Lots of Hiking, Little PCT Progress (March 26 to March 30)

After Monday afternoon’s plan to return to where I left off at Mile 20, I was delayed again. There were a few reasons not worth delving into in a post, but the latest atmospheric river to hit California (a record setting 17 this winter session!!) was again the lead reason, following others making their way north. But the delays for this round are ending today, barring an earthquake (magnitude 8.0 or greater, epicenter within 100 miles)…

Two more storms are forecast over the next week, but as we flip the calendar to April at this latitude and elevation, they will by the rule of celestial mechanics ,be weaker and the sun’s rays stronger. Also, each is only supposed to be day of precip, much easier to manage then 3 straight days with a wet tent that can’t dry. I will consider it a major win if I’m able to patch in and write a post Sunday evening near Mt. Laguna, the local high point for the first 130 miles, around mile 42 of the PCT.

While continuing to wait this out of the base in Palm Springs, I did get three more conditioning hikes, 2 with my loaded pack and one fitting the definition of this blog, a water/food-less unplanned wandering in the desert for several hours among the windmills and eventually across the busy N Palm Canyon Dr that forms the western perimeter of civilization here to a peculiar wide spot in the rode with a couple fairly new (~2017) monuments to the ‘Shipwreck’ and ‘Angel’s Cove’. I was feeling a bit dismal after more delays and echo of last week’s illness and found a dose of wonder in this little corner of rarely visited desert with people speeding by at California speeds on the desert highway. I also found a random discarded chair down in the vast wash north of Palm Springs and sat with the last light of sun on my face next to some of the wild amount of water falling off the north face of the San Jacinto’s, sounding like an alpine creek that gives the Cascades their name back home.

Embracing the unexpected of this whole adventure, we found a couple friends were in town via a social media post, a great friend of Ashley’s from her earlier Tableau days and his wife who generously hosted us for an early happy hour at their place Wednesday in SE Palm Springs in the shadow of Murray Hill that I had been using to train (and again, looks as green as a slope in Kauai right now). In addition to a wonderful conversation that wouldn’t have happened (for me at least!) if I’d been on the trail as hoped, they shared a hummingbird nest in their complex on a cactus with two little chicks, something we enjoyed sharing with bird-loving Whitney fresh off her first visit to Palm Springs earlier in the week!

On Thursday I felt I needed a long day with the full pack and testing out the gear I brought along (made for spring/summer and only cold nights) in the cold. Conveniently, just 10 minutes from where we are staying is the base of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, driving 2,000 vertical feet from the valley floor, and then another 10 minutes on the tram up another 6,000 feet to 8,500 feet above the Coachella Valley floor. The last vestige of the most recent storm was still dumping fresh snow and the temp didn’t get much above 25F all afternoon. I spent 6 hours walking about in Long Valley. I was conspicuous in my full backpacking gear that I had for training, and before I could leave the tram station, a Cal State Parks ranger named Nick pulled me aside to chat about my plans and see if I intended to respect the backcountry closures that were in effect within San Jacinto State Park (they already had to conduct several rescues over the last month, and trying to prevent more). Another silver lining, as I had a great conversation with him, his perspective on the pace of the spring melt, both in San Jacinto and the next section of the PCT in San Gorgonio north of I-10. I came away from this conversation feeling like I’ll be overjoyed to make it to Mile 151 where the PCT crosses Highway 74 before the trail rises towards San Jacinto. He also gave a few helpful hints about how to best ascend Mt. Whitney from the John Muir Trail side, something we still hope is in play when we begin that adventure in July!

So once again, I’ll write that the plan is take my heavy pack with 6 days food to Morena Village and hopefully this will be last blog post until I can speak of the trail winding up to Mt. Laguna…