The PCT is starting to irritate me with it's rambling, meandering route that unnecessarily winds back and forth and over and around ridges for seemingly no reason at all. Unlike the Appalachian Trail, it doesn't take you up to every peak and scenic view. Instead it takes you around every little canyon and hill so you can see everything from every different angle. In a word: UNNECESSARY. I would be much happier if we would just go to ur destination or go to something interesting. The AT might have been like this except you could never really see it because all the shrubs and trees were too high. Out here you can see where the trail goes and you're thinking, "Why the hell am I going all the way over there to come back here just a few feet below?" There's nothing wrong with switchbacks, just make them shorter, a LOT shorter.
I was right, this trail did in 15 miles what it could have easily done in 8 and I spent all day fighting heavy brush and descending into the hot valley below. It was so strange, yesterday I was hiking through five feet of snow and today it was 94 degrees at 10 AM. I cut a few switchbacks and bushwhacked a little. I'm not ashamed to say it. I cut up my legs and probably risked some Rattlesnake encounters but it was worth it. F the PCTA and their ridiculous switchbacks that go a half mile out and back to put you 50 feet lower on the same slope. Total BS!
By the time I got to the bottom I was waxed and chafed and pissed. I refilled my water at the fountain they have there at Snow Creek and I saw these crazy clouds coming over San Jacinto. I knew it was going to rain so I waited til the clouds were in the right spot and I headed across the steaming valley with cloud cover to cool me. It was a good idea and as I got to the bridge where the trains and the I-10 pass over a desert wash I saw some strange birds like owls or hawks burrowed into the desert bluffs along the RR tracks. I shot a picture but it turned out pretty bad.
The wind through that valley is extremely strong nearly 100 percent of the time (which is why there are all of those huge windmills there) and the old creek-bed wash I was walking in was hard to move against the wind while hiking in the deep, loose sand but eventually I got to the bridge where some awesome people had dropped off sodas and beers and other snacks for us PCT hikers. I was chillin there cause I had some cell service and then Bandit and Sprinkles walked up. Bandit and I decided we were going to hitch to the next exit down on the I-10 where we heard there was a Burger King: Cabazon. Some students from Redlands were filming a zombie movie nearby and after sticking our thumbs out on a deserted frontage road for an hour I decided to ask them if they would give us a lift. They did. There were cool and all bloodied up for the filming so we really made an interesting combination. Lots of other hikers had showed up at the bridge so Bandit and I decided to conjure up some of our own Trail Magic. We got in to Burger King in Cabazon (where those huge dinosaur replicas are) and ordered 25 cheeseburgers, 12 Chicken Sandwiches, 6 big orders of fries, 12 dutch apple pies and lots of condiments. We had no idea how we were getting back but we had our hands very full of food. Bandit got us a ride from this guy Jeff towing a sand rail and when we arrived back under the bridge, there was a cacophony of adulation that barely rose above the highway drone.
We feasted all night and fell asleep in the dirty sand under the bridge, about 20 of us, fat, warm and happy, with another day of climbing toward San Gorgonio ahead of us...
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