Mile 266 to 342 – San Bernadino, Holcomb and Deep Creeks, Silverwood and Cajon Pass (April 25 to April 30)

This 76 mile stretch started with a long road walk around Big Bear Lake and a connector trail called Cougar Crest to rejoin the PCT at mile 277, missing the stretch from where I left at 266, but walking almost exactly as far from the lodging (Sierra Blue Suites), I spent two night recuperating at!

I successfully resupplied for up to 7 days from the grocery store but my food bag was AT LEAST 15 lbs, bulging the mesh on the back where it sits and this 13.5 mile day and 2,000 feet of up I could REALLY feel. I was also back in the snow with plenty of late afternoon post hiking and landed at least 2 miles short of my goal, at least finding a particularly beautiful campsite by a babbling brook and a mighty sequoia tree leaning over the water, filtering the evening light.

I felt a little off setting up camp, presuming I just was exhausted with the extra heavy pack. All seemed ok as I fell asleep but around 3am I woke for a quick bathroom break and found I could barely stand! Not from tired muscles but my balance was completely hosed. I stumbled twice and had to sit in the dirt with my head between my legs. Eventually I made it back to the tent but the episode was unnerving. I took it slow the next morning and still felt off balance but the trekking poles counteracted some of the feeling and I felt ok moving on.

My initial thought when this first hit: the last time I felt such an odd off-balance situation was on a 2019 trip to Senegal which turned out to be a precursor to the most serious food poisoning episode I’ve ever managed. That wasn’t fun, but this would be incredibly uncool out here on this 76 mile stretch with very few viable outs. There was a possibility 16 miles ahead to get to a settlement by Arrowhead Lake, and backtracking to Big Bear was not really an option. So unless I really couldn’t move (not the case), there really is no choice but to march forward. I was slow, but stabilized to feeling OK and the day was beautiful. Clear skies, temps not too hot as the elevation was mostly in the 5,000’s. I hiked until just 15 minutes before sundown and about 2 miles short of that out to Arrowhead, finding possibly the most stunning campsite yet. It was unofficial, about 1/4 mile off the trail where I saw some flat sand through the high desert brush. An unreal sunset as I made dinner, perfect sand for the tent stakes and a restful night, not moving until sunrise.

The next morning, my balance was still off, but discernibly better. I did some sunrise yoga and most importantly: my stomach was just fine, food poisoning ruled out. So the answer was clear to push on with the trail and Thursday April 27th became just an iconic PCT day.

I left my mile-high campsite a bit before 9am and down to the start of Deep Creek. Aptly named, just as the Whitewater was, another of SoCal’s rare but impressive year-round water drainages. And at mile 298, the first real bridge on the PCT as this was not a fordable location, especially during this peak runoff period. I dipped my feet in the creek’s edge and filtered 2 liters of water for the 9 mile stretch along Deep Creek’s drainage to its south, slowly descending 1,500 feet as the day heated up. At mile 306 there was a ‘seasonal stream’ tributary to Deep Creek that ended up being another pants-off, mid thigh deep ford in murky water where the hiking poles were critical not just for balance but gauging depth!

A bit further was Deep Creek Hot Springs, another of SoCal’s wonders I was totally unaware of. Just above a natural pool in Deep Creek was a hot spring with a cascade of pools at varying temperatures and just an amazing wonder! I had another 5 miles to go, but enjoyed lunch and more water filtering for a couple hours. It was a blend of PCT thru hikers and maybe a dozen day hikers that walked the steep trail in on a Thursday, about half of whom embraces this spot’s legendary clothing-optional status. It was the right weather today for that!

But continue on I did, now on the north side of Deep Creek and paste Hesperia Falls when it was time for my second rattlesnake encounter. This one seemed more like a teenager, curled up in the grass, maybe 6 inches from the trail. Opposite the trail was an immediate steep drop off into the ravine. My efforts to encourage the gatekeeper rattler to move on failed and I flipped a mental coin between running by on trail or balancing on the rocks at the edge of the ravine and give it 4 feet of space. I chose the latter after about 10 minutes and some FaceTime calls home in case this was the end 😝.

The next 2 miles was rattlesnake heaven with rocky walls and tall grasses along a narrow trail filled with scampering lizards. So I was extra alert, but just that one today! Meanwhile the sun was getting low and the golden hour was in full effect as I came out of the ravine to the massive earthen Mojave River Forks dam. There was no actual reservoir which seemed a bit odd for a dam of this size and fairly recent (built in the 60’s). I later learned from locals in the town of Hesperia that it’s really a flood control dam to help protect Hesperia, Victorville and even Barstow further down the Mojave River drainage. As was also evident from the terrain, this was right on the San Andreas fault with a fully loaded reservoir a few miles away, held back by a dam that looked like some haphazard rocks stacked in a gap in the mountains, so an effort to ward off a catastrophic flood of that dam failed after a big quake. It was almost dark and Far Out told me there was a very PCT friendly bar 2 miles off trail, so I called and they came one and picked me up after a walked over the top of the dam (and hung out in the concrete spillway with a crazy endless echo, worth checking out!). The Joshua Inn was an old school rural bar with a flat dirt lot for tents that constitutes the Inn’s ‘rooms’. It was an awesome blend of filthy PCT thru hikers (maybe 20 scattered about in the lot) and self-proclaimed rednecks in the bar. I had fun chatting with both crews over a Firestone 805 and day old hot dog before settling down in my tent under massive transmission power lines feeding power into LA. One funny side note: the first time I took I-15 from Vegas to LA I remember marveling at the confluence of power lines feeding energy into the massive collection of humanity coming through this narrow gap in the mountains at Cajon Pass. And tonight, I slept underneath some of that crackling energy at about 3,000 feet, ending my day in stark contrast to the mile high wilderness camp in the morning.

Friday morning the Joshua Inn staff were on the scene with some coffee and amazing breakfast burritos for a very reasonable $10, great way to kick off this 28 mile stretch on a pair of extra hot days. Luckily I was feeling marginally better again, the balance issue appearing to just be a random byproduct of exertion. I pushed my body to the limits again, this time from the heat and came out the other side OK. Even with 6 liters of water, electrolyte powder, and twice dunking my two shirts and my hat in streams, I was thrashed from the heat. And it was only about 87F as a high! I just can’t imagine doing a May start of the PCT when this (and above 90) is typical over the first 150 miles. I’m all good with hot hiking for a few hours, but going 8 to 10 hours is another animal all tougher. Speaking of animals, another rattlesnake popped up late morning and this time I just moved quickly by, thanking it for another mini heart attack. I should have a couple weeks off from rattlesnakes and heat over 80 before another round north of mile 500 as the PCT dips back into the Mojave.

I passed the beautiful Silverwood Lake and camped by a cool stream a couple miles beyond to leave only a dozen miles to Cajon Pass and rest days. Saturday was every bit as hot and a long open stretch under power lines and hot grass. There was an opening 800 feet of up where some amazing Trail Magic was lying in wait. A former PCT thru hiker named Hard Times had camped in his truck and had a cooler full of cold beverages, high end camp chairs and a big tarp for shade. These gestures are just amazing, the more so the longer on the trail! At 2pm, a pushed through to mile 342, Cajon Pass and I-15. There is a clean updated McDonalds here that is such a big deal, it’s on the sign where the PCT hits the road. And wow was it amazing, a combo of chicken nuggets and a Big Mac for me along with a HUGE soda.

I then snagged an Uber to get 20 miles to a Marriot in Rancho Cucamonga in the sprawling Inland Empire that was a quarter mile REI (and other stores) for a full resupply and a double zero to rest and recuperate, including an amazing dinner at Shogun with a visiting friend!! These little things are always amplified on a journey like this.

Now we’ve flipped over to May and I’m heading back to Cajon Pass in a few minutes for the next collection of impediments and obstacles: the trail is closed for the 20 miles north/west of Cajon Pass after the season’s first fire (yes, straight from too much snow/cold/precip to fires). There is a 12 mile road walk to the PCT friendly town of Wrightwood that I may walk or hitch with a Trail Angel. Then the steep climb back up over 8,000 feet back to the PCT at mile 363, just in time for a storm expected to bring snow above 6,000 feet (but only a day, so maybe time to test the weather ability of my new tent which has enjoyed mostly sun)… If I’m lucky, I’ll be in Wrightwood in time for dropping of the puck for the Kraken’s game one against Dallas in the team’s second-we’ve playoff series!