Mount Laguna – ~Warner Springs.

Mile 41 – 109.

Days 3 – 5.

The section of the PCT between Mount Laguna and Warner Springs features long walks across treeless chaparral ridges. It is breathtakingly beautiful on a cool day but dangerous on a hot day. At mile 77, the trail goes under the highway at Scissors Crossing before the first significant (14-mile) dry section of the trail. Hikers must plan ahead and carry enough water to make it through.

Day 3

I woke up at the Mount Laguna campground on day 3 and started hiking around 7 am again. Almost immediately, the trail climbed up onto an exposed ridge with fantastic views of mountains – and that’s where the trail stayed all day!

I am feeling so spoiled rotten by the lovely views on this trail. So far, each day, the scenery just gets better and better. I also saw my first gigantic pinecone today! I’m not sure what kind of tree these come from, but it was seriously the size of my head!

Today, I didn’t cross a single creek. However, there were still many places to fill water. Four times today, the trail went by spigots and water tanks located at road crossings and trailheads. If it weren’t for these man-made water sources, this section would be long and dry, meaning hikers would have to carry a large amount of water to make it through. Instead, I was carrying two liters or less usually.

The weather has been gorgeous – sunny and cool. Though I’m not getting too hot during the day, I am getting a whole lot of sun exposure. The sun out here is intense! Some thru-hikers carry a shiny sun umbrella for shade while they hike. Honestly, I’m already feeling pretty jealous of the hikers that have umbrellas. Other hikers, like me, opt for long sleeves, hoods, hats, and sunscreen to block the sun.

I’ve been hiking in a hooded, long-sleeve beach cover-up that goes all the way to my knees. So far I really like it for sun protection and breathability. I wear a pair of spandex shorts underneath so I don’t have to worry about having a Marilyn Monroe moment when the desert wind whips up!

My day ended with a short but steep descent down from the scenic ridge. I made camp in a sandy wash that kinda feels like being at the beach, despite being in the desert. Once again, I hiked over 20 miles today but still felt like I had more miles left in me when I stopped. My legs are ready to go, go, GO!

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Day 4

What a day!

Today, I finally got a bit of the desert experience on the PCT that I’ve been waiting for (dreading?). After cool and moist weather for the first three days of my trip, the weather abruptly changed. Today, the temperatures skyrocketed into the low 90’s!

Last night was my first night of “cowboy camping” – sleeping under the stars without setting up my tarp. It was nice except for the fact that when I awoke I found condensation across the top of my down quilt. Feeling irritated, I packed up and started hiking as the sun rose over the mountains.

After 5 miles, I reached my first water source for the day, a tap at a dirt road crossing (I saw a skunk on the way there!). Then, I only had 9 miles to reach the highway at Scissors Crossing. On the way there, the trail made its way downhill into a flat basin bottom with desert-like plants: huge barrel cacti, ocotillo, and larger varieties of yucca and prickly pear than what I’d seen up higher. Though as a local hiker informed me, this area is, in fact, NOT even the real desert but a different biome called chaparral.

The highway as Scissors Crossing is the access point to the trail town of Julian, where many thru-hikers hitchhike for a resupply day or zero-day (day off) to rest. However, my food bag was still full and my body so far felt great. I decided to skip Julian, even though that meant saying goodbye to most of the people I’d been hiking and camping with during the first few days. All but myself and one other hiker I knew, GTA, were headed to Julian. GTA (Grand Theft Auto) got her trail name when she set off a car alarm while looking for a water cache!

I arrived at Scissors Crossing before noon and took a 2.5-hour break in the shade of a highway underpass where there was a water cache (a supply of bottled water at a road crossing, maintained by local trail angels). Many thru-hikers I hadn’t met yet were gathered here enjoying shade and water before the upcoming 14-mile waterless stretch up a treeless mountainside.

Even just hanging out at the underpass, I can tell that Julian is a fantastic trail town. Three times, locals driving by stopped to ask if any of the resting hikers needed a ride to town. Additionally, I got my first trail magic of the trail, caramel candies, from a section hiker who is finishing up his last section of the PCT.

I left the underpass and started up the climb at 2 pm, hoping to make it all the way to the water source in 14 miles in time to get to bed at a reasonable hour. In hindsight, this was the wrong strategy. At 2 pm, it was brutally hot.

Three miles into the scorching climb, I rounded a corner and came upon a middle-aged woman with day hiking gear sitting directly on the trail in the tiniest spot of shade.

“You’re making a big mistake heading up at this time of day. Take a seat. You’re gonna be here a while” ordered the woman.

My initial instinct was to push back at being scolded and given an order by a complete stranger, but ultimately, I did as told. Turns out the woman was a local and an experienced desert hiker.

Over the next hour, as we sat side by side in the shade, she talked and I listened. She had a lot of strange and mildly judgmental things to say, but she also gave me some really helpful advice about hiking in the desert heat and how to stay safe and comfortable while doing so. Her advice was a combination of practical and bizarre pointers, such as:

• Siesta every hot day at a water source, and try to find a quiet spot to get some actual sleep.
• Don’t get sucked into making unsafe decisions to keep up with the boys – some of them will be treating the trail like dick measuring contest.
• Cowboy camp so you can get going more quickly in the morning and get to your siesta spot early.
• You got to wear a shirt with an open front to get the “boob breeze”.

The woman even gave me advice on my condensation issue when I told her about it. However, she also told me horror stories of people getting dehydrated and suffering heat exhaustion on the PCT. Consequently, I was getting pretty anxious and having flashbacks to my rough time hiking rim-to rim-in the Grand Canyon on a 107-degree day (on that occasion, I actually became a bit hyponatremic – or overhydrated – because I was drinking too much water out of fear of dehydration, and not eating enough salt to keep up!)

While I was taking a break, the hiker I knew who also skipped Julian, GTA, caught up to me. GTA and I decided to stick together to hike the remaining 9 miles to the water source (a cache on a dirt road) and campsite. I felt a lot better hiking on with someone to chat with.

Once the sun got low and the temperatures cooled off, we made excellent time up the climb as we talked and hiked. In fact, we only ended up needing to pull out our headlamps for the final half hour of hiking before we reached camp.

Getting to the water cache in the dark and finishing a brutal, 28-mile day in the heat was an emotional moment. I think I learned a lot today. Moving forward, whenever it gets above 80 degrees I’m going to keep a siesta schedule, only hiking in the early morning and late evening, and sleeping during the hottest part of the day as well as at night. I hadn’t expected to need to switch to the siesta schedule this early in my hike, but alas, here we are.

I found a flat spot to cowboy camp not far from the water cache and ate my cold-soaked dinner of buffalo pasta salad (yum!). I went to bed before 11 pm and fell asleep almost instantly.

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Day 5

“Boxtroll.”

I awoke from a deep sleep to GTA calling my trail name to wake me up. It was still dark out. Though I’d gotten less than 6 hours of sleep, it was time to get going. Since the weather looked hot again today, the plan was to get up early and hike the 9 miles to the next water source, where we could take a long break and nap before hiking onward in the evening.

Despite how short I slept, last night was my best night of sleep on the trail so far by a long shot! Between exhaustion from my hot 28-mile day and getting to bed late, I was exhausted enough to fall asleep quickly on my thin foam sleeping pad. Plus, I finally figured out the best way to arrange my “pillows” (i.e., stuff sacks full of gear) – with the small one under my head and the larger one under my knees.

When we broke camp, it was just barely light enough to see without headlamps. The red sunrise over the desert was breathtaking and the air temperature was still (relatively) cool.

After a while, I reached the 100-mile mark! This point on the trail was marked by rocks arranged into the number 100. Though 100 miles is a drop in the bucket of a 2,650-mile-long trail, it was still very exciting to reach this point! I already feel like I’ve already had some amazing experiences, challenged myself, and learned a lot. I can’t wait to see what the next 2,550 miles bring.

We rolled into the water source before 10 am and well before the worst of the heat. The source was a piped spring with a trough surrounded by cottonwood trees for shade. I had a wonderful 7-hour-long siesta during the hottest part of the day. I did trail laundry (laundry in a ziplock bag), washed myself, caught up on writing, and ate a LOT of food. On top of that, I actually took a short nap too!

While I siesta’d, a handful of other thru-hikers rolled into the water source. I couldn’t help but notice that the later they arrived, the more exhausted they seemed. I’m seeing the perks of the siesta schedule, but I’m a little worried it could leave me sleep deprived long term. The early mornings and late nights mean only getting 5 or 6 hours of sleep each night – making the mid-day nap all the more crucial.

Between the hours of 1 and 3 pm, everyone at the site barely moved. Even in the shade, it was too hot to do anything at all. By 4 pm, the cooling started, and everyone slowly became a bit more animated. Before 5 pm, most of the hikers were rolling out to cover a few more miles in the (relatively) cooler temps. Myself included.

During my evening hike, I briefly stopped at Eagle Rock and climbed up top to look at the view. I felt thankful that I still had the energy to enjoy this place, even on a hot day like today.

Thankfully, I didn’t need to do any night hiking to reach camp and I will get to bed at a more reasonable hour than last night. In total this evening, I hiked another 9 miles to camp right before the road and resupply stop at Warner Springs. That’s a grand total of 18 miles today, even with the long break. What could have been a miserable 18-mile slog through the heat became two casual 9-mile hikes bookending a lovely day of lazing around by the water. I definitely feel like I’m starting to learn how to better care for myself in the heat.

Tomorrow, the plan is to get in and out of Warner Springs early, and siesta at a creek shortly after. With another two days of forecasted highs in the 80s, I think I’ll be sticking to hiking only in the early and late hours of the day for now. My next resupply stop will be the town of Idlewild, in several days.