Jbobier - Pacific Crest Trail Journal - 2007

We climbed out of our camp site at Live Oak Spring this morning and continued to climb for the first few hours of the morning.?? The rest of the day was a series of descents alternating with climbs -- from 5500' to 7200' down to 5800' up to 7400' and so on.?? Today has definately kicked my already dragging butt.?? But the views!!!?? Geez, you just couldn't beat them.?? We saw Coachella valley to the north and Palm Springs to the east and a farming community to the west as we skirted along the tops of each mountain.????

We met Squatch, the man who filmed the documentary Walk.?? He interviewed me and Jason for his next film.?? I'm not sure if we'll be in it, but it was a fun experience to be videotaped on the top of a mountain in the San Jacinto Wilderness.?? :-)?? We'll look for it to be released in the next couple of years.?? It'll be fun to see others in it we've met this year along the trail.

Jason spotted our first rattlesnake today slithering across the trail in front of him.?? ??It didn't mind us a bit.?? Just went about its business and didn't even take the time to coil at us, thankfully.?? Snakes are cool.

Wow, we could see some bad weather ahead of us.?? There was literally a blanket of cold, windy fog rolling over the hills just in front of us.?? We both put on our warmest jackets in anticipation of it, took a brief rest and headed reluctiantly into it.?? Freezing, foggy and we could barely see in front of us as we reach Apache Spring on the plateau of a mountain.?? It was getting dark and we were in this horrible weather and heading for another mountain ridge thick with fog.?? Ok, I admit it, I was a little scared and thinking hypothermia.?? Finally, we reached a flat spot for camping -- it took almost a couple of miles.?? I'm bundled in my sleeping bag with a silk bag liner, long underwear, warm jacket, wool hat, gloves and wool socks on and still cold.?? The oh so yummy mac and cheese we made in the fly of the tent was the only thing that finally let me warm up enough to sleep.

We got a late start this morning after the cold and tired descent last night. We both woke early, but were dragging, so we took our time and had a good breakfast before climbing out of Live Oak Spring. And climb we did. Today was the hardest day of climbing that we've done yet. The climb from Fobes Saddle to the top of Apache Mountain was hellish. It was 1500' in about a mile and a half. We had just topped off our water for the day too at a spring 200' below the saddle, so we were carrying pretty big weight.

The foliage has changed from scrub to tall pines as we have increased in elevation. We even hiked through a mountain top meadow. Such a change from the desert we hiked through yesterday.

I noticed the rattlesnake across the trail many feet before I got to it and tried not to scare it so that Angie could catch up and get a picture. He was pretty afraid of us and slithered away rather quickly once Angie got the shot. And no, I didn't pet this one. :-)

As Angie mentioned, the winds are incredible. As we made our way across the top of Apache Mountain, it was 41 degrees and gusts were strong enough to blow me aside occasionally. Thankfully, the manzanita bushes provided cover from most of the wind.

Now, laying down to sleep, the wind is still howling above our tent. Luckily we are in a copse of trees that is providing good shelter. And, yes, mac & cheese totally rocks.