To PCT mile 114.7 (stats here).
Because of arriving late to tent site last night, we agreed to get up as late as 5am. Mikko woke me up ten minutes before. This irritated me a bit. The feeling grew as he then continued to push forward alone, which kind of made the waking up pointless. A small thing, but I've always been a bit edgy if people deviate from a plan without consulting others first. Maybe the trail will teach me to be more relaxed on things like this.
The plan was to get to Warner Springs before the post office closes. We had our first resupply boxes there. I still had plenty of food, so a plan formulated in my mind that I would just forward it to some another location. My pack had become nicely light, and I would not want to lose that feeling entirely by packing over 5kg of food in it. I got going about 5:45am, and as the beginnig of the hike was just going down from a mountain, it was fast. I once saw Mikko going around a bend in the distance, maybe 20 minutes ahead of me. I hit my first 10 by 10 (doing 10 miles before 10am) already at 9:05am, at the first water source where I intended to have a 15min break. Changing socks, eating my breakfast, filtering water and having my feet up for a while ended up taking 40min. Still, time well spent.
Getting to Warner Springs before 4am was not a problem so I eased up the pace. Enjoying music and the scenery. As I was crossing a plain, I saw a big formation of rocks and something that was colored differently there. People? As I got nearer, I identified figures moving there. And even nearer, one was taking a route towards me. When I got to the crossing I noticed a note saying "trail magic" and a trail angel called Hamburger Helper greeted me and invited me to have some snacks.
Only few days at the trail and already so much magic and support. This is somewhat strange and overwhelming. It turned out that the rock formation was Eagle Rock, a famous sight at the area. I did not even know that it was in this area. Should do more research where I am treading, but now that already at the trail, it is a bit hard. Checking the app that I am (and everybody else is) using, Guthooks, more carefully should do the trick, though.
Hamburger Helper was accompanied by Raven. They've done this trail magic thing for 3 years and are in return awed of the determination of thruhikers. I had a long and a nice chat with them, and promised to pay my respects to Hamburgers passed away sister at the top of Mt. Jacinto if I am strong enough to get there. I felt happy and in good humour departing Eagle Rock with already experienced so much connectedness with the people involved with the trail.
When I got to Warner Springs and turned on my cell, I got a message from Mikko that along wiht his own, he had also got my resupply box from the mail. This was not good, although I appreciated the gesture. Luckily you can still resend the package without extra cost if it is not opened. Finnish post should take example. I ended up sending the box to Idyllwild only to realise later that this was stupid. We would arrive there during the weekend. Hopefully I can resend it once again, through phone or their smartphone app.
I ended up resupplying in Warner Springs a bit, but once again, bought too much food. Also, I could have done my whole resupplying from the hiker box, but failed to check it first. We departed from the Resource center at 5pm. Being a bit stupid, I had left a bag of trailmix in the mesh pocket of my pack. Aggressive squirrels had bitten through it. Another learning experience. I choose not to discard the nuts, and the pocket is not totally useless, so it could be worse.
We ended up doing another 7 miles before setting up camp in a perfect spot. It seemed that there are lots of mice around the site, so we endedu up getting our food up in the air with our bear bags.
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| 100 miles does not feel that big compared to what lies ahead. |
Because of arriving late to tent site last night, we agreed to get up as late as 5am. Mikko woke me up ten minutes before. This irritated me a bit. The feeling grew as he then continued to push forward alone, which kind of made the waking up pointless. A small thing, but I've always been a bit edgy if people deviate from a plan without consulting others first. Maybe the trail will teach me to be more relaxed on things like this.
The plan was to get to Warner Springs before the post office closes. We had our first resupply boxes there. I still had plenty of food, so a plan formulated in my mind that I would just forward it to some another location. My pack had become nicely light, and I would not want to lose that feeling entirely by packing over 5kg of food in it. I got going about 5:45am, and as the beginnig of the hike was just going down from a mountain, it was fast. I once saw Mikko going around a bend in the distance, maybe 20 minutes ahead of me. I hit my first 10 by 10 (doing 10 miles before 10am) already at 9:05am, at the first water source where I intended to have a 15min break. Changing socks, eating my breakfast, filtering water and having my feet up for a while ended up taking 40min. Still, time well spent.
 |
| At Eagle Rock people do the funniest things. |
Getting to Warner Springs before 4am was not a problem so I eased up the pace. Enjoying music and the scenery. As I was crossing a plain, I saw a big formation of rocks and something that was colored differently there. People? As I got nearer, I identified figures moving there. And even nearer, one was taking a route towards me. When I got to the crossing I noticed a note saying "trail magic" and a trail angel called Hamburger Helper greeted me and invited me to have some snacks.
Only few days at the trail and already so much magic and support. This is somewhat strange and overwhelming. It turned out that the rock formation was Eagle Rock, a famous sight at the area. I did not even know that it was in this area. Should do more research where I am treading, but now that already at the trail, it is a bit hard. Checking the app that I am (and everybody else is) using, Guthooks, more carefully should do the trick, though.
Hamburger Helper was accompanied by Raven. They've done this trail magic thing for 3 years and are in return awed of the determination of thruhikers. I had a long and a nice chat with them, and promised to pay my respects to Hamburgers passed away sister at the top of Mt. Jacinto if I am strong enough to get there. I felt happy and in good humour departing Eagle Rock with already experienced so much connectedness with the people involved with the trail.
 |
| A snake on a trail. No rattle snakes so far. |
When I got to Warner Springs and turned on my cell, I got a message from Mikko that along wiht his own, he had also got my resupply box from the mail. This was not good, although I appreciated the gesture. Luckily you can still resend the package without extra cost if it is not opened. Finnish post should take example. I ended up sending the box to Idyllwild only to realise later that this was stupid. We would arrive there during the weekend. Hopefully I can resend it once again, through phone or their smartphone app.
I ended up resupplying in Warner Springs a bit, but once again, bought too much food. Also, I could have done my whole resupplying from the hiker box, but failed to check it first. We departed from the Resource center at 5pm. Being a bit stupid, I had left a bag of trailmix in the mesh pocket of my pack. Aggressive squirrels had bitten through it. Another learning experience. I choose not to discard the nuts, and the pocket is not totally useless, so it could be worse.
 |
| Squirrel damage. |
We ended up doing another 7 miles before setting up camp in a perfect spot. It seemed that there are lots of mice around the site, so we endedu up getting our food up in the air with our bear bags.
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