from ZPacks.

Later we went out to eat and for few beers at the brewery. It was a great lazy day.

Trail names

It's hard to remember everyone by their real name as you meet so many Mike's and Jim's. So instead hikers use trail names to call people with.

People get their trail name given to them by others. It can be anything from how you look, a quirk you have, or a funny thing that happens to you on the trail. The hiker given the name can always veto the name, but it doesn't always work.

Here are some of the trail names of hikers around me, and the story of how I've heard them getting that name (so take this with a grain of salt):

Blis - got his name because he had really bad blisters in the beginning.

Pony Express - she has everything you need in her back and she finds other people's dropped gear and then delivers that to them later on the trail.

Otter - she carries a small stuffed otter toy with her.

Blü - got his name on AT. He's always wearing blue shirt and a hat.

Fyre - Blis wanted to name her Fire Inside but it didn't stick. One day on trail she and others were singing a song from the movie Mulan, and it had a line with "Fire Inside" and it developed from there. 

Dragon - she drags her poles during the day so you can always tell if she's in front of you by the marks on the trail.

KB Sunshine, KB and the Sunshine Band - she's always happy. The meaning of KB is only shared with the closest trail family ;)

Crimson - he marked all his gear with red dots. And he has red hair.

Snake eyes - he kept walking past snakes.

Radio - his voice sounds like one of those great, deep, radio voices.

Queso Grande - he's the head of cheese department in Whole Foods.

Airplane Mode - on the first day on trail her phone kept ringing so hikers around her started recommending her to switch to airplane mode.

My trail name

I've been given few trail names but so far I've vetoed them all but two of them kept sticking. One of them had a funny backstory but sounded quite doughy if you didn't know the backstory, so I didn't want to go with that. The other, Reindeer Time, was kind of better of two. It doesn't have a great backstory, but it was the one most people started to know me with, so I went with it.

You kind of want to lock down your trail name early as they are only going to get worse as more and more funny stuff happens and people get more and more creative.

So, if you happen to see a trail name Reindeer Time in a trail register, that's me.

Date: May 16, 2017
Miles: 4.6 miles (7.4km), from mile 261.5 to Hwy 18 access to Big Bear. 
Health: A good nights sleep, feel great.

We woke up early with Blis as we went to sleep so early. Kelly and Derek, who arrived later in the evening, were still in their tent when we left. It's amazing how fast you can pack up your gear when you know you're getting to town.

It was still really cold so I hiked out with some extra layers and my wind jacket. Even the sun didn't warm up the air enough to hike in my regular hiking clothes. This cold front has really put my clothing choices to a test.

We hike fast as we're hungry and don't feel like eating any hiker food, instead we're saving our appetite for the hiker breakfast in town. We make the 4.6 miles faster than we calculated and make it to the ride hour earlier than we had planned. On the way we pass Dragon and Andrew, and few other hikers who all were still in their tents.

We wait few minutes to see if there are any other hiker coming behind us and then jump in to the van and head towards Big Bear.

Blis and I had made reservations to both Motel 6 and the Hiker Hotel. We felt like we'd go to the Hostel instead as we'd heard it was more centrally located and had better hiker services. Once we saw the Motel 6, and how far it was from everything else, our minds were made up.

Luckily we made reservations as once we got to the Hiker Hostel it was starting to get full. We wanted to stay for two nights so we got in front of the line. Our room wasn't ready yet, it was only 8am, so we got instructions where to go for the $5 hiker breakfast. We were also told that once we're back from the breakfast we could use all the hostel services. The ones we were most interested were shower and washing machine.

We left our packs at the hostel and headed for the breakfast. As we entered the restaurant, I heard "Reindeer Time!". It was Furball and Squarepants. I guess that's shaping up to be my trail name?

We sat down with them, ordered our breakfast with extra bacon and sausage, and traded trail stories.

After the breakfast we headed back to the hostel, threw all our clothes into the washing machine, and headed to the showers. Being clean felt so good.

The rest of the day was spend resting, meeting other hikers, and raiding the hiker boxes. We wanted to go to the local brewery and also to see the Guardians of the Galaxy II at the $5 Tuesday movie night. We ended up being so busy with all the sitting on the sofa and eating that we missed both. Maybe tomorrow?

Doing a nero and zero is going to feel so good! I'm hoping to give my legs some well deserved rest and for the few remaining blisters time to heal.

Date: May 15, 2017
Miles: 18 miles (28.9km), from mile 243.5 to mile 261.5. 
Health: After the long night of sleep my feet are working again. I need to make sure to sleep enough.

It was a cold night but the storm that we were afraid of never showed up. When I woke up I looked at my temperature meter and it showed 30 degrees (-1c). What the. We're in Southern California. Maybe it was the elevation as we were above 8,000 feet (2,500m).

All my water bottles had an ice covering and as I peaked outside of the warmth of my sleeping bag, I didn't want to get out. I'm so glad I upgraded my bag from the 20 degree to the 10 degree (fahrenheit) bag.

I heard Blis starting to rustle in his tent next door so it was time to get up. He had made oatmeal in his tent and accidentally poured it inside his tent. Auts.

We had gotten to the camp quite early and went to bed quick so I had gotten a good long sleep. I noticed this immediately in my legs and I was quick to take down my camp.

Even though it was freezing, I was quite sure that the air would warm up as soon as the sun would come up in an hour. You don't really want to leave the camp in the morning with too much clothing on as you spent the rest of the morning repacking your pack as you get hot. For this reasons I left camp in running shorts and a shirt. In an 32 degree (0c) weather. Not smart.

For about an hour I shivered while hiking as I waited for the sun to get up but eventually had to give up. This was going to be a cold day. The cold wind made any attempts to warm up in the sun futile.

Compared to the previous day, today was a breeze. The trail was easy and fun to hike and we quickly made progress. At one point we came across Fish and Snoopy who had passed us at night and camped further down the trail. We had no idea where Airplane Mode was as she was supposed to camp with us but we couldn't find her in the morning.

As we got around the mountain our cellphones found reception and we called to Big Bear Lake to make reservations for the Hiker Hotel for the next day. We had heard it was quite full so we wanted to make sure we got a room.

Our plan for today was to get close to the Highway 18 where we could hitchhike to town tomorrow, and do the last miles in the morning and take nero and zero in Big Bear Lake. Little rest was in order.

I had no idea where the rest of our bubble was, but I suspect that most of them are ahead of us. Maybe pushing to Big Bear tonight. While we could do that as well, we didn't want to get to town at evening and pay for the room for an extra night.

At one point we came to the private zoo that's right next to the PCT. It's a "zoo" where they keep animals from some Hollywood movies. It's actually quite a sad sight. The animals are locked up in small cages where they have no protection from the sun and no room to move. There were bears, tigers, a mountain lion, and others.

Few years back some PCT hikers started a petition to get a better living arrangement for the animals but sadly it got no results. The sight was so sad, and I felt our presence stressed out the animals, so I wanted to move on as soon as possible. Why can't these animals be set to some wildlife sanctuary where they would have better lives?

We hiked on but I couldn't shake the bad feeling about the animals.

The trail was fast and while it was cold, it was also very easy to hike. We soon crossed a 250 mile marker (402km). We took quick photos and hiked on.

The rest of the day was quite uneventful. We lost the trail few times and got lost one time. The trail was badly marked but it wasn't a big problem.

The weather was really windy and as we were getting close to the Highway 18 pickup point, we started to look for a campsite for tonight. We soon found one that had some cover by the trees and set up our shelters. I looked at the clock and it was 6pm. With nothing to do and it being too cold to be outside, we went to our tents and started to sleep. It was going to be another cold night.

Tomorrow we would have a short 4.6 mile hike to the Highway 18 where we would try to catch one of the rides to the Hiker Hostel. I can't wait to eat a proper breakfast and some real food beside the trail food. I feel like I'm losing too much weight too fast and I need to start upping my calorie intake. This means eating like crazy in towns. Yeah!​

Date: May 14, 2017
Miles: 17.3 miles (27.8km), from mile 226.2 to mile 243.5. 
Health: My legs are totally done. My knees are starting to hurt as my leg muscles are not doing enough work.

Today sucked. Big time. Looking at the elevation profile in the morning I could already tell it was going to be a ruff day. But elevation profile gives you only the big picture. What it doesn't tell you is how much going up and down you'll do to make those elevation gains. And we did a ton of up and down today.

I started from camp with Neal, Justine, and Fire (Alex). Neal and Justine soon speed off and I hike with Fire for a while. She had hurt her angle coming down from San Jacinto and was moving slow. I'm always slow in the morning. We leapfrog each other for a while and I lost count weather she was ahead or behind.

The trail was pure torture today. I was not feeling it at all. I tried listening to music but it didn't help. Audiobooks helped a bit and I got lost in the world of How to Make Yourself Happy. While the audiobook was good, it wasn't enough to distract me from the pain of the trail. I had hiked for almost three hours and had barely made any progress. Usually by this time I've hiked almost 10 miles, today I had barely done 6. It was time for a siesta and a lunch.

I found this really nice shaded spot right next to a small stream that none of the maps or water reports mentioned. I sat down under the brush eating bagels and was soon joined by Blis (Theo). He sat next to me and we ate lunch together. We were soon joined by more hikers, among them Happy Hour (Bob), Dragon (Pin), and Andrew.

After a while me and Blis decided to push on to the next water source that was only 3.4 miles ahead. As soon as we left the stream we ran into the infamous Poodle Dog Brush. It was right on the trail and you do not want to touch this plant!

We maneuvered around the plants and hiked on. Oh boy, 3.4 miles has never felt this long. We ascended few hundred feet, then descended the same amount, only to ascend again. The trail made no sense, we were just moving up and down without any purpose, and not moving forward. I can't remember the last time I've used this many curse words.

Today's hike was a bit different from all the other days so far as we were hiking through a fire closure. The area is prohibited for all others hikers except for the PCT thru-hikers. We can hike through the area but are not allowed to camp or sleep within certain perimeter. The fines for doing this are quite high so we all wanted to time our hikes so, that we would clear the non-camping area before the day was done.

Hiking through the burn area was eerie. Some of the plants had started to return, but it was still very much devoid of life. The dark, burned out tree trunks reminded us of what had happened and made the experience even weirder. I didn't like this section at all.

After a while we made it to the next water source and met other hikers there. Thankfully I wasn't the only one who didn't like this section. Pretty much everyone agreed that this was a sucky section.

We tried to rest for a while put as there was no shade, soon everyone wanted to head out. We still had a long climb ahead of us and to minimize the weight of our packs, we didn't take too much water. Instead we decided to use the next water source only few miles up the hill, a bit off trail. Any miles you get to hike uphill without extra weight on your pack are welcome.

We make it to the next water source and after some searching find it about 0.3 miles off trail. Now we need to pack about 4 liters of water for a longer waterless stretch. While going uphill.

While we are filtering water, everyone's getting a bit cold. A cold wind starts to blow and it cuts straight through us. I scramble for my wind jacket but soon need to get my puffy out too as I'm freezing. This is strange in Southern California.

Before heading back on the trail we decide to use the picnic table close by for late lunch. Me, Blis, Airplane Mode, Fish, and Snoopy gather around the table and swap trail stories and compare our quickly emptying food bags. Mine is getting quite empty but I give some of my mac and cheese to Airplane Mode as she's almost out of food. I accidentally bought the version of mac and cheese you can't cold soak so I can't use them anyway. In return I get a package of bean soap.

Me, Blis, and Airplane Mode head out together with Fish and Snoopy not far behind. The air is so cold that we keep adding layers as we hike, even though we're going uphill. At some point we cross a service road where we meet an older section hiker who's going southbound and she informs us that there's a storm front approaching and that there's a change of snow. That explains the cold wind. We are already at quite high elevation and keep climbing higher so we need to get down from this mountain soon, before that storm hits us.

We keep climbing and enjoying the beautiful scenery that opens up ahead of us. We see no sign of the storm but the air is getting really cold. I keep shivering while hiking uphill. Soon the air gets too cold and we realize we need to stop before we freeze. But as we're on a narrow trail on a side of a mountain there aren't that many places to stop for the night.

We hike on and on and eventually find an outcropping where we see two other tents and decide to use the opportunity to stop for the night and before we freeze even more. Getting ready for a windy night we storm-mode our tents and tarps. As soon as we have our shelters up we get inside to get some shelter from the ice cold wind. I'm shivering completely.

Hopping into my sleeping bag, I do some push-ups to get warm and soon my 10 degree sleeping bag warms enough for me to stop shivering. I'm wearing all my layers to bed.

It was a sucky day, I'm hoping the night isn't going to be as bad.

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 :)