It was another early 4:45am wake up call to beat the heat. Luckily, today wasn’t quite the inferno yesterday was. A decent breeze and some light wispy clouds made things more bearable.

This was a random sign at the top of one of todays climbs. If you zoom in you can see my man Jorge I met the other day has won this race 3 times in a row. Amazing to he can run 50 trail miles in 6.5 hrs!

This is Terrie Anderson a famous trail angel who visited while I was taking a siesta at the fire station. She even gave me a commemorative 2017 PcT hiker bandana.

There are a lot of charred trees in the mix.

In 40 trail miles there were only two water sources: the fire station hose and this seep in the side of the mountain. Needless to say, it was a popular stop on a hot day.

A little engineering to collect the water into a useful stream.

The elevation profile today looked fairly modest but was deceiving…6000′ of climbing !

This is a screen shot from my guidebook app. Users can post comments about what they come across. I like this one about the final water source of the day (needless to say I skipped the water here.

Although not quite sunset the intermittent cloud cover made a huge difference in the heat today!

There was a lot going on today.
It started with a 4:45am wake up call to beat some of the heat.

This was just after sunrise while hiking out of the KOA Campground.

This is how we travel under the freeway…

It was pretty long and dark inside.

Then we meander through Vasquez Rocks State Park. I didn’t even realize the face-profile until after I took the pic.

This feature reminds me of Roxborough State Park in CO.

By 9am I was rolling into the town Agua Dulce…lots of hikers.

The town is home to a Hiker Heaven hosted by legendary trail angels (the Saufleys) for almost 20 years. Each tent has different services: phone charging, sewing repair, parcel shipping, etc

There must have been 50 hikers there.

The Tent city in the backyard. I just took a long mid-day siesta then headed back to the trail.

The Trail Angel house-dog likes napping among the cactus.

A gorgeous sunset was especially welcome because it was another smokin’ hot day. I left Hiker Heaven at 4pm and got cooked climbing up some exposed hillsides until 7 when the sun started to dip behind the mountains.

It kept getting better and…

Better!

I finally got to camp around 8:15 and was exhausted…mostly from the heat.

Only one word for today…HOT !

Things started off very pleasant with a beautiful sunrise.

Flowers were in full bloom lining the trail.

There was a great oasis at the
North Fork fire station with shade and picnic tables and $1 cold sodas. It was 10:45 when I arrived after 12 mikes and things were already starting to heat up. Those cold sodas tasted great.

Here are some hikers enjoying a siesta playing Yahtzee and eating Cheetos (a hiker favorite).

The next 8 miles was when it really started to heat up. There wasn’t a living thing over knee high where you could find shade (the whole area had burned several years ago). Luckily, my umbrella was there to the rescue. This is what I look like in 98 degree heat under the blazing sun. As they say, “you can’t spell suffering without an F-U-N”

I wish you could take a picture of the heat.
My raspberry-lemonade mix in my water tasted like hot tea 🙂

Thankfully, the worst of it only last about 2.5 hours before reaching the KOA Campground…paradise! There must have been 40+ hikers here.

Cold sodas, ice cream and a pool!

Around 7:00 look who rolled in…Locomotive and Bronco. They did a 30 mile day in the heat just for a cold soda and Ben and Jerrys.

It feels like I covered a lot of ground today both geographically as well as mentally. It seems like ages ago I left the funky little ski lodge this morning.

This is the sign at the ski lodge entrance. I hear they have a Facebook page if you want to check them out.

This is one of the signs that Dan our host put up to let hikers know they should stop by.

Another Milestone… 25+ miles per day they come pretty quick!

This was a fantastic late afternoon oasis…the backside of the Mill Creek wildland fire station.
Shade, water, picnic tables and power outlets. There must have been 10+ hikers there at one point.

The mountain desert view.

A great sunset from my campsite…

…and it gets better!
I even had phone signal in my tent 🙂

A busy day on the trail…being that it’s Saturday and less than an hour from LA there were a lot of day trippers, weekenders and scout groups.

I’ve made a pretty good dent so far but 2277 miles to go is definitely an overwhelming number!

Luckily, someone recently mowed the trail 😉

On top of Mount Baden-Powell (~9500′)

Although difficult to see in this pic, the snow covered High Sierras are on the horizon. Facing the other direction I could easily see downtown LA and just about make out the ocean.

This is Jorge and his wife Marie who I chatted with while having lunch at a trailhead picnic table. Jorge did similar mileage to me today (25 miles) but he ran it in ~4 hours. Jorge was Ultra Runner of the Year in 2010.

A Buddy-Look-a-Like. His name is Spotty 🙂

These guys from LA offered me a nice cold 7-Up and a comfy chair while walking a short stretch along the road.

Home for the night was the Buckhorn Ski Club Lodge (more like a clubhouse). They literally flagged me down to make sure I knew I could stay there for the night.

The lift shack (a single rope toe).

Hanging out by the fire with our hosts Dan and Cooper the big puppy.

A beautiful sunrise in Swarthout Canyon.

The trail climbed pretty much continuously all morning, gaining over 5000′

Pretty soon we were looking at snow covered peaks and even hiking through a couple small patches.

This is Bronco and Locomotive. They are from Boulder and left the day after me.

They hike so fast they are a blur!

Mount Baldy.

We finished the day at a ski area. I don’t think they are giving the PCT the respect it deserves… surely it can’t be the “Easiest” way down.

Crammed in the back of a truck while hitching into Wrightwood, CA.

Carefully extricating from the truck.

Thanks to Katy and Todd for getting my package to me on time 🙂

Home for the night at the “Bear with Us” Cabin.

Wrightwood is very friendly to hikers and everything is just a short walk in town.

Today was not quite wilderness but not quite civilization. Most of the morning was spent hiking up and around Silverwood Lake (a reservoir) .The afternoon was spent staying cool and gorging at the I-15, Cajon Pass McDonald’s.

Sun rising over Silverwood Lake.

A little higher…

Simple pleasures are something to look forward to: bathrooms, running water and garbage cans (little Building on right).

Steep sandy cliffs dropping 1000+ feet with the Cajon Pass interchange in the distance.

The official PCT sign. Hikers have been chattering about this stop for days. The truth is, it’s almost a mandatory stop as the next water is the Guffy Campground 22 miles away and the previous water was close to 10 making it 30+ miles between on trail water if McDs is skipped.

There it is, the promise land!

Half the tables in the place looked like this…

I love how the kiosks display the calories you are ordering and remind you that a normal diet consists of 2000/day. I think by the time all the damage was done I put away 3000+ cals
Probably about 500 more than I should have.. I was feeling a bit Carbloated (new word mash-up)

A tremendous amount of freight traffic comes through Cajon Pass. I assume to and from the port of Los Angeles and then to Asia.
This is how we go under the tracks.

Home for the night…4 tents all lined up in a sandy wash, one of the few flat spots for miles.

Today consisted of a fun stop at the Deep creek hot springs and dodging the highly irritating Dog Poodle Bush which tends to overgrow the trail.

The temps were relatively mild but definitely started to feel hot in the areas with little shade in the late afternoon sun.

Sunrise near Holcomb Creek.

The first stop of the morning was a trailhead parking area that had trash cans, bathrooms and picnic tables…so civilized!

Passed the 300 mile mark. Yesterday I passed the 10% complete mark 🙂

This is Deep Creek and the canyon we hiked through for half the day.

A cool looking snake crossing the trail. I’m not sure what kind it is but definitely not poisonous.

Some hikers getting ready to go in the Deep Creek hot spring pool.

A bridge over Deep Creek…

not sure who painted it the rainbow colors?

The view as I ended the day and exited the canyon.

My campsite which is about 100yds from a large earthen dam. If you don’t see anymore posts it could mean something went wrong with the dam!

The Hostel in Big Bear was nice enough to offer a 7am shuttle back to the trail. It wasn’t nearly as cold out as the other morning but it was still brisk.

This is the view of Big Bear Lake from the trail. With some 11,000′ peaks on the horizon.

The elevations we are hiking at today (7000-8000′) have incredible trees with pine cones the size of grapefruits. This is a gnarly old cedar.
These are Manzanitas in bloom.

A school group heading the other direction. I haven’t seen many people out here other than thru-hikers.

It was like someone planted a flower garden poking out or the rocks along the side of the trail.

There was a group of other hikers setup where I camped tonight.

The first campfire of the trip and a beautiful sunset.

The rare picture of me 🙂

Time for bed!

As long and hard as yesterday was, today was smooth sailing…other than the below freezing temps when I woke up. (My water bottles were frozen and so were my hands!).

The terrain was more rolling with gentle grades, which allowed for making good time. After 20 miles I reached the road crossing to hitch into Big Bear Lake by 1:30pm.

Clouds filling in the valley floor.

An odd site along the trail. Sadly these animals are caged and trained to be used in movies and TV shows. There are no longer wild grizzlies in CA

Another Poor guy all caged up. There were also lions tigers…even a white Bengal tiger.

Everyone’s favorite, Mt. San Gregorio.

Trail Magic! The local Hostel in town keeps this stocked with soda and snacks and a comfortable couch to relax on.

Apparently, they want you to step on the vegetation in California?

The rest of the day was spent in town doing laundry, shower, food, email, etc. With another cold forecasted night I was just to being inside.