Adventures of Drama Queen and Simba

"If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It is lethal." - Paulo Coelho

I'd like to apologize for the lack of blog entries, things have been crazy and this will be my(Curtis) first post on the blog. Big Bear City brought some big changes for our group.  Having made it 266 miles we decided to split our group for awhile to get our individual legs under our feet and feel a better sense of how we are individually interacting with the trail outside of our group. Cameron and I took off from Big Bear a day earlier than Andrew and AJ and circumstance has kept us apart still (we hope they catch us soon). We have made it to Agua Dulce at mile 454 happy and with our bones still working. We feel like we are finally starting to chip away at the miles and can see a little dent out of the tremendous amount of miles yet to come.  We've had some great times and some rough experiences. One of our mantras has become, "Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional." This trek or journey is much more of mental exercise than an athletic physical endevour. As Cameron's ankle and knee have healed up (many thanks for your prayers and fasting on his behalf) we've been able to start hiking at a quicker pace and have been hiking an average of 20 miles a day. Some of our longer days have been draining as those miles seem to drag on at the end of the day or during the heat of the day.  The terrain has played a big role in how quickly we hike as well, for the desert portion of Southern California has not been anything close to flat as it has taken us from mountain range to mountain range. The trail wears on your feet pounding them into submission and at times pretty constant pain. I often have to stop and stretch out the tendons in the bottom of my feet. Going uphill is often welcome, although physically straining, going downhill wears on your joints causing a lot of aches and pains at night as we settle in for bed. It is amazing though a midst the lows how simple of things can bring back up to a state of elation. Coming into camp three nights ago we had seen the sunset become more vivid and stark, showering the desert floor with a pink and purple hue as we climbed the last of the San Gabriel ridgeline. We'd had a rough day with many ascents and descents and dodging poodle-dog bush around every corner(a poisonous plant, more on that later), when we got to camp we threw our packs down and ran to the top of the hill to get a full view of the sunset, it rejuvenated us in a way that nothing else could, we simply sat in silence and remembered why we were hiking this trail.    

Splitting the group has allowed us to hike with some new people we've hiked with Matan from Israel and RainMaker from California. We are constantly running into other hikers, laughing with them can lift your spirits and makes the miles pass by so quickly. Its amazing how social of a trail this is. Thru-hikers are a crazy breed we are all a little weird, possibly deranged for choosing to hike this far for fun, and definitely unique. We get to hear some many different perspectives on life and listen to what motivates people to get off their couch and live life.

I can't catch you up on much of our highlights from the past few weeks so i'll write a few and possibly come back to some later.

Coming down from Big Bear on our first night we were able to come into camp with a welcome fire(we rarely if ever have fires, too much time and dangerous in the dry climate). We thought it was from a other PCT hikers but it turned out to be two friendly older gents who were camping in the area to pan for gold. Big Bear started out as an old mining town.  They were super friendly and we were able to swap food for good conversation and a fire to sit around and cook on.

We spent the next day trying to get as close as possible to the upcoming hot springs so we put in a big mile day almost stepping on multiple snakes, none of which were rattlers(although we have seen a couple) or poisonous but enough to scare us and get me to jump whenever Cameron thought he saw one.

Waking up to the Deep Creek Hot Springs once one of the best highlights of the trip. There are multiple pools or tubs of varying degrees of temperature. This place is nestled among rock outcroppings overlooking the deep river which has cool water deep enough to jump into. We spent the whole morning bathing there.  I left my backpack unattended at this popular place and a squirrel bit through my waste belt pocket and pulled out my Butterfinger. I was slightly upset about the hole in my pack but livid about the lost candybar, didn't that little punk know that I packed that out and was stoked to eat it, lost calories! We hiked out and on our way out of the canyon we spotted another local swimming hole. This one much less attractive as the rocks were spray painted in an riot or apocalyptic manner with shattered glass strewn about the rocks. But that couldn't take away from the 40+ foot cliff that we were able to jump off of into the pool below. That topped off one of our funnest days on the trail yet.

We dropped into one of the first familiar places for me along the trail I-15 at Cahon Pass were there was a lone McDonalds. I rarely if ever eat there as there is nothing there for this vegetarian but I can't describe the excitement we felt for seeing that building and contemplating what we were going to get. Food talk is a common topic along the trail. We got picked up by a fellow thru-hiker named Kelso an ex military officer who lived down in San Bernandino and threw a big barbecue at his place and let us spend the night even taking us to REI.

We just finish hiking over the San Gabriels, resupplying in Wrightwood. Climbing to our highest point yet on the trail, Mt. Badden-Powell(the founder of the boy scouts) While hiking this portion of the trail we must've passed at least 100 boy scouts all with packs twice the size of their frame packed for only a 2 or 3 day stay. I felt bad for them and remembered when I had to do the same as I am hiking for 4-5 months and my pack was easily half the size of theirs.

Coming down of the San Gabriels we passed through a lot of burned areas. They often have a post-apocalyptic feel as there blackened skeletons of trees for as far as you can see as if a bomb went off.  These sections are barren and have little to no relief from the sun and no shade.  It is neat though to seen the new growth taking root. Although the new growth brings its plagues. As I mentioned earlier we have now been hiking through miles of trail strewn with Poddle-dog bush. This plant grows almost exclusively in burn areas. It look partially scary and part appealing with its purple topped flower. However the reactions that it can cause are worse than poison ivy and poison oak (both of which we have encountered already too) This plant can cause blisters the equivalent of a third degree burn and possibly lead to respiratory distress. At times we are literally in a maze of this bastard plant our progress slows and we enter video game mode dodging and wriggling around it, all we can do is laugh and hope for the best. No rashes yet! And I believe the worst of it is behind.

We have now had two easy days one chilling at a KOA campground that happened to be close to the trail which had a hot tub and pool with ice cream. So amazing and relaxing. And now we are in Agua Dulce at the Saufleys, an amazing trail angel couple who have there place set up with everything we need and more. Even offering bicycles for us to ride into town to get groceries. So we turn into a biker gang of patchwork hiker trash cruising the streets on old run down bikes. Loving life! And so we hike on!