April 29. Day 11.

PCT mile 146 to Mountain Fire Detour mile 3.6

Miles hiked: 20.2; +2 miles round trip for water, food and beer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First off, to all those of you who have posted comments, THANK YOU. It's a bit too much screen time for me to reply to them all individually, but I do read and appreciate them all, and it's great to know folks out there are enjoying reading along as I make this hike.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well that was a birthday to remember. I woke up and got hiking a bit before 6, but was quickly distracted by 2 big ants fighting in the middle of the trail. I watched for 8-10 minutes, but it wasn't even clear who was winning, and it looked like the sort of thing that could go on all day, so I got back to hiking. The trail led through more dry scrub, down and back out of a canyon, and along some fantastically-eroded cliff faces. As we climbed the last hill before hwy 74, I got a great birthday bird, a Gray Vireo. I listened to him singing for a few minutes, and got a good enough look to know it was a super gray colored video. 2 lifers in 2 days; good birthday present!

The destination for this morning was the Paradise Valley Cafe, a super hiker-friendly place a mile from where the trail crosses highway 74. This is also the next place for hikers to get water. I got there around 8:15, just behind You Again and Angie, a couple I've been leapfrogging the last 2 days. We all shared a table, and I got down to business having a proper celebratory breakfast. I started with a milkshake, then had an omelet with ham, bacon, and guacamole. Then I got what I had really been wanting for birthday breakfast: a beer. I got a double IPA named something like Rowdy Bitch, and liked it so much I decided to have a second. It wasn't until 11 that I had finally finished the beer, paid my tab, filled up on water and got back to hiking. I was feeling pretty cheery and relaxed at this point, and stopped to chat at the trailhead with a few other hikers who were waiting for a ride to the cafe. 

9:33- breakfast beer #1.

10:02- breakfast beer #2.

By the time I got started up the actual trail it was getting pretty hot. I made it about an hour before my nose started bleeding; not too surprising in this dry weather. I sat down in the shade of a big boulder to let it stop, and before I knew it I was waking up an hour later from a great nap!

I had a snickers (everyone else is doing it) and kept hiking. The trail climbed up from the dry scrub into a dry live oak and pine (2 inch needles in clumps of 4 and 5, but it doesn't seem to match anything in my app), with big orangey granite outcrops. The Mountain Chickadees here have a slightly different song than the ones back on Mt. Laguna. Here they still have the two notes to the first part ("chee-eese"), but there is an emphasis on the second note. 

I had another break in the shade mid afternoon, again to let my nose get itself under control, and to cool down. The trail continued climbing up into country that reminded me in some ways of a miniature version of the Sierra, at least the lower elevation parts, with oaks and pines and granite and steep trail with big steps and long views. Except in this case the views were not of more big granite peaks, but rather down out of the mountains, to some barren hills, the eventually to the extravagant green of the greater Palm Springs area, and finally back up into the hills and mountains of Joshua Tree NP. I saw 3 domestic-type goats near some stagnant water, but they didn't answer when I asked what they were doing there.

Eventually the trail reached the ridge top and traversed this for 3-4 miles. By now m Achilles' tendon, which had started to bug me first thing this morning, was getting pretty sore from all the climbing. Achilles tendinitis is one of the more common thru-hiking overuse injuries, so this was a but worrisome. I planned to get as far as I could tonight, then have a relatively shortish hike to Idyllwild tomorrow. The only complication to this plan is that the 10 or so miles of trail up and just after Idyllwild are still closed to let plants regrow after the 2013 Mountain Fire. To get to town now, hikers can either hitch hike or road walk along highway 74 (total mileage ~17), or can hike up the PCT to mile 163.6, then take a steep side trail back down to 74 only about 10 miles beyond Paradise Cafe, then rejoin the road route (~24 miles). It seemed that hikers were split about 50/50 on these 2 options, and I decided to take the trail route because I still had plenty of food and want to see the start of the San Jacinto Mountains. It was actually pretty neat being up on that trail that's getting less use than the PCT thus far. The trail was a bit overgrown and less-well maintained, and I cod sort of pretend there were far fewer people overall doing the hike.

Looking east off the ridge.

And west.

I ate dinner at the junction where the side trail drops back down to the highway, again using my tent stake because in my celebratory state I'd forgotten to get a to-go spoon from the cafe. After sort of cleaning my pot I put my shoes back on and started down the tightly-packed switchbacks which delivered me in just over a mile about 1,200 feet back downhill. The detour involves a mile or so of paved road, and this really started to get my Achilles in a bad mood. Luckily I still had a bit of the scotch from the hikers in Warner Springs to help ease the pain. Next the detour involves a dirt forest service road, and I made it to this right around dark so found a flat spot not too close to any cacti, washed feet and legs, had some ibuprofen, and was quickly asleep.

Paintbrush and metamorphics.

Birds:

California Towhee

Bewick's Wren 

Ash-throated Flycatcher 

Common Poorwill 

Black-headed Grosbeak 

Western Scrub-jay

Oak Titmouse

Gray Vireo*

Mountain Chickadee 

Bushtit

Canyon Wren

Wilson's Warbler

Northern Flicker

Mountain Quail